In this cogent volume, historian Martin Marty gives readers of all faiths a brief yet sweeping account of Christianity and how it grew from a few b...
read full description
reviews
Oct 10, 2010
Jeremy
rated it: 
This was a helpful review of Christian history. Marty's treating the story in "episodes" is helpful. I valued particularly the sections on African and Latin American Christianity, of which I still know virtually nothing—only a little more now.
Marty's key phrase (around which he organized the narrative) is that "Christians accept the human Jesus as the exalted Lord" (he uses most of these words in this order). This device ("the human Jesus as the exalte More...
Dec 29, 2008
Diane
rated it: 
Good overview of Christianity throughout the world from its beginnings to the present day. The book doesn't offer much new material, but it is a good introduction for someone interested in getting a basic understanding of the history.
Mar 20, 2009
Aaron
rated it: 
200 pages weren't enough to pack 2000 years of history and remain clear. Too many important ideas and events were glossed over. The chapters on the current growth of Christianity in Asia and Africa was well done though.
Jul 20, 2008
Nate
rated it: 
Martin Marty effortlessly sums up the past 2000 years of Christian history, dividing it into episodes on Asian, African, European, North and South American continents. He hits all the major high points from a pretty neutral standpoint. He introduces all the major players, from the Apostles to Frumentius to Cyril and Methodius to Kierkegaard to Billy Sunday, and everyone in between.
A must-read for anyone who feels like they have something to learn from Church history but doesn't w More...
A must-read for anyone who feels like they have something to learn from Church history but doesn't w More...
Aug 05, 2011
Matt
rated it:
It's a kind of "Christian-history lite," and ends up being a surprisingly shallow read for someone of Dr. Marty's academic calibre.
Jun 13, 2009
Barbara
rated it:
Filled in some gaps for me in early history-- how did we get from Pentecost to a church? - but got scattered and less interesting as the author tried to cover all of Christianity over 2 millennia.
Jul 30, 2008
Jamie
rated it:
This booked seemed very constrained by its length. Marty had an admirable mission in trying to look at the church continent-by-continent, but there seemed to be quite a bit lacking in the crossover between movements, etc.
Oct 05, 2011
Jagad5
rated it:
I only managed to listen to the first couple of disks. Very detailed, which might be interpreted as "boring."
Feb 08, 2012
Jan 14, 2012
Dec 31, 2011
Dec 29, 2011
Dec 28, 2011
Jan 24, 2012
Dec 08, 2011
Dec 02, 2011
Oct 18, 2011
Oct 11, 2011
Jan 11, 2012
Dec 04, 2011
Sep 09, 2011
Aug 07, 2011
Aug 04, 2011
Jul 26, 2011
Jul 25, 2011
