gitsch:
When I’m defending the Catholic faith, I constantly refer to the early Church and how closely it related to the Catholic Church.
But when I’m asked for proof, many people don’t want to trust a Church History book written by a Catholic. Can anybody recommend a factual Church History book written by a neutral author?
Thanks in advance,
There is no such thing as a neutral author. There are reponsible authors who take all the evidence into account and try not to slant things to suit their biases. Since even these historians are always going to have some bias (because they are human and fallible), it’s best to read several different historians coming from different perspectives. Your friends need to get over their fear of qualified Catholic historians. (If you’re citing them “Catholic apologetics” propaganda then I don’t blame them for being skeptical.) But at the same time, it’s only fair that they want to see other perspectives as well.
The basic survey text that many Protestant seminaries use is
The Story of Christianity by Justo Gonzalez. Gonzalez (a Puerto Rican Methodist) does have a Protestant bias, but it’s kept within reasonable bounds. One Catholic professor at a Protestant seminary uses the Protestant Kenneth Scott Latourette’s history of Christianity. A recent work that some Protestant seminaries are using is
History of the World Christian Movement, though only the first volume is out so far.
I understand that this one is particularly good on the Nestorians and Middle Eastern Christianity in general. I have not read it through, though I have glanced at it.
On the early Church, J.N.D. Kelly’s (Anglican) Early Christian Doctrines is excellent, as is Henry Chadwick’s
The Early Church. Robert Louis Wilken’s
The Spirit of Early Christianity is an excellent study of early Christian piety from a Catholic perspective (there are things that your friends might find biased–for instance, he generalizes about the early Church’s position while often drawing much of his evidence from the 4-5th centuries; many Protestants trust the 2-3rd centuries much more and may think that Wilken is making an illegitimate move here, with regard to matters such as the Eucharistic sacrifice). Eamon Duffy’s
Saints and Sinners is an acclaimed history of the papacy–Duffy is Catholic but is “liberal” by the standards of most on this board–he certainly doesn’t try to tailor the evidence to fit Catholic dogma.
A new series coming out, called
The People’s History of Christianity, focuses on the everyday experience of Christians throughout the centuries. It should be interesting. It’s published by a Lutheran press and generally seems to be coming from a mainline/liberal Protestant perspective. The general editor, Denis Janz, teaches at a Catholic university (Loyola in New Orleans), but I believe he’s Lutheran. The first two volumes, *Christian Origins *and *Late Ancient Christianity, *have appeared. Each volume has chapters by different authors.
The single most respected scholar of “late antiquity” (i.e., the period of early Christianity but including more than just the study of patristics) is Peter Brown. He is, I believe, an Anglican, though he may not be a believer at all (no cracks about the compatibility of Anglicanism and unbelief, please!). He wrote the classic biography of Augustine when he was in his early 20s. He’s written a number of general books about the period. Pretty much anything by him is worth reading.
Ramsay MacMullen has written the definitive book (so far) on *Christianizing the Roman Empire, *and he’s written a lot of other good books about the late Roman empire and the rise of Christianity. He seems to be coming from a secular perspective, but it’s hard to be sure.
W. H. C. Frend’s *The Rise of Christianity *is also worth looking at. Again, I’m not sure what Frend’s perspective is.
I don’t know what specifics you’re arguing about, so I won’t give any further recommendations till I know more.
Edwin
