Tried by Fire: The Story of Christianity's First Thousand Years Hardcover – March 22, 2016 by William J. Bennett (THomas Nelson)

William J. Bennett’s latest book, Tried by Fire, is a guided tour of the events and people of the first thousand years of the Church’s life, and it tells history that needs to be told in a way history should be told. This fast-paced survey is certainly a must read for everyone who already has a commitment to Christianity, because the book shows how the Church developed and spread in the millennium after the Apostles died. But Tried by Fire is also for those who are not predisposed to this particular faith commitment, yet who genuinely want to have a better understanding of the people and events that are foundational to much that puts the “West” in Western Civilization. From the heroic perseverance of the Church’s earliest martyrs in the face of brutal persecution, through the wranglings to refine and preserve the sound doctrine inherited from Christ’s Apostles, to the schism that shattered the unity of the Christian Church in the Early Middle Ages, Tried by Fire fills in much of the important background of Western Civilization that wasn’t covered in our high school and college history survey classes.

Tried by Fire also is a good read because Dr. Bennett writes history as history should be written: not as a dry historical chronicle, but with a human-interest approach that gives both color and texture to the story line. He introduces his readers of all faith commitments (or none at all) to a myriad of unfamiliar but must-know people, from Arius to Zosimus. In the pages of Tried by Fire, you’ll meet people you’ll love and others you’ll love to hate…along with some noble examples of people worthy of emulation today. For instance, the account of the struggles of the stalwart defender of orthodoxy, Athanasius, serves as an inspirational model of dogged perseverance in the face of unrelenting personal and political opposition. Bennett’s choice of highlighting the unvarnished reality of persecution and struggle in Christianity’s progress reminds us that ideas have consequences, and it makes many of the courageous people we meet in the book’s pages the embodiment of the truth that commitment often comes with a hefty price tag.

Tried by Fire is sprinkled throughout with first-person quotations taken directly from the characters in the story line, and this makes the book a very accessible account of the progress of Christianity for the first half of its life. The time and money invested in reading this book will repay rich dividends, not just in entertaining and informing our minds, but when we take its content to heart, it will also strengthen and enrich our souls.