History of Christianity

Paul Johnson

• Publisher: Touchstone
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9780684815039
• eBook ISBN:
  9781451688511
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Ancient History

First published in 1976, Paul Johnson’s exceptional study of Christianity has been loved and widely hailed for its intensive research, writing, and magnitude—“a tour de force, one of the most ambitious surveys of the history of Christianity ever attempted and perhaps the most radical” (New York Review of Books).

In a highly readable companion to books on faith and history, the scholar and author Johnson has illuminated the Christian world and its fascinating history in a way that no other has. Johnson takes off in the year AD 49 with his namesake the apostle Paul. Thus beginning an ambitious quest to paint the centuries since the founding of a little-known ‘Jesus Sect’, A History of Christianity explores to a great degree the evolution of the Western world.

With an unbiased and overall optimistic tone, Johnson traces the fantastic scope of the consequent sects of Christianity and the people who followed them. Information drawn from extensive and varied sources from around the world makes this history as credible as it is reliable. Invaluable understanding of the framework of modern Christianity—and its trials and tribulations throughout history—has never before been contained in such a captivating work.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Prologue
• Part One: The Rise and Rescue of the Jesus Sect (50 BC-AD 250)
• Part Two: From Martyrs to Inquisitors (AD 250–450)
• Part Three: Mitred Lords and Crowned Ikons (450–1054)
• Part Four: The Total Society and its Enemies 1054–1500)
• Part Five: The Third Force (1500–1648)
• Part Six: Faith, Reason and Unreason (1648–1870)
• Part Seven: Almost-Chosen Peoples (1500–1910)
• Part Eight: The Nadir of Triumphalism (1870–1975)
• Epilogue
• Select Bibliography
• Index
• Footnotes
• Copyright