Christianity: A Global History

By David Chidester

Book Overview

David Chidester, one of the world's foremost scholars of religion, traces Christianity's growth and development from the time of Jesus to the dawn of the third millennium, revealing its rich diversity through the deeds and beliefs of heretics and saints, witches and healers, preachers and inquisitors. Chidester explores the emergence of the major streams of Christian thought and practice, distilling the cultural history of the Church and its impact on the world into this superbly readable book. Alongside this broad panorama is a richly human story that the author brilliantly encapsulates in incisive character sketches and historical vignettes.

Christianity, in all its many facets, has been and continues to be one of the most influential forces in history. Chidester shows that this religion, with its roots deep in the ancient world, has always been in a constant state of evolution, affecting and affected by the religions and societies around it. At times Christianity has coexisted peacefully with other forms of belief, exchanging ideas and practices with them. At other times profound, even violent, conflict has arisen. In this book David Chidester intelligently and objectively portrays Christians in different times and places, as a minority and as the majority group, a religion both absorbing and resisting the world around it. Christianity reveals the religion as it was and is lived in the life of everyday people rather than focusing on the dry dogmas and beliefs that fill most histories. Chidester's accomplishment is to capture the complexity and grand sweep of this story in one remarkable volume that is destined to take its place as a classic of religious history.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0062517708
• ISBN13: 9780062517708
• Release Date: November 2001
• Publisher: HarperOne
• Length: 656 Pages
• Weight: 1.59 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.6" x 6.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Not bad for a text book

Interesting, good pace, covers a huge amount of material. Of course, it's 2200 years worth of history so it's not that in-depth and it has its boring parts, but all in all it's not bad for what's practically a text book without pictures.

Decent survey

It is extremely difficult to write a one-volume history of Chrisitianity -- even if you are not pursuing it around the globe. Chidester has done and excellent job in keeping his focus broad, and not getting bogged down in the details. If, however, you are looking for a comprehensive work, one that explains everything about every major denomination, this is not it. But, even if that is what you are looking for, you may want to start here anyway. Chidester has provided a decent survey that can provide the unfamiliar reader with a good introduction.

A lively global survey of events and beliefs

From the dark days of the Inquisition to widespread missionary conversion efforts around the world, and the manifold conflicts between the Christian Church and other world religions and movements, David Childester's Christianity: A Global History surveys the rich historical pagent of Christianity, including its changing foundations, and the actions of those who operated within and outside the Church. A lively global survey of events and beliefs.

Misnomer

This is a very complete review of Christianity the world over and the author has done much research. For this he deserves a near excellent rating. However the title is misleading. It should be "AntiChristianity". It's obvious that the author has a 180 degree bias. He mostly makes worship and devotion look ridiculous without giving any compensating factors. It should be pointed out to the author that "Faith - Belief" does not require scientific proof. In fact I doubt that these things can be proved scientifically. Furthermore if something can be proved, it does not require faith. It is a fact. Scientists are forever stating facts - or are they? Maybe next year it will be changed.Let's take a look at Chapter 2 on Jesus. "Jesus was born in the Galilean village of Nazareth sometime between 6 and 4 B.C.E., shortly before the end of the reign of King Herod the Great. He was raised in a pious Jewish family, the eldest of five brothers and several sisters."This, to a faithful Christian, requires some proof. None is given. The birthplace is not traditionally correct and the Virgin Birth is obviously deep-sixed. Why bother saying "between 6 and 4 B.C.E? Why not on August 22, 5 B.C.E. at 6:05AM. The author might as well go "all the way" without any proof.If you have a strong Christian faith, it might be fun to read this book - like you would a humorous fiction. It should not disturb your faith. However, if you are weak in faith or are "looking for a way out", you could not read better.