Christianity

Scholar of religion David Chidester follows Christianity from the lifetime of Jesus up to the turn of the third millennium, tracing how the faith grew and changed over nearly two thousand years. Rather than offering one storyline, he shows its variety through the lives of heretics and saints, witches and healers, preachers and inquisitors.

Chidester maps the emergence of the main currents of Christian thought and practice and gives a broad cultural history of the Church and its effects on the wider world. Threaded through this wide survey are short character portraits and brief historical episodes that bring a personal dimension to the narrative.

The author argues that Christianity, rooted in the ancient world, has never stood still. It has continually shaped and been shaped by the religions and societies around it. At some moments it lived alongside other beliefs, trading ideas and rituals with them, while at others it became embroiled in deep and violent conflict. Chidester considers Christians both as a minority and as a majority, and as a faith that alternately absorbed and resisted its surroundings.

Rather than dwelling on the doctrines and creeds that dominate most histories of the religion, the book looks at how Christianity was lived out in the everyday experience of ordinary people. The result is an attempt to capture both the complexity and the sweep of this history within a single volume.