An excerpt from: James McDonald, Beyond Belief: Two Thousand Years of Bad Faith in the Christian Church, 2011, Garnet Publishing
Introduction
And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
John8:32
To a large extent the history of the Western World over the last 2,000 years is the history of the Christian Church. Without understanding the role of the Church it is not possible to understand the history of Europe, the Middle East, Asia or the Americas. Nor is it possible to understand the development of ideas in such areas as politics, education, medicine, law, sociology and archihtecture: almost anything in fact from art to astrophysics.
Repercussions from crusades that took place over 900 years ago are still in evidence. The division of the Roman Empire in early Christian times also reverberates to the present day. The border between the eastern and western parts of the Empire re-emerged in the late twentieth century as a fault line in what was then Yugoslavia. That line is now the border between Croatia and Serbia. On the side that used to lie in the Western Empire Croats use the Latin alphabet of the Roman Catholic Church; on the other side, the side that used to lie in the Eastern Empire, Serbs use the Greek alphabet favoured by the Orthodox Church.
Whatever one’s own personal beliefs, the Christian Churches provide material for the enquiring mind. Why did Jesus never forsake Judaism if his intention was to found a new religion? Why are there so many different Christian denominations? What do they all believe, and what exactly do they disagree about? Why do the Orthodox Churches claim to be catholic, and why does the Catholic Church claim to be orthodox? Why have long suppressed theories about the role of Magdalene generated such interest in recent times? In the course of looking at the history of the Christian Churches we will find the answers to these and many other questions...
Read the whole piece here
Read about the book here