Cover	1
	Title page	5
	Copyright page	6
	Brief Contents	7
	Full Contents	9
	Maps and Illustrations	15
	How to Use This Book	17
	1: The Early Church, 100–500	21
	1.1. Setting the Context: The Origins of Christianity	22
	1.1.1. The Crucible: The History of Israel	22
	1.1.2. A Wider Context: The Pagan Quest for Wisdom	24
	1.1.3. The Turning Point: Jesus of Nazareth	26
	1.1.4. The Early Spread of Christianity	27
	1.1.5. The Apostolic Age	30
	1.1.6. Women in Apostolic Christianity	31
	1.1.7. Christianity and Judaism: A Complex Relationship	34
	1.2. Early Christianity and the Roman Empire	36
	1.2.1. The Roman Empire, c. 100	37
	1.2.2. Christianity and the Imperial Cult	39
	1.2.3. Christianity and Judaism: Marcion of Sinope	40
	1.2.4. Christianity and Pagan Culture: Justin Martyr	42
	1.2.5. Early Christian Worship and Life	43
	1.3. Early Christianity and the Hellenistic World	46
	1.3.1. The Greek-Speaking World, c. 200	46
	1.3.2. The Challenge of Gnosticism: Irenaeus of Lyons	48
	1.3.3. The Challenge of Platonism: Clement of Alexandria and Origen	49
	1.3.4. Christianity and the Cities: Alexandria and Antioch	51
	1.3.5. Monasticism: A Reaction against the Cities	53
	1.3.6. The Cult of Thecla: Women and the Churches	55
	1.4. The Imperial Religion: The Conversion of Constantine	57
	1.4.1. Roman Persecution of Christianity	58
	1.4.2. The First Christian Emperor: Constantine	60
	1.4.3. The Christianization of the Roman Empire	63
	1.4.4. The Imperialization of Christianity	64
	1.4.5. Augustine of Hippo: The Two Cities	66
	1.4.6. The Decline of the Western Empire	68
	1.4.7. The “New Rome”: Byzantium and the Eastern Empire	69
	1.5. Orthodoxy and Heresy: Patterns in Early Christian Thought	72
	1.5.1. The Boundaries of Faith: A Growing Issue	72
	1.5.2. The Canon of the New Testament	74
	1.5.3. Arianism: The Debate over the Identity of Jesus of Nazareth	75
	1.5.4. Trinitarianism: A Debate about the Nature of God	78
	1.5.5. Donatism: A Debate over the Nature of the Church	80
	1.5.6. Pelagianism: A Debate over Grace and Human Achievement	81
	1.5.7. Innovation: A Debate over the Role of Tradition	83
	1.5.8. The Origins and Development of Creeds	84
	1.5.9. The Council of Chalcedon, 451	86
	Sources of Quotations	88
	For Further Reading	88
	2: The Middle Ages and Renaissance, c. 500–c. 1500	91
	2.1. Setting the Context: The Background to the High Middle Ages	92
	2.1.1. Western Christianity after the Fall of Rome	93
	2.1.2. The Rise of Celtic Christianity	95
	2.1.3. The Seventh Century: Islam and Arab Expansion	97
	2.1.4. The Age of Charlemagne	98
	2.1.5. The Rise of the Monastic and Cathedral Schools	100
	2.1.6. Byzantine Christianity: Monophysitism and Iconoclasm	101
	2.1.7. Ninth-Century Debates: The Real Presence and Predestination	102
	2.1.8. Orthodox Missions to Eastern Europe: Bulgaria and Russia	103
	2.1.9. The Tenth Century: Institutional Decline and Decay	105
	2.1.10. The “Great Schism” between East and West (1054)	107
	2.2. The Dawn of the High Middle Ages	108
	2.2.1. The Eleventh Century: The Gregorian Reforms	109
	2.2.2. The Cultural Renaissance of the Twelfth Century	111
	2.2.3. The Codification of Theology and Canon Law	112
	2.2.4. The Rise of the University: The Paris and Oxford Schools	114
	2.2.5. The Crusades: Spain and the Middle East	116
	2.2.6. Secular and Religious Power: Innocent III	118
	2.2.7. Franciscans and Dominicans: The Rise of the Mendicant Orders	120
	2.2.8. Women Mystics and Female Religious Orders	122
	2.3. Medieval Religious Thought: The Scholastic Achievement	124
	2.3.1. Cathedrals of the Mind: The Rise of Scholasticism	125
