This is a repost of a "page" that I'm making into a "post"
I ended up reading it a couple of times, front to back. It would have been easy to simply look for the time period that I needed and stick the book on a shelf - but it's a better book than that.
The book begins:
Christianity is the only major religion to have as its central event the humiliation of its God.
Shelly truly does start at the beginning - before the birth of Christ, describing Palestine in that time period, and then covering Christ's ministry on earth.
My class spent a lot of time on the "Holy Roman Empire" and I did learn a lot - both from the class, supported by this book. Especially interesting to me was the time spent on the "Age of the Reformation". Shelley doesn't shy away from writing about both the good points, the bad points or the excesses of all of the "major players".
The list of chapters:
- The Age of Jesus and the Apostles
- The Age of Catholic Christianity
- The Age of the Christian Roman Empire
- The Christian Middle Ages
- The Age of the Reformation
- The Age of Reason and Revival
- The Age of Progess
- The Age of Ideologies
From the back of the book:
In this new edition of the classic text, Shelley explores contemporary phenomena such as the Religious Right, mega-churches, and user-friendly worship services as well as some of the leading personalities behind these movements...
