Christianity A Social and Cultural History

by Kee, Howard C.; Frost, Jerry W.; Albu, Emily; Lindberg, Carter; Robert, Dana L.

• ISBN13: 9780135780718
• ISBN10: 0135780713
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1997-12-15
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

Written by contributing scholars who are experts in specific facets of developing Christianity, this survey provides a well-rounded introduction to the history of Christianity and is ideal for anyone interested in the impact of Christianity of world culture down through history. It shows how Christianity emerged from its original Jewish context and developed into a worldwide religion, offering perceptive studies on how its origins and development were influenced by the changing social and cultural contexts in which the founders and leaders of this tradition lived and thought.Provides detailed evidence of the influence of Greco-Roman and Jewish religious concepts and religious movements on the origins of Christianity, considers the structuring of the church conceptually and organizationally in Europe, and discusses Christianity's spread and growth in America and throughout the world. Looks at the profound impact of the culture of the later Roman and medieval world on the development of Christian doctrine and intellectual traditions and helps readers understand the reasons for the divisions between Catholic and Protestant traditions.For theologians.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction	1	(6)
Howard Clark Kee
PART I THE CONTEXT, BIRTH, AND EARLY GROWTH OF CHRISTIANITY	7	(106)
Howard Clark Kee
1 From Alexander to Augustus: Cultural and Political Challenge to Jewish Religious Identity	7	(11)
2 Jesus of Nazareth and the Radical Alternative for Redefining the Covenant	18	(14)
3 Paul: Christian Encounter with the Roman World	32	(14)
4 From Charismatic Movement to Institution	46	(12)
5 Challenges to Christianity from Roman Culture	58	(11)
6 Christian Responses to the Challenges from the Culture	69	(14)
7 The Challenges from within Christianity	83	(14)
8 Conflict between Church and Empire	97	(16)
PART II THE CHRISTIAN EMPIRE AND THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES	113	(94)
Emily Albu
9 The Christian Empire and Arianism	113	(9)
10 Pagan Reaction and Christian Victory	122	(13)
11 West and East after the Fall	135	(15)
12 The Eastern Empire and the Struggle against Islam	150	(13)
13 The Early Medieval Church in the West	163	(19)
14 The Flowering of Medieval Christendom	182	(25)
PART III THE LATE MIDDLE AGES AND THE REFORMATION	207	(122)
Carter Lindberg
15 The Bloom of the Twelfth Century	207	(17)
16 The Harvest of the Medieval Church	224	(16)
17 "The Haywain," or "All Flesh Is Grass": The Withering of the Medieval Bloom	240	(18)
18 The Reformations of the Sixteenth Century	258	(18)
19 The Radical Reformers	276	(10)
20 "The Most Perfect School of Christ": The Genevan Reformation	286	(9)
21 The Protestant Mission and Evangelism: The "International Conspiracy"	295	(17)
22 Catholic Renewal and the Counter-Reformation	312	(17)
PART IV EUROPEAN CHRISTIANITY CONFRONTS THE MODERN AGE	329	(58)
Carter Lindberg
23 The Confessional Era	329	(13)
24 From Pietism to the Early Enlightenment	342	(14)
25 The Church in the Nineteenth Century	356	(16)
26 Church History and Theology since World War I	372	(15)
PART V CHRISTIANITY AND CULTURE IN AMERICA	387	(138)
J. William Frost
27 The New England Way	387	(13)
28 The Southern and Middle Colonies	400	(11)
29 The Great Awakening	411	(7)
30 Wars and Revolution	418	(9)
31 The Second Great Awakening	427	(18)
32 The Churches and Slavery	445	(10)
33 An American Roman Catholic Church	455	(10)
34 Sentimentality and Science	465	(9)
35 Responses to the City	474	(8)
36 Modernism and Fundamentalism	482	(12)
37 Religion in the Public Sphere, 1945-1996	494	(10)
38 Discordant Voices: Christianity in America since 1945	504	(21)
PART VI CHRISTIANITY IN THE WIDER WORLD	525	(56)
Dana L. Robert
39 Christendom and Colonization	525	(18)
40 Missions in the Modern Era	543	(17)
41 World Christianity in the Twentieth Century	560	(21)
Selected Bibliography	581	(10)
Index	591