The Shape Of Christian History

While understanding history has always been an essential task for God's people, rapid changes within the past two generations of Christianity have challenged many of our assumptions and methods for studying the past. How should thoughtful Christians—and especially historians and missiologists—make sense of global Christianity as an unfolding historical movement? Scott Sunquist invites readers to join him for a capstone course in historical thinking from a master teacher. Highlighting both the continuity and the diversity within the Christian movement over the centuries, he identifies three key concepts for framing church history: time, cross, and glory. These themes shed light to help us discern how the Jesus movement developed from the first century to the present, through an explosion of contextual expressions. Tracing these concepts through the centuries, we learn from the stories of Christians reflecting the glories of God's kingdom—and from their failures. Filled with historical case studies and stories from Sunquist's teaching around the world, The Shape of Christian History offers a framework for how to read and write church history. Even more, it demonstrates how the study of history illuminates God's mission in the world and sharpens our understanding of how to participate in that mission faithfully.

The first comprehensive account to explore the beginnings of early Christian history writing, tracing its origin to the Gospel of Mark and Luke-Acts When the Gospel writings were first produced, Christian thinking was already cognizant of its relationship to ancient memorial cultures and history-writing traditions. Yet, little has been written about exactly what shaped the development of early Christian literary memory. In this eye-opening new study, Eve-Marie Becker explores the diverse ways in which history was written according to the Hellenistic literary tradition, focusing specifically on the time during which the New Testament writings came into being: from the mid-first century until the early second century CE. While acknowledging cases of historical awareness in other New Testament writings, Becker traces the origins of this historiographical approach to the Gospel of Mark and Luke-Acts. Offering a bold new framework, Becker shows how the earliest Christian writings shaped “Christian” thinking and writing about history.

By denying evil we do harm. By denying darkness we obscure the light. Over a period of almost two millennia, the Christian Church has oppressed and brutalized millions of individuals in an attempt to control and contain spirituality. The Dark Side of Christian History reveals in painstaking detail the tragedies, sorrows and injustices inflicted upon humanity by the Church. This expose is a compelling and passionate cry for human dignity and spiritual freedom. Book jacket.

Thomas C. Oden surveys the decisive role of African Christians and theologians in shaping the doctrines and practices of the church of the first five centuries, and makes an impassioned plea for the rediscovery of that heritage. Christians throughout the world will benefit from this reclaiming of an important heritage.

The questions of Christianity are perennial. For example: How are Judaism and Christianity related? Are Jesus and the Holy Spirit God? Is the end of the world imminent? How should we relate faith and reason? In this innovative work, Derek Cooper tells the story of Christian history by presenting the twenty questions (one for each century!) that shaped the Christian church throughout the world. Ê The result is a book that narrates the exciting history of Christianity from a global perspective by means of simple questions and concerns that still face the church today. Ê Each century of world Christian history is explored by means of one question that attempts to encapsulate the central themes and concerns of that century for Christianity. Coverage of each century is sensitive to world regions and theological and cultural concerns that are often overlooked and neglected in books that are oriented in a more Western way.

This thorough, lucid, solidly researched book, the first of two volumes, charts the history of global Christianity.

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.

This book has earned wide acceptance as an outstanding single volume history of doctrine. It is ideally suited for classroom and seminar use as well as research and independent study. With remarkable conciseness and clarity Lohse, shows how doctrinal development has occurred in the various periods of the Church's history from the first century to the present. He explores and discusses, one by one, the dogmas and doctrines that constitute the milestones in the story of the Church's effort to proclaim the message of Jesus Christ to each age. This Revised American Edition includes a new preface by the author, an account of the significance of the Second Vatican Council and alterations in the "For Further Reading" section to bring it up to date.