A short but powerful study of one of the great watersheds of European historyAlthough for generations the Reformation was regarded as a major turning point in European history, in recent years its significance has been downgraded. But in this book Professor Collinson sets out to restore a sense of the Reformation as a momentous historical event. He brilliantly explores the complexities and corruption of the late-medieval Catholic Church - and the Europe-wide reform...

The tenth century dawned in violence and disorder. Charlemagne's empire was in ruins, most of Spain had been claimed by Moorish invaders, and even the papacy in Rome was embroiled in petty, provincial conflicts. To many historians, it was a prime example of the ignorance and uncertainty of the Dark Ages. Yet according to historian Paul Collins, the story of the tenth century is the story of our culture's birth, of the emergence of our civilization into the light of day.The Birt...

**NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER“Metaxas is a scrupulous chronicler and has an eye for a good story. . . . full, instructive, and pacey.” —The Washington PostFrom #1 New York Times bestselling author Eric Metaxas comes a brilliant and inspiring biography of the most influential man in modern history, Martin Luther, in time for the 500th anniversary of the Reformation**On All Hallow’s Eve in 1517, a young monk named Martin Luther posted a docume...

In this popular introduction to church history, now in its third edition, Mark Noll isolates key events that provide a framework for understanding the history of Christianity. The book presents Christianity as a worldwide phenomenon rather than just a Western experience.Now organized around fourteen key moments in church history, this well-received text provides contemporary Christians with a fuller understanding of God as he has revealed his purpose through the centuries. This new...

The Christian Tradition, formerly published by Pearson/Prentice Hall, introduces students at the beginning of the third millennium to a religion that has evolved over and shaped two previous millennia. With particular focus placed on the social and cultural background to this tradition, the text provides a stimulating survey of the history of Christianity from its Jewish roots to the challenges it faces in the twenty-first century. This innovative text weaves a consideration of th...

This tenth anniversary revised edition of the authoritative text on Christianity's first thousand years of history features a new preface, additional color images, and an updated bibliography. The essential general survey of medieval European Christendom, Brown's vivid prose charts the compelling and tumultuous rise of an institution that came to wield enormous religious and secular power.Clear and vivid history of Christianity's rise and its pivotal role in the making of Eur...

From Abelard to Zwingli, via a multitude of saints and sinners, Nick Page guides us through the creeds, the councils, the buildings and the background of the Christian church in an illuminating, and perhaps ever so slightly irreverent way.Well-known as a writer, speaker, unlicensed historian and general information-monger, Nick Page combines in-depth research, historical analysis and cutting-edge guesswork to explore how on earth the Christian church has survived all that 2,000 yea...

This fast-paced survey of Western civilization’s transition from the Middle Ages to modernity brings that tumultuous period vividly to life. Carlos Eire, popular professor and gifted writer, chronicles the two-hundred-year era of the Renaissance and Reformation with particular attention to issues that persist as concerns in the present day. Eire connects the Protestant and Catholic Reformations in new and profound ways, and he demonstrates convincingly that this crucial turning point in hi...

The world’s largest Christian organization with 1.2 billion members, the Catholic Church is one of the world’s oldest institutions and has played a crucial part in the development of Western civilization. But in its rise from Jewish sect to global faith, it has been both the persecuted and the persecutors; it has become powerful but guilty of corruption; and it has preached moral purity but has been marred by abuse scandals.From the persecution of the early Christians in ancient Ro...

In this new edition of his classic work, Religion and the Rise of Western Culture, Christopher Dawson addresses two of the most pressing subjects of our day: the origin of Europe and the religious roots of Western culture. With the magisterial sweep of Toynbee, to whom he is often compared, Dawson tells here the tale of medieval Christendom. From the brave travels of sixth-century Irish monks to the grand synthesis of Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth century, Dawson brilliantly sh...

One may read about the "early church" or the "Renaissance popes" without a clear idea of the who-where-when-what-why-and-how of those eras. This easy-to-read volume answers the basic question "what did the Church look like in this particular period?" for the four traditionally recognized eras of Church history: early, medie-val, Reformation, and modern.

The world hates the Church that Jesus founded, just as He said it would (John 15:18). It reviles her doctrines, mocks her moral teachings and invents lies about her history. In every age, but especially in our modern day, historians and political powers have distorted the facts about her past (or just made up novel falsehoods from scratch) to make the Church, and the civilization it fostered, seem corrupt, backward, or simply evil. In Seven Lies about Catholic History, Diane Moczar (Islam ...