Initiated in 1517 by the radical German monk Martin Luther, the Reformation would reshape Europe not only religiously but also politically. In this account, Vivian Green looks at the main personalities, events and ideas of this ferment of change, revealing the medieval background to many of the leading ideas of the Reformation, and considering the long-term legacy of radicalism and individualism which it created.
Written from an objective historical perspective, A New History of Christianity provides the best readable yet scholarly one-volume account of Christianity from its origins to the present day.Chapters cover Christian beginnings, the growth of the early Christian communities, the character of the medieval Church, popular religion, the Protestant Reformation, the Catholic Reformation, the early modern Church, the Church in the nineteenth century, the Church in war and peace, and the crisis of the modern Church>
A New History of Christianity bears all the hallmarks of a good one-volume history of Christianity: balanced, judicious, lacking in confessional bias or special pleading, comprehensive (without overwhelming the reader with superfluous detail), and readable. Vivian Green has the knack of telling an intricate, ever-changing story of vast historical sweep and a large cast of characters, with clarity, simplicity, and literary grace. In 11 chapters, Green covers 20 centuries from the youthful Christian community, with its intrinsically Jewish origins, to the vast multifaceted institution on the verge of the Third Millennium. Particularly noteworthy is the attention devoted to the present condition of the Christian movement. Green studies the pontificate of John Paul II, the status of religion in post-Communist Russia and Eastern Europe, the rise of televangelism and neo-Fundamentalism, and the crisis of changing moral values. He also examines the ordination of women, the exponential growth of Christianity in Africa and its decline in the Northern Hemisphere, and the ferment in Latin America.
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