The dramatic story of Christianity from its origins to the present day, told through more than one hundred stunning color maps.With over two billion practicing believers today, Christianity has taken root in almost all parts of the globe. Its impact on Europe and the Americas in particular has been fundamental. Through more than one hundred beautiful color maps and illustrations, Christianity traces the history of the religion, beginning with the world of Jesus Christ. From the consolidation of the first Christian empire Constantine?s Rome to the early Christian states that thrived in Ireland, Ethiopia, and other regions of the Roman periphery, Christianity quickly proved dynamic and adaptable.After centuries of dissemination, strife, dogmatic division, and warfare in its European and Near Eastern heartland, Christianity conquered new worlds. In North America, immigrants fleeing persecution and intolerance rejected the established Church, and in time revivalist religions flourished and spread. Missionaries took the Christian message to Latin America, Africa, and Asia, bringing millions of new converts into the fold.Christianity has served as the inspiration for some of the world?s finest monuments, literature, art, and architecture, while also playing a major role in world politics and history, including conquest, colonization, conflict, and liberation. Despite challenges in the modern world from atheism and secularism, from scandals and internal divisions, Christianity continues to spread its message through new technologies while drawing on a deep well of history and tradition.IntroductionIn the BeginningIsrael: The Crucible of ChristianityA Turbulent Province: Roman JudaeaJerusalem: The Focus of ChristianityThe Ministry of Jesus and Holy Land SitesThe Age of the Apostles: St Paul?s JourneysThe Early Christian Church to 200 CEThe Christianization of the EmpireEarly Christian SectsThe Council of Chalcedon, 451 CEThe Fall of the Empire in the WestCreeds and ControversiesThe Consolidation of Christianity to 600 CEIreland: Churchmen and ScholarsThe Empire under Justinian, 527 565Nestorianism, the Church of the EastThe Emergence of IslamThe Christian World c. 700 1000Christianity in the Middle AgesThe Spread of Christianity in EuropeEastern Christianity and IconoclasticismCarolingians and the Holy Roman Empire The Missions of Saints Cyril and MethodiusChristendom and the Barbarians The Rise of the Papal StatesOttonian Germany and Conflict with the PopeThe Development of the Monastic OrdersThe Formalization of Christian ArchitectureThe Great Schism of 1054The Rise of the UniversityThe Christian Call to ArmsThe First Crusade and Siege of JerusalemThe Second and Third CrusadesThe Apogee of Papal PowerThe Fourth Crusade: Siege of ConstantinopleThe Latin EastThe Crusader States and Military OrdersThe Final CrusadesThe Mongol InvasionsThe Fall of Kievan RusThe End of the Crusader StatesChristian Pilgrimage in the Later Middle AgesThe Christianization of the BalticMedieval HeresiesMonasteries in Russia, 1200 1500The Western Schism, 1378 1417The Hussite CrusadeThe Fall of Byzantium, 1453Renaissance Humanism in EuropeThe Rise of PrintingIslamic Spain and the ReconquistaEast African ChristianityThe Consolidation of Christian RussiaThe Age of Reform, 1500 1800Catholicism in the New WorldCatholic Missions in the Old WorldThe Protestant ReformationThe Second Reformation: CalvinismWars of Religion in the Holy Roman EmpireThe Papal States and the Holy LeagueThe Dutch RevoltThe French Wars of ReligionThe Counter Reformation, 1545 1731The Thirty Years? War, 1618 48Puritanism in England and North AmericaMissionary States in South AmericaChristianity and Islam in AfricaRadical Settlers in North AmericaPietism, Methodism and the Evangelical RevivalProtestant Missions in the Age of SlaveryCatholic Missions in CaliforniaChristianity in the Modern World, 1800 2020Christianity in the Age of RevolutionEurope in the Nineteenth CenturyReligion in the American Revolution, 1757 87Christianity and the Enslaved PeoplesReligious Innovation in Nineteenth-Century AmericaSouthern AfricaChina and the Missionaries to 1945Indian and the Missionaries to 1947Christianity in Modern AfricaPentecostalism: A Global FaithEvangelicalism and Fundamentalism in AmericaWorldwide EvangelicalismChristianity in Communist EuropeThe Rise of Protestantism in Latin AmericaChristian Persecution in the Middle EastChina and Korea since 1949South Asia from 1947Christian Growth and DeclineChristianity in the Contemporary WorldGlossaryIndexList of MapsAcknowledgments
