The Rise of Christianity

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Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0060677015
Total Pages : 274 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (66 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rise of Christianity by : Rodney Stark

Download or read book The Rise of Christianity written by Rodney Stark and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 1997-05-09 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This "fresh, blunt, and highly persuasive account of how the West was won—for Jesus" (Newsweek) is now available in paperback. Stark's provocative report challenges conventional wisdom and finds that Christianity's astounding dominance of the Western world arose from its offer of a better, more secure way of life. "Compelling reading" (Library Journal) that is sure to "generate spirited argument" (Publishers Weekly), this account of Christianity's remarkable growth within the Roman Empire is the subject of much fanfare. "Anyone who has puzzled over Christianity's rise to dominance...must read it." says Yale University's Wayne A. Meeks, for The Rise of Christianity makes a compelling case for startling conclusions. Combining his expertise in social science with historical evidence, and his insight into contemporary religion's appeal, Stark finds that early Christianity attracted the privileged rather than the poor, that most early converts were women or marginalized Jews—and ultimately "that Christianity was a success because it proved those who joined it with a more appealing, more assuring, happier, and perhaps longer life" (Andrew M. Greeley, University of Chicago).

The Rise of Christian Beliefs

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Publisher : Fortress Press
ISBN 13 : 1451409532
Total Pages : 506 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (514 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rise of Christian Beliefs by : Heikki Räisänen

Download or read book The Rise of Christian Beliefs written by Heikki Räisänen and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on with total page 506 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Heikki Risnen offers a historical survey of the roots and first growth of the thoughts, values, and practices of the early Christians and explains the evolution of Christian belief in terms of vital adaptations to specific challenges. An ideal textbook for university introductory courses on the New Testament and Early Christianity, The Rise of Christian Beliefs offers chapters discussing paradigmatic events the life and death of Jesus and experiences of Easter, principal figures and groups, last things and afterlife, savior figures and the human condition, ethnicity, identity, and morality, and ritual community life.

Family Values and the Rise of the Christian Right

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Publisher : University of Pennsylvania Press
ISBN 13 : 0812291913
Total Pages : 280 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (122 download)

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Book Synopsis Family Values and the Rise of the Christian Right by : Seth Dowland

Download or read book Family Values and the Rise of the Christian Right written by Seth Dowland and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2015-10-20 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During the last three decades of the twentieth century, evangelical leaders and conservative politicians developed a political agenda that thrust "family values" onto the nation's consciousness. Ministers, legislators, and laypeople came together to fight abortion, gay rights, and major feminist objectives. They supported private Christian schools, home schooling, and a strong military. Family values leaders like Jerry Falwell, Phyllis Schlafly, Anita Bryant, and James Dobson became increasingly supportive of the Republican Party, which accommodated the language of family values in its platforms and campaigns. The family values agenda created a bond between evangelicalism and political conservatism. Family Values and the Rise of the Christian Right chronicles how the family values agenda became so powerful in American political life and why it appealed to conservative evangelical Christians. Conservative evangelicals saw traditional gender norms as crucial in cultivating morality. They thought these gender norms would reaffirm the importance of clear lines of authority that the social revolutions of the 1960s had undermined. In the 1970s and 1980s, then, evangelicals founded Christian academies and developed homeschooling curricula that put conservative ideas about gender and authority front and center. Campaigns against abortion and feminism coalesced around a belief that God created women as wives and mothers—a belief that conservative evangelicals thought feminists and pro-choice advocates threatened. Likewise, Christian right leaders championed a particular vision of masculinity in their campaigns against gay rights and nuclear disarmament. Movements like the Promise Keepers called men to take responsibility for leading their families. Christian right political campaigns and pro-family organizations drew on conservative evangelical beliefs about men, women, children, and authority. These beliefs—known collectively as family values—became the most important religious agenda in late twentieth-century American politics.

The Christian Century and the Rise of Mainline Protestantism

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Author :
Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0199938598
Total Pages : 282 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (999 download)

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Book Synopsis The Christian Century and the Rise of Mainline Protestantism by : Elesha J. Coffman

Download or read book The Christian Century and the Rise of Mainline Protestantism written by Elesha J. Coffman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-05-09 with total page 282 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Christian Century is widely regarded as the most influential religious magazine in America for most of the twentieth century. Coffman traces its chronic financial struggles, evolving editorial positions, and often fractious relations among writers, editors, and readers. Until the late 1940s, the magazine spoke out about many of the most pressing social and political issues of the time; but by the 1950s, internal strife shattered the illusion of Protestant consensus.

