Diana Butler Bass, with a Ph.D in church history from Duke, has taught at UC Santa Barbara, Rhodes College, and Virginia Theological Seminary. She has written 7 books. This current review will be finished after my church’s monthly Roundtable class discusses it over the next 9 months.

The back cover states: “For too long, the history of Christianity has been told as the triumph of orthodox doctrine imposed through power. Now, historian Diana Butler Bass shed new light on the surprising ways that many Christians have refused to conform to a rigid church hierarchy and sought to recapture the radical implications of Jesus’ life and message.”

Here is some of her perspective from The Introduction – After Jesus: “What happened after Jesus – oppression, heresy trials, schisms, inquisitions, witch hunts, pogroms, and religious wars – witness to much human ambition and cruelty. The things people often do in Jesus’ name often contradict his teachings.” …”Not wanting to reject God on the basis of these criticisms, liberal Christians claim that human history is not God’s fault.” …”...many Christian stories have been overlooked or misunderstood by even the faithful themselves. By discovering the other side of the story, God’s spirit might be discerned in Christian history.” …”Over the years student papers [in her classes] revealed a popular understanding of church history, admittedly not very sophisticated, but a story that still possesses some cultural resonance. The usual story is that of ‘Big-C’ Christianity – Christ, Constantine, Christendom, Calvin, and Christian America.” …”Big-C Christianity is militant Christianity.” …”There exists a different story – one that people want to hear – of folks like themselves who struggled to live as Jesus told them to, loving God and doing right. It is not a militant story. Rather, it is a story of generative Christianity, a kind of faith that births new possibilities of God’s love in the world.”…”I think of this generative story as Great Command Christianity.” That is, from Luke 10:25-27 – “Love the Lord your God with all your heart . . . and love your neighbor as yourself.” …”In these words from the Gospel of Luke begins A People’s History of Christianity. Jesus’ story is not only a good story, it is also the first step on a journey through Christian tradition, the history of Christian people who embrace the Great Commandment and follow Jesus’ instructions to ‘go and do likewise’.”

Near the end of the Introduction she says “I am trying to help Western Christians move away from their triumphal Big-C history toward a more humble reading of their story. Each part introduces the main historical periods of Western Christianity...” The book has five parts and a brief Epilogue. The first four each have a chapter on Christianity, Devotion, and Ethics. In Part V these three topics are included in one chapter. To emphasize how Diana Butler Bass sees the perspectives of the people change in each time period, I list below the five parts with their time periods and chapter titles – the words in the parts and the chapter titles describe the changing perspectives of the Christian people:

• PART I – THE WAY – Early Christianity, 100-500: Ch 1 – Christianity as a Way of Life; Ch 2 – Devotion: The Love of God; Ch 3 – Ethics: The Love of Neighbor
• PART II – THE CATHEDRAL – Medieval Christianity, 500-1450: Ch 4 – Christianity as Spiritual Architecture; Ch 5 – Devotion: Paradise Restored; Ch 6 – Ethics: Who Is My Neighbor?
• PART III – THE WORD – Reformation Christianity, 1450-1650: Ch 7 – Christianity as Living Words; Ch 8 – Devotion: Speaking of Faith; Ch 9 – Ethics: Walking the Talk
• PART IV – THE QUEST – Modern Christianity, 1650-1945: Ch 10 – Christianity as a Quest for Truth; Ch 11 – Devotion: The Quest for Light; Ch 12 – Ethics: Kingdom Quest
• PART V – THE RIVER – Contemporary Christianity, 1945-Now: Ch 13 – The River (Christianity as Navigation; Devotion: Stepping into the River; Ethics: Universal Hospitality)

Although I have read all this book, I do not expect to add my comments and final rating of my review until after the last Roundtable meeting in May 2011.