The Christians: Their First Two Thousand Years

Many readers of my blogs will be interested in an important new book series called The Christians: Their First Two Thousand Years. I’ve mentioned this book series in previous blog entries.

Readers may say, “Yeah, right, Pickup’s bringing this up to brag about his son who’s the art director for the series.” Yes, I suppose that is true, although I also recognize the importance of a book series written by Christians about Christian history. This is important in an anti-Christian era such this that is not below revising history.

Volume Seven of the series has been published: A Glorious Disaster A.D. 1100 to 1300 The Crusades: blood, valor, iniquity, reason, faith. You can read a review at http://thechristians.ca/.

This volume is consistent with previous volumes in its engaging writing style and stunning visuals. My son Dean has told me that Volume 7 was the most challenging yet rewarding for him.

The website for The book series addresses this point:

“The visual impact Volume 7 is undoubtedly the strongest book in the series. That anyway is the opinion of one man who should know, namely Dean Pickup who has served as designer and art director of all seven. "True," says Mr. Pickup, "we have less commissioned artwork in this volume than in some of the others. But we also had far more previously published imagery to choose from, and therefore did not need to commission as much ourselves. Major events like the Crusades and fascinating individuals like Thomas Aquinas, Richard the Lionheart, St. Francis, Barbarossa and St. Louis have challenged the imagination of artists for centuries. All this was now available to us, and will continue to be for the remaining volumes."

"Yet," he confessed, "the Gothic cathedral pages in this volume were some of the most intimidating layouts I have ever encountered. It seemed impossible to show in print, the majestic grandeur of these buildings, which took hundreds of people hundreds of years to complete. We can only hope that on these pages we have conveyed at least one bare hint of their ineffable magnificence."

Yes, Dean, you succeeded.

I would encourage readers to visit the website for The Christians: Their First Two Thousand Years, at http://www.thechristians.ca/. This series will be a valued addition to your library.

MP
(For more reading on A Glorious Disaster A.D. 1100 to 1300 The Crusades: blood, valor, iniquity reason, faith go to http://www.wcr.ab.ca/news/2009/0511/byfield051109.shtml)