Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity book)

John Manners, ed. Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity (1990) Survey from the early Church to present. A frustrating read. Very patchy. Several authors contribute: unfortunately, they assume varying amounts of knowledge in the audience, and most write in academese, not English. The result is an often impenetrable narrative, that obscures where it should clarify.
     The excellent and very detailed chronology refers to events and people not mentioned by the authors. Major heresies and doctrinal positions are not explained - one is supposed to know them I guess - nor are the reasons for them elucidated, and there is a slew of specialised jargon, often limited to a particular tradition, used without explanation. There is very uneven treatment of social and political influences and effects: some authors focus on these, others ignore them almost entirely. Major world events are often ignored, oddly enough: e.g., I'm sure the two world wars had a lot to do with the loss of faith in Europe (just listen to people of a certain age!), but they are hardly mentioned.
     There is no attempt at relating the pictures to the text (the pictures in many ways are more informative than the text!) Some authors are obviously rehashing an academic controversy; unforgivable in this context. The best chapters are the last two, but they hardly make up for the rest. All in all, well below the expected standard of an Oxford history. Not worth buying, hardly worth reading. * (1998)