This volume tells the story of Christianity through the individual men and women who shaped it. It is a story of colossal undertakings and spectacular successes as well as ferocious intolerance, greed and bloodshed. Bamber Gascoigne traces a clear path through a complicated history, exploring the motives, the passions, the fears and the achievements of the Christians. His approach is objective and he writes in a conversational style, focusing on moments of significant detail and a vast and varied cast of characters.
Charting the rise and development of Christianity, Carter Lindberg has succeeded in writing a concise and compelling history of the world’s largest religion. He spans over 2,000 years of colorful incident to give an authoritative history of Christianity for both the general reader and the beginning student. Ranges from the missionary journeys of the apostles to the tele-evangelism of the twenty-first century. Demonstrates how the Christian community received and forged its identity from its development of the Bible to the present day. Covers topics fundamental to understanding the course of Western Christianity, including the growth of the papacy, heresy and schism, reformation and counter-reformation. Includes an introduction to the historiography of Christianity, a note on the problems of periodization, an appendix on theological terms, and a useful bibliography. An authoritative yet succinct history, written to appeal to a general audience as well as students of the history of Christianity. Written by internationally regarded theologian, Carter Lindberg, who is the author of numerous titles on theology and Church history.
It is not simply for rhetorical flourish that politicians so regularly invoke God's blessings on the country. It is because the relatively new form of power we call the nation-state arose out of a Western political imagination steeped in Christianity. In this brief guide to the history of Christianity and politics, Pecknold shows how early Christianity reshaped the Western political imagination with its new theological claims about eschatological time, participation, and communion with God and neighbor. The ancient view of the Church as the "mystical body of Christ" is singled out in particular as the author traces shifts in its use and meaning throughout the early, medieval, and modern periods-shifts in how we understand the nature of the person, community and the moral conscience that would give birth to a new relationship between Christianity and politics. While we have many accounts of this narrative from either political or ecclesiastical history, we have few that avoid the artificial separation of the two. This book fills that gap and presents a readable, concise, and thought-provoking introduction to what is at stake in the contentious relationship between Christianity and politics.
Christianity is a way of life centered on the person, life, teaching, death, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. As a religious way of life, Christianity is multifaceted, involving numerous beliefs and practices. This book explores many of the varied facets of the Christian faith, including its foundations in the story of Israel, the person of Jesus, the early Christian community, and the sacred text called the Bible. In turn, Robinson's book examines Christianity's core doctrines, ethical norms, and worship practices, rounding out the study by considering four key contemporary challenges faced by Christian believers--namely, the problem of evil, the relationship of Christianity to other religions and to science, and the role of women in church and society. Among the strengths of this book is that it addresses these multiple features of Christianity in a single volume: it is aptly titled Christianity: A Brief Survey.
Since Jesus’s resurrection, Christianity has expanded across the globe and shaped a vast array of groups and movements. A Survey of the History of Global Christianity, Second Edition, provides an overview of the Christian faith from the apostolic age to the global present. In a friendly and informative tone, author Mark Nickens outlines the historical context of important developments in doctrine and practice, including: o the persecution and resilience of the early church o the results of increasing papal power in Europe during the Middle Ages o the Reformation and later movements that influenced European Christianity o the various sects of American Christianity that arose in cycles of revival o an examination of Orthodoxy and the history of Christianity in Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the West Indies. In addition to historical information, this book features quotes and spiritual lessons from noteworthy Christians throughout the centuries. By understanding how Christian doctrine has developed over the ages and across the globe, readers will better understand where their own faith tradition comes from.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER The “paradigm-influencing” book (Christianity Today) that is fundamentally transforming our understanding of white evangelicalism in America. Jesus and John Wayne is a sweeping, revisionist history of the last seventy-five years of white evangelicalism, revealing how evangelicals have worked to replace the Jesus of the Gospels with an idol of rugged masculinity and Christian nationalism—or in the words of one modern chaplain, with “a spiritual badass.” As acclaimed scholar Kristin Du Mez explains, the key to understanding this transformation is to recognize the centrality of popular culture in contemporary American evangelicalism. Many of today’s evangelicals might not be theologically astute, but they know their VeggieTales, they’ve read John Eldredge’s Wild at Heart, and they learned about purity before they learned about sex—and they have a silver ring to prove it. Evangelical books, films, music, clothing, and merchandise shape the beliefs of millions. And evangelical culture is teeming with muscular heroes—mythical warriors and rugged soldiers, men like Oliver North, Ronald Reagan, Mel Gibson, and the Duck Dynasty clan, who assert white masculine power in defense of “Christian America.” Chief among these evangelical legends is John Wayne, an icon of a lost time when men were uncowed by political correctness, unafraid to tell it like it was, and did what needed to be done. Challenging the commonly held assumption that the “moral majority” backed Donald Trump in 2016 and 2020 for purely pragmatic reasons, Du Mez reveals that Trump in fact represented the fulfillment, rather than the betrayal, of white evangelicals’ most deeply held values: patriarchy, authoritarian rule, aggressive foreign policy, fear of Islam, ambivalence toward #MeToo, and opposition to Black Lives Matter and the LGBTQ community. A much-needed reexamination of perhaps the most influential subculture in this country, Jesus and John Wayne shows that, far from adhering to biblical principles, modern white evangelicals have remade their faith, with enduring consequences for all Americans.
