A Brief History of Christianity

Carter Lindberg

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2009
• Print ISBN: 9781405110785
• eBook ISBN: 9781405148870
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: History of Religion

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.

Table of contents

• Preface
• Chapter 1 The Responsibility to Remember:An Introduction to the Historiography of Christianity
• Tradition and Confession
• Chapter 2 The Law of Praying is the Law of Believing
• The Roman Empire and its Political Achievements
• Hellenization and its Cultural Achievements
• Development of the Biblical Canon
• Chapter 3 Sibling Rivalry: Heresy,Orthodoxy,and Ecumenical Councils
• The Structure of Tradition:Confession and Doctrine
• Doctrine as a Key to Christian Memory and Identity
• Heresy
• Jesus ’ Relationship to God::The Doctrine of the Trinity
• From the Council of Nicaea to the Council of Constantinople
• Jesus and Humankind:Christology
• Chapter 4 The Heavenly City: The Augustinian Synthesis of Biblical Religion and Hellenism
• Augustine ’s Path to Conversion
• Augustine ’s Theological Contributions
• Augustine and Donatism
• The Pelagian Controversy
• Chapter 5 The Development of Medieval Christendom
• Monasticism to Mission
• The Emergence of the Papacy
• Papacy and Empire
• The Gregorian Reform
• The Investiture Con flict
• The Crusades
• Chapter 6 Faith in Search of Understanding:Anselm, Abelard,and the Beginnings of Scholasticism
• Universities and Scholasticism
• Contributions of Early Scholastic Theology
• Chapter 7 The Medieval Church
• The Cultural and Theological Development of the Sacraments
• The Rise of the Mendicant Orders
• The Rise and Decline of Papal Authority
• The Decline of the Papacy
• Conciliarism
• Chapter 8 The Reformations of the Sixteenth Century
• Context
• The Reformation in Germany
• The Reformation in Switzerland
• The Reformation in France
• The Reformation in England
• Scandinavia and Eastern Europe
• Early Modern Catholicism
• The Reformations ’ Aftermath
• Chapter 9 Pietism and the Enlightenment
• The Enlightenment
• The Catholic Church and the Enlightenment
• Chapter 10 Challenge and Response: The Church in the Nineteenth Century
• The Churches and the French Revolution
• From the French Revolution to the Congress of Vienna
• Church Reform in Germany:The Prussian Union and its Consequences
• Inner Mission and the Social Question
• The Catholic Church in the Nineteenth Century
• Pope Pius IX and Vatican I
• From Kulturkampf to the Anti-Modernist Oath
• Nineteenth-Century Theology
• The Awakening
• Theological Currents
• Liberal Theology
• Chapter 11 The Christian Churches since World War I
• New Formulations in Protestant Theology
• The Churches during National Socialism
• Developments in the Catholic Church after World War I
• The Ecumenical Movement
• Back to the Future:Christianity in Global Context
• Appendix Periodization
• Glossary
• Further Reading
• Index