100 Best History of Christianity Books of All Time (Updated for 2026)

1

The Hiding Place: The Triumphant True Story of Corrie Ten Boom

Corrie Ten Boom

5.0

At one time Corrie ten Boom would have laughed at the idea that there would ever be a story to tell. For the first fifty years of her life nothing at all out of the ordinary had ever happened to her. She was an old-maid watchmaker living contentedly with her spinster sister and their elderly father in the tiny Dutch house over their shop. Their uneventful days, as regulated as their own watches, r

Recommended by Alison Alvarez.

Alison Alvarez

What I really took with me from the book were the descriptions of how she dealt with the stress of solitary confinement and eventually the Ravensbruck concentration camp. I adapted some of her techniques for keeping her mind occupied to deal with my own problems with anxiety and worry. Also, it’s a book with a surprising amount of joy in it for subject matter that is so dark. [source]

2

A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years

Diarmaid MacCulloch, Photos

4.9

The author of The Reformation returns with the definitive history of Christianity for our time. Once in a generation a historian will redefine his field, producing a book that demands to be read--a product of electrifying scholarship conveyed with commanding skill. Diarmaid MacCulloch's Christianity is such a book. Ambitious, it ranges back to the origins of the Hebrew Bible & covers the world, fo

Recommended by Andrew Gant.

Andrew Gant

He refers back to the Old Testament, and the history of Christianity before Christ. It’s a hugely ambitious book. [source]

3

The Story of Christianity, Volume 1: The Early Church to the Reformation

Justo L. Gonzalez

4.5

A narrative history that presents the people, dramatic events, and ideas that shaped the first fifteen centuries of the church's life and thought - including major events outside of Europe, such as the Spanish and Portuguese conquest of the New World.

4

Augustine of Hippo: A Biography

Peter Brown

4.5

This classic biography was first published thirty years ago and has since established itself as the standard account of Saint Augustine's life and teaching. The remarkable discovery recently of a considerable number of letters and sermons by Augustine has thrown fresh light on the first and last decades of his experience as a bishop. These circumstantial texts have led Peter Brown to reconsider so

Recommended by Paula Fredriksen and Robin Lane Fox.

Paula Fredriksen

Brown relates a life story that lets us understand Augustine, sympathise with him and even to like and to respect him. That’s great writing. [source]

Robin Lane Fox

Peter Brown’s immense strength is placing the changes in Augustine’s outlook against the changing tone and social pressures of the eras and locations in which he moved. [source]

5

The Story of Christianity, Volume 2: The Reformation to the Present Day

Justo L. Gonzalez

4.5

From Justo L. Gonzalez, author of the acclaimed three-volume History of Christian Thought, The Story of Christianity Volume II: The Reformation to the Present Day is the fully revised and updated second volume of The Story of Christianity. Gonzalez’s astute scholarship, lucid prose, and impassioned focus tell the narrative history of Christianity, beginning with the Protestant Reformation of the s

6

Confessions

Augustine of Hippo

4.5

Augustine's Confessions is one of the most influential and most innovative works of Latin literature. Written in the author's early forties in the last years of the fourth century A.D. and during his first years as a bishop, they reflect on his life and on the activity of remembering and interpreting a life. Books I-IV are concerned with infancy and learning to talk, schooldays, sexual desire and

Recommended by A N Wilson, Carlos Eire, Paula Fredriksen, and 3 others.

A N Wilson

A lot of people think becoming a Christian is a decision you make. St Augustine doesn’t really think that. [source]

Carlos Eire

St Augustine of Hippo was one of the first thinkers to struggle with the concepts of time, memory and eternity. [source]

Paula Fredriksen

For the reader it’s somewhat like crashing a session of classic psychoanalytic therapy: Augustine speaks, God just listens, and we overhear. [source]

7

The Practice of the Presence of God

Brother Lawrence

4.5

Three hundred years ago, an uneducated lay cook in a French monastery discovered how to enjoy a profound awareness of God moment by moment, even in the midst of busyness and distraction. The Practice of the Presence of God reveals Brother Lawrence's secrets. Brimming with wisdom and spiritual insight, this classic memoir of the devotional life witnesses to the joy available to all who will seek Hi

Recommended by John C. Maxwell.

8

Wolf Hall

Hilary Mantel

4.4

Tudor England. Henry VIII is on the throne, but has no heir. Cardinal Wolsey is charged with securing his divorce. Into this atmosphere of distrust comes Thomas Cromwell - a man as ruthlessly ambitious in his wider politics as he is for himself.

His reforming agenda is carried out in the grip of a self-interested parliament and a king who fluctuates between romantic passions and murderous rages.

Recommended by Neera Tanden, Thomas Penn, and Vanora Bennett.

Neera Tanden

@BarackObama Wolf Hall is a great book. [source]

Thomas Penn

Hilary Mantel possesses an extraordinary historical imagination and her recreation of the world of the 1530s through the eyes of Thomas Cromwell is, I think, utterly convincing. [source]

Vanora Bennett

The Tudor monarchy has a big moment with England leaving the Church of Rome for love – that’s the moment every film and television writer is interested in. She turns it upside down. [source]

9

The Color of Compromise: The Truth about the American Church’s Complicity in Racism

Jemar Tisby and Lecrae Moore

4.4

An acclaimed, timely narrative of how people of faith have historically--up to the present day--worked against racial justice. And a call for urgent action by all Christians today in response.

