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4.04 AVERAGE
4.04 AVERAGE
Hallelujah, I finished this book!! It is an interesting and easy read about church history, but so long! It took me over a year, mostly because of waning interest in the middle 20 chapters. History isn’t my strong suit, but if you’re going to read it, this book is an excellent source.
I’m not sure why this took me fooooorrrrreeevvveer to read (I think my dates are off & I started it more like a year ago). The information was interesting, but I’ve gotten soft in my ability to keep momentum while reading educational style books. I finally determined to get it done, but it sure slowed down the rest of my reading.
As for the content, I appreciated the approachable language the author used.
-I wish he would have discussed Eastern Orthodoxy (he briefly mentions Russian, but doesn’t give any real history of it overall).
-Also, what I’ve learned about dispensational beliefs is very different than what he presented. For most things he seemed unbiased, but not in that one. He’s obviously not a fan.
-On a related note, while I’m not a cessationist per se, the author presumed to know their motives (fear) rather than discuss the actual theological arguments for/against. Again, it came across as biased. There were a few other items like these where the reasons for differences were blamed on cultural ideals and not necessarily theological study of scripture. Not that theology isn’t influenced by environment, but there’s more to it.
As for the content, I appreciated the approachable language the author used.
-I wish he would have discussed Eastern Orthodoxy (he briefly mentions Russian, but doesn’t give any real history of it overall).
-Also, what I’ve learned about dispensational beliefs is very different than what he presented. For most things he seemed unbiased, but not in that one. He’s obviously not a fan.
-On a related note, while I’m not a cessationist per se, the author presumed to know their motives (fear) rather than discuss the actual theological arguments for/against. Again, it came across as biased. There were a few other items like these where the reasons for differences were blamed on cultural ideals and not necessarily theological study of scripture. Not that theology isn’t influenced by environment, but there’s more to it.
I wasn't exactly excited about listening to 20+ hours of a history book, but the reviews of this book gave the impression that each chapter was a short story of sorts, with many biographical nuggets that really hit home. So I took the plunge, and I'm glad I did. The “in Plain Language” portion of the title really is accurate in my opinion. I never felt lost with the way in which history was being told in this book. And as a whole this book accomplished what I hoped it would. It gave me a really good overview of the biggest and most influential moments in the history of the Christian Church. Shelley definitely presents his perspective or interpretation of the historical narratives, but he never does so in an overhanded way. Of course I agreed with most of his “take” on things, so perhaps it's easy for me to say. I was worried at the end of the book that it was going to become a mainly American Church perspective, but he finished up with multiple chapters on Asia and Africa, which is really where so much excitement is happening these days. He did mention in the end of the book that the largest growth in the Modern South (what we would call the 3rd World) is overwhelmingly charismatic. I was surprised to hear this because of the books I've read about the Home Church in China, so I plan on looking into it a bit. All around a great read for all Christians, or those that are interested in the Christian Church.