A Global History of Christians: How Everyday Believers Experienced Their World

by Paul Spickard, Kevin M. Cragg

Surveys the progression of the Christian experience within historical, social, economic, and cultural contexts

Genres: History, Church History, Christian, Christianity, Christian History, Nonfiction, Religion

488 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2001

Reviews

[Michael · Rating 5 out of 5]

Although published two decades ago, this book is a helpful overview of Christian history. From time to time, as someone who teaches church history, I find it helpful to review the basics. This is an excellence volume with a specific focus on the global picture along with an emphasis on the everyday life of the believer. Both are vital to the narrative while the authors give a broad overview of some of the bigger issues all the same. Side boxes featuring major publications and authors were extremely helpful, although the suggested reading at the end of each chapter is quite dated. If the publisher would produce an updated edition, I would be very interested in using this as a textbook in the future. In the meantime, it is a helpful resource as a broad survey with special attention to Christianity in Latin America, Africa, and Asia.

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

For someone who doesn't really like history, I actually enjoyed this book! It gives a great overview of Christian history without bogging you down with boring dates and names. It gave just enough to understand the major cultural movements/shifts around the world, and it was an interesting read!

[Lilly Pittman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great overview.

[Em · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for my Global Christianity college course.

The book was actually very engaging for a college textbook, but that is coming from someone who is extremely interested in learning more about church history and the theology found within its different branches. Overall, I think this book does a really great job presenting information not only about what the different denominations in Christianity believed but also how those beliefs were expressed in that Christian community and perceived by the surrounding culture. I was most interested in the first half of the book that covered the church fathers and early heresies within the church. Once the book began covering information from the Protestant reformation, Great Awakening, and onward, I was less interested. However, that is not to say those sections were not objectively informational. Rather, I am already very familiar with a lot of that information from growing up in a Christian school where that was all covered frequently in the history textbooks.
The only major side note I have is that the book is written from a protestant perspective. Whether that is intentional or not, I cannot say, but I do think it is important to go into the book knowing the authors stance.

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book covers a lot of ground, and the writing is more accessible than most text-books. It focuses on how historical events in Christianity effected average practitioners, which is refreshing. However, it sometimes carries such heavy bias as to be flat out inaccurate. Sometimes, the authors' opinions on controversial issues bled through. Sometimes the author(s) interpreted past events through a lens of modern society; not in the context of the culture of the time/place in question. There were a few over-simplifications of issues which went too far and wound up making offensive generalizations. It is my understanding this is one of the best texts of this kind out there. But I think there is still plenty of room for improvement.

[Katie]

We used this book in the history class I taught at a Bible college recently. As texts go, this one does a great job of engaging the reader and giving an intelligent survey of the topic at hand. My only complaint was an occasional tone of bias toward a conservative Christian view.

[Katie Sargent · Rating 4 out of 5]

A clear, well organized and easy to comprehend history of Christianity from the 1500's to the present.