Founding of Christendom (History of Christendom)

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Summary: History from a Christian perspective
Review: Warren Carroll's "History of Christendom" series presents history as viewed from a Christian perspective, with Christ as the focal point of history. Some might argue that this perspective results in a biased view of history, and I would agree that this is true. But as Dr. Carroll points out in the introduction to the first book, every historian's work is shaped by his particular world-view, whether consciously or not. Thus all written histories are to some extent biased. And in my opinion, Dr. Carroll's approach provides a good counter-balance to the more secularized version of history that many of us are familiar with. (Please note that when I say that Dr. Carroll's or anyone else's version of history is biased, I don't mean that the facts are wrong, but only that the facts are given a different emphasis or are viewed from a different perspective.)

This first book in the series covers the early history of Christianity and pre-Christian civilization, starting with the ancient Jewish, Greek, and Roman civilizations, and proceeding up to 324 A.D. It is excellently written and is very well researched and documented (100+ footnotes per chapter, and several hundred sources total). In my opinion this first book is the best in the series. The three chapters on the life of Christ are especially good.

Rating:
Summary: An outstanding Catholic alternative to Will Durant
Review: «History is a cosmic battleground between Heaven and Hell.» - Warren H. Carroll

The first of a projected six-part *History of Christendom*, the next three volumes of which have already been published, *The Birth Of Christendom* is history with a difference : as its author, Warren H. Carroll, PhD, confesses at the very outset, it «is written by a Catholic, from a Catholic perspective, with the conviction that Jesus Christ founded a church and that the visible church He founded is the Roman Catholic Church which, through its succession of Popes in particular, has remained, and always will be his Church.»

But a history of Christendom- of which this is, according to the author, the only example ever published in the twentieth century- is not just a history of the Church: it is the history of the «Christian public order», which «includes as a major element the lay or temporal order insofar as it is penetrated and influenced by Christianity. The greater the degree of this penetration or influence, the more significant is the temporal history so affected, for the historian of Christendom.»

*The Birth of Christendom* therefore begins much earlier than with the birth of the Church, with an account of the events, Divine and human, that set the stage for «The Incarnation of the Lord» (to borrow the title of Chapter 14), the most momentous of which being Creation and Original Sin.

The first thirteen chapters of the book are predominantly a history of Israel, for the Jews were after all God's Chosen People, the one with whom He made His first Covenant, and to whose prophets He provided some foreknowledge of the coming of His Son.

But Carroll does not neglect the Providential role played by two Pagan civilizations, the Greek and the Roman, and more especially by two men, Alexander and Octavian : the former's Hellenization of the East «provided a cultural unity» and a common language that paved the way for evangelization, while the latter's establishment of the Pax Romana came at the appointed time : «The central event of history was drawing very close. The Prince of Peace needed to begin His work in a time of peace.» (p279)

Carroll's interest, therefore, extends also to «the world which revelation had not yet reached». The Gentiles and Pagans he often characterizes as inspired by the devil (like the Phoenicians and Carthaginians, «those masters of satanic cruelty») and more occasionally as glorious, though Pagan virtue can only go so far, and « cosmic despair ... lies at the end of every pagan road, even the most brilliant». India definitely belongs to the former category : its «strange doctrines» and «convoluted mysticism» evince «a satanic spiritual climate». However brilliant the Buddha and the Mahavira may have been, and however benevolent their moral example, India's metaphysics destroys the very possibility of rationality : «in that world, there is no choosing, no either-or, no law of non-contradiction, everything and anything can be true, nothing is false.»

Ancient Greece on the other hand is to be praised : «Second only to the Jews, the Greeks are the most extraordinary people in history... Only our people, which has lost so much else, has lost or is losing its respect for the Greek mind and achievements.» Part of their brilliance the Greeks owed to «the incomparable Aristotle», in whose philosophy «the mind could know itself, know that it knew external, objective reality, and know *how* it knew that reality- an achievement of enormous magnitude for one man so early in the history of thought.»

But the focal point of the volume is of course Christ. There is no entry for «Jesus» in the index. However, the reader will find two pages of references on JESUS CHRIST, OUR LORD AND SAVIOR, the only capitalized entry. In the three chapters and more than one hundred pages that are devoted to Him, Carroll throws away all the skepticism of «our present age of secularism and apostasy» to present a fully orthodox image of Christ as the Incarnation of God, born of a consecrated virgin, miracle-maker and the Redeemer of mankind. Though fully knoweldgeable about modern controversies, Carroll makes a very strong case for a return to admirable scholars of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, showing how many sound and unrefuted arguments have simply been forgotten «in our change-obsessed age.»

From then on, the book becomes a chronicle of Christianity's spread through the Roman Empire, with a history of the Popes and martyrs up to the reign of Constantine, whom Carroll rescues from much inimical scholarship and presents as a genuine convert to Catholic Christianity and the Founder of Christendom proper.

*The Founding of Christendom* is an extremely well-researched and well-argued work, at once scholarly and exciting, and never afraid to swim against the tide. Particularly praiseworthy is its wonderful, twenty-two page annotated bibliography, a true gateway to the best scholarship on the period (the origins to 324 A.D.), stating the religious orientation of most volumes and Carroll's estimate of their scholarly worth.