Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #155572 in Books
• Published on: 1986-04-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1022 pages

Customer Reviews

An Important Place to Start
This is not an easy book to read, because it is not a shallow treatment of its subject; it's densely written and highly detailed.

But it is the book that you should start with, because, given the degree of religious partisanship that attends this subject, it's crucial that your first exposure come from a trustworthy source. To all appearances, Frend is such a source; he writes without apparent bias, with abundant humanity, and he ends each chapter with a staggering bibliography of the primary and secondary sources on which he's relied. In fact, the bibliography itself is worth the price of the book.

I predict that if you purchase this book, it will become the standard by which you judge other Church histories.

Good historical look at early Christianity.
Although long and somewhat daunting the book is well written, and flows easily making the huge book manageable. It's arguments are persuasive and logical, but as with almost any work, it is certainly not the last word on the topic. I hope a person thinking about getting the book is not scared away by the lenght of the book, it really is a good book, and you may find yourself not wanting to put it down.

You Have to Really "Want It"
When I was on the high school football team, breaking my back in the summer drills, my coaches would yell encouragement at us to work hard, for the victories in the fall. "Come on guys, you've gotta' really want it!" The same could be said for the Rise of Christianity. It is a bit of a grind, but when you are done, it will seem worthwhile.

Frend is certainly a master historian. His prose flows smoothly from one topic to the next, and he has a great grasp of primary sources. This book, however is not for the beginner. There are numerous instances where Frend will try to clarify a point by some reference to another event, which, to a beginner, may or may not shed light.

He also uses the John Wayne philosophy of "listen and listen tight, `cause I'm only gonna' say this once" when he describes a new theological idea. Because it took me several months to get through the book, I found my index worn out by having to refresh my memory on Apollinarianism, or Pelagianism, or any of the other myriad -isms in Christian history. This slowed me down quite a bit.

Like those summer two-a-day training camps in high school, getting through it did prove to be rewarding. The bibliography is great, the time line is very nice, and the book will be a well-used reference in the future.