The Rise of Network Christianity

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 019063569X
Total Pages : 240 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (96 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rise of Network Christianity by : Brad Christerson

Download or read book The Rise of Network Christianity written by Brad Christerson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-01 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why, when traditionally organized religious groups are seeing declining membership and participation, are networks of independent churches growing so explosively? Drawing on in-depth interviews with leaders and participants, The Rise of Network Christianity explains the social forces behind the fastest-growing form of Christianity in the U.S., which Brad Christerson and Richard Flory have labeled "Independent Network Charismatic." This form of Christianity emphasizes aggressive engagement with the supernatural-including healing, direct prophecies from God, engaging in "spiritual warfare" against demonic spirits--and social transformation. Christerson and Flory argue that macro-level social changes since the 1970s, including globalization and the digital revolution, have given competitive advantages to religious groups organized as networks rather than traditionally organized congregations and denominations. Network forms of governance allow for experimentation with controversial supernatural practices, innovative finances and marketing, and a highly participatory, unorthodox, and experiential faith, which is attractive in today's unstable religious marketplace. Christerson and Flory hypothesize that as more religious groups imitate this type of governance, religious belief and practice will become more experimental, more orientated around practice than theology, more shaped by the individual religious "consumer," and authority will become more highly concentrated in the hands of individuals rather than institutions. Network Christianity, they argue, is the future of Christianity in America.

Christian Belief in a Postmodern World

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Publisher : Westminster John Knox Press
ISBN 13 : 9780804206259
Total Pages : 256 pages
Book Rating : 4.2/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis Christian Belief in a Postmodern World by : Diogenes Allen

Download or read book Christian Belief in a Postmodern World written by Diogenes Allen and published by Westminster John Knox Press. This book was released on 1989-01-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a philosophical argument for the reasonableness of Christian faith in today's world. Diogenes Allen shows how Christian belief is now being supported by scientific and philosophical principles--perhaps for the first time in 300 years.

History of Christianity

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Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1451688512
Total Pages : 816 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (516 download)

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Book Synopsis History of Christianity by : Paul Johnson

Download or read book History of Christianity written by Paul Johnson and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-03-27 with total page 816 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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 Johnson has illuminated the Christian world and its fascinating history in a way that no other has. Johnson takes off in the year AD 49 with his namesake the apostle Paul. Thus beginning an ambitious quest to paint the centuries since the founding of a little-known ‘Jesus Sect’, A History of Christianity explores to a great degree the evolution of the Western world. With an unbiased and overall optimistic tone, Johnson traces the fantastic scope of the consequent sects of Christianity and the people who followed them. Information drawn from extensive and varied sources from around the world makes this history as credible as it is reliable. Invaluable understanding of the framework of modern Christianity—and its trials and tribulations throughout history—has never before been contained in such a captivating work.

A History of Christianity

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Publisher : Macmillan
ISBN 13 : 9780312187231
Total Pages : 312 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (872 download)

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Book Synopsis A History of Christianity by : Owen Chadwick

Download or read book A History of Christianity written by Owen Chadwick and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 1998-04-15 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Presents a history of the Christian faith, from its beginning as a Jewish sect to the impact of twentieth-century issues such as birth control, Muslim fundamentalism, and Nazi racism.

The Rise and Fall of the Christian Myth

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Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300227892
Total Pages : 320 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (2 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rise and Fall of the Christian Myth by : Burton L. Mack

Download or read book The Rise and Fall of the Christian Myth written by Burton L. Mack and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-07 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the culmination of a lifelong scholarly inquiry into Christian history, religion as a social institution, and the role of myth in the history of religions. Mack shows that religions are essentially mythological and that Christianity in particular has been an ever-changing mythological engine of social formation, from Roman times to its distinct American expression in our time. The author traces the cultural influence of the Christian myth that has persisted for sixteen hundred years but now should be much less consequential in our social and cultural life, since it runs counter to our democratic ideals. We stand at a critical impasse: badly splintered by conflicting groups pursuing their own social interests, a binding common myth needs to be established by renewing a truly cohesive national and international story rooted in our democratic and egalitarian origins, committed to freedom, equality, and vital human values.

Kingdom Coming

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Publisher : National Geographic Books
ISBN 13 : 0393329763
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (933 download)

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Book Synopsis Kingdom Coming by : Michelle Goldberg

