Synopses & Reviews
The New York Times bestseller andand#160;definitive history of Christianity for our timeand#151;from the award-winning author of The Reformation and Silence
A product of electrifying scholarship conveyed with commanding skill, Diarmaid MacCulloch's Christianity goes back to the origins of the Hebrew Bible and encompasses the globe. It captures the major turning points inand#160;Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodoxand#160;history and fills in often neglected accounts of conversion and confrontation in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.and#160;MacCulloch introduces us toand#160;monks and crusaders, heretics and reformers, popes and abolitionists, and discover Christianity's essential role in shaping human history and the intimate lives of men and women. Andand#160;he uncovers the roots of the faith that galvanized America, charting the surprising beliefs of the founding fathers, the rise of the Evangelical movement and of Pentecostalism, and the recent crises within the Catholic Church. Bursting with original insights and a great pleasure to read, this monumental religious history will not soon be surpassed.
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Review
Praise for Christianity and#8220;Immensely ambitious and absorbing.and#8221;
and#8212;Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker
and#8220;A landmark contribution . . . It is difficult to imagine a more comprehensive and surprisingly accessible volume than MacCullochand#8217;s.and#8221;
and#8212;Jon Meacham, The New York Times Book Review
and#8220;A prodigious, thrilling, masterclass of a history book. MacCulloch is to be congratulated for his accessible handling of so much complex, difficult material.and#8221;
and#8212;John Cornwell, Financial Times
and#8220;A tour de force: it has enormous range, is gracefully and wittily written, and from page one holds the attention. Everyone who reads it will learn things they didnand#8217;t know.and#8221;
and#8212;Eamon Duffy, author of Saints and Sinners
and#8220;MacCulloch brings an insiderand#8217;s wit to tracing the fate of official Christianity in an age of doubt, and to addressing modern surges of zeal, from Mormons to Pentecostals.and#8221;
and#8212;The Economist
and#8220;A triumphantly executed achievement. This book is a landmark in its field, astonishing in its range, compulsively readable, full of insight even for the most jaded professional and of illumination for the interested general reader. It will have few, if any, rivals in the English language.and#8221;
and#8212;Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury
and#8220;A well-informed andand#8212;bless the manand#8212;witty narrative guaranteed to please and at the same time displease every single reader, if hardly in identical measure. . . . The authorand#8217;s prose style is fluent, well-judged, and wholly free of cant. . . . You will shut this large book with gratitude for a long and stimulating journey.and#8221;
and#8212;The Washington Times
and#8220;A tour de force . . . The great strength of the book is that it covers, in sufficient but not oppressive detail, huge areas of Christian history which are dealt with cursorily in traditional accounts of the subject and are unfamiliar to most English-speaking readers. . . . MacCullochand#8217;s analysis of why Christianity has taken root in Korea but made such a hash in India is perceptive and his account of the nineteenth-century missions in Africa and the Pacific is first-rate and full of insight. . . . The most brilliant point of this remarkable book is its identification of the U.S. as the prime example of the kind of nation the reformers hoped to create.and#8221;
and#8212;Paul Johnson, The Spectator
Review
and#8220;A tour de force of scholarship that begins with a gradual and accessible buildup and then descends, like the century, into a convulsion of dynastic entanglements.and#8221;
and#8212; Kirkus Reviews
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and#8220;Offers insight into the extraordinary turmoil that the average European endured in an era typically described through reverent admiration for art, architecture, and intellectual development. Using the histories of well-chosen cities and countries as examples for each discussion, Greengrass reveals that it was and#8216;curiosity [that] destroyed Christendom.and#8217;and#8221;
and#160;and#8212;Publisherand#8217;s Weekly
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and#160;and#8220;The product of a high standard of creative historical scholarship founded on years of study of archival and literary evidence by a much respected observer of the sixteenth-century scene.... It is Mark Greengrassand#8217; achievement to have imposed upon his subject a sense of order which draws the reader alongand#8230;. It is characteristics such as these which earn the book the five stars which it surely deserves.and#8221;
and#8212; Christopher Allmand, The Tablet (UK)
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and#8220;A model of scholarly dedication. It makes heavy demands of the general reader.... Almost every page has a memorable nugget, from the invention of the world atlas to the scatological sermons of Martin Luther.and#8221;
and#8212; Dominic Sandbrook, The Sunday Times (UK)
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and#8220;[Greengrass] writes with clarity and vigour, in a highly engaging style, and his book is as full of fascinating nuggets as it is of wise judgements.... Greengrass succeeds brilliantly in bringing to life a vanished world.and#8221;
and#160;and#8212;Peter Marshall, Literary Review (UK)
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and#8220;A magnificent achievement. Engagingly written, remarkably comprehensive in scope, impeccable in its scholarship, it should find a wide readership which will be rewarded with a new understanding of one of the most decisive eras in European history.and#8221;
and#8212;Robert A. Schneider, Professor of History, Indiana University
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and#8220;Mark Greengrass is a leading authority on early modern Europe, and heand#8217;s written an extraordinary book, one that combines learning, imagination, and insight. This is history that takes seriously our twenty-first century questions about what Europe is and where it fits in the larger world.and#8221;
and#8212;Jonathan Dewald, University at Buffalo, State University of New York
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and#8220;Composed in four countries (three of them in the European Union), Mark Greengrassand#8217;s contribution to this series offers an unusually wide-angled panorama of European history from Luther to the Peace of Westphalia, seasoned with a plethora of richly-illustrative and often unfamiliar illustrations.and#8221;
and#8212;William Monter, Professor of History, Northwestern University
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Synopsis
A remarkable new volume in the critically acclaimed Penguin History of Europe series
From peasants to princes, no one was untouched by the spiritual and intellectual upheaval of the sixteenth century. Martin Lutherand#8217;s challenge to church authorityand#160;forced Christians to examine their beliefs in ways that shook the foundations of their religion. The subsequent divisions, fed by dynastic rivalries and military changes, fundamentally altered the relations between ruler and ruled. Geographical and scientific discoveries challenged the unity of Christendom as a belief community.and#160;Europe, with all its divisions, emerged instead as a geographical projection. Chronicling these dramatic changes, Thomas More, Shakespeare, Montaigne, and Cervantes created works that continue to resonate with us.
Spanning the years 1517 to 1648, Christendom Destroyed is Mark Greengrassand#8217;s magnum opus: a rich tapestry that fosters a deeper understanding of Europeand#8217;s identity today.
About the Author
Diarmaid MacCulloch is a fellow of St. Cross College, Oxford, and professor of the history of the church at Oxford University. His books include Suffolk and the Tudors, winner of the Royal Historical Society's Whitfield Prize, and Thomas Cranmer: A Life, which won the Whitbread Biography Prize, the James Tait Black Prize, and the Duff Cooper Prize. A former Anglican deacon, he has presented many highly celebrated documentaries for television and radio, and was knighted in 2012 for his services to scholarship. He lives in Oxford, England.