The rise of a small, persecuted sect into a dominant force of world history, if not the single most important movement in human thought and feeling, is a large topic even for a six-hour documentary. The A&E Channel’s “Christianity: The First Two Thousand Years” (out on DVD) manages to cover most of the important points in the story with a measure of fairness.
The history is fairly solid, albeit cut and trimmed to fit the format. “The First Two Thousand Years” builds from the biblical account of Christianity’s origins, addresses anti-Christian polemics from the second century and proceeds through the Roman persecutions, the conversion of Emperor Constantine and the rise of Christianity as a state religion, the Nicene Creed and its discontents, the birth of monasticism and the schism between Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy before plunging into the maelstrom of the Protestant Reformation. The central narrative tries not to take sides, but the various commentators, Elaine Pagels through Kallistos Ware, provide a variety of stimulating and conflicting perspectives.
