Founding of Christendom

The Founding of Christendom by Warren H Carroll, 543 pages

This is volume 1 of Carroll's six volume History of Christendom series, which traces the development of Christendom, that is, the social manifestation of Christianity.  The Founding of Christendom begins with prehistory and ends with Constantine, with a focus on the history of ancient Israel and early Christianity.  Carroll is forthright that his perspective is that of an orthodox Catholic, but he insists that this perspective is just as rational as unbelief, whether explicit or implicit.

Although it is not likely to convince the skeptic, this is an anti-skeptical work in the best sense, in that it represents a solid counter to the corrosive effect of the hermeneutic of suspicion.  Moreover, constructing an irrefutable case for a Christian interpretation of history is not Carroll's aim - rather, he wants to establish (or, more properly, re-establish) that a rational case for a firm historical narrative for believers exists which is just as strong, if not stronger, than the secular alternatives.  He largely succeeds here, although his knowledge of some matters is a bit thin, and, in this volume especially, there is a certain amount of speculation, those matters tend to be ones away from the central thrust of his narrative.

It is precisely that narrative thrust which is the greatest strength of the book.  Our era tends to be suspicious of grand narratives, yet as "storytelling animals" we need narratives to understand ourselves and our world.  Will and Ariel Durant famously wrote in Caesar and Christ, the third volume of their monumental Story of Civilization, "There is no greater drama in human record than the sight of a few Christians, scorned or oppressed by a succession of emperors, bearing all trials with a fierce tenacity, multiplying quietly, building order while their enemies generated chaos, fighting the sword with the word, brutality with hope, and at last defeating the strongest state that history has known."  It is difficult to imagine a major historian writing such a passage today.  Carroll conveys that drama, and its seeds in the history of Israel, as well as the pivot of the "greatest story ever told", in a compelling and intriguing way.