Christianity: A Global History Rating :
Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
An unbiased historical review of Christianity
By A. J. Valasek
Historically revealing and presented in an unbiased, non-confrontational style, this book takes a look at Christianity from a historical perspective. This book covers Christianity from its beginnings to the current age of Internet surfing. The author disects Christianity by focusing on geographical regions to start with and then chronologically within those regions. Although it covers the entire span of Christian history, I thought the author should have given the origins of Christianity much more attention. The other portion that I found somewhat lacking was the development of the various Protestant denominations. However, this book was well rounded in its approach overall and worth the time and effort to read. If you're looking for a book to discuss the general development of Christianity, this book will do nicely. If you are looking for a book to describe the differences between denominations and their roots, I suggest looking elsewhere.
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful.
A lively global survey of events and beliefs
By Midwest Book Review
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.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Scattered
By Alexandra Nichols
This is a terrible book. Yes, it provides you with a broad overview of the history of Christianity, but it is scattered and badly organized. It gives focus to what seem to be some random movements, events, and beliefs in the Christian history while neglecting others. It needs editing for consistency and to clarify run-on sentences and poorly illuminated points.
Product Description
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.
Product Details
- Amazon Sales Rank: #758714 in Books
- Published on: 2001-11-27
- Released on: 2001-11-27
- Original language:English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.98" h x6.02" w x1.77" l,1.75 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 656 pages
No comments :
Post a Comment