The story of Christianity

Alberta journalist spearheads epic treatment of history of Christian Church

By RENATO GANDIA
WCR Staff Writer
Edmonton

"But any Christian operates on that assumption. Though it looks arrogantly presumptuous and almost absurd to make that kind of statement, that's the only reason why Christians do things," said the veteran journalist and publisher.

"We do what God wants us to do, although sometimes we're wrong. But with the evidence that is at hand, it seems to be the right thing to do."

What Byfield wanted to accomplish with this project is put Christians in touch with their roots using the popular strategy of storytelling.

His sense of history is influenced by British essayist and humourist G.K. Chesterton, who suggested the most dangerous people in the world are those who have been cut off from their cultural roots.

Though passionate about this project, Byfield did not decide to do it on a whim. The idea was hatched in 1983 when he began to discuss with his wife and friends the need to tell positive stories.

"We realized that the most positive is the Gospel," the 73-year-old journalist said.

Byfield does not discount the fact there are people preaching the Gospel effectively. He noticed how successful the evangelical style of preaching is and considered it a positive.

He realized there's a terrific opportunity in telling the historical story, stage by stage, like a dramatic adventure of Christianity throughout the ages.

"It is a very exciting story and the moral of the story is in the opening of the Gospel according to St. John: 'The light shines in the darkness and the darkness cannot put it out.'"

For the 2,000 years of Christianity, that's what has been happening. The darkness came within the Church, sometimes surrounding her, but she never collapsed, said Byfield. Once an Anglican, Byfield now belongs to the Orthodox Church.

"There's a war, and it's between light and darkness as depicted in St. John's."

The journalist thought if the good story could be told in a compelling way, it would captivate younger people.

Banking on two major successes in literature - the Life magazine series on War History and Tolkien's collection of The Lord of the Rings - he decided to move on with publication of the Christian History Millennial Project.

Tolkien's books, considered by many as a Christian allegory, used fantasy to get across its message, but indeed, there is a reality embedded in it.

"The history of the faith is the reality behind that fantasy," explained Byfield. "So if you told the story of the faith in a way of an adventure the way Tolkien did in his books, you can get the same response to it - if you did it well."

Storytelling through the eyes of a journalist traditionally begins with the most exciting stuff. Grab the readers' attention and pull them into the rest of the story.

"For every dark page in Christian history, there are a hundred white pages, which they never mentioned." - Ted Byfield

With that as one of the principles, the first volume called The Veil is Torn, addresses itself to readers who are familiar with the New Testament but want more historical context.

This task has been taken on by many Bible commentaries throughout the past half-century: most of them though are dull reference materials.

That's not Byfield's style.

"We need to tell the same story in a new package."

Good pictures, beautiful illustrations and artwork, together with popular and less scholarly language will make the book a bestseller, Byfield confidently predicted.

The Edmonton Journal's religion editor, Janet Vlieg agreed the language is popular and more attractive to average readers.

"The Veil is Torn is written in engaging history. Paragraphs with short, punchy transitions. Sentences are active, conversational, written from the point of view of people who lived through the events. Short sidebars break up columns of type in most chapters, enabling the reader to delve into related issue or background."

The Veil is Torn is 275 glossy pages of paintings, photographs and stories about conflict, courage and adventure. Real stories of the early Christian Church are about real people, not all of them catechism or Sunday school heroes.

Included in the book are 49 original full-colour paintings, a dozen maps and more than 130 photographs, most of which are panoramic scenic shots of the world where the early Christians lived and died.

Two groups are targeted as readers of the books. The first is the fortysomething interested in their faith and the second, their children or grandchildren, who have become skeptical about religion, but feel a certain void from within that can only be filled by the transcendent.

"This guy is The Lord of the Ring subscriber. He is the second reader because the first reader will give it to him.

"Our real target is the second reader, because if you connect with the first one, you'd also get the second one."

Heroism, suspense and conflict will pull the second reader because these are the type of materials that appeal to the younger generation who love suspenseful and conflict-filled computer games and adore heroism in hockey, said Byfield.

"This group of readers are our candidates who will eventually spread the faith."

Telling the Christian history is a tall order because of the many branches of faith traditions that were born out of it.

So where there's a Catholic-Protestant doctrinal conflict, writers presented both sides.

Said Byfield, "The only way you can go wrong on that is if you do not adequately represent or under-represent (one side). It has to be put so persuasively that an informed Catholic for example or an informed evangelical would say, 'Yes that's our position.'"

For Byfield, it is important to take Christians back to their roots so they can see where everything started and how it developed.

Some books written about Christian history paint only the grim and dark sides and left out the "white pages of our history.

"For every dark page in Christian history, there are a hundred white pages, which they never mentioned," said Byfield. "We need to re-tell those white pages too."

To come up with credible storytelling that does not veer away from historical facts, Byfield organized journalists and academics from the United States and Canada.

For a year, he searched for writers who had two major credentials. "They have to be journalists, but they have to be Christians - Christian means they go to church and practise their faith," emphasized Byfield.

However, knowing journalists are not renowned for 100 per cent reliability, he also approached Christian academic historians.

Later, Byfield assembled illustrators and cartographers to make the book come more alive and be inviting.

Assembling writers and illustrators does not make the book fly. Following the advise of a friend, he let somebody else manage the business side of the project.

Robert Doull, who was general manager of The Alberta Report, joined the board when they started Christian Millennial History Project Limited Partnership. Through telemarketing and other methods of marketing, they found that Christian History "could become a spectacular project."

The Edmonton-based company's capitalization, currently $4.3 million, was raised almost entirely within Canada with minimal help from the American dollar.

Byfield's own company is successfully publishing a series of Alberta History, which has been a Canadian bestseller. This was a testing of the waters for him to see if people will buy into the idea of purchasing serial books.

A volume of the Christian History collection will be released every three months. Volume 2, A Pinch of Incense will come out in June. The books are available by calling 1-800-853-5402, or online at www.christianhistoryproject.com.

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