The Color of Compromise is both enlightening and compelling, telling a history we either ignore or just don't know. Equal parts painful and inspirational, it details how the American church has helped create

10

Mere Christianity

C. S. Lewis

4.4

Preview Summary

Recommended by Anoop Anthony.

Anoop Anthony

"Mere Christianity" is first and foremost a rational book — it is in many ways the opposite of a traditional religious tome. Lewis, who was once an atheist, has been on both sides of the table, and he approaches the notion of God with accessible, clear thinking. The book reveals that experiencing God doesn't have to be a mystical exercise; God can be a concrete and logical conclusion. Lewis was a man of formidable intellect, and he brought it all to bear in this phenomenal book on the rationality of faith. [source]

11

Church History in Plain Language

Bruce L. Shelley

4.4

It's about time that someone wrote church history that tells about people, not just about "eras" and "ages." Church History in Plain Language taps the roots of our Christian family tree. It combines authoritative research with a captivating style to bring our heritage home to us.

12

A History of God: The 4,000-Year Quest of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam

Karen Armstrong

4.4

Why does God exist? How have the three dominant monotheistic religions--Judaism, Christianity, and Islam--shaped and altered the conception of God? How have these religions influenced each other? In this stunningly intelligent book, Karen Armstrong, one of Britain's foremost commentators on religious affairs, traces the history of how men and women have perceived and experienced God, from the time

13

How the Irish Saved Civilization: The Untold Story of Ireland's Heroic Role from the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe

Thomas Cahill

4.3

From the fall of Rome to the rise of Charlemagne - the "dark ages" - learning, scholarship, and culture disappeared from the European continent. The great heritage of western civilization - from the Greek and Roman classics to Jewish and Christian works - would have been utterly lost were it not for the holy men and women of unconquered Ireland.

In this delightful and illuminating look into a cruc

14

Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth

Reza Aslan

4.3

From the internationally bestselling author of No god but God comes a fascinating, provocative, and meticulously researched biography that challenges long-held assumptions about the man we know as Jesus of Nazareth.

Two thousand years ago, an itinerant Jewish preacher and miracle worker walked across the Galilee, gathering followers to establish what he called the “Kingdom of God.” The revolutionar

15

The New Oxford Annotated Bible with the Apocrypha: New Revised Standard Version

Michael Coogan, Marc Brettler, Carol Newsom, Pheme Perkins

4.3

For over 50 years students, professors, clergy, and general readers have relied on The New Oxford Annotated Bible as an unparalleled authority in Study Bibles. This fifth edition of the Annotated remains the best way to study and understand the Bible at home or in the classroom. This thoroughly revised and substantially updated edition contains the best scholarship informed by recent discoveries a

Recommended by Dan Choi, Felipe Fernández-Armesto, Roger Thurow, and 1 others.

Dan Choi

My father was a Korean Baptist Minister. When I was a child we did Bible study every day. I think people use the Bible for their own political agenda but the true message is one of hope. [source]

Felipe Fernández-Armesto

Chapters 7 to 12 of the Book of Daniel constitute, in my opinion, the first genuinely global history ever written. [source]

Roger Thurow

Feed the hungry is a central command of all religions great and small. But the question is, if that’s the case, and it is, how have we come into the 21st century with one billion chronically hungry people? [source]

Cover unavailable

16

Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion

Gregory Boyle

4.3

Gregory Boyle presents an awe-inspiring series of parables about universal kinship and redemption distilled from his twenty years of experience running a gang-intervention program, and demonstrates the remarkable power of unconditional love.

“Destined to become a classic of both urban reportage and contemporary spirituality” ( Los Angeles Times )— Tattoos on the Heart is a series of parables about

Recommended by Chuck Robbins.

17

The History of the Church: From Christ to Constantine

Eusebius, Andrew Louth, G. A. Williamson

4.3

Eusebius's account is the only surviving historical record of the Church during its crucial first 300 years.

Bishop Eusebius, a learned scholar who lived most of his life in Caesarea in Palestine, broke new ground in writing the History and provided a model for all later ecclesiastical historians. In tracing the history of the Church from the time of Christ to the Great Persecution at the beginning

18

How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee

Bart D. Ehrma

4.3

New York Times bestselling author and Bible expert Bart Ehrman reveals how Jesus’s divinity became dogma in the first few centuries of the early church.

The claim at the heart of the Christian faith is that Jesus of Nazareth was, and is, God. But this is not what the original disciples believed during Jesus’s lifetime—and it is not what Jesus claimed about himself. How Jesus Became God tells the st

Cover unavailable

19

Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies

David Bentley Hart

4.3

In this provocative book one of the most brilliant scholars of religion today dismantles distorted religious “histories” offered up by Christopher Hitchens, Richard Dawkins, and other contemporary critics of religion and advocates of atheism. David Bentley Hart provides a bold correction of the New Atheists’s misrepresentations of the Christian past, countering their polemics with a brilliant acco

Recommended by Dan Sullivan.

