Now in its fourth edition, this bestselling textbook (over 125,000 copies sold) isolates key events that provide a framework for understanding the history of Christianity. The book presents Christianity as a worldwide phenomenon rather than just a Western experience. This popular textbook is organized around 14 key moments in church history, providing contemporary Christians with a fuller understanding of God as he has revealed his purpose through the centuries. The new edition includes a new preface, updates throughout the book, revised "further readings" for each chapter, new sidebar content, and study questions. It also more thoroughly highlights the importance of women in Christian history and the impact of world Christianity. Turning Points is well suited to introductory courses on the history of Christianity as well as study groups in churches. Additional resources for instructors are available through Textbook eSources.

The Tudors are England's most notorious royal family. But, as Leanda de Lisle's gripping new history reveals, they are a family still more extraordinary than the one we thought we knew. The Tudor canon typically starts with the Battle of Bosworth in 1485, before speeding on to Henry VIII and the Reformation. But this leaves out the family's obscure Welsh origins, the ordinary man known as Owen Tudor who would fall (literally) into a Queen's lap--and later her bed. It passes by the courage of Margaret Beaufort, the pregnant thirteen-year-old girl who would help found the Tudor dynasty, and the childhood and painful exile of her son, the future Henry VII. It ignores the fact that the Tudors were shaped by their past--those parts they wished to remember and those they wished to forget. By creating a full family portrait set against the background of this past, de Lisle enables us to see the Tudor dynasty in its own terms, and presents new perspectives and revelations on key figures and events. De Lisle discovers a family dominated by remarkable women doing everything possible to secure its future; shows why the princes in the Tower had to vanish; and reexamines the bloodiness of Mary's reign, Elizabeth's fraught relationships with her cousins, and the true significance of previously overlooked figures. Throughout the Tudor story, Leanda de Lisle emphasizes the supreme importance of achieving peace and stability in a violent and uncertain world, and of protecting and securing the bloodline. Tudor is bristling with religious and political intrigue but at heart is a thrilling story of one family's determined and flamboyant ambition.

Brahana Selassie is a priest in the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, and here gives an account of Ethiopia's national Church from its origins in biblical times to the present century. Drawing extensively on both biblical and academic sources, 'Towards a Fuller Vision' describes the controversies that have raged within the Church, and its constant struggle for the independent existence it has now achieved.

In this highly engaging book, Peter Walker uses his expertise in Biblical studies and his extensive experience of leading tours around the Mediterranean to bring the world of Saint Paul vividly to life. Following Luke's account in the Book of Acts and using evidence from Paul s own letters, he reconstructs the apostle s wide-ranging travels and describes the many places Paul visited as we encounter them today. In doing so he helps us to appreciate the issues that Paul confronted and to understand the motivation that drove him on. Enriched with boxed features outlining key timelines and topics, and supplemented with maps and street plans, this book is an ideal introduction to Paul and his travels for scholars at all levels of study.

Smith tries to redress the balance with a comprehensive history of mission that highlights the critical contributions of women, as well as the theological developments that influenced their role. Beginning with an examination of the New Testament record, Smith goes on to review the long period between the apostolic church and the Second Vatican Council. Following a survey of critical developments since 1965 in both Catholic and other churches, she concludes with a magisterial chapter entitled "A Feminist Missiology for Contemporary Missionary Women. "Women in Mission" is a landmark in women's history and essential reading for anyone engaged in historical, theological, mission, and women's studies.

This is an accessible two-part introduction to key periods of Christian history. Faith in the Byzantine World For many people the Byzantine world is an intriguing mystery. Here, Mary Cunningham presents readers with an ideal guide to this most fascinating of empires. Covering the period between 330 and 1453, the author begins by providing an outline of the history of the Byzantine Church, and then looks at key aspects of its outward expression, including the solitary ideal; holy places and holy people; service to the community; the nature of belief; and art, architecture and icons. Faith in the Medieval World The medieval period constituted a turbulent stage in religious history. Gillian R. Evans begins her immersive account by providing an overview of the development of Christianity in the West in the Middle Ages, before looking at key aspects of medieval faith: the Bible and belief; popular piety and devotion; the Crusades and the idea of 'holy war'; politics and the Church; rebellion against authority; and the road to Reformation. This analysis is a must for all those keen to understand one of the most enthralling periods of history.

Born without a dowry, nearly forced into a convent, and later married off to a man she didn't love, Olimpia Maidalchini vowed never to be poor, powerless, or beholden to any man again. Instead, using her wits, Olimpia became the unofficial ruler of the most powerful institution in the world: the Roman Catholic Church.

The Church firmly states that women must be excluded from church leadership positions--but for more than a decade in the seventeenth century, Olimpia ran the Vatican. As sister-in-law and reputed mistress of the indecisive Pope Innocent X, she appointed cardinals, negotiated with foreign ambassadors, and helped herself to a heaping portion of the Papal States' treasury.

