Born in 1928 and educated at Magdalene College, Oxford, Paul Johnson was editor of the influential English weekly, "The New Statesman, " from 1964-1970, and is now Director, New Statesman Publishing Company. Mr. Johnson's prodigious scholarship and varied interests are evident in the themes of his books. Since publication of "A History of Christianity" he has written "Enemies of Society, The Civilization of Ancient Egypt" and "Civilizations of the Holy Land."
J. Enoch Powell The Daily Telegraph (London) It is astonishingly
well done.
Malcolm Muggeridge New Statesman (London) Paul Johnson's study of
Christianity, from his namesake Apostle to Pope John XXIII, more
particularly in relation to the role in world history of the Roman
Catholic Church and other institutional manifestations, can only be
described as masterly. It combines a great wealth of scholarship,
including many fascinating byways as well as the main highways,
with a vigorous, confident style, a kind of innate intensity which
carries the narrative along so that it rarely falters and is never
dull.
Martin E. Marty The New York Times Book Review A reliable if
hard-edged story of the public church.
Mayo Mohs Time An ambitious, magisterial and ultimately positive
book.
Michael McCauley Commonweal That the history of Christianity can be
lucidly surveyed in a single, comprehensive volume of 556 pages is
no small accomplishment. To Paul Johnson's credit A History of
Christianity neither skimps on significant details or wallows in
scholarly fussiness. Johnson provides a panoramic overview of
events which have shaped our twentieth century Western lifestyle
far more than we realize....For economy of style combined with a
sympathetic understanding of the nearly 2000 years of
Christianity's conflicts as well as its glorious achievements,
Johnson's History is exceptional.
Richard Marius The Christian Century Paul Johnson, an English Roman
Catholic, has given us the best one-volume history of Christianity
ever done.
Robert Kirsch Los Angeles Times Johnson has written a readable and
provocative history based more on politics, economics and social
and cultural facts than on theology....[He] bases his account on
modern scholarship, achieves objectivity without aridity, arrives
at the present age after examining the recurring cycles of
religious response to situations.
W. H. C. Frend The New York Review of Books His is a tour de force,
one of the most ambitious surveys of the history of Christianity
ever attempted and perhaps the most radical. In eight sections,
with a great range of reading and a knowledge that is never made
tedious, he tells the story of the rise, greatness, and decline of
Christianity.
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