Download or read book Kingdom Coming written by Michelle Goldberg and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2007-03-27 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A potent wakeup call to pluralists in the coming showdown with Christian nationalists."—Publishers Weekly, starred review Michelle Goldberg, a senior political reporter for Salon.com, has been covering the intersection of politics and ideology for years. Before the 2004 election, and during the ensuing months when many Americans were trying to understand how an administration marked by cronyism, disregard for the national budget, and poorly disguised self-interest had been reinstated, Goldberg traveled through the heartland of a country in the grips of a fevered religious radicalism: the America of our time. From the classroom to the mega-church to the federal court, she saw how the growing influence of dominionism-the doctrine that Christians have the right to rule nonbelievers-is threatening the foundations of democracy. In Kingdom Coming, Goldberg demonstrates how an increasingly bellicose fundamentalism is gaining traction throughout our national life, taking us on a tour of the parallel right-wing evangelical culture that is buoyed by Republican political patronage. Deep within the red zones of a divided America, we meet military retirees pledging to seize the nation in Christ's name, perfidious congressmen courting the confidence of neo-confederates and proponents of theocracy, and leaders of federally funded programs offering Jesus as the solution to the country's social problems. With her trenchant interviews and the telling testimonies of the people behind this movement, Goldberg gains access into the hearts and minds of citizens who are striving to remake the secular Republic bequeathed by our founders into a Christian nation run according to their interpretation of scripture. In her examination of the ever-widening divide between believers and nonbelievers, Goldberg illustrates the subversive effect of this conservative stranglehold nationwide. In an age when faith rather than reason is heralded and the values of the Enlightenment are threatened by a mystical nationalism claiming divine sanction, Kingdom Coming brings us face to face with the irrational forces that are remaking much of America.

From Jesus to Christ

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Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300164106
Total Pages : 286 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis From Jesus to Christ by : Paula Fredriksen

Download or read book From Jesus to Christ written by Paula Fredriksen and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Magisterial. . . . A learned, brilliant and enjoyable study."—Géza Vermès, Times Literary Supplement In this exciting book, Paula Fredriksen explains the variety of New Testament images of Jesus by exploring the ways that the new Christian communities interpreted his mission and message in light of the delay of the Kingdom he had preached. This edition includes an introduction reviews the most recent scholarship on Jesus and its implications for both history and theology. "Brilliant and lucidly written, full of original and fascinating insights."—Reginald H. Fuller, Journal of the American Academy of Religion "This is a first-rate work of a first-rate historian."—James D. Tabor, Journal of Religion "Fredriksen confronts her documents—principally the writings of the New Testament—as an archaeologist would an especially rich complex site. With great care she distinguishes the literary images from historical fact. As she does so, she explains the images of Jesus in terms of the strategies and purposes of the writers Paul, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John."—Thomas D’Evelyn, Christian Science Monitor

The Power Worshippers

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Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN 13 : 1635573459
Total Pages : 353 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (355 download)

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Book Synopsis The Power Worshippers by : Katherine Stewart

Download or read book The Power Worshippers written by Katherine Stewart and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2020-03-03 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For readers of Democracy in Chains and Dark Money, a revelatory investigation of the Religious Right's rise to political power. For too long the Religious Right has masqueraded as a social movement preoccupied with a number of cultural issues, such as abortion and same-sex marriage. In her deeply reported investigation, Katherine Stewart reveals a disturbing truth: this is a political movement that seeks to gain power and to impose its vision on all of society. America's religious nationalists aren't just fighting a culture war, they are waging a political war on the norms and institutions of American democracy. Stewart pulls back the curtain on the inner workings and leading personalities of a movement that has turned religion into a tool for domination. She exposes a dense network of think tanks, advocacy groups, and pastoral organizations embedded in a rapidly expanding community of international alliances and united not by any central command but by a shared, anti-democratic vision and a common will to power. She follows the money that fuels this movement, tracing much of it to a cadre of super-wealthy, ultraconservative donors and family foundations. She shows that today's Christian nationalism is the fruit of a longstanding antidemocratic, reactionary strain of American thought that draws on some of the most troubling episodes in America's past. It forms common cause with a globe-spanning movement that seeks to destroy liberal democracy and replace it with nationalist, theocratic and autocratic forms of government around the world. Religious nationalism is far more organized and better funded than most people realize. It seeks to control all aspects of government and society. Its successes have been stunning, and its influence now extends to every aspect of American life, from the White House to state capitols, from our schools to our hospitals. The Power Worshippers is a brilliantly reported book of warning and a wake-up call. Stewart's probing examination demands that Christian nationalism be taken seriously as a significant threat to the American republic and our democratic freedoms.

Sarah Osborn's World

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Publisher : Yale University Press
ISBN 13 : 0300188323
Total Pages : 450 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (1 download)

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Book Synopsis Sarah Osborn's World by : Catherine A. Brekus

Download or read book Sarah Osborn's World written by Catherine A. Brekus and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2013-01-08 with total page 450 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1743, sitting quietly with pen in hand, Sarah Osborn pondered how to tell the story of her life, how to make sense of both her spiritual awakening and the sudden destitution of her family. Remarkably, the memoir she created that year survives today, as do more than two thousand additional pages she composed over the following three decades. Sarah Osborn's World is the first book to mine this remarkable woman’s prolific personal and spiritual record. Catherine Brekus recovers the largely forgotten story of Sarah Osborn's life as one of the most charismatic female religious leaders of her time, while also connecting her captivating story to the rising evangelical movement in eighteenth-century America. A schoolteacher in Rhode Island, a wife, and a mother, Sarah Osborn led a remarkable revival in the 1760s that brought hundreds of people, including many slaves, to her house each week. Her extensive written record—encompassing issues ranging from the desire to be "born again" to a suspicion of capitalism—provides a unique vantage point from which to view the emergence of evangelicalism. Brekus sets Sarah Osborn's experience in the context of her revivalist era and expands our understanding of the birth of the evangelical movement—a movement that transformed Protestantism in the decades before the American Revolution.