20

Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why

Bart D. Ehrman

4.3

For almost 1,500 years, the New Testament manuscripts were copied by hand––and mistakes and intentional changes abound in the competing manuscript versions. Religious and biblical scholar Bart Ehrman makes the provocative case that many of our widely held beliefs concerning the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the divine origins of the Bible itself are the results of both intentional and accide

21

Tortured for Christ

Richard Wurmbrand

4.3

One Man Who Dared to Stand Up

Months of solitary confinement, years of periodic physical torture, constant suffering from hunger and cold, the anguish of brainwashing and mental cruelty—these are the experiences of a Romanian pastor during his 14 years in Communist prisons.

His crime, like that of thousands of others, was his fervant belief in Jesus Christ and his public witness concerning that fait

22

The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph & Diversity 200–1000

Peter Brown

4.3

This book offers a vivid, compelling history of the first thousand years of Christianity. For the second edition, the book has been thoroughly rewritten and expanded. It includes two new chapters, as well as an extensive preface in which the author reflects on the scholarly traditions which have influenced his work and explains his current thinking about the book's themes.

New edition of popular ac

Cover unavailable

23

The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate

John H. Walton

4.3

In this astute mix of cultural critique and biblical studies, John H. Walton presents and defends twenty propositions supporting a literary and theological understanding of Genesis 1 within the context of the ancient Near Eastern world and unpacks its implications for our modern scientific understanding of origins.

Ideal for students, professors, pastors and lay readers with an interest in the int

24

The Christian Tradition 2: The Spirit of Eastern Christendom 600-1700

Jaroslav Pelikan

4.3

The line that separated Eastern Christendom from Western on the medieval map is similar to the "iron curtain" of recent times. Linguistic barriers, political divisions, and liturgical differences combined to isolate the two cultures from each other. Except for such episodes as the schism between East and West or the Crusades, the development of non-Western Christendom has been largely ignored by c

25

A People's History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story

Diana Butler Bass

4.2

The Grassroots Movements That Preserved Jesus's Message of Social Justice for 2,000 Years and Their Impact on the Church Today

For too long, the history of Christianity has been told as the triumph of orthodox doctrine imposed through power. Now, historian Diana Butler Bass sheds new light on the surprising ways that many Christians have refused to conform to a rigid church hierarchy and sought to

26

The Christian Tradition 3: The Growth of Medieval Theology 600-1300

Jaroslav Pelikan

4.2

"A magnificent history of doctrine."—New York Review of Books

"In this volume Jaroslav Pelikan continues the splendid work he has done thus far in his projected five-volume history of the development of Christian doctrine, defined as 'what the Church believes, teaches, and confesses on the basis of the word of God.' The entire work will become an indispensable resource not only for the history of

27

Ecclesiastical History of the English People

Bede, D. H. Farmer, Ronald Latham, Leo Sherley-Price

4.2

Starting with the invasion of Julius Caesar in the fifth century, Bede recorded the history of the English up to his own day in 731 A.D. A scholarly monk working in the north-east of England, Bede wrote the five books of his history in Latin. The Ecclesiastical History is his most famous work, and this edition provides the authoritative Colgrave translation, as well as a new translation of the Gre

Recommended by Diarmaid MacCulloch.

Diarmaid MacCulloch

Bede is writing about 130 years after the English had first experienced Christianity. [source]

28

The Third Option: Hope for a Racially Divided Nation

Miles McPherson

4.2

MILES MCPHERSON, FOUNDER OF THE ROCK CHURCH IN SAN DIEGO, SPEAKS OUT ABOUT THE PERVASIVE RACIAL DIVISIONS IN TODAY'S CULTURE AND ARGUES THAT WE MUST LEARN TO SEE PEOPLE NOT BY THE COLOR OF THEIR SKIN, BUT AS GOD SEES THEM - HUMANS CREATED IN THE IMAGE OF GOD.

Miles McPherson has had enough of shying away from a major problem in America today: racial tension. It's a topic that's widely recognized, y

29

The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millenarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages

Norman Cohn

4.2

Recommended by John Gray and Ian McEwan.

John Gray

I first read Norman Cohn back in the sixties. It stayed with me and had a profound effect on me, and emerged in my own work. [source]

Ian McEwan

It’s a historical account of the fanatical millenarian sects that swept across Europe from the 11th to 15th centuries. [source]

30

The Red Tent

Anita Diamant

4.2

Her name is Dinah. In the Bible, her life is only hinted at in a brief and violent detour within the more familiar chapters of the Book of Genesis that are about her father, Jacob, and his dozen sons. Told in Dinah's voice, this novel reveals the traditions and turmoils of ancient womanhood--the world of the red tent. It begins with the story of her mothers--Leah, Rachel, Zilpah, and Bilhah--the f

31

Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers

Andrew Louth, Maxwell Staniforth

4.2

Letters and small-scale theological treatises giving a rich and powerful articulation of the Christian faith.

The writings in this volume shed a glimmer of light, in an otherwise dark period, on the emerging traditions and organizations of the infant Church. They are a selection from a group known as the Apostolic Fathers, so-called because several of the authors were most likely disciples of the A

32

He Leadeth Me

Walter J. Ciszek S.J.

