A Brief History of Christianity

Front Cover
John Wiley & Sons, Feb 4, 2009 - Religion - 230 pages

Charting the rise and development of Christianity, Carter Lindberg has succeeded in writing a concise and compelling history of the world's largest religion. He spans over 2,000 years of colorful incident to give an authoritative history of Christianity for both the general reader and the beginning student.

  • Ranges from the missionary journeys of the apostles to the tele-evangelism of the twenty-first century.
  • Demonstrates how the Christian community received and forged its identity from its development of the Bible to the present day.
  • Covers topics fundamental to understanding the course of Western Christianity, including the growth of the papacy, heresy and schism, reformation and counter-reformation.
  • Includes an introduction to the historiography of Christianity, a note on the problems of periodization, an appendix on theological terms, and a useful bibliography.
  • An authoritative yet succinct history, written to appeal to a general audience as well as students of the history of Christianity.
  • Written by internationally regarded theologian, Carter Lindberg, who is the author of numerous titles on theology and Church history.
 

Selected pages

Contents

An Introduction to the Historiography of Christianity
1
Tradition and Confession
4
Chapter 2 The Law of Praying is the Law of Believing
6
The Roman Empire and its Political Achievements
10
Development of the Biblical Canon
12
HeresyOrthodoxyand Ecumenical Councils
17
Confession and Doctrine
18
Doctrine as a Key to Christian Memory and Identity
19
The Reformation in Germany
108
The Reformation in Switzerland
112
The Reformation in France
116
The Reformation in England
117
Scandinavia and Eastern Europe
120
Early Modern Catholicism
121
The Reformations Aftermath
122
Chapter 9 Pietism and the Enlightenment
125

Heresy
21
The Doctrine of the Trinity
22
From the Council of Nicaea to the Council of Constantinople
26
Christology
28
The Augustinian Synthesis of Biblical Religion and Hellenism
35
Augustine s Path to Conversion
40
Augustine s Theological Contributions
41
Augustine and Donatism
44
The Pelagian Controversy
47
Chapter 5 The Development of Medieval Christendom
51
Monasticism to Mission
52
The Emergence of the Papacy
54
Papacy and Empire
59
The Gregorian Reform
61
The Investiture Con flict
66
The Crusades
68
Anselm Abelardand the Beginnings of Scholasticism
71
Universities and Scholasticism
73
Contributions of Early Scholastic Theology
79
Chapter 7 The Medieval Church
84
The Rise of the Mendicant Orders
89
The Rise and Decline of Papal Authority
95
The Decline of the Papacy
97
Conciliarism
99
Chapter 8 The Reformations of the Sixteenth Century
104
Context
105
The Enlightenment
135
The Catholic Church and the Enlightenment
141
The Church in the Nineteenth Century
143
The Churches and the French Revolution
144
From the French Revolution to the Congress of Vienna
145
The Prussian Union and its Consequences
146
Inner Mission and the Social Question
147
The Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Century
152
Pope Pius IX and Vatican I
153
From Kulturkampf to the AntiModernist Oath
154
NineteenthCentury Theology
155
The Awakening
157
Theological Currents
158
Liberal Theology
160
Chapter 11 The Christian Churches since World War I
163
New Formulations in Protestant Theology
164
The Churches during National Socialism
167
Developments in the Catholic Church after World War I
171
The Ecumenical Movement
173
Christianity in Global Context
179
Appendix Periodization
181
Glossary
189
Further Reading
195
Index
204
Copyright

Other editions - View all

A Brief History of Christianity
Carter Lindberg
No preview available - 2009
A Brief History of Christianity
Carter Lindberg
No preview available - 2009
A Brief History of Christianity
Carter Lindberg
No preview available - 2005

Common terms and phrases

Abelard Anselm archbishop Arius Augustine Augustine’s authority Barmen Declaration Barth became began Bible biblical bishop Boniface Calvin canon Catholic Church Catholicism century Charlemagne Christ Christian community Christian faith Christology claim clergy conciliarism condemned Confessing Church confessional confessions Constantine Constantinople controversy corpus Christianum Council culture divine doctrine Donation of Constantine Donatists early church ecumenical emperor emphasized empire Enlightenment Eucharist evangelical expressed father France French Geneva German God’s gospel Greek Gregory heresy heretics Holy human humankind ideal imperial influence Inner Mission Jesus king Latin liturgical Luther Lutheran Magdeburg Centuries Marcion medieval ment mission modern monasteries monastic monasticism monk moral movement National Neoplatonism Nestorianism Nestorius Otto papacy papal pastoral Pelagianism person Pietism piety Pius political pope preaching Protestant Protestantism reform religion religious response Roman Catholic Rome sacraments salvation scholasticism scripture social society spirit Testament theologians theology tion tradition universal worship

About the author (2009)

Carter Lindberg is Professor Emeritus of Church History at Boston University. His recent publications include The Pietist Theologians (2004), The Reformation Theologians (2001), The European Reformations Sourcebook (1999), and The European Reformations (1996), all available via Blackwell Publishing.

Bibliographic information

QR code for A Brief History of Christianity
TitleA Brief History of Christianity
Wiley Blackwell Brief Histories of Religion
AuthorCarter Lindberg
PublisherJohn Wiley & Sons, 2009
ISBN140514887X, 9781405148870
Length230 pages
Subjects › 

Religion / General
Religion / History
  
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