Bullies And Saints Part 1: From Christ to Constantine

I really enjoyned John Dickson's Bullies And Saints: An Honest Look At The Good And Evil Of Christian History. Well...maybe 'enjoyed' is not the right word, as a lot of it was sobering to read. Perhaps 'appreciated' is a better word. There is much to learn from the record of bullies and saints in church history lest we repeat their failures or fail to replicate their successes. And in case you are wondering if this is boring and irrelevant, I felt like story after story matched today's headlines in terms. Truly, as Solomon said, there is nothing new under the sun. 

I am going to do a series of posts where I cut and paste from his book. Where I fill in words, you will see [brackets]. I use ellipses for all the places where I know there is a gap, but (because of how Kindle highlighting works) I am sure there are many places where I fail to note what's written between two sentences I put next to each other. If what I post feels disconnected or clunky as you read it, that's my editing, not his writing :) 

The first installment is the most positive. The church's reputation prior to Constantine was pretty solid. This post will give some highlights of the early church; when Constantine enters the scene, things begin to change as the bullies begin to challenge the saints...