Zondervan Essential Companion to Christian History

by Stephen Backhouse

Publisher:

Zondervan

, 2019

Overview

The Zondervan Essential Companion to Christian History gives you what it promises: the essentials. This highly informative, broad-ranging book provides vital facts on the growth and impact of Christianity from the apostles to the present day not only in the Western world but also globally, including the development of Eastern Orthodox and Armenian Christianity, as well as considering Christianity in Latin America, Southeast Asia, the Baltic and Slavic states, and India. The companion is organized by century, going through the major events, ideas, and personalities that have shaped Christian history around the world.

Following a brief introduction that outlines the key events of the New Testament era, there is a chapter devoted to each century of Christian history beginning with the year 100 and ending roughly at the year 2000. Each chapter flows chronologically featuring:

• A brief overview, highlighting the main threads and issues running through the relevant century
• Key historical developments explained
• Thematic connections between centuries
• Color-coded sidebars on Persons, Ideas, or Events
• Persons: key figures either within or without the Church who have impacted Christian history significantly or who otherwise deserve special mention
• Ideas: important Christian books, as well as heresies, doctrines, or political movements
• Events: world-historical occurrences such as battles, natural disasters, inventions, or elections that have affected the development of Christianity in the world

The final chapter, devoted to the present century concludes the companion identifying key themes that the Christian Church is presently dealing with and suggesting future issues. A select Glossary of terms is provided at the end of the book, as well as a bibliographic list of suggested reading.

Whether you are a student or a lay person, a church-goer or unacquainted with Christianity, this book will help you grasp the global, multifaceted story of Christians.

Key Features

• Highlights the main threads and issues running through each century
• Identifies key persons, ideas, and events
• Explores the thematic connections between centuries

Contents

• Servants and Leaders: 1–100
• Love and Courage: 100–200
• Martyrs and Heretics: 200–300
• Establishment and Resistance: 300–400
• East and West: 400–500
• Centres and Margins: 500–600
• Soldiers and Missionaries: 600–700
• Monks and Emperors: 700–800
• Conversion and Culture: 800–900
• Green Shoots, Dead Branches: 900–1000
• Popes, Kings, and Peasants: 1000–1100
• War and Peace: 1100–1200
• Empire and Wilderness: 1200–1300
• Humility and Power: 1300–1400
• Church and State: 1400–1500
• Expansion and Consolidation: 1500–1600
• Reform and Revival: 1600–1700
• Reason and Revolution: 1700–1800
• Progress and Preservation: 1800–1900
• Sacrifice and Invention: 1900–2000

Praise for the Print Edition

This volume is an invaluable resource for anyone looking for a compact yet remarkably comprehensive summary of Christian history. It includes a welcome emphasis on a global perspective, as well as highlighting the role of women in relation to many of the key developments in the church. It comes highly recommended.

—Lucy Peppiatt, principal of Westminster Theological Centre

This book is well-named. It is indeed an essential companion to those entering into the study of church history. It gives students an outstanding way of orienting themselves, putting the towering figures of history into their social and theological contexts. It is full of helpful detail without being overwhelming, and it is written in a clear and engaging style, which draws the student in, teaching without daunting them.

—Jane Williams, assistant dean and tutor in theology, St. Mellitus College

Rich, concise, and built for our most dynamic leaders (who will never darken the door of a seminary), this short volume is Backhouse’s latest masterpiece tool for the local church. If locally-deployed church planters knew their history, they would be far less likely to repeat its mistakes.

—Graham Singh, executive director of Church Planting Canada, rector of St. Jax Montreal

Product Details

• Title: Zondervan Essential Companion to Christian History
• Authors: Stephen Backhouse
• Publisher: Zondervan
• Publication Date: 2019
• Pages: 224
• Resource Type: Introduction
• Topic: Church History

About Stephen Backhouse

Stephen Backhouse (DPhil, Oxford) is the founder and director of Tent Theology, a venture that designs and delivers theology programmes to local churches. He is the Dean of Theology in the Local Church for Westminster Theological Centre and was formerly the Lecturer in Social and Political Theology at St Mellitus College. He is a historian of Christian thought, an expert on the work of Søren Kierkegaard and a recognised authority on the political theology of nations and nationalism. He is the author of many publications, including the award-winning popular biography Kierkegaard: A Single Life (Zondervan, 2016) and the Zondervan Essential Companion to Christian History (Zondervan, 2019). He has lived in the United States, and makes his home in Britain and Canada.