Mennonite Weekly Review

When Christian history is written, it is usually “Big-C Christianity,” as Diana Butler Bass calls it.

Twin towers of the Great Church rise over Zurich, where the preaching of Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli inspired followers such as Conrad Grebel, who left the Reformed Church to lead the first Anabaptists. — Photo by Robert M. Schrag/MWR

It is a tale of the faith’s triumphal spread — institutional struggles against other religions and political systems, and, all too often, the use of militant means to achieve perceived righteous ends.

Bass tells the story from a different angle in The People’s History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story (HarperOne, 2009).

In a refreshing look at 2,000 years of Christian history from the bottom up, Butler Bass offers unique insights into the spirit that has stirred the hearts and minds of faithful people over the centuries and brought renewal to Christianity during periods of upheaval and distress.

She sought out the stories of individuals in various eras who’ve struggled to live on the basis of Jesus’ teachings by loving God and loving their neighbor. This she calls “generative Christianity,” a faith that transforms the world through humble service: “It is not about victory; it is about following Christ in order to seed human community with grace.”

This exploration is crucial today, Butler Bass believes, because so many contemporary Christians suffer not only from biblical illiteracy but also spiritual amnesia. While Jesus’ teachings may speak to them personally, they are unmoored from a positive sense of Christian history after Jesus.

If Christianity is to be renewed and go on to flourish in the future, the author contends, Christians must gain a sense of their history that is meaningful and inspires hope.

Presenting Christian history as five periods — The Way (100-500), the Cathedral (500-1450), the Word (1450-1650), the Quest (1650-1945) and the River (1945-present) — A People’s History describes how individuals in each period have defined their love of God through forms of devotion and their love of neighbor through ethical action.

In the early church, for example, around 270, a wealthy young Christian named Anthony was so struck by Jesus’ words to the young rich man in Matt. 19:21 (sell all your possessions, give to the poor and come, follow me) that he disposed of all he owned and went into the Egyptian desert to become close to God.

Anthony, who lived for more than 100 years before being martyred, is considered the founder of desert monastic communities.