Christianity has had an incalculable impact on human history, not just spiritual beliefs and the organization of religion, but in politics, war and human society. Diarmaid MacCulloch takes the story of Christianity back to its origins in Judaism and Greek culture a thousand years before Jesus Christ's birth and forward...
Christianity has had an incalculable impact on human history, not just spiritual beliefs and the organization of religion, but in politics, war and human society. Diarmaid MacCulloch takes the story of Christianity back to its origins in Judaism and Greek culture a thousand years before Jesus Christ's birth and forward to its expansion in the contemporary world. He explores the ways in which, over three millennia, the cosmic puzzle of God-made-human gave Christianity a constant struggle to find its identity. He shows how the Roman Empire moved from executing Jesus and persecuting his followers to protecting an established Christian Church; how Rome, the city where Christ's foremost apostles Peter and Paul met their deaths, has come to symbolize one version of the Christian Church. He points to the great might-have-been of Christian history, when, in 451, many Christians rejected an Emperor's imposed compromise solution to the Jesus problem and embarked on ventures to make Christianity a religion of Africa and the Far East. He explores Christianity's complicated and often contentious relationship to its parent Judaism and cousin Islam, and tells the story of the sixteenth-century split within Western Christianity which produced Protestantism and a continuing Roman Catholicism.In this book we see how Christianity has changed its mind on vital moral questions, such as the permissibility of warfare and slavery, and we learn how the campaign against slavery not only transformed Christianity but helped turn it into a worldwide faith.
*- Publisher*
Christianity, one of the world's great religions, has had an incalculable impact on human history. This book, now the most comprehensive and up to date single volume work in English, describes not only the main ideas and personalities of Christian history, its organisation and spirituality, but how it has changed politics, sex, and human society. Diarmaid MacCulloch ranges from Palestine in the first century to India in the third, from Damascus to China in the seventh century and from San Francisco to Korea in the twentieth. He is one of the most widely travelled of Christian historians and conveys a sense of place as arrestingly as he does the power of ideas. He presents the development of Christian history differently from any of his predecessors. He shows how, after a semblance of unity in its earliest centuries, the Christian church divided during the next 1400 years into three increasingly distanced parts, of which the western Church was by no means always the most important: he observes that at the end of the first eight centuries of Christian history, Baghdad might have seemed a more likely capital for worldwide Christianity than Rome. This is the first truly global history of Christianity.
$34.99
or 4 interest-free payments of $8.75 with
Order today for it to arrive in 2-4 weeks
Note: This item is a backorder. Purchase now and we’ll notify you when it’s ready for delivery or pick-up.
Christianity has had an incalculable impact on human history, not just spiritual beliefs and the organization of religion, but in politics, war and human society. Diarmaid MacCulloch takes the story of Christianity back to its origins in Judaism and Greek culture a thousand years before Jesus Christ's birth and forward...
Christianity has had an incalculable impact on human history, not just spiritual beliefs and the organization of religion, but in politics, war and human society. Diarmaid MacCulloch takes the story of Christianity back to its origins in Judaism and Greek culture a thousand years before Jesus Christ's birth and forward to its expansion in the contemporary world. He explores the ways in which, over three millennia, the cosmic puzzle of God-made-human gave Christianity a constant struggle to find its identity. He shows how the Roman Empire moved from executing Jesus and persecuting his followers to protecting an established Christian Church; how Rome, the city where Christ's foremost apostles Peter and Paul met their deaths, has come to symbolize one version of the Christian Church. He points to the great might-have-been of Christian history, when, in 451, many Christians rejected an Emperor's imposed compromise solution to the Jesus problem and embarked on ventures to make Christianity a religion of Africa and the Far East. He explores Christianity's complicated and often contentious relationship to its parent Judaism and cousin Islam, and tells the story of the sixteenth-century split within Western Christianity which produced Protestantism and a continuing Roman Catholicism.In this book we see how Christianity has changed its mind on vital moral questions, such as the permissibility of warfare and slavery, and we learn how the campaign against slavery not only transformed Christianity but helped turn it into a worldwide faith.
*- Publisher*
Christianity, one of the world's great religions, has had an incalculable impact on human history. This book, now the most comprehensive and up to date single volume work in English, describes not only the main ideas and personalities of Christian history, its organisation and spirituality, but how it has changed politics, sex, and human society. Diarmaid MacCulloch ranges from Palestine in the first century to India in the third, from Damascus to China in the seventh century and from San Francisco to Korea in the twentieth. He is one of the most widely travelled of Christian historians and conveys a sense of place as arrestingly as he does the power of ideas. He presents the development of Christian history differently from any of his predecessors. He shows how, after a semblance of unity in its earliest centuries, the Christian church divided during the next 1400 years into three increasingly distanced parts, of which the western Church was by no means always the most important: he observes that at the end of the first eight centuries of Christian history, Baghdad might have seemed a more likely capital for worldwide Christianity than Rome. This is the first truly global history of Christianity.
A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years$34.99
Koorong code313581
ISBN9780141021898
Pages1216
PublisherPenguin Books
Publication date29 October 2010
Dimensions53 x 129 x 198mm
Weight0.874kg
2.5
Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars
2 Reviews
DeliveryOrder today for it to arrive in 2-4 weeks
Returns
Enjoy peace of mind with our 60-day hassle-free returns, whether you shop online or in store.
I have to disagree with the other reviewer when he says 'atheists only'. I have completed a certificate 4 in Christian Ministry and we were taught a lot of what was in this book as curriculum, the history of Christianity is messy and flawed with human intervention. \\n\\nThis book is not really a page-turner though, at least not for me, its very dense and could almost be used as a very general overview for further investigation. Don't be fooled by its size, the audible version is 46 hours long. . . . I would recommend this book to anyone interested in an objective look into Christian history.
A
Anonymous
I do not recommend this product
Rated 1 out of 5 stars
14 years ago
Athiests Only
Despite his claims to be a 'friend to the Christians' he carries an anti-Christian bias that is, at times, offensive. By the author's own admission, this book is written for people who hate Christianity. Two cases in point; his view on the Book of The Revelation is summed up,""""The writing and telling of history is bedevilled by two human neuroses: horror at the desperate shapelessness and seeming lack of pattern in events, and regret for a lost golden age, a moment of happiness when all was well. Put these together and you have an urge to create elaborate patterns to make sense of things and to create a situation where the golden age is just waiting to spring to life again. """"(p 7). In his view on how and when the Pentateuch was written he writes,""""There were more laws to come in a period much later than Josiah's reign, but they were likewise back-projected to the time of Moses. """" (p 61) What historical value there is in a book where the expressions """"was probably"""",""""was no doubt"""", and """"perhaps"""" come up on almost every page, I'm not really sure. There are two ways revisionist history can go; one is to revise history in our favour, the other is for our enemies to revise it in theirs. This book is nowhere near the objective middle ground the author was hoping to achieve. It's certainly fuel for the anti-Semitic/anti-Christian fire if nothing else.
