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Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity
Mark A. Noll · back to the book
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24 books with the same feel
Include books by the same authorThe Rise of Christianity: How the Obscure, Marginal Jesus Movement Became the Dominant Religious Force in the Western World in a Few Centuries
Rodney Stark · 246 pages
The idea that Christianity started as a clandestine movement among the poor is a widely accepted notion. Yet it is one of many myths that must be discarded if we are to understand just how a tiny messianic movement on the edge of the Roman Empire became the dominant faith of Western civilization. In a fast-paced, highly readable book that addresses beliefs as well as historical facts, Rodney Stark
Asimov's Guide to the Bible: The Old and New Testaments, 2 Vols
Isaac Asimov · 1,295 pages
A fantastic read for anyone interested in organised religion and history. He takes the reader on a journey of the bible through the eyes of the authors and readers. By providing historical backgrounds to the times and the peoples for whom the bible was writtten, he helps explain why this book should NEVER be taken literally. I'm sure parts are outdated by new research by now but it is still a legi
The Historical Figure of Jesus
E.P. Sanders · 337 pages
In this influential historical study, E.P Sanders examines Jesus of Nazareth within the social, political, and religious world of first-century Judaism. Drawing on biblical scholarship, historical sources, and the latest academic research, reconstructs what can be reliably known about Jesus' life, teachings, actions, and the movement that formed around him. Rather than focusing on doctrine or late
The Rise and Progress of the Society of Friends in Norway
George Richardson · 156 pages
A People's History of Christianity: The Other Side of the Story
Diana Butler Bass · 368 pages
For too long, the history of Christianity has been told as the triumph of orthodox doctrine imposed through power and hierarchy. In A People's History of Christianity, historian and religion expert Diana Butler Bass reveals an alternate history that includes a deep social ethic and far-reaching inclusivity: "the other side of the story" is not a modern phenomenon, but has always been practiced wit
God Against the Gods: The History of the War Between Monotheism and Polytheism
Jonathan Kirsch · 336 pages
As conflicts over religious extremism dominate our front pages, the bestselling author of The Harlot by the Side of the Road presents a work of history that could not be more timely: a surprising look back at the origins of religious intolerance during the tumultuous fourth century.This is the epic story of how classical paganism, with its tolerance for many deities and beliefs, lost a centuries-l
Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet
John G. Turner
Brigham Young was a rough-hewn craftsman from New York whose impoverished and obscure life was electrified by the Mormon faith. He trudged around the United States and England to gain converts for Mormonism, spoke in spiritual tongues, married more than fifty women, and eventually transformed a barren desert into his vision of the Kingdom of God. While previous accounts of his life have been disto
Greek Religion: Archaic and Classical
Walter Burkert · 498 pages
Doubt: A History: The Great Doubters and Their Legacy of Innovation from Socrates and Jesus to Thomas Jefferson and Emily Dickinson
Jennifer Michael Hecht · 551 pages
Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews, A History
James Carroll · 768 pages
"In a book that is sure to spark heated debate, the novelist and cultural critic James Carroll maps the profoundly troubling two-thousand-year course of the battle against Judaism and faces the crisis of faith it has provoked in his own life as a Catholic. More than a chronicle of religion, this dark history is the central tragedy of Western civilization, its fault lines reaching deep into our cul
Jonathan Edwards
George M. Marsden · 640 pages
"Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) is a towering figure in American history. A controversial theologian and the author of the famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, he ignited the momentous Great Awakening of the eighteenth century." "In this biography, Jonathan Edwards emerges as both a great American and a brilliant Christian. George M. Marsden evokes the world of colonial New England in
When Jesus Became God: The Struggle to Define Christianity during the Last Days of Rome
Richard E. Rubenstein · 267 pages
"Three hundred years after Jesus' crucifixion, the Roman Empire witnessed the first major turning point in the history of Christianity. The violent debate, now known as the Arian Controversy, lasted more than sixty years, dividing the Roman Empire and forever changing the face of the Christian Church. Was Jesus of Nazareth God Himself, walking the earth in human form? Or was he a uniquely holy man
Jesus Wars: How Four Patriarchs, Three Queens, and Two Emperors Decided What Christians Would Believe for the Next 1,500 Years
Philip Jenkins · 328 pages
Jesus Wars reveals how official, orthodox teaching about Jesus was the product of political maneuvers by a handful of key characters in the fifth century. Jenkins argues that were it not for these controversies, the papacy as we know it would never have come into existence and that today's church could be teaching some-thing very different about Jesus. It is only an accident of history that one gr
The Black Arts : A Concise History of Witchcraft, Demonology, Astrology, and Other Mystical Practices Throughout the Ages
Richard Cavendish · 373 pages
The Black Arts is a fascinating and wonderfully readable exploration of the practice, theory, and underlying rationale of magic and occultism in all its branches, including witchcraft, spells, numerology, astrology, alchemy, kabbalah, tarot, charms, and summoning and control of spirits.
The Cult of the Saints: Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity
Peter R.L. Brown · 204 pages
The Mantle of the Prophet: Religion and Politics in Iran
Roy Mottahedeh · 405 pages
Drawn from the first-hand accounts of eye-witnesses, Roy Mottahedeh's gripping account of Islam and politics in revolutionary Iran is widely regarded as one of the best records of that turbulent time ever written. Roy Mottahedeh is Gurney professor of Islamic History at Harvard University. An internationallly renowned expert, he has published extensively in this field and his academic awards inclu
The early Christians in Rome
H. D. M. Spence-Jones · 409 pages
Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
Bart D. Ehrman · 256 pages
For almost 1,500 years, the New Testament manuscripts were copied by hand — — and mistakes and intentional changes abound in the competing manuscript versions. Religious and biblical scholar Bart Ehrman makes the provocative case that many of our widely held beliefs concerning the divinity of Jesus, the Trinity, and the divine origins of the Bible itself are the results of both intentional and ac
Desire of the Everlasting Hills: The World Before and After Jesus
Thomas Cahill · 368 pages
A fresh look at the impact of Jesus & early Christianity on the shaping of Western civilization.
The Historical Jesus: The Life of a Mediterranean Jewish Peasant
John Dominic Crossan · 507 pages
Reveals the historical Jesus by combining peasant anthropology, ancient history, and textual analysis.
American Jezebel: The Uncommon Life of Anne Hutchinson, the Woman Who Defied the Puritans
Eve LaPlante · 312 pages
Whose Bible Is It? A History of the Scriptures Through the Ages
Jaroslav Pelikan · 274 pages