"This story is enormously unlikely." --Elaine Pagels, Professor of Religion, Princeton University

Pagels is right on the mark: what began two millennia ago as a Jewish sect has grown into the most widespread religion in history, despite unbridled oppression in its early years and countless denominational splits ever since. The last few years have seen a resurgence of interest in church history, and A&E's documentary Christianity: The First Thousand Years is a splendid example of solid scholarly research meshed with entertaining production values that speaks to this interest. The result is a resource with equal appeal for the historian and the theologian alike.

The issues that confronted the early church seem now quite strange since there are 2,000 years of tradition behind them today:

• Should gentile converts to the Jesus movement have to adhere to the laws of kashrut?
• What authority did Paul have as an apostle though he never personally knew Jesus?
• What is Jesus' relationship to God?
• How can a tripartite Christian theology be resolved with Judaism's strong tradition of monotheism?
• Which texts should form the Christian scripture?
• What relationship do the apostolic bishops at Jerusalem, Damascus, Rome, Constantinople, and elsewhere have to each other--and how should the church be structured?
• What should be the central statement of faith of Christians?

The rapid spread of the church from the controversial conversion of Constantine to the conquests of Otto is tied closely to the history of the Roman Empire itself. Without the empire as its catapult, it is unlikely that Christianity would have spread even to remote Iceland and Finland by the year 1000. The early church modeled itself structurally on imperial institutions, and it integrated itself into the fabric of imperial life. Indeed, the central role of Christianity in Byzantine life is one of numerous often-overlooked but fascinating historical perspectives that A&E manages to cover here.

An excellent survey of the history of the church

While this is not a stand-alone history of the church it is nonetheless a quality production. The historical accuracy of the program is somewhat imprecise at times but given the diversity of the opinions proffered, the program is excellent. A variety of perspectives are presented, the narrators are first rate, the visual images are breathtaking and the writing is quite informative. Further, the program is long and quite thorough. I truly enjoyed this program and would invite those interested in this area to watch this.

Not bad,but also so so

reading the other reviews, there is only one thing to say: that every time the christian fate and the bible that is not correct at all is under "attack" the so called "thrue believer" get scared.

The Film was good, but they should let the other fanatic side also tell there story

Remarkable diversity of perspective

The producers of this film went to great pains to collect a diversity of talking heads. Their scholars span the spectrum from Stuart of Gordon Conwell and Justo Gonzalez to head of the Jesus Seminar. There are women scholars, popular writers and religious professionals in every imaginable garb, reflecting together on the history of the church. The visuals are of mixed quality. Several of the images are repeated ad nausium and the dramatizations are not very well done. However the content is relatively helpful. There are times when the film leaves remarkable latitude for traditional accounts and other times when it cites the most critical scholarship. There also seems to be a polemical juxtaposition of praise worthy individuals and institutions gone bad (with a focus on violence). My major complaint is that the series is not comprehensive enough and often feels anecdotal. It could easily have been twice as long.However, for the constraints it is an interesting discussion.