By JAMES BARESEL
The Early Church (33-313) by James Papandrea, Ave Maria Press, 2019. The Church and the Roman Empire (301-490) by Mike Aquilina, Ave Maria Press, 2019. Both books are available at amazon.com.
Twenty years ago, when I was in high school and developing a serious interest in Catholicism, those looking for orthodox introductory books on theology and Church history were, with some notable exceptions, largely forced to rely on works which were at least half a century old, though often available in reprint editions.
Matters have dramatically improved since then, with more new books of theology and Church history by faithful writers coming out each year than can easily be kept track of, books which range from the most basic overviews of their subject matter to the most advanced scholarship, books which often contain recent advances in knowledge not to be found in those excellent but somewhat outdated ones which saw so many faithful Catholics through recent decades of darkness.
Among the latest additions to this new body of work are James Papandrea’s The Early Church (33-313) and Mike Aquilina’s The Church and the Roman Empire (301-490), which are the first two of a projected seven volumes in Ave Maria Press’ Reclaiming Catholic History series.
The Early Church and The Church and the Roman Empire naturally attempt to give broad historical overviews of their periods and to explaining points of Catholic doctrine clarified within them, such as the Incarnation, the Hypostatic Union, and the Trinity. They present the reader with some of the more interesting, telling, and representative incidents and anecdotes which took place within the periods which they address — St. Ambrose forcing Emperor Theodosius to do penance for the massacre at Thessalonica, Christ appearing to the young St. Jerome in a vision to tell him that he was a Ciceronian rather than a Christian, St. Lawrence presenting poor Christians to Roman soldiers who demanded he bring them the treasure of the Church.
And they provide biographical introductions to such famous and important individuals as St. Ignatius of Antioch, St. Justin the Martyr, St. Perpetua, St. Ephrem of Syria, Eusebius of Caesarea, and Basil the Great.
Considerable emphasis is placed on correcting and clarifying misrepresentations and misunderstandings of Church history. Much of the clarification concerns topics in regard to which contemporary secular worldviews, modernistic theology, or traditional Protestantism are responsible for widespread errors: 1) That the traditional Catholic beliefs concerning Christ are an accurate interpretation of the true “historical Jesus”; 2) That the hierarchical nature of the Church and concern for theological orthodoxy existed from apostolic times rather than resulting from an “institutionalization” of the Church under Constantine; 3) That Catholic doctrines are at least implicit in early Christian belief; 4) That incorporation of elements of Greek and Roman customs and traditions was careful to include only elements compatible with the faith and was not a “paganization” of Christianity; 5) That veneration of the saints is an ancient Christian practice.
But the books also separate facts from the legends and misconceptions frequently accepted as true by faithful Catholics.
The Early Church, for example, shows that persecution of Christians within the pagan Roman Empire was actually rather sporadic and tended to be localized, and that the many stories of the martyrs’ heroism, though highly edifying and though showing us what all early Christians in the empire had to be prepared to face, concern incidents which were exceptional rather than typical.
The Church and the Roman Empire explains that St. Patrick, though one of the missionaries most responsible for the rapid spread of the Catholic faith among the Irish, was not the man who first brought Catholicism to their island.
Such clarifications and corrections are not only useful for helping faithful Catholics arrive at a better understanding of the reality of ecclesial life through two millennia of history, they can also show more skeptical individuals that acceptance of the supernatural and the miraculous is in no way the same thing as unthinking or gullible acceptance of every legend of popular hagiography.
It must be admitted, however, that the books occasionally make the all too common mistake of attempting to defend Catholicism on the basis of contemporary prejudices, a mistake which, though well intended, implicitly suggests that Catholicism can be shown to be true, or at least worthy of serious consideration, because it embraces various values of the present day.
In most cases, fortunately, this approach limits itself to finding some areas of common ground with the presuppositions of today’s society while ignoring the difference — by, for example, pointing out that the spread of Catholicism led to much better treatment of women than had taken place in the days of paganism while ignoring the many ways in which feminism and gender ideology condemn the authentic relationship of the sexes as oppressive.
Now and then, however, this approach becomes more problematic — as when The Early Church argues that the legalization of Christianity under Constantine led to one of the first instances of “separation of Church and state” despite the fact that numerous papal encyclicals (ones perhaps best known for being misinterpreted and misused by some “traditionalists”) teach that state acceptance of and support for Catholicism as the true religion is the ideal.
That caveat aside, and taking into account that introductory works which condense two or three centuries of history into one hundred pages of text must necessarily be somewhat overly simplistic, the Reclaiming Catholic History should in most ways be of considerable value for use by religion teachers, catechists, and home-schooling parents.
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