Two kaleidoscopes

Gorgeously illustrated histories of our faith

In another recent book of David Bentley Hart's, Atheist Delusions, he writes that Christianity's beginnings were nothing less than revolutionary, so 2000 years of Christian history reduced to a coffee table book may feel like a bourgeois dilution of this spirit. On the other hand, as Diarmaid MacCulloch puts it in his also recently released history of Christianity, Christian passion is a catalyst for creativity, so a cultural history of Christianity liberally interspersed with (as the marketers say) lavishly reproduced examples of this creativity makes some sense.

Christianity: The Illustrated Guide is of toe-breaking heft, and styles itself on the lines of the reference books produced by the publishers Dorling Kindersley, though without quite the same manic layout. Note the "the" in the title — its publishers see it as an unsurpassed pictorial history, and its magnificent reproductions have rich colour.

Christianity: The Illustrated Guide to 2000 Years of the Christian Faith, (Millennium House)

Hart is an Orthodox theologian, and so the perspective of the Eastern churches is well represented in The Story of Christianity, as it is in The Illustrated Guide. But the latter is more global and more extensive in its portrayal of the geographic spread of Christianity, covering twentieth century churches in Australia and New Zealand with two pages each, and four pages on the Pacific Islands. Hart merely mentions in closing the growing importance of the global South.

The Story of Christianity: An Illustrated History of 2000 Years of the Christian Faith, by David Bentley Hart (Quercus)

Hart is an iconoclast of sorts, attacking mythical histories that pit ignorant, intolerant Christianity against scientific reason, or that categorise the religious as 'bad' and the secular as 'good'. So it is interesting to compare him on the Spanish Inquisition to The Illustrated Guide. Hart suggests most current pictures of the Spanish Inquisition are "exaggerations" and that during most of its history the Inquisition was relatively weak. Even though it committed injustices, it was often more lenient and bound to legal procedure than secular courts. We must also remember that although it was authorized by the papacy, it was largely a tool of the State and, because of its corruption, was later challenged by Pope Sixtus IV. The Illustrated Guide states more simply that the Inquisition was arbitrary and cruel, but religion held society together and so heresy was tantamount to treason. Laudably it also points out that the Inquisition is not comparable to the totalitarian control of the past century and that the surrounding society as a whole was not an intolerant one.

Hart is more likely to delve deeper into ideas. To take just a few examples, he includes a whole section on Voltaire and his response to the Lisbon earthquake, and while The Illustrated Guide makes only passing reference to Charles Darwin, Hart goes into detail on the scientific developments of the nineteenth century and their impact on Christianity. Additionally, he includes a page on the Scopes Trial in the USA (not mentioned in The Illustrated Guide). As usual, he disentangles fact from fiction and suggests the trial was "more complicated" than most today believe. In particular he reveals the little remembered fact that the evolutionary theory Scopes taught was closely associated with eugenics and that the textbook he used was "monstrously racist".

As Hart writes, it is easy to be a Christian and be ignorant of much of the traditions of fellow Christians. Arguably more than any other religion, Christianity has assimilated into cultures alien to that of its beginnings, leading to a kaleidoscope of practice and representation. Creating a one volume summary of this is no easy task; neither is it easy to digest the narrative of 2000 years of Christian history. But the format of these two books is compelling, as it makes for easy access, whether one is reading from front to back or just flicking through the pictures.

Nick Mattiske