La Résistance au christianisme: Les heresies des origines au XVIIIe siècle

by Vaneigem-R

Rare Book

Genres: History, Nonfiction

494 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

Reviews

[Roxana Chirilă · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should come to terms with the fact that I won't finish Raoul Vaneigem's "Resistance to Christianity". I liked the promise of it so much: heresy! Groups struggling for their freedom! Doctrinal controversy! A chronological encyclopedia from the oldest times and until the modern age! It sounded perfect.

Alas, Raoul Vaneigem does that thing the French intellectuals often do (and Romanian intellectuals follow in their footsteps, except tripping over their feet): he assumes readers are already in the know.

It's not immediately obvious. You start out by feeling that everything makes sense, that the words flow, that you've got this and it'll be an interesting read; except later on, you get lost. Who were these people? Who were those people? What are these events mentioned? How does it all fit together? You either already know the history of official belief from ancient times until the 18th c., or you need another encyclopedia to figure out this "Chronological Encyclopedia".

(And there's also the small issue of Vaneigem positioning himself very clearly in the anti-Christian camp, which does raise a question about his objectivity regarding the people and events involved. Not that I'm very *pro*-Christian myself, but one has to sometimes grudgingly admit that, even obeying official doctrines, sometimes Christians may have felt free and done some good and worthwhile things (even scholarship) with their lives.)

I would like to thank NetGalley and the publisher for the free ARC received in exchange for an honest review. I honestly hoped this would be both illuminating and helpful to me, and it might only be vaguely helpful.

[Wake Up Neo · Rating 4 out of 5]

More flagrant and fascinating than an encyclopedia has any business being.

"I want to challenge the view of those who dehumanize history, seeing it as fated and fatal: hence my wish to pay homage to those who refused to give in to the idea that history moves toward some inevitable outcome." - Raoul Vaneigem

The translation is very good. The author covers many groups and people at a breakneck pace so if you aren't familiar with them already (who is) it will feel more like rapid summaries. It doesn't deep dive likely due to the magnitude of what the book already sets out to cover. Hence the name change for the translation: Encyclopaedia. I tried my best to keep up but just like the author says "I am not an expert in anything" and "do no more than satisfy a personal own curiosity." I accepted this readily and took down notes of certain names or events that interested me enough to look up on my own time, or took the author's word for it.

There is a staggering amount of research that goes into making a book like this. And while it's not-all-together objective it had me clapping a hand over my mouth at times. You would think this read would be dry as hell. It's not.

Thank you to the publisher for allowing me to read this book early in return for my honest thoughts and review.

[Ivan Eysackers · Rating 5 out of 5]

Superb book! Only available at this downloadpage I mentioned. A must read... (if u like the topic lol)...

[Heather Gleason · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a very detailed history of the denominations and offshoots, or heresies, of Christianity from the beginning of the Christian religion until the present. It is based historically in Europe and there are very few mentions of Christianity in other continents. Modern denominations are not really covered, but after reading this book, I am amazed at the number of schisms and branches of the religion have occurred before our present time. It is a heavy read, and it took me time to comprehend and dissect it because there are a lot of names of people and titles of books that the heretics and non "mainstream" adherents wrote. It would be interesting to read some of these heretical and rebellious books, and the author has very thorough bibliographies.

The book starts out with the history and founding of the Christian religion, and it states how Catholicsm came about. There were many beliefs that differed from the Catholic faith but did not continue for long that were established before Catholism emerged. Protestanism is discussed for a bit, and some of the sects that still exist are put into historical context.

The most astounding facts of this book are the many thousands of people who were burned, tortured, and jailed for believing in something that differed from the mainstream Christian beliefs of the time in Europe. The book describes many of the kings and rulers of various countries, and portrays each person in relation to their acceptance of the mainstream religion and their tolerance levels. But mostly, the book describes the beliefs of the various sects and small cults, the founders, and the eventual demise of such groups. Some of the groups covered are: Judean sects, Essenses, Gnostic Radicalism, the New Prophecy, the Cathars, the Waldensians, Beghards and Beguines, Millenarians, Free Spirit, Hussites, Anabaptists, Skeptics, and Quietists.

There are so many sects besides the ones our present society is familiar with. If the past had been more tolerant to diverse opinions, then the number of Christian denominations we presently have would be even larger. This book opened my eyes to huge diversity in thinking.

[C. Quabela · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although the topic is very interesting the composition reads too much like an encyclopedia. There is a lot of facts, names, and dates presented but very little context. So far as the topic is concerned though if this is of interest to you then this book will be worth the time.

[Carol Keogh (Goodfellow) · Rating 4 out of 5]

An exceptional book exploring the subject of heresy in the context of the growth of Christianity. I know this is a translation and sometimes this can be detrimental to the original text, however this is a good attempt. As the subject is complex and very open to perception of the reader, I felt it was written clearly and quite accessible to the interested reader. Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to review Resistance to Christianity. A solid 4 stars.