4.2

Captured by a Russian army during World War II and convicted of being a "Vatican spy," Jesuit Father Walter J. Ciszek spent 23 agonizing years in Soviet prisons and the labor camps of Siberia. Only through an utter reliance on God's will did he manage to endure the extreme hardship. He tells of the courage he found in prayer--a courage that eased the loneliness, the pain, the frustration, the angu

33

Foxe's Book of Martyrs

John Foxe

4.2

Reformation-era England—John Foxe recounts the lives, sufferings, and triumphant deaths of dozens of Christian martyrs. Some were people of rank and influence. Some were ordinary folk. Some were even his friends. Four centuries later, these deeply moving accounts of faith and courage mark a path for modern Christians to measure the depth of their commitment.

34

The Cross and the Lynching Tree

James H. Cone

4.2

The cross and the lynching tree are the two most emotionally charged symbols in the history of the African American community. In this powerful new work, theologian James H. Cone explores these symbols and their interconnection in the history and souls of black folk

35

Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity

Mark A. Noll

4.2

Evangelicalism’s premier historian provides a general introduction to church history.

36

In God's Underground

Richard Wurmbrand, Charles Foley

4.2

Cover unavailable

37

The New Testament and the People of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, #1)

N. T. Wright

4.2

Part of a five-volume project on the theological questions surrounding the origins of Christianity, this book offers a reappraisal of literary, historical and theological readings of the New Testament, arguing for a form of "critical realism" that facilitates different readings of the text.

Provides a historical, theological and literary study of first-century Judaism and Christianity, offering a p

38

The Cost of Discipleship

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

4.2

Preview Summary

One of the most important theologians of the twentieth century illuminates the relationship between ourselves and the teachings of Jesus in this classic text on ethics, humanism, and civic duty.

What can the call to discipleship, the adherence to the word of Jesus, mean today to the businessman, the soldier, the laborer, or the aristocrat? What did Jesus mean to say to us? What is his will for us t

Recommended by Mike Huckabee.

Mike Huckabee

This was a book that I read in college, and it influenced me in that I realised that faith that does not cost anything is what Bonhoeffer would call ‘cheap grace’. So much of American Christianity was cheap grace – fire insurance more than a call to true discipleship. It had a profound impact on me. Here was a person whose faith was not merely a belief system; rather, it was a way of life – to a point of even his own death. [source]

39

The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England, 1400-1580

Eamon Duffy

4.2

Recommended by Andrew Gant.

Andrew Gant

This book is, in a phrase that he uses, a description of the funeral rites of Catholic England. [source]

40

The Orthodox Church

Timothy Ware

4.2

Since its first publication thirty years ago, Timothy Ware's book has become established throughout the English-speaking world as the standard introduction to the Orthodox Church. Orthodoxy continues to be a subject of enormous interest among Western Christians and the author believes that an understanding of its standpoint is necessary before the Roman Catholic and Protestant Churches can be reun

41

Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler

Mark Riebling

4.2

Pope Pius XII is perhaps the most detested pope in modern history, vilified for allegedly appeasing Hitler and betraying the Jewish people by remaining silent during the Holocaust. But this conventional narrative is not the full story.

In Church of Spies, the intelligence expert Mark Riebling draws on a wealth of recently uncovered documents to argue that, far from being Hitler’s lackey, Pius was a

42

The Complete Works

Florence Scovel Shinn

4.2

There are few figures in the history of Western Spirituality who are more enigmatic than the fifth or sixth-century writer known as the Pseudo-Dionysius. The real identity of the person who chose to write under the pseudonym of Dionysius the Areopagite is unknown. Even the exact dates of his writings have never been determined. Moreover the texts themselves, though relatively short, are at points

43

St. Joseph Sunday Missal: Prayerbook And Hymnal For 2020

Catholic Book Publishing & Icel

4.2

This is the most popular and economical ANNUAL Missal for parish participation. Contains the complete Masses for all Sundays and Holydays from the beginning of Advent through the Solemnity of Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of the Universe. Now includes such popular hymns as "I Am the Bread of Life," "All Are Welcome," "Eye Has Not Seen," "We Walk by Faith," and "Taste and See."

Cover unavailable

44

The Nag Hammadi Library

Marvin W. Meyer

4.2

The Nag Hammadi Library was discovered in 1945 buried in a large stone jar in the desert outside the modern Egyptian city of Nag Hammadi. It is a collection of religious and philosophic texts gathered and translated into Coptic by fourth-century Gnostic Christians and translated into English by dozens of highly reputable experts. First published in 1978, this is the revised 1988 edition supported

45

21 Servants of Sovereign Joy: Faithful, Flawed, and Fruitful

John Piper

4.2

Throughout history, the lives of spiritual giants--though full of struggle, sin, and weakness--magnify the glory and majesty of God. Their lives and teachings are full of messages that are still profoundly relevant. Their voices live on. And their stories should be told and read today.

