I. SUMMARY
Reading Selection 1: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, 1-12
According to MacCulloch, Christian history is a story which was told and believed by Jesus’ disciples. He calls Christianity a “personality cult” in which he describes Jesus as a historical figure who was admired and present as God by the early believers. The Christian story is long enough with two millennia for historians to study, yet is a short story as Christianity is young when compared to some other religions and to the history of all humans. In fact, this story has not only taken place in two thousand years, it has its ideas even one thousand years before its beginning. MacCulloch used a “skeptical” method to evaluate the Christianity …show more content…
Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that, I rejoice.” However, I also think there is a need to evaluate carefully to MacCulloch’s history so that readers can discern the problems when they read this book. First, he claims that the Christian religion is a young religion compared to other religions “and the Christian faith is instability because it comes from the twofold ancestry.” Such claims without any grounded evidence of Scriptures are contradictory and have affected the trustworthiness of his article. Since he said the Christian religion is the all about the person Jesus Christ, he needs to know that this Jesus Christ is mentioned throughout Scripture. Christianity is God’s redemption of humanity and this redemptive plan of God has begun right after the fall of the first man ever – Adam. Therefore, it is not young as he thinks and compares to other religions. Moreover, this redemption through Jesus Christ is the ground for the faith of the believers throughout history, whether they are Jews or Greeks or any races in the world. The message is one because “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) In other place, we see another contradiction in his article since he said Christianity is just an interesting made-up story as any other kind of fiction, at the same time, he said the growth of Christianity and its impacts in the history of mankind are “undeniably true”. If the impact of Christianity on humanity is true, then as a logical conclusion, it cannot be just a fictional
Reading Selection 1: Diarmaid MacCulloch, Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years, 1-12
According to MacCulloch, Christian history is a story which was told and believed by Jesus’ disciples. He calls Christianity a “personality cult” in which he describes Jesus as a historical figure who was admired and present as God by the early believers. The Christian story is long enough with two millennia for historians to study, yet is a short story as Christianity is young when compared to some other religions and to the history of all humans. In fact, this story has not only taken place in two thousand years, it has its ideas even one thousand years before its beginning. MacCulloch used a “skeptical” method to evaluate the Christianity …show more content…
Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed, and in that, I rejoice.” However, I also think there is a need to evaluate carefully to MacCulloch’s history so that readers can discern the problems when they read this book. First, he claims that the Christian religion is a young religion compared to other religions “and the Christian faith is instability because it comes from the twofold ancestry.” Such claims without any grounded evidence of Scriptures are contradictory and have affected the trustworthiness of his article. Since he said the Christian religion is the all about the person Jesus Christ, he needs to know that this Jesus Christ is mentioned throughout Scripture. Christianity is God’s redemption of humanity and this redemptive plan of God has begun right after the fall of the first man ever – Adam. Therefore, it is not young as he thinks and compares to other religions. Moreover, this redemption through Jesus Christ is the ground for the faith of the believers throughout history, whether they are Jews or Greeks or any races in the world. The message is one because “There is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) In other place, we see another contradiction in his article since he said Christianity is just an interesting made-up story as any other kind of fiction, at the same time, he said the growth of Christianity and its impacts in the history of mankind are “undeniably true”. If the impact of Christianity on humanity is true, then as a logical conclusion, it cannot be just a fictional