	2.3.2. The Handmaid of Theology: The Rediscovery of Aristotle	127
	2.3.3. A Reasonable Faith: Thomas Aquinas	128
	2.3.4. Medieval Proofs for the Existence of God	129
	2.3.5. The Consolidation of the Church’s Sacramental System	131
	2.3.6. Medieval Biblical Interpretation	133
	2.3.7. A Byzantine Critique of Scholasticism: Hesychasm	135
	2.3.8. The Medieval Worldview: Dante’s Divine Comedy	136
	2.4. The Later Middle Ages	138
	2.4.1. The Avignon Papacy and the Great Schism	139
	2.4.2. The Rise of Conciliarism	141
	2.4.3. Eastern Europe: The Rise of Russia as a Christian Nation	143
	2.4.4. Heresy: Waldensians, Hussites, and Wycliffites	145
	2.4.5. The Modern Devotion: The Brethren of the Common Life	146
	2.4.6. Popular Religion: The Cult of the Saints	148
	2.4.7. The Rise of the Ottoman Empire: The Fall of Constantinople (1453)	151
	2.5. The Renaissance: Cultural Renewal and Christian Expansion	152
	2.5.1. A New Technology: The Religious Importance of Printing	153
	2.5.2. The Origins of the Italian Renaissance	154
	2.5.3. The Nature of Humanism	156
	2.5.4. Erasmus of Rotterdam	158
	2.5.5. The Renaissance and Religious Renewal	160
	2.5.6. Christian Arts in the Middle Ages and Renaissance	163
	2.5.7. Christian Expansion: Portuguese and Spanish Voyages of Discovery	165
	Sources of Quotations	167
	For Further Reading	168
	3: Competing Visions of Reform, c. 1500–c. 1650	170
	3.1. Setting the Context: The Background to the Reformation	171
	3.1.1. The Pressure for Reform of the Church	171
	3.1.2. The Changing Social Order of the Early Sixteenth Century	174
	3.1.3. The Reformation and the Cities of Europe	175
	3.1.4. A Crisis of Authority within the Church	176
	3.1.5. The Origins of a Term: Protestantism	178
	3.2. Protestantism: An Overview of a Movement	179
	3.2.1. A Return to the Bible	179
	3.2.2. The Doctrine of Justification by Faith	182
	3.2.3. Democratization: The “Priesthood of All Believers” and the Use of the Vernacular	183
	3.2.4. The Rejection of Papal Authority	185
	3.2.5. Two Sacraments – and Reception in Both Kinds	188
	3.2.6. A New Work Ethic and the Development of Capitalism	189
	3.3. The Mainstream Reformation: Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin	190
	3.3.1. Martin Luther: A Brief History	190
	3.3.2. Luther’s Reformation at Wittenberg	193
	3.3.3. Huldrych Zwingli: A Brief History	195
	3.3.4. Zwingli’s Reformation at Zurich	197
	3.3.5. John Calvin: A Brief History	199
	3.3.6. Calvin’s Reformation at Geneva	201
	3.4. Reformations across Europe: The Bigger Picture	203
	3.4.1. The Radical Reformation	204
	3.4.2. The English Reformation: Henry VIII	206
	3.4.3. The English Reformation: Edward VI to Elizabeth I	209
	3.4.4. The Catholic Reformation: The Life of the Church	211
	3.4.5. The Catholic Reformation: The Thought of the Church	213
	3.4.6. Women and the Reformation	215
	3.5. The Post-Reformation Era	217
	3.5.1. Confessionalism: The Second Reformation	217
	3.5.2. Puritanism in England and North America	219
	3.5.3. The King James Bible (1611)	221
	3.5.4. Christianity and the Arts	223
	3.5.5. Christianity and the Sciences	226
	3.5.6. The Wars of Religion	229
	Sources of Quotations	232
	For Further Reading	232
	4: The Modern Age, c. 1650–1914	234
	4.1. The Age of Reason: The Enlightenment	235
	4.1.1. The Rise of Indifference towards Religion	235
	4.1.2. The Enlightenment and Christianity	237
	4.1.3. Christian Beliefs in the “Age of Reason”	240
	4.1.4. Pietism and Revival in Germany and England	242
	4.1.5. America: The “Great Awakening”	244
	4.1.6. The Suppression of the Jesuits, 1759–73	246
