You know, I’ve been around Christians much my entire life. I know so many Bible verses, and so many interpretations of those verses, that I can take just about any side in a theological argument, whether I subscribe to a particular belief or not.
Until recently, though, I haven’t really cared much about why these different interpretations arose, how they spread, or the social shifts behind why one dogma became more “accepted” than another. For the first time I’m actually getting interested in the history of the early church.
And the source of my interest? Anne Rice. Yep, THAT Anne Rice. I recently finished reading Pandora, and through the latter portion of the book there is a fascinating running commentary on the growth of Christianity in the Roman empire. Rice’s histories are usually meticulously researched, so it really piques my interest when she talks about Paul, or Jesus, or the disciples, even in a fictional sense.
Anybody have any good, readable histories to recommend?