For 2000 years, Christianity has had a varying but immense influence on world history. Who better, then, than Geoffrey Blainey, author of the best-selling Short History of the World and one of Australia's most accomplished historians, to bring us a history of this world-changing religion. A Short History of Christianity vividly describes many of the significant players in the religion's rise and fall through the ages, from Jesus himself to Francis of Assisi, Martin Luther, Francis Xavier, John Wesley and even the Beatles, who claimed to be 'more popular than Jesus'. Blainey takes us into the world of the mainstream worshippers – the housewives, the stonemasons – and traces the rise of the critics of Christ and his followers. With his characteristic curiosity and storytelling skill, Blainey considers Christianity's central place in world history. Will it remain in the centre? As Blainey observes in his eminently readable account, the story of Christianity is one of many ups and downs. 'Extraordinary.' Herald Sun 'A well-researched journey of faith through history' Courier-Mail 'Told with a deceptive simplicity that will compel {readers}.' Weekend Australian 'Irresistible . . . [Blainey] maintains an informative and enthusiastic style.' Australian Book Review
In this accessible historical overview of Sunday, noted scholar Justo Gonz lez tells the story of how and why Christians have worshiped on Sunday from the earliest days of the church to the present. After discussing the views and practices relating to Sunday in the ancient church, Gonz lez turns to Constantine and how his policies affected Sunday observances. He then recounts the long process, beginning in the Middle Ages and culminating with Puritanism, whereby Christians came to think of and strictly observe Sunday as the Sabbath. Finally, Gonz lez looks at the current state of things, exploring especially how the explosive growth of the church in the Majority World has affected the observance of Sunday worldwide. Readers of this book will rediscover the joy and excitement of Sunday as early Christians celebrated it and will find fresh, inspiring perspectives on Sunday amid our current culture of indifference and even hostility to Christianity.
Worshipped by 2 billion Christians (and revered by 1.3 billion Muslims), Jesus Christ is the most famous human being ever. Yet how did this man from an obscure backwater in the Roman Empire achieve such extraordinary acclaim? How did religion founded in his name grom to become the most powerful on earth? What has been its relationship through history with that other giant of religions, Islam? In this fast-paced and entertaining book, journalist and historian Stephen Tomkins sets out to provide the answers. Beginning with the life of Jesus, he presents a warts-and-all portrait of the key people, events and movements in Christian history. For every debauched pope, murderous crusader and hate-filled inquisitor, there are glorious examples of heroic self-sacrifice, spiritual enlightenment and social transformation. Despite setbacks and conflict, the church has continued to change and grow, with the result that, at the start of the 21st century, its centre of gravity is moving south into sub-Saharan Africa and South America. The author ends by looking to the future, for the story is far from over. All those wanting to understand where Christianity is going need to learn where it has come from, and in this book they will find a lively and informative guide.
"Tracing the astonishing transformation that the early Christian church underwent - from sporadic niches of Christian communities surviving in the wake of a horrific crucifixion to sanctioned alliance with the state - Charles Freeman shows how freedom of thought was curtailed by the development of the concept of faith. The imposition of 'correct belief' and an institutional framework that enforced orthodoxy were both consolidating and stifling. Uncovering the church's relationships with Judaism, Gnosticism, Greek philosophy and Greco-Roman society, Freeman offers dramatic new accounts of Paul, the resurrection, and the church fathers and emperors."--BOOK JACKET.