In this book, John Piper explores the lives of twenty-one leaders from church history, offering a close look at th

46

Marking the Hours: English People and Their Prayers, 1240-1570

Eamon Duffy

4.2

In this richly illustrated book, religious historian Eamon Duffy discusses the Book of Hours, unquestionably the most intimate and most widely used book of the later Middle Ages. He examines surviving copies of the personal prayer books which were used for private, domestic devotions, and in which people commonly left traces of their lives. Manuscript prayers, biographical jottings, affectionate m

47

Eustratios Argenti: A Study Of The Greek Church Under Turkish Rule

Timothy Ware, Kallistos Ware

4.2

48

Fundamentalism and American Culture

George M. Marsden

4.1

Many Americans today are taking note of the surprisingly strong political force that is the religious right. Controversial decisions by the government are met with hundreds of lobbyists, millions of dollars of advertising spending, and a powerful grassroots response. How has the fundamentalist movement managed to resist the pressures of the scientific community and the draw of modern popular cultu

49

Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome & the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD

Peter Brown

4.1

Jesus asserted it's easier for a camel to go thru the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter heaven. Yet by the fall of Rome, the church was becoming rich beyond measure. Thru the Eye of a Needle is a sweeping intellectual & social history of the vexing problem of wealth in Christianity in the waning days of the Roman Empire, written by the world's foremost scholar of late antiquity.
Brown e

50

The Treasury of David, Volumes #1-3(The Treasury of David #1-3)

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

4.1

Cover unavailable

51

Barking to the Choir: The Power of Radical Kinship

Gregory Boyle

4.1

In a moving example of unconditional love in difficult times, Gregory Boyle, the Jesuit priest and New York Times bestselling author of Tattoos on the Heart, shares what working with gang members in Los Angeles has taught him about faith, compassion, and the enduring power of kinship.

In his first book, Tattoos on the Heart: The Power of Boundless Compassion, Gregory Boyle introduced us to Homeboy

52

Christianity at the Crossroads: How the Second Century Shaped the Future of the Church

Michael J. Kruger

4.1

Christianity in the twenty-first century is a global phenomenon. But in the second century, its future was not at all certain.

Initially Christianity possessed little social or cultural influence and found itself fighting for its life. While apostolic tradition was emerging as a "rule of faith," factions contested the nature of the gospel, and pagan philosophers found its claims scandalous. And wh

53

The Reformation: A History

Diarmaid MacCulloch

4.1

At a time when men and women were prepared to kill—and be killed—for their faith, the Protestant Reformation tore the Western world apart. Acclaimed as the definitive account of these epochal events, Diarmaid MacCulloch's award-winning history brilliantly re-creates the religious battles of priests, monarchs, scholars, and politicians—from the zealous Martin Luther and his Ninety-Five Theses to th

Recommended by Jerry Brotton.

Jerry Brotton

MacCulloch is fascinated by the key moment where many scholars would say that the Renaissance ends. [source]

54

Ars Sacra: Christian Art and Architecture of the Western World from the Very Beginning Up Until Today

Rolf Toman, Achim Bednorz

4.1

Ars Sacra is an unique tribute to 2000 years of Christian art, architecture and spirituality. This glorious tome takes the reader on a tour through seventeen centuries of sacral art, architecture, and culture, from the late antiquity to the middle ages, renaissance, baroque, art nouveau to works by contemporary artists such as Marc Chagall and Gerhard Richter.

55

Life Together: The Classic Exploration of Christian Community

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

4.1

In Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, renowned Christian minister, professor, and author of The Cost of Discipleship recounts his unique fellowship in an underground seminary during the Nazi years in Germany. Giving practical advice on how life together in Christ can be sustained in families and groups, Life Together is bread for all who are hungry for the real life of Christian fellowship.

56

Sweet Rome (Sweet Home, #1.5)

Kimberly Hahn

4.1

You met Romeo Prince in the Amazon & USA Today bestselling novel, Sweet Home. Now hear the story from his lips: unbarred, uncensored and raw to the bone.

It makes me laugh when I hear that folk think Mol and I rushed into it too fast, spouting that we couldn't possibly have felt what we did for each other in such a short space of time. I say, how the hell would they know? We made it, didn't we? She

57

The Christian Tradition 5: Christian Doctrine & Modern Culture since 1700

Jaroslav Pelikan

4.1

Jaroslav Pelikan begins this volume with the crisis of orthodoxy that confronted all Christian denominations by the beginning of the eighteenth century and continues through the twentieth century in its particular concerns with ecumenism. The modern period in the history of Christian doctrine, Pelikan demonstrates, may be defined as the time when doctrines that had been assumed more than debated f

58

The Apostle: A Life of Paul

John Pollock

4.1

The Acclaimed Biography of the Early Church's Greatest Evangelist--the Apostle Paul.Master storyteller John Pollock makes Paul and his amazing story freshly alive, so that you can know the greatest apostle much as Luke and Timothy did as they traveled with him. As you turn the pages, you'll sense Paul's motives, his aims and priorities; what mattered to him; and what he was willing to die for.

Cover unavailable

59

Paul: A Biography

N. T. Wright

4.1

In this definitive biography, renowned Bible scholar, Anglican bishop, and bestselling author N. T. Wright offers a radical look at the apostle Paul, illuminating the humanity and remarkable achievements of this intellectual who invented Christian theology—transforming a faith and changing the world.

For centuries, Paul, the apostle who "saw the light on the Road to Damascus" and made a miraculous

60

Christianity for Modern Pagans: Pascal's Pensées - Edited, Outlined & Explained

Peter Kreeft

4.1

Peter Kreeft believes that Baise Pascal is the first post-medieval apologist. No writer in history, claims Kreeft, is a more effective Christian apologist and evangelist to today's uprooted, confused, secularized pagans (inside and outside the Church) than Pascal. He was a brilliant man--a great scientist who did major work in physics and mathematics, as well as an inventor--whom Kreeft thinks was

Cover unavailable

61

King's Cross: The Story of the World in the Life of Jesus

Timothy Keller

4.1

New York Times bestselling author and nationally renowned minister Timothy Keller unlocks new insights into the life of Jesus Christ.

