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History is to a country (or spiritual community or denomination) what memory is to an individual. And loss of memory is a tragedy and ultimately, fatal. Diana Butler Bass, in her new book, A People's History of Christianity, seeks to capture the history, the memory of Christianity. She talks with host Spencer Burke about the history of Christianity-using a different framework than most contemporary historians. Their framework, which may be true but perhaps with some gaps that need to be filled in, tells the history via the "big Cs"-Christ, Constantine, Christendom, Crusades, Calvin, and Christian America.

Butler Bass believes we've lost some of our memory about Christianity's history-importantly, some of the positive history. So she tells the story of Christianity from the framework of the great commandment-love God and love your neighbor. Her history includes some of the well-known and influential characters you'd expect, but also some who are completely off the radar, like Sam Green, a pastor in ...