Christianity

By Diarmaid MacCulloch,

Book cover of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years

Book description

Diarmaid MacCulloch's epic, acclaimed history A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years follows the story of Christianity around the globe, from ancient Palestine to contemporary China.

How did an obscure personality cult come to be the world's biggest religion, with a third of humanity its followers? This book,…

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Why read it?

2 authors picked Christianity as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Cooke makes us question what we think we know about gender.

MacCulloch makes us rethink what we think we know about Christianity. There are so many books of Christian history on the market it can be overwhelming. Many have social, theological, or political agendas. Not MacCulloch. A scholar of the first tier, MacCulloch unpacks Christianity, but this is no textbook.

With clarity and readability, MacCulloch rejects traditional Eurocentric narratives to explore Syriac churches, Thomist Christians in India, Orthodoxy, and the oft-forgotten Church of the East. He emphasizes how the strength of Christianity in all its different forms hasn’t been its…

Christianity did not begin with Christ. MacCulloch, world expert on the history of the church, begins his epic tale a thousand years before the birth of Christ. Early chapters reveal Christianity’s antecedents and, over the next 1,000 pages, he takes us through the twists and turns of the early Christian church, the trials and tribulations of its members, and those who patronized and persecuted them. He explains the esoteric theological debates that tore communities apart, he follows the early missionaries into China, and he describes the divisions that formed the Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant branches. Passionate and critical, MacCulloch gets…

From Fernanda's list on making us rethink global history.

Want books like Christianity?

Our community of 10,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Christianity.

Browse books like Christianity

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in Christianity, presidential biography, and God?

10,000+ authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them. Browse their picks for the best books about Christianity, presidential biography, and God.

Christianity Explore 590 books about Christianity
Presidential Biography Explore 18 books about presidential biography
God Explore 228 books about God