	4.1.7. The American Revolution of 1776	248
	4.1.8. The French Revolution of 1789	250
	4.1.9. England: William Wilberforce and the Abolition of Slavery	252
	4.2. An Age of Revolution: The Long Nineteenth Century in Europe	255
	4.2.1. The Napoleonic Wars and the Congress of Vienna	255
	4.2.2. Orthodox Resurgence: The Greek War of Independence	258
	4.2.3. Atheism and an Ideology of Revolution: Feuerbach and Marx	259
	4.2.4. Human Origins: Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859)	262
	4.2.5. The Victorian Crisis of Faith	265
	4.2.6. The Risorgimento: Italian Reunification and the Pope	266
	4.2.7. The First Vatican Council: Papal Infallibility	268
	4.2.8. German Culture Wars: Bismarck and Catholicism	270
	4.2.9. Theological Revisionism: The Challenge of Modernism	272
	4.3. The Long Nineteenth Century in America	274
	4.3.1. Church and State: The Wall of Separation	275
	4.3.2. The Second Great Awakening and American Revivalism	277
	4.3.3. European Immigration and Religious Diversification	279
	4.3.4. The Emergence of the “Bible Belt”	281
	4.3.5. The Civil War: Slavery and Suffering	282
	4.3.6. Pentecostalism: The American Origins of a Global Faith	285
	4.4. An Age of Mission	287
	4.4.1. The Origins of Protestant Missions	288
	4.4.2. Missions and Colonialism: The Case of Anglicanism	290
	4.4.3. Christian Missions to Asia	293
	4.4.4. Christian Missions to Africa	296
	4.4.5. Christian Missions to Native Americans	298
	4.4.6. The Edinburgh World Missionary Conference, 1910	300
	Sources of Quotations	303
	For Further Reading	303
	5: The Twentieth Century, 1914 to the Present	305
	5.1. Setting the Context: Post-War Turbulence	305
	5.1.1. The Armenian Genocide of 1915	307
	5.1.2. The Russian Revolution of 1917	308
	5.1.3. Post-War Disillusionment: The Theology of Crisis	310
	5.1.4. America: The Fundamentalist Controversy	312
	5.1.5. Mexico: The Cristero War	315
	5.1.6. The Psychological Critique of Religion: Sigmund Freud	316
	5.1.7. The German Church Crisis of the 1930s	319
	5.1.8. The Spanish Civil War (1936–9)	322
	5.2. Shifts in Western Christianity since the Second World War	323
	5.2.1. The New World Order: Christianity and the Cold War	324
	5.2.2. The World Council of Churches: The New Ecumenism	325
	5.2.3. Billy Graham and the “New Evangelicalism”	328
	5.2.4. The 1960s: The Origins of a Post-Christian Europe	330
	5.2.5. The Second Vatican Council: Reform and Revitalization	332
	5.2.6. Reconnecting with Culture: The Rise of Apologetics	335
	5.3. The Sixties and Beyond: Western Christianity in an Age of Transition	338
	5.3.1. Christianity and the American Civil Rights Movement	338
	5.3.2. The Rise of the American “Religious Right”	339
	5.3.3. The Erosion of Denominationalism in the United States	341
	5.3.4. Faith Renewed: John Paul II and the Collapse of the Soviet Union	344
	5.3.5. Challenging the Establishment: Feminism and Liberation Theology	346
	5.3.6. Responding to Cultural Change: New Forms of Churches	349
	5.3.7. The Equality Agenda: The Protestant Debate over Women’s Ordination	351
	5.4. The Shift from the West: The New Christianity	354
	5.4.1. The Middle East: The Decline of Arab Christianity	355
	5.4.2. Korea: The Surprising Transformation of a Nation	356
	5.4.3. China: The Resurgence of Christianity in the Middle Kingdom	358
	5.4.4. The Rise of Post-Colonial Christianity: African Initiated Churches	360
	5.4.5. The Rise of Pentecostalism in Latin America	362
	5.4.6. Virtual Christianity: The Internet and New Patterns of Faith	364
	For Further Reading	366
	Where Next?	369
	A Glossary of Christian Terms	371
	Index	381