King's Cross is Timothy Keller's revelatory look at the life of Christ as told in the Gospel of Mark. There have been many biographies of Jesus, but few will be as anticipated as one by Keller, the man Newsweek calls "a C.S. Lewis for the twenty-first century." In i

62

Jesus, Interrupted: Revealing the Hidden Contradictions in the Bible & Why We Don't Know About Them

Bart D. Ehrman

4.1

Picking up where Bible expert Bart Ehrman's New York Times bestseller Misquoting Jesus left off, Jesus, Interrupted addresses the larger issue of what the New Testament actually teaches—& it's not what most people think. Here Ehrman reveals what scholars have unearthed:
•The authors of the New Testament have diverging views about who Jesus was & how salvation works
•The New Testament contains books

63

Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew

Bart D. Ehrman

4.1

The early Christian Church was a chaos of contending beliefs. Some groups of Christians claimed that there was not one God but two or twelve or thirty. Some believed that the world had not been created by God but by a lesser, ignorant deity. Certain sects maintained that Jesus was human but not divine, while others said he was divine but not human.

In Lost Christianities, Bart D. Ehrman offers a fa

64

The Historical Origin of Christianity

Walter Williams

4.1

The Historical Origin Of Christianity by Walter Williams reveals what happened to ancient Egyptian ancestors and how the true origin of Christianity began.

65

The Cambridge Companion to Black Theology

Dwight N. Hopkins

4.1

This volume discusses normative theological categories from a black perspective and argues that there is no major Christian doctrine on which black theology has not commented. Part One explores introductory questions such as: what have been the historical and social factors fostering a black theology, and what are some of the internal factors key to its growth? Part Two examines major doctrines wh

66

Perspectives on the World Christian Movement: Reader

Ralph D. Winter

4.1

Perspectives on the World Christian Movement presents a multi-faceted collection of readings exploring the biblical, historical, cultural, and strategic dimensions of world evangelization.

Writings from more than 150 mission scholars and practitioners (over 60 of them new to this edition) portray the history and anticipate the potential of the global Christian movement. Every one of the 170 articl

67

The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation

Michael Reeves and Mark Dever

4.1

Burning pyres, nuns on the run, stirring courage, and comic relief: the Protestant Reformation is a gripping tale, packed with drama. But what motivated the Reformers? And what were they really like?

The Unquenchable Flame, a lively, accessible, and fully informative introduction to the Reformation by Michael Reeves, brings to life the movement’s most colorful characters (Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwi

68

The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity

Robert Louis Wilken

4.1

How did a community that was largely invisible in the first two centuries of its existence go on to remake the civilizations it inhabited, culturally, politically, and intellectually? Beginning with the life of Jesus, Robert Louis Wilken narrates the dramatic spread and development of Christianity over the first thousand years of its history. Moving through the formation of early institutions, pra

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69

The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity, Enlarged Edition

Peter Brown

4.1

In this groundbreaking work, Peter Brown explores how the worship of saints and their corporeal remains became central to religious life in Western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. During this period, earthly remnants served as a heavenly connection, and their veneration is a fascinating window into the cultural mood of a region in transition.

Brown challenges the long-held “two-tier” id

Recommended by Simon Yarrow.

Simon Yarrow

The book…is still revolutionary in the way that it offered us a functionalist account of what’s going on with the cult of saints. [source]

70

The Biggest Lie in the History of Christianity: How the Modern Culture Is Robbing Billions of People of Happiness

Matthew Kelly

4.1

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71

Backgrounds of Early Christianity

Everett Ferguson

4.1

Having long served as a standard introduction to the world of the early church, Everett Ferguson's Backgrounds of Early Christianity has been expanded and updated in this third edition. The book explores and unpacks the Roman, Greek, and Jewish political, social, religious, and philosophical backgrounds necessary for a good historical understanding of the New Testament and the early church. New to

72

The Christian Tradition 1: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition 100-600

Jaroslav Pelikan

4.1

s/t: A History of the Development of Doctrine
In this five-volume opus--now available in its entirety in paperback--Pelikan traces the development of Christian doctrine from the first century to the twentieth.
"Pelikan's The Christian Tradition [is] a series for which they must have coined words like 'magisterial'."--Martin Marty, Commonweal

73

Medieval Christianity: A New History

Kevin Madigan

4.1

An expansive guide to the medieval world, with new attention to women, ordinary parishioners, attitudes toward Jews and Muslims, and more

For many, the medieval world seems dark and foreign—an often brutal and seemingly irrational time of superstition, miracles, and strange relics. The aggressive pursuit of heretics and attempts to control the “Holy Land” might come to mind. Yet the medieval world

74

How the Catholic Church Built Western Civilization

Thomas E. Woods Jr

4.0

Ask a college student today what he knows about the Catholic Church and his answer might come down to one word: "corruption." But that one word should be "civilization." Western civilization has given us the miracles of modern science, the wealth of free-market economics, the security of the rule of law, a unique sense of human rights and freedom, charity as a virtue, splendid art and music, a phi

75

The Early Eastern Orthodox Church: A History, Ad 60-1453

Stephen Morris

4.0

"It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us," the apostles declared at the conclusion of their council described in Acts 15. This apostolic council was the first of many councils to come as Christians sought to discern the will of God in the midst of historic challenges. The faithful continued to struggle to express their new apostolic faith in new words, new languages, new places and new times.

