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.
As the world becomes more modern, it is not becoming more secular. Instead, on the street and in the corridors of power, religion is surging. This book shows that if you want to understand the modern world, you cannot afford to ignore God - whether you believe in Him or not.
Contains things you want to know about the world's religions: from beliefs and ceremonies to gods and sacred texts. From Hinduism to Zoroastrianism, this book looks at the major global religions. It tells how each religion started, and explores their origins and history.
Explains Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Buddhism and more key faiths with annotations and illustrations. This book provides insight into the key practices, figures and images of each religion. It is aimed at those beginning their exploration into faith, or at those just needing a reference tool.
AGENDA
