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A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years
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Product Description
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.
About the Author
Diarmaid MacCulloch is Professor of the History of the Church at Oxford University. His Thomas Cranmer (1996) won the Whitbread Biography Prize, the James Tait Black Prize and the Duff Cooper Prize. He is the author most recently of Reformation: Europe's House Divided 1490 - 1700 (2004), which won the Wolfson Prize for History and the British Academy Prize. His six-part television history of Christianity airs on BBC television this autumn.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
59 of 60 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
This vast and almost encyclopaedic new history of the Christian faith is an incredible achievement, and a really absorbing read, despite its length (over a thousand pages). Its intriguing subtitle - `The First Three [sic] Thousand Years' - gives you an early clue as to one of its great strengths: an ability to take an unusual angle on its subject that reveals fruitful new perspectives. In setting the Christian faith firmly against a backdrop of Judaism's origins in the flight from Egypt of the Israelites (characterised, in line with some of the latest scholarship, as a weak and disparate grouping bound by common social, rather than ethnic, bonds), MacCulloch helpfully roots Christianity in humble and marginal beginnings. In his closing musings, he urges it to rediscover those roots after near enough two millennia of ambiguously successful Church/state collaboration that has arguably betrayed the founder's vision as much as, if not more than, it has enhanced it.
And those twin themes of faithfulness to Jesus' prophetic vision and its betrayal are in constant interplay in the intervening chapters. As a self-described `candid friend' of Christianity, MacCulloch is not shy of confronting the faith with a few home truths as to its shortcomings, as he roams far and wide, exploring in depth the dynamic of power and humility. The rise and fall of the churches of the East, the often turbulent progress of Orthodoxy and the rise of Western Christianity; the ever-modulating relationship of holy and secular powers through the Middle Ages; the intellectual battles of the Reformation and Counter- (or Catholic) Reformation; the worldwide missionary efforts of the churches in the modern period against a backdrop of the Enlightenment; and the church's contemporary challenges: all are held to up for sometimes unflattering inspection. MacCulloch perhaps writes best, and in most compelling detail, on the churches of `Christendom', the Middle Ages and the 16th century, but throughout there is a wealth of fascinating and sometime surprising detail. Highlights for me included Bede's role in defining `Englishness'; the way monastic use of the land `enserfed' the people and deprived them of its use; the non-denominational settlement of the 16th-century Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth; pockets of enlightened Catholic missionary endeavour among indigenous people in Latin America; discussion of the role of Spinoza, Locke and Hobbes as early supporters of religious liberty and disestablishment, an argument that continues today; church music's metamorphosis into secular entertainment in the 17th and 18th centuries; Methodism as an established (and monarchy-founding) church in Tonga; and the role of the World Council of Churches in drafting the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A rich and diverse tapestry indeed.
Inevitably, the breadth of forms and expressions of Christianity as we approach the 21st century means that the author's treatment of it becomes a little more sketchy in the modern period (an account of Catholicism's rapid rise in contemporary Africa was missing, for example), but the 100 pages of references and discerningly annotated bibliography will take the interested reader further. A monumental work, then, rich in scholarship, replete with intelligent analysis and judicious conclusions: it seems unlikely to be surpassed as a one-volume history of Christianity for a generation.
And those twin themes of faithfulness to Jesus' prophetic vision and its betrayal are in constant interplay in the intervening chapters. As a self-described `candid friend' of Christianity, MacCulloch is not shy of confronting the faith with a few home truths as to its shortcomings, as he roams far and wide, exploring in depth the dynamic of power and humility. The rise and fall of the churches of the East, the often turbulent progress of Orthodoxy and the rise of Western Christianity; the ever-modulating relationship of holy and secular powers through the Middle Ages; the intellectual battles of the Reformation and Counter- (or Catholic) Reformation; the worldwide missionary efforts of the churches in the modern period against a backdrop of the Enlightenment; and the church's contemporary challenges: all are held to up for sometimes unflattering inspection. MacCulloch perhaps writes best, and in most compelling detail, on the churches of `Christendom', the Middle Ages and the 16th century, but throughout there is a wealth of fascinating and sometime surprising detail. Highlights for me included Bede's role in defining `Englishness'; the way monastic use of the land `enserfed' the people and deprived them of its use; the non-denominational settlement of the 16th-century Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth; pockets of enlightened Catholic missionary endeavour among indigenous people in Latin America; discussion of the role of Spinoza, Locke and Hobbes as early supporters of religious liberty and disestablishment, an argument that continues today; church music's metamorphosis into secular entertainment in the 17th and 18th centuries; Methodism as an established (and monarchy-founding) church in Tonga; and the role of the World Council of Churches in drafting the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. A rich and diverse tapestry indeed.
