A New Mission: Reading Christory

Christian history is fascinating

I finished my goal of re-reading the Bible since the last time I used this blog regularly. In the interim, I have found a new focus: reading about biblical history and the cultural impacts of Christianity.

A snapshot of part of the religion section of one of my bookshelves. Most of these are ones I have yet to read. I’m having some difficulty getting all my religion books, read and unread, properly organized. There may need to be more bookshelves.

I’ve read dozens of books dealing with Christianity’s roots and influences on Western or American culture since I was last “here.” This reading has really changed the way I think about Christianity, Christians, and atheism, among many other things.

As a subject of study, Christianity is all the more fascinating for learning about its history. There are few more wide-reaching, long-running stories of political intrigue and cultural control than is Christianity’s past. And it is so interwoven with American history and culture that I LOVE reading and talking about it with anyone who will listen.

But make no mistake—reading biblical history and cultural examinations of Christianity has not made it any more believable. Quite the opposite.

Not only does studying Christianity’s roots make its claims all the more absurd, it makes it hard to believe that anyone else believes them either. But then reality up and smacks me in the face with the fact that, oh yeah, people actually DO believe this stuff is literal fact.

Right…

[insert awkward chuckle here]

The fremdschämen is so very strong sometimes.

O Hai!

I have re-discovered my old blog. Yay for that.

As more and more people are leaving Facebook, and I have long had a desire for long-form writing that is poorly served by Facebook, I’ll likely make use of this space more. Maybe. We’ll see…