Roy Peachey’s Popes, Emperors, and Elephants: The First Thousand Years of Christian Culture allows readers to travel through the first millennium of Christian history. While highlighting historical figures and asking intriguing questions, Peachey successfully tells a story that captures powerful moments and people throughout Christian history. This is an important contribution, considering the complexity of the Christian religion and the moral responsibility historians have when presenting knowledge.
The text is divided into thirty-eight chapters. First, Peachey addresses the challenges of writing a text on Christian history since “we certainly can’t cover a thousand years in any detail” (3). Nevertheless, the text outlines major achievements and figures who have contributed to the development of Christian religion. Peachey begins his story with insights from the fathers of philosophy (Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle) and highlights the complexity of the Roman Empire. Details from China, India, Islam, and the Vikings follow. Furthermore, Peachey highlights important ideas from the Torah, the Edict of Milan, and Scripture, to name a few of the significant sources that are brought to light. Reasons to continue studying Christian history with humility are also listed toward the end of the text.
The goal of the text is twofold: first, to provide a brief exploration of the way in which “a new force entered the world” (3); and second, to offer a historical examination that highlights Christianity through its relationships and people. These goals are addressed through the detailed vocabulary, quotes, and questions threaded throughout the text. “As I have attempted to show in this book,” Peachy writes toward the end of the text, “there is much to be celebrated in the history of Christian culture that is often overlooked” (193).
Peachey does a particularly good job describing the complexity of reflecting on history and the “conflicts that arise between present and tradition” (195). He asserts that “there are no ordinary people,” which makes exploring history even more difficult (58). It is important to note here that Peachey demonstrates unpretentiousness throughout the text asserting at one point that “historians have to be humble since there is so much they do not know and never will know” (63).
In addition, providing footnotes that highlight the literature in more depth, as well as adding reflection questions at the end of each chapter, would make the text a more powerful resource for Christian educators. Moreover, the addition of images of the historical figures or of the papyri described in the text would make for a more intriguing read. The glossary and timeline in the back of the text, however, are quite helpful, especially when considering this text as a resource for educators. Many people in religious education are constantly seeking ways to teach young adults about the importance of Christian history. On this point I speak from personal experience: I am a female educator for a Catholic secondary school in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, and I have been fortunate enough to acquire a PhD in practical theology.
Finally, the text embraces important moments of Christian history by posing exciting questions throughout, and also by fusing the historical and intimate experiences of powerful Christian leaders and groups in one narrative. Furthermore, Peachey’s focus on the ordinary experiences of people can benefit theologians who study the significance of ordinary lives throughout Christian history. This paves a new path forward to explore—a task of many, if not all, Christian historians, theologians, and educators who seek to develop knowledge that is significant for education and the church of the future.
Jane Marie Curry is a leadership and theology teacher at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Jane Marie Curry
Date Of Review:
December 7, 2022