The historical investigation of Protestantism has frequently been confined to an internal national framework; and yet Church history of the twentieth century provides ample evidence for the fact that national tendencies have to be interpreted against the background of international developments, and cannot be adequately assessed in isolation. The present volume is an attempt to take this seriously. It contains contributions by scholars from many countries, mostly European. They represent various disciplines: History, Sociology and Church history. The book has four chapters: (1) Transformations and historical turning points in the twentieth century; (2) The world wars and their repercussions for the churches; (3) The post-war period. Totalitarian ideologies as a challenge for the churches; (4) Christian Europe? - Globalization - internationalization.