Christianity On Trial: Arguments Against Anti-Religious Bigotry
Extravagant charges have lately been laid, or in some cases relaid, at Christianity's door. Christianity encouraged and apologized for slavery. Christianity, anti-Semitic from its outset, refused to prevent or protest the Holocaust, and Pope Pius XII is especially culpable. Christianity has obstructed the growth of science. Christianity has resisted democracy, tolerance, equality, individuality, and all the other values intrinsic to Western culture and the U.S., in particular. The problem with these condemnations is, of course, that they are all false, as Carroll and Shiflett demonstrate by restating the historical record and core Christian teachings and by putting specific events, such as the Crusades, and practices, such as slavery, in historical and cross-cultural perspective. They don't deny genuine wrongdoing by Christians and churches but balance the wrongs with the much larger record ofrightdoing by Christians and churches. They back their presentation almost exclusively with the findings of secular scholars. They write intelligently and uncondescendingly but very accessibly and with enough animation to pull readers into and speed them through each chapter. Superb argumentation.Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved