For 2000 years, Christianity has had a varying but immense influence on world history. Who better, then, than Geoffrey Blainey, author of the best-selling Short History of the World and one of Australia's most accomplished historians, to bring us a history of this world-changing religion.
A Short History of Christianity vividly describes many of the significant players in the religion's rise and fall through the ages, from Jesus himself to Francis of Assisi, Martin Luther, Francis Xavier, John Wesley and even the Beatles, who claimed to be 'more popular than Jesus'. Blainey takes us into the world of the mainstream worshippers – the housewives, the stonemasons – and traces the rise of the critics of Christ and his followers.
Eminently readable, and written with Blainey's characteristic curiosity and story-telling skill, this book often places Christianity at the centre of world history. Will it remain near the centre? Blainey points out again and again that its history is a much-repeated story of ups and downs.
Review
Blainey is an immensely gifted storyteller and teacher with an inexhaustible curiosity. (Weekend Australian Financial Review)
Australian historian Geoffrey Blainey has provided with his latest book a clear and dependable history of scholar’s reference work, but a very accessible, engagingly readable story. It combines organisational detail and theological controversies with the sense of what it was like to be a Christian in the different contexts over 2000 years. His history has a richly human quality without sentimentality or, for that matter, “side-taking” in the debates and conflicts reported….The need for a book like this is enormous in an age when ignorance about religions and Christianity is rising to a point where meaningful discourse about religion, faith, and belief is nearly impossible. I recommend it to each and all. Those who are not Christian would benefit from this balanced and unvarnished account of a monumentally influential religion. Christians would benefit from what only a study of history can bring: a counter to the ignorance which predisposes us to repeat past errors.(Gary D. Bouma, Emeritus Professor of Sociology, Monash University and UNESCO Chair in Interreligious and Intercultural Relations – Asia Pacific)
About the Author
Geoffrey Blainey, one of Australia’s most prominent historians, held a chair at Harvard University and taught for many years at the University of Melbourne. He has written 36 full-length books including the best-selling A Short History of the World.
