https://www.walmart.com/ip/Bullies-and-Saints-An-Honest-Look-at-the-Good-and-Evil-of-Christian-History-Hardcover-9780310118367/167174967
Title: Bullies and Saints: An Honest Look at the Good and Evil of Christian History
Author: John Dickson
Brief Description: This book gives snapshots of Christian history – from just after Christ to present – enumerating instances where Christians have succeeded in showing Christ’s love and instances where they have failed. The failures are quite terrible, but the successes are poignantly sweet.
MyrmiGrade: 
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This was the first Facebook review I ever posted! It got this ball rolling, so it holds a special place in my heart. Plus, it’s a great book!
For these reviews, I will try to tweak them as little as possible. That’s how you’re supposed to do things as an historian. But mostly, I just don’t have time to go back and re-do things. Any small edits for clarification will be in brackets, as well as a “Seeking God” section (usually for secular items, but I made a special case for this).
Original Review for Bullies and Saints
I finished this yesterday, and it was fantastic on all fronts! It has wonderful historical insights from various points of view (I especially appreciated that he used specifically non-Christian historians so the view points were well-rounded). It also is constantly pointing us to Christ and His mission: to love, especially our enemies.
I felt it did a good job of showing the truly heinous things Christians have done in the name of Christ, while at the same telling inspiring stories of Christians following Christ well through the years. A lot of these topics are not ones you necessarily learn in school, and it showed a broader picture of the world stage and how different events fit into their historical contexts.
The most interesting part for me was that, as a Christian, I never cried over the horrible things I read about in history. I did in this book. And I hope I continue to do so. Maybe we all should. Rather than push blame on others, or say “well they probably weren’t REAL Christians,” we need to own up to how we’ve failed throughout history…and strive to follow Christ better.
If you’re interested in this book, you can find it here. (It’s on Amazon too, but I prefer Walmart for a variety of reasons I won’t get into. On this post 😉)
Seeking God in Bullies and Saints
I know, it’s a Christian source, so this isn’t necessary. But I wanted to specifically point out that the author purposefully sought God throughout history. I love that. It made me giddy thinking that someone else does the same thing I do.
