Warren H. Carroll
What if someone wrote a history of the Catholic church as if its claims were true? The answer is Carroll’s multi-volume “History of Christendom”. This, the first volume of a projected six-volume work (volumes one through four are currently available), covers church history from creation to the conversion of the emperor Constantine. Carroll is not a creationist, but does assume that God created man in some fashion, that human history is also salvation history, and the Catholic church is Christ’s church. But amend that; he doesn’t assume that the Catholic church is the organization that Christ intended to found, but rather he demonstrates it.
This is a deep, broad, fascinating, well-written work of narrative history. It’s really a history of modern Western Civilization with the focus on Israel and early Christianity. The extensive footnotes and bibliography guide the reader who wants to dig deeper.
This isn’t a modern work if by “modern” one means “skeptical”, but neither is it credulous or anti-intellectual. I’m looking forward to reading the rest of the series.