Religion and the Rise of Capitalism

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 :
Total Pages : 296 pages
Book Rating : 4.F/5 ( download)

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Book Synopsis Religion and the Rise of Capitalism by : Richard Henry Tawney

Download or read book Religion and the Rise of Capitalism written by Richard Henry Tawney and published by . This book was released on 1926 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

The Rise of Christianity

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Publisher : Princeton University Press
ISBN 13 : 0691214298
Total Pages : 264 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (912 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rise of Christianity by : Rodney Stark

Download or read book The Rise of Christianity written by Rodney Stark and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2020-06-16 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A landmark reinterpretation of why Christianity became the dominant faith of the West The idea that Christianity started as a clandestine movement among the poor is a widely accepted notion. Yet it is one of many myths that must be discarded if we are to understand just how a tiny messianic movement on the edge of the Roman Empire became the dominant faith of Western civilization. In a fast-paced, highly readable book that addresses beliefs as well as historical facts, Rodney Stark brings a sociologist's perspective to bear on the puzzle behind the success of early Christianity. He comes equipped not only with the logic and methods of social science but also with insights gathered firsthand into why people convert and how new religious groups recruit members. He digs deep into the historical evidence on many issues—such as the social background of converts, the mission to the Jews, the status of women in the church, the role of martyrdom—to provide a vivid and unconventional account of early Christianity. The author plots the most plausible curve of Christian growth from the year 40 to 300. By the time of Constantine, Christianity had become a considerable force, with growth patterns very similar to those of modern-day successful religious movements. An unusual number of Christian converts, for example, came from the educated, cosmopolitan classes. Because it offered a new perspective on familiar concepts and was not linked to ethnicity, Christianity had a large following among persons seeking to assimilate into the dominant culture, mainly Hellenized Jews. The oversupply of women in Christian communities—due partly to the respect and protection they received—led to intermarriages with pagans, hence more conversions, and to a high fertility rate. Stark points out, too, the role played by selflessness and faith. Amidst the epidemics, fires, and other disasters that beleaguered Greco-Roman cities, Christian communities were a stronghold of mutual aid, which resulted in a survival rate far greater than that of the pagans. In the meantime, voluntary martyrdom, especially a generation after the death of Christ, reinforced the commitment of the Christian rank and file. What Stark ultimately offers is a multifaceted portrait of early Christianity, one that appeals to practical reasoning, historical curiosity, and personal reflection.

The Rise of the Early Christian Intellectual

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Author :
Publisher : Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN 13 : 3110608006
Total Pages : 342 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (16 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rise of the Early Christian Intellectual by : Lewis Ayres

Download or read book The Rise of the Early Christian Intellectual written by Lewis Ayres and published by Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG. This book was released on 2020-05-05 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The study of the growth of early Christian intellectual life is of perennial interest to scholars. This volume advances discussion by exploring ways in which Christian writers in the second century did not so much draw on Hellenistic intellectual traditions and models, as they were inevitably embedded in those traditions. The volume contains papers from a seminar in Rome in 2016 that explored the nature and activity of the emergent Christian intellectual between the late first century and the early third century. The papers show that Hellenistic scholarly cultures were the milieu within which Christian modes of thinking developed. At the same time the essays show how Christian thinkers made use of the cultures of which they were part in distinctive ways, adapting existing traditions because of Christian beliefs and needs. The figures studied include Papias from the early part of the second-century, Tatian, Irenaeus, and Clement of Alexandria from the later second century. One paper on Eusebius of Caesarea explores the Christian adaptation of Hellenistic scholarly methods of commentary. Christian figures are studied in the light of debates within Classics and Jewish studies.

The Rise of Christianity

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Author :
Publisher : Fortress Press
ISBN 13 : 9781451419528
Total Pages : 1048 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (195 download)

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Book Synopsis The Rise of Christianity by : W. H. C. Frend

Download or read book The Rise of Christianity written by W. H. C. Frend and published by Fortress Press. This book was released on 1984-01-01 with total page 1048 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Traces the early history of the Christian church from Jewish Palestine prior to Christ's birth to the sixth century monastic movement, and explains how Christianity survived under a variety of cultures