The book 2000 years of Christ's Power- how balanced is it?

[ElaineJ]

Has anyone read this series? I am looking for a good church history accessible to my middle schooler and was wondering about using this one as a jumping off point. I am wondering, though, if it gives a balanced, positive view of Roman Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant traditions? History texts are necessarily interpretive and that is ok, I just wanted to make sure it wasn't too biased toward any particular perspective. I am living overseas and can't look at a physical copy of it to form a clear opinion. Thanks!

 

ElaineJ

[milovany]

I haven't read it, or heard of it. I did a brief glance at Amazon and saw it got good reviews, with some comments about how balanced his perspective is. But, I don't know, to me church history needs to be read from a non-Protestant slant, and if you're writing from a Protestant perspective, it's hard to get away from the idea that the Reformation was a work to correct the church-wide errors that they believed existed. I picked this up also in one of the reviews: one said he speaks of the errors of the early church fathers and that the church lived in this error until the reformation. This of course is not the perspective of the other two "legs" of Christian tradition (Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy) -- perspectives that I think need to be seriously considered, esp. pre-AD 1054 when they were united as one; this pre-schism "one holy, catholic, and apostolic" Church was the one that was there. I would think reading church history by pre-schism writers is best (e.g., Eusebius), followed by histories by believers from these traditions (I would recommend The Orthodox Church by Kallistos Ware).