A Tale Of Two Histories

My introduction to the History of Religions originating in the Late Ancient Near East and Mediterranean began with this book: Roland Bainton's theologically-driven The Church Of Our Fathers. Bainton was a Congregationalist, married to a Quaker, and an accomplished church historian who wrote this particular book for young readers. I read it repeatedly while in Elementary and Middle schools--loving it as much for the illustrations as for the text. The book both fascinated and troubled me--as any good history of religion ought to do--although I am not certain that Bainton intended it to be troubling. If I recall correctly, it ends on a hopeful note despite the narrative it contains of internecine Christian conflict. I absorbed Bainton's optimism about the church and maintained it against all evidence to the contrary until my sophomore year in college when Elaine Pagels published The Gnostic Gospels.



I purchased a copy of Pagels's book hot off the press and devoured it. Unlike Bainton, Pagels did not adopt the view that, despite internal disagreements, the church has steadily progressed through time fulfilling its obligation to spread the Word of God. Instead, her book demonstrated to me that power politics were involved not only in the development of the church as an institution, but even in the crafting of its reigning ideologies, e.g., Christology. More recently, Philip Jenkins has spelled out the widespread nature of these conflicts in Jesus Wars.



Nevertheless, Bainton's book remains an important milestone in my own intellectual history. I first felt the thrill of studying religious history while thumbing through his pages. For that, I shall always be grateful.