76

The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia—and How It Died

Philip Jenkins

4.0

In this groundbreaking book, renowned religion scholar Philip Jenkins offers a lost history, revealing that, for centuries, Christianity's center was actually in the Middle East, Asia, and Africa, with significant communities extending as far as China. The Lost History of Christianity unveils a vast and forgotten network of the world's largest and most influential Christian churches that existed t

77

Heretics and Believers: A History of the English Reformation

Peter Marshall

4.0

Centuries on, what the Reformation was and what it accomplished remain deeply contentious. Peter Marshall’s sweeping new history—the first major overview for general readers in a generation—argues that sixteenth-century England was a society neither desperate for nor allergic to change, but one open to ideas of “reform” in various competing guises. King Henry VIII wanted an orderly, uniform Reform

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78

A History of Christianity

Paul Johnson

4.0

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 Jo

79

Modern Orthodox Thinkers: From the Philokalia to the Present Day

Andrew Louth

4.0

Andrew Louth, one of the most respected authorities on Orthodoxy, introduces us to twenty key thinkers from the last two centuries. He begins with the Philokalia, the influential Orthodox collection published in 1782 which marked so many subsequent writers.

The colorful characters, poets and thinkers who populate this book range from Romania, Serbia, Greece, England, France and also include exiles

80

Reformed Confessions Harmonized

Joel R. Beeke, Sinclair B. Ferguson

4.0

"A very useful collection, and, as far as I know, the only one of its kind. It should be welcomed by historians and theologians who are interested in the Reformed tradition."—I. John Hesselink, Sixteenth Century Journal

Despite the acknowledged importance of confessional statements throughout church history, the most significant of these documents have never before been published in a single volume

81

White Awake: An Honest Look at What It Means to Be White

Daniel Hill and Brenda Salter McNeil

4.0

Daniel Hill will never forget the day he heard these words: "Daniel, you may be white, but don't let that lull you into thinking you have no culture. White culture is very real. In fact, when white culture comes in contact with other cultures, it almost always wins. So it would be a really good idea for you to learn about your culture." Confused and unsettled by this encounter, Hill began a journe

82

The Book of Common Prayer: The Texts of 1549, 1559, and 1662

Brian Cummings

4.0

'In the midst of life we are in death.'

The words of the Book of Common Prayer have permeated deep into the English language all over the world. For nearly 500 years, and for countless people, it has provided a background fanfare for a marriage or a funeral march at a burial. Yet this familiarity also hides a violent and controversial history. When it was first produced the Book of Common Prayer

83

Reading Revelation Responsibly: Uncivil Worship and Witness: Following the Lamb into the New Creation

Michael J. Gorman

4.0

84

Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the World

Tom Holland

4.0

From the crucifixion of Jesus to the birth of modern morals, this "marvelous" account from an award-winning historian shows how the Christian Revolution forged the Western imagination (The Economist).
Crucifixion, the Romans believed, was the worst fate imaginable. It was this that rendered it so suitable a punishment for slaves. How astonishing it was, then, that people should have come to believe

Recommended by Dan Snow.

Dan Snow

So proud of my great buddy @holland_tom, his brilliant new book 'Dominion' is published today. To celebrate, last night we visited the limit of the Great Fire, exactly 353 years since it raged across The City. Wild times. https://t.co/iQsNxrceAE [source]

85

Killing Jesus: A History

Bill O'Reilly

4.0

Millions of readers have thrilled to bestselling authors Bill O'Reilly and historian Martin Dugard's Killing Kennedy and Killing Lincoln, page-turning works of nonfiction that have changed the way we read history.

Now the anchor of The O'Reilly Factor details the events leading up to the murder of the most influential man in history: Jesus of Nazareth. Nearly two thousand years after this beloved a

86

Christianity, Social Tolerance, and Homosexuality: Gay People in Western Europe from the Beginning of the Christian Era to the Fourteenth Century

John Boswell

4.0

John Boswell's highly acclaimed study of the history of attitudes toward homosexuality in the Christian West challenges received opinion and our own preconceptions about the Church's past relationship to its gay members, among whom were priests, bishops and even canonized saints. The historical breadth of Boswell's research (from the Greeks to Aquinas) and the variety of sources consulted (legal,

87

The Essential Kierkegaard

Søren Kierkegaard

4.0

This is the most comprehensive anthology of Soren Kierkegaard's works ever assembled in English. Drawn from the volumes of Princeton's authoritative Kierkegaard's Writings series by editors Howard and Edna Hong, the selections represent every major aspect of Kierkegaard's extraordinary career. They reveal the powerful mix of philosophy, psychology, theology, and literary criticism that made Kierke

88

When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome

Richard E. Rubenstein

4.0

A thoroughly researched and vivid re-creation of one of the most critical periods in the history of Western religion

