YOU SHOULDN'T JUDGE THIS BOOK BY ITS TITLE

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, April 3, 1993                   TAG: 9304050247
SECTION: RELIGION                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
YOU SHOULDN'T JUDGE THIS BOOK BY ITS TITLE
The religious festivals associated with spring provide the excuse for the release of a new crop of religious books each year.
Among others, this year there is the usual crop of rather schmaltzy "inspirational" books; a good book by a couple of Roanoke Valley auTthors on "Living with Cancer" that I've already written about; and another new book from Reader's Digest on the history of the early Christian church.
"After Jesus: The Triumph of Christianity" (Reader's Digest Books, $30), chronicles the first 600 years of church history.
What is, in fact, a highly readable account of a period of church history that many Christians know little or nothing about runs the risk of not being picked up at all by those who will be put off by its title.
The use of the word "triumph" is problematic on at least two counts.
First, there will be some Christians (who may not read anything published by Reader's Digest, anyway) who will be offended by its militaristic overtones. They reject the idea that Christianity must "triumph" over others. Rather, they see it as a "gift" to be offered to those who may accept it or reject it as they will.
Second, the notion of "triumph" implies some final victory over the people or forces that oppose Christianity - a dubious conclusion.
Of course, strictly speaking, the title is perfectly correct. Christianity did overcome humble beginnings as an upstart offshoot of Judaism to become the dominant religion of the Mediterranean rim in only a few hundred years. It did grow and spread despite the opposition of emperors and armies to become the de facto official religion of the Roman Empire in just three centuries.
Once inside, the reader finds that the book does aptly bring to life the history of the early church.
The story begins with the biblical account of the Pentecost, at which Jesus' disciples were said to have been "filled with the Holy Spirit" and after which they began their evangelist mission.
The book weaves together the various surviving written accounts of the early church under the scholarly direction of Yale University's Jaroslav Pelikan and Union Theological Seminary's Thomas L. Robinson.
It covers the assembly of the early books, letters and treatises that were considered for inclusion of the canon we now call the New Testament; the persecution by so-called pagan religions; the declaration of legal legitimacy by Constantine; the split of the church between the Greek culture of the East and Latin culture of the West; and takes the reader to the threshold of the Middle Ages.
The book - printed, like the Digest's home-repair and fix-it-yourself guides, 8 1/2 inches tall by 10 inches wide - includes lots of color photos of ancient art and archaeological sites and artists' renderings of significant events.
An impressive bibliography ranges from Edward Gibbon to Will Durant, and the volume ends with convenient brief descriptions of key people and terms.
Despite a few shortcomings, a complex and fascinating history is told in an easy-to-read but intellectually satisfying style.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB