Really outstanding beautifully written account of the extraordinary strife in the early Christian church to define who Jesus really was. This went backwards and forwards between two factions; the One Nature believers, who felt that Jesus was entirely God and who had no human part and was not born God but became God when he was baptised by John, and the Two Nature believers who felt that Jesus was equal parts man and God in the same person. Each side held sway for long periods. The faith in the early church was incredibly strong in Egypt, Syria and Palestine but eventually these regions were so weakened by these religious divisions that they fell victim to the new young faith of Islam and the center of Christianity moved to Rome. ( )

It was kind of confusing and hard to keep track of the differences in beliefs. I always had to refer to Wikipedia to remind myself. And this was the beauty of the book. Tens of thousands of people were killed over minor differences in beliefs. And this the reason the First Amendment as well as the separation of church and state are so essential. ( )

I'd give this book 4**** for its content, but I'm giving the Kindle edition 3*** because of a defective formatting that omits nearly all of the Appendix "The Main Figures in the Story." This formatting defect is a real shame because the Appendix seems to be a very useful biographical glossary. ( )

I wish I could take half a star: first, the author only balks about the violence and tyranny involved in the Christological debates, not at the idolatry and superstition already constituting a kind of Christopaganism usually associated with latter Dark Age; second, he ends up commemorating Chalcedon without telling us if its (kinda) triumph was better than the alternatives, and why.

Yet, a very useful story of the Christological debates from Chalcedon until the onset of Islam. A very sad history of power politics and impiety dressing up as theological debates that should warn Christians against returning to Romanism or Eastern churches. ( )

For those that think that the church councils and creeds were created out of the ether without a context or history this book is a good learning experience. This work intends to show that significant political forces were at work during the church councils. Also, it seeks to demonstrate that substantive theological arguments did not have a large impact on the decisions of church councils. Overall, I think this book makes a passionate case for these ideas, and has a compelling narrative. Thus, a good layman's overview of the era. ( )