The life of Jesus, and the subsequent persecution of Christians during the Roman Empire, have come to define what many of us know about early Christianity. The fervent debate, civil strife, and bloody riots within the Christian community as it was forming, however, is a story that i

89

New Testament History

F. F. Bruce

4.0

This book recounts the Roman and Jewish context of New Testament times...the lives of John and Jesus, and the history of the first two generations of the Church. "The best available treatment by an evangelical Christian. "-- "Christianity Today"

90

Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The Religious Significance of Food to Medieval Women

Caroline Walker Bynum

4.0

In the period between 1200 and 1500 in western Europe, a number of religious women gained widespread veneration and even canonization as saints for their extraordinary devotion to the Christian eucharist, supernatural multiplications of food and drink, and miracles of bodily manipulation, including stigmata and inedia (living without eating). The occurrence of such phenomena sheds much light on th

Recommended by Steven Kaplan.

Steven Kaplan

Covering several centuries and focussed thematically, Bynum explores the symbolic dimensions of the food question. [source]

91

The Consolation of Philosophy

Ancius Boethius and Victor Watts

4.0

Boethius was an eminent public figure under the Gothic emperor Theodoric, and an exceptional Greek scholar. When he became involved in a conspiracy and was imprisoned in Pavia, it was to the Greek philosophers that he turned. THE CONSOLATION was written in the period leading up to his brutal execution. It is a dialogue of alternating prose and verse between the ailing prisoner and his 'nurse' Phil

92

The Bible Is Black History

Dr. Theron D. Williams

4.0

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93

Woke Church: An Urgent Call for Christians in America to Confront Racism and Injustice

Eric Mason

4.0

“Between the Christianity of this land, and the Christianity of Christ, I recognize the widest possible difference.” –Frederick Douglass, 1845

The prophets of old were not easy to listen to because they did not flatter. They did not cajole. They spoke hard words that often chafed and unsettled their listeners. Like the Old Testament prophets, and more recent prophetic voices like Frederick Douglass

94

The Case for Christ, Revised & Updated: A Journalist's Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus

Lee Strobel

4.0

95

The Case for God

Karen Armstrong

4.0

Moving from the Paleolithic age to the present, Karen Armstrong details the great lengths to which humankind has gone in order to experience a sacred reality that it called by many names, such as God, Brahman, Nirvana, Allah, or Dao. Focusing especially on Christianity but including Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Chinese spiritualities, Armstrong examines the diminished impulse toward rel

Recommended by Anthony Seldon.

Anthony Seldon

ut what is God other than a state of total unknowing? One can’t know God with one’s mind. She quotes George Steiner saying one cannot begin to understand intellectually the impact that music has on oneself. And so with experiences of God: it means absolutely nothing at all, it is of absolutely of no consequence, that Richard Dawkins and the whole crew dismiss God. Because God is not an intellectual experience. But it is a human experience, to do with consciousness, an experience of being, not of having. She talks about the attempts of all the various religions to claim God for their own culture and often for their own gender: God is often phallocentric, and very elitist, and often rather elderly. And that is a grabbing hold of and a claiming of something that is only knowable through complete humility and not through acquiring, but rather letting go. And it is something that is so much at one’s very core that it is a journey to the place where you began, but knowing it for the first time, as T S Eliot said ‘The end of all our exploring/Will be to arrive where we started/And know the place for the first time.’ Four Quartets: Little Gidding. [source]

96

The Gnostic Gospels

Elaine Pagels

4.0

The Gnostic Gospels is a landmark study of the long-buried roots of Christianity, a work of luminous scholarship and wide popular appeal. First published in 1979 to critical acclaim, winning the National Book Award and the National Book Critics Circle Award, The Gnostic Gospels has continued to grow in reputation and influence over the past two decades. It is now widely recognized as one of the mo

97

Under the Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent Faith

Jon Krakauer

4.0

A multilayered, bone-chilling narrative of messianic delusion, savage violence, polygamy, and unyielding faith. This is vintage Krakauer, an utterly compelling work of nonfiction that illuminates an otherwise confounding realm of human behavior.

Jon Krakauer’s literary reputation rests on insightful chronicles of lives conducted at the outer limits. In Under The Banner of Heaven: A Story of Violent

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98

Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America

Christian Smith

4.0

Through a nationwide telephone survey of 2,000 people and an additional 200 face-to-face interviews, Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith probed the grassroots of white evangelical America. They found that despite recent efforts by the movement's leaders to address the problem of racial discrimination, evangelicals themselves seem to be preserving America's racial chasm. In fact, most white evan

99

A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century

Barbara W. Tuchman

4.0

The 14th century gives us back two contradictory images: a glittering time of crusades and castles, cathedrals and chivalry, and a dark time of ferocity and spiritual agony, a world plunged into a chaos of war, fear and the Plague. Barbara Tuchman anatomizes the century, revealing both the great rhythms of history and the grain and texture of domestic life as it was lived.

100

They Walked with Jesus: Past Life Experiences with Christ

Dolores Cannon

4.0

Sequel to Jesus and the Essenes.

The past-life memories of two women capture a true and compelling portrait of Jesus the man, from the healing miracles he performed to the gentle philosophy he preached. This is an INSIDER view, direct from Jesus' time, deep in feeling tones and profound in implications, giving a sense of how things truly were. This book includes drawings of the Temple and Old Jeru