Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents:

Contents:

Jesus and the world into which he was born

Growth,persecution, and defense

Problems from within

Christian orthodoxy and the Ante-Nicene Fathers

Worship in the second and third centuries

Constantine and the consolidation of Christianity

Fourth-and-fifth-century Trinitarian and Christological controversies

Theologians and the fourth and fifth centuries

Conslidation and worship in the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries

Development of the Western church in the early medieval period

Christianity in the East

The Western Church in the high middle ages

Monasticism, scholasticism and the final conquest of Europe

Papal decline and the renaissance

Worship in the middle ages

The dawn of the reformation

Zwingli and the radical performers

John Calvin

The English reformation, Puritanism, and Separatism

Catholic reaction and response to the Protestant reformation

Christianizing the new world

Unforeseen opposition

Eighteenth-century America

Nineteenth-century Protestantism in England

The second great awakening and its after-effects

Old-world denominations in the New World

Catholicism and Orthodoxy in the modern era

Modern Protestantism

The New Christian World-- Globalization in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries

A History of Christianity examines the development of Christianity from its biblical foundations to modern times. While seeking to be comprehensive, historian Joseph Early Jr. centers on key events, people, theological developments, and conflicts that have shaped Christianity over its two-thousand-year history. He also presents the development of Christianity within the social, political, and economic challenges of the times. In doing so, he paints a clear, detailed, and balanced picture of the opportunities and struggles faced by the church and the contributions made by significant people, institutions, and traditions. A History of Christianity is an ideal introductory survey for undergraduate students and any reader who desires to know more about the broad scope of Christianity.