Book review: Bullies and Saints
Bullies and Saints
Religion, how do I hate thee? Let me count the ways: massacres, holy wars, Constantine’s edict of intolerance, destruction of ancient artifacts, forced conversions, hypocrisy (didn’t your Jesus have something to say about that?), child abuse, popes, contradictions among all these different churches, all laid at the feet of the church and Christians. I want no part of it. I don’t want to be associated with that! Christian Genocide goes back to the Old Testament!
I put these words into the mouth of my fictitious skeptic in my soon-to-be-released book, Is Jesus Real? In each chapter an open-minded skeptic and and respectful believer exchange words in a debate-style of conversation about the chapter’s content.
Even though fictitious, the skeptic is voicing objections to Christianity I have heard. I think the general public is uninformed or at least under-informed about Christian history. While it’s true that the Church—the community of Christians—has a lot to answer for, it also has, throughout history, had times when it was in tune with Jesus’s person and teaching. In Bullies and Saints Dickson carefully documents and often refutes each of the skeptic’s claims above. The skeptic, though, is parroting some of the biases of the uninformed public as regards Christian history. Whether skeptic or believer, we do well to know the actual history, the good and the bad.
In his highly readable book of about 300 pages, Dickson provides a wonderful, thought-provoking introduction to what the church has done through the ages, both bad and mostly good. Dickson’s useful metaphor is that it’s like an amateur musician learning to play a piece by J. S. Bach. Because some people don’t play his music well, does not mean that Bach was a bad composer. We need to listen to it played well in order to understand some of the depth of Bach’s genius. In terms of the Christian life, Jesus wrote the “music” and performed it perfectly. At times, those of us who are trying to follow have gotten it right—like when the church invented hospitals, imbued our culture with a sense of responsibility toward the weak and helpless, and provided educational institutions.
Without minimizing the mistakes of church history, Dickson’s book goes a long way toward correcting the one-sided and harsh criticism of the church we often hear these days. I recommend it.
NB: Our skeptic friends may sometimes echo the popular idea that God advocated genocide of some of the people in the Old Testament. He didn’t do this, of course, although there are examples of God commanding the people of Israel to destroy the occupants of certain excessively corrupt cities. For a discussion of this issue, please see the Bible Project commentary on Joshua.
________________________________
John Dickson, Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History, 2021, Grand Rapids, Michigan, Zondervan Reflective
________________________________