Inevitably, the breadth of forms and expressions of Christianity as we approach the 21st century means that the author's treatment of it becomes a little more sketchy in the modern period (an account of Catholicism's rapid rise in contemporary Africa was missing, for example), but the 100 pages of references and discerningly annotated bibliography will take the interested reader further. A monumental work, then, rich in scholarship, replete with intelligent analysis and judicious conclusions: it seems unlikely to be surpassed as a one-volume history of Christianity for a generation.
170 of 176 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book goes with a TV series, but it is not the over-illustrated coffee-table type book you might expect. On the contrary, it is long (1150 pages) and scholarly, though not dauntingly so. The style is readable and engaging, and the book provides an excellent overview of the history of Christianity. It begins with Judaism and Greek philosophy, giving the background to religious thought in the Roman period. It then covers the origins of Christianity, before going on to trace its development and the varying forms it took as it spread over the world. The mainstream of Catholic / Protestant /Orthodox Christianity is well covered, but the book is particularly good on the odd corners of Christianity, such as the sects that took hold in China and India.
The tone is mildly sceptical, but respectful, so believers and non-believers will find nothing to object to, and both will learn much about what Christianity actually is.
Highly recommended.
The tone is mildly sceptical, but respectful, so believers and non-believers will find nothing to object to, and both will learn much about what Christianity actually is.
Highly recommended.
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
After all the plaudits which have been heaped upon this book, it seems presumptious of me to say anything. When I first saw it in a bookshop, I was overawed by its size, but after reading one particular review I was convinced that I should attempt it. The amazing amount of information is presented in an accessible form and it is a joy to read. There is a comprehensive bibliography; in some cases, one has the feeling that bibliographies are added to lend credibility to what may be a dubious 'agenda' to the book, but here that is not the case. Unfortunately, without access to a university library, it can be more tantalising than helpful. The illustrations are carefully chosen, and do their purpose:they illustrate the text appropriately. Perhaps my most positive comment is to say that no-one need, or should, be detered by the size; it would not be possible to do justice to the subject in anything less.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Very long. Feels like a textbook.
This book is long. Feels like a textbook. I'm not opposed to a textbook if that's what I wanted to read, but sometimes I like to read something lighter. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Brian Coulter
Readable History
Having seen part of the BBC programme covering this subject I was interested to delve into the story further. I was not disappointed. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Mr. K. J. Alexander
A History of Christianity
This was bought as a Birthday present for my husband, although slow going he is enjoying the read. Delivery was fast and efficient thank you.
Published 4 months ago by Wilkater
Absolutely first rate
This is a very big book, and reasonably academic, though presented in small enough sections and chapters to enable a reader to handle the wealth of learning the author has at his... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Tremont59
Very, very good
This is cracking book. It covers the entire range of Christian history, as well as its roots in Judaism. The writing is always clear and often humorous. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Simon
grubby tome
What a disappointment. He's a prejudiced revisionist. He doesn't understand all the periods he writes about. Read more
Published 7 months ago by felipe
Not a primer - but a lot of interesting facts
I just finished reading the whole thing cover to cover - which at 1000+ pages I can say leaves you with a sense of achievement. Read more
Published 7 months ago by casual runner
Set to replace the Chadwicks
When I was younger, I read voraciously. Now, I baulk at 1,000+ pages books like this but find that a small section each day, accompanied by a single malt, goes down well. Read more
Published 10 months ago by Mr. D. P. Jay
It's a Long Story.
This is a secular book of history, written by a `candid friend' of Christianity. He does not make any judgement on whether Christianity is `true' in that he doesn't examine history... Read more
Published 11 months ago by F Henwood
Review of A History of Christianity by D MacCulloch
An excellent account of the long story of Christianity. M. Keeps his own faith mostly out of sight and proves himself a first-rate reporter hand critic of events and movements over... Read more
Published 12 months ago by John Hazel
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