In Mistress of the Vatican, New York Times bestselling author Eleanor Herman brings to life not only an extraordinary woman lost in history but an entire civilization in all its greatness . . . and ignominy. This is the unforgettable story of a woman ahead of her time.

Hereford and Oxford in the century following the Restoration were two widely contrasting sees. Hereford was old, dating from ad 676, and large, sprawling over Herefordshire, half of Shropshire and small parts of other border counties. The Oxford diocese, on the other hand, dated from just 1542 and was compact, merely covering the county of Oxfordshire. This interesting book concerns a much-overlooked period in history, drawing on little-known original sources to build a picture of the administration of these disparate dioceses. There are fascinating insights into the working of the church courts (which controlled people's lives in a way and to an extent that would be unacceptable today), portrayals of the key figures in both sees, and an analysis of diocesan patterns of welfare and education provision. William Marshall's research also reveals that there was a strong commitment to repair - or to build new - places of worship, and to make good the damage caused to Church infrastructure during the civil wars of the 1640s. The closing chapters go on to examine the work of the bishops, their social origins, their academic standards, their efficiency and diligence. As a group, they certainly cut a more energetic and conscientious figure than has often been supposed, and for the most part, the author argues, they were competent men who saw and acknowledged the weaknesses of the Church and sought to address them. In a departure from commonly held wisdom, what emerges from William Marshall's research is that in many places the Church at the time was very much alive, and even vigorous. Its worst failings were, he claims, in its social welfare and in the tedium of its worship for the mass of the people, but here, at this time, it was certainly neither asleep nor decadent.

Sounding Forth the Trumpet brings to life one of the most crucial epochs in America's history--the events leading up to and precipitating the Civil War. In this enlightening book, readers live through the Gold Rush, the Mexican War, the skirmishes of Bleeding Kansas, and the emergence of Abraham Lincoln, as well as the tragic issue of slavery.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, several thousand impoverished young Jewish women from Eastern Europe were forced into prostitution in the frontier colonies of Latin America, South Africa, India, and parts of the United States by the Zwi Migdal, a notorious criminal gang of Jewish mobsters.

Isabel Vincent, acclaimed author of "Hitler's Silent Partners," tells the remarkable true story of three such women--Sophia Chamys, Rachel Liberman, and Rebecca Freedman--who, like so many others, were desperate to escape a hopeless future in Europe's teeming urban ghettos and rural shtetls. "Bodies and Souls" is a shocking and spellbinding account of a monumental betrayal that brings to light a dark and shameful hitherto untold chapter in Jewish history--brilliantly chronicling the heartbreaking plight of women rejected by a society that deemed them impure and detailing their extraordinary struggles to live with dignity in a community of their own creation.

Over the course of its growth in modern China, Christianity has faced twists and turns in its embedding in Chinese society and indigenous culture. This three-volume book delineates the genesis and trajectory of Christianity's indigenization in China over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The first volume focuses on the presence of Christianity during the late Qing dynasty and the early twentieth century, discussing the early waves of Christian influence in China. Volume 2 discusses Christianity's encounter with the turbulent history in the 1920s and responses of Chinese church to criticisms and backlash against Christianity. The final volume analyzes the endeavors of Christianity to adapt to the changing social environments between the late 1920s and the end of the 20th century. With a highlight on the relationship between the development of Christianity and modern Chinese history, the book will appeal to scholars and students interested in the history of Christianity in China and also modern Chinese history.

Winner of The PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize 2022 Shortlisted for The Wolfson History Prize 2022 A The Times Books of the Year 2022 Three thousand years ago, in the Southwest Asian lands we now call Israel and Palestine, a group of people worshipped a complex pantheon of deities, led by a father god called El. El had seventy children, who were gods in their own right. One of them was a minor storm deity, known as Yahweh. Yahweh had a body, a wife, offspring and colleagues. He fought monsters and mortals. He gorged on food and wine, wrote books, and took walks and naps. But he would become something far larger and far more abstract: the God of the great monotheistic religions. But as Professor Francesca Stavrakopoulou reveals, God's cultural DNA stretches back centuries before the Bible was written, and persists in the tics and twitches of our own society, whether we are believers or not. The Bible has shaped our ideas about God and religion, but also our cultural preferences about human existence and experience; our concept of life and death; our attitude to sex and gender; our habits of eating and drinking; our understanding of history. Examining God's body, from his head to his hands, feet and genitals, she shows how the Western idea of God developed. She explores the places and artefacts that shaped our view of this singular God and the ancient religions and societies of the biblical world. And in doing so she analyses not only the origins of our oldest monotheistic religions, but also the origins of Western culture. Beautifully written, passionately argued and frequently controversial, God: An Anatomy is cultural history on a grand scale. 'Rivetingly fresh and stunning' - Sunday Times 'One of the most remarkable historians and communicators working today' - Dan Snow