Shaw - Christianity: the biography

Ive enjoyed Christianity: The Biography enormously! What an original idea. It presents the current scholarship in church history in a very engaging way. I hope this book is widely read... An absolutely outstanding volume!

Ian Randall, Senior Research Fellow, Spurgeons College

Christians today have largely lost their historical memory, and it is no surprise that as a result many are struggling to agree on the right way ahead for the church. Ian Shaws remarkable book, encompassing in one volume the entire chronological and geographical range of Christian history, will prove invaluable in helping Christians to recover their historical memory and hence to find wisdom for the future.

Brian Stanley, Professor of World Christianity, University of Edinburgh

Believers need to know the story of their own faith, and Christianity: The Biography is a great place to start. It covers fascinating figures, movements and trends across two millennia without ever getting bogged down or side-tracked. It is not only clear and accessible, but also inspiring and wise.

Timothy Larsen, McManis Professor of Christian Thought, Wheaton College

The more we learn about Christianitys global reach, the more urgent is the need to re-frame how we understand Christian history. This book gets it right. It offers fascinating accounts of Christianity entering the ancient civilizations of Persia, India and China and its transformation of Ethiopia, Egypt and the Sudan even while it was reaching the wild tribes of the remote British Isles. We learn too about the rise of Islam, the modern missions movement and the rapid worldwide spread of Pentecostalism. In sum, this text is a lively treatment of a truly global faith.

Professor Joel Carpenter, Nagel Institute for the Study of World Christianity, Calvin College, Grand Rapids

So-called histories of the church are often essentially histories only of the church in the West. It is a joy to meet one that recognizes that world Christianity began in the early centuries, and that the story of the Christian faith is a six-continent one. It is a joy also to find it so helpful and well written.

Professor Andrew F. Walls, University of Edinburgh, Liverpool Hope University and Akrofi-Christaller Institute, Ghana

ZONDERVAN

Christianity: The Biography

Copyright 2016 by Jan J. Shaw

First published 2016

Originally published in the UK by Inter-Varsity Press

36 Causton Street, London SW1P 4ST, England

Requests for information should be addressed to:

Zondervan, 3900 Sparks Dr. SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546

ePub Edition December 2016: ISBN 978-0-310-53629-1

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Cover design: John Hamilton Design

Cover photo: Stocksy.com

Interior design: CRB Associates, Potterhanworth, Lincolnshire

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To Mary Shaw (19302016), my mother, to whom I owe so much

CONTENTS

I wish to thank the many people who have contributed to the completion of this book. Especial thanks are due to Dr Graham Keith, Professor Brian Stanley, Dr Ian Randall and Dr Nick Needham for their insightful comments and valuable suggestions about the text. I am grateful to Dr John Jeacocke for his skilful work in proofreading and compiling the index. Dr Philip Duce and the IVP team have been constant in their patience and encouragement over a number of years while this book has been completed. I also wish to express appreciation to Langham Partnership for their encouragement to me to continue research and writing as part of my work in the support and training of Langham Scholars from the Majority World. The first pages of this book were written sitting at the desk of John Stott at The Hookses, his retreat in South Wales. I think that the founder of Langham Partnership would appreciate the global focus of Christianity: The Biography, although he would have completed it much more quickly than I did!

This book charts the biography of Christianity from its birth and infancy among a handful of followers of Jesus Christ through its years of development into a global religious movement, spanning continents and cultures, transcending educational and social backgrounds, with over 2 billion adherents.

Christianity: The Biography offers an introductory orientation to the richness of the Christian tradition and its heritage around the world. This outline of the major phases, developments, movements and personalities in Christianitys life story over the two millennia is necessarily painted on a broad canvas. It is designed to open the subject up for more detailed study. As well as covering the well-trodden ground of the history of Christianity in the West, it has a special concern for the story from the non-Western world.

This task is far from easy, especially if ideas as well as events are to be considered. As one writer joked, Writing intellectual history is like trying to nail jelly to the wall. Others are negative about the historical enterprise. Oscar Wilde and James Joyce are both credited with the observation History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awaken. Having taught and written about the history of Christianity for over twenty years I am well aware of the presuppositions with which many approach the subject Why, after all, do we need to know all this about a bunch of dead guys? Some years ago a student sat in my office sharing how excited he was about his first day at theological college; then his face clouded and, evidently not aware who he was talking to, he added, But Im not looking forward to studying church history. That might be the readers sentiment on starting this book. I am pleased to say that three years later, as he was about to graduate, he sat in the same chair and said church history had been his most enjoyable subject.