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Monday, July 06, 2009

Church History Reloaded: The 5 Big C's

History is memory.

Diana-Butler Bass, in "A People's History of Christianity," suggests we have shortchanged memory or hijacked church history by relaying it only through the usual grid of the "Big C's":
  • Christ
  • Constantine
  • Christendom
  • Crusades
  • Calvin
  • Christian America
That makes a great power point, and tells some great truth, but does it tell the "rest of the story"...or even much of the Story?

I'll be reviewing the book for the Ooze Viral Bloggers soon..and can't wait to teach my upcoming Church History Course..

Here below is her interview on TheOoze Tv (accompanying article here).
As a bonus, here is her commentary on Stephen Colbert's "money sermon"

2 comments:

  1. A lot of us don't relate to Christian America. Perhaps Columbus, or better yet Conquest, should replace it in the list.

    I'm especially drawn to ConqUest because it speaks of the experience of both those who built empires (i.e. White Western Europeans) and those who found themselves involuntarily included in those empires (Africans, Asians, Native Americans).

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  2. Tony...excellent point...so many of we americans inevitably set our grids anericentrically

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Hey, thanks for engaging the conversation!