Not since the birth of Christ has an event shaken the foundations of the Western world like the Reformation. Now, 500 years after Luther nailed his ninety-five theses to the door at Wittenberg--the sound of which served as the thunder presaging the storm to come--Phillip Campbell, author of The Story of Civilization, casts fresh eyes on that tumultuous time and its most influential characters. It was a tumultuous time, filled with heroes, heretics, and some who were a little bit of both. It was a time of destruction and rebuilding. Some sincerely sought reform while others sought merely to pr... View More...
What if the Dark Ages weren't really dark after all?You may have learned in world history class that the fall of the Roman Empire led to centuries of violence, ignorance, and barbarism in Europe. But that's not all that happened during that time! The period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the High Middle Ages also was characterized by institutional, spiritual, and cultural advancements such as the rise of monasticism with St. Benedict of Nursia and the first encyclopedia by a Christian writer, St. Isidore of Seville.In The Church and the Dark Ages (430-1027), author Phillip Campbell e... View More...
For centuries, Catholics in the Western world and the Orthodox in Russia have venerated certain saints as martyrs. In many cases, both churches recognize as martyrs the same individuals who gave their lives for Jesus Christ. On the surface, it appears that while the external liturgical practices of Catholics and Russian Orthodox may vary, the fundamental theological understanding of what it means to be a martyr, and what it means to canonize a saint, are essentially the same. But are they?In Making Martyrs East and West, Caridi examines how the practice of canonization developed in the West an... View More...
Here is a fast paced, highly readable and interesting Catholic world history. It clearly illustrates that Christ is the central figure in all of history. Unabashedly proud of our brilliant Catholic heritage, Dr Carroll examines all historical developments from the point of view of the Church and the enhancement or decline of the influence of the Church upon the historical scene. Whereas most secular histories written today give but a grudging acknowledgment to the role of the Catholic Church in forming Western and therefore modern civilization, this book makes the role of Christ and the contri... View More...
Lucid, authoritative overview of a major movement in American history The history of American evangelicalism is perhaps best understood by examining its turning points--those moments when it took on a new scope, challenge, or influence. The Great Awakening, the rise of fundamentalism and Pentecostalism, the emergence of Billy Graham--all these developments and many more have given shape to one of the most dynamic movements in American religious history. Taken together, these turning points serve as a clear and helpful roadmap for understanding how evangelicalism has become what it is today. ... View More...
The works of many early critics of the Christian church were burned by ruling emperors or otherwise destroyed in the second and third centuries, but the writings of the Greek pagan philosopher, Celsus, have survived indirectly through his eloquent opponent Origen of Alexandria. In hisapologetical treatise, Contra Celsum, Origen argues against the ideas set forth by Celsus and quotes from Celsus' The True Doctrine at length. Through this treatise, Celsus has come to represent the detached pagan voice of the ages. In this translation, Professor Hoffmann has, for the first time, painstakingly rec... View More...
Examines the beginning of the Christian movement during the first centureis AD, and the explosive force of its expansion throughout the Roman world. View More...
Owen Chadwick stands out as the trustsed authority on Reformation history. Not only is his scholorly knowledge outlined with enough precision to impress any aspiring historian, but Chadwick also manages to convey the facts with a level of underlying passion. View More...
John Chapman, fourth abbot of Downside Abbey, was a renowned scholar of the early Church. Taking up the question of the papal primacy in the first centuries of Christianity, he eschews selective apologetics in favor of a reasoned study of textual sources in the context of historical events. By these he illustrates the position of the bishop of Rome in the early Church through the prominent and authoritative role taken by or expected of him at pivotal moments of early Christian history. So doing, this volume offers much substance to those who wish to understand better the question of papal prer... View More...
This book is a study of the contribution of women to the development of the newly legitimate Christian church in the twilight of the Western Roman Empire. There are many women noted for the example of their life in this period, regarded amongst the luminaries of the day; but while their male mentors, the patristic authors have retained their fame, the women who surrounded and influenced them have all but disappeared from sight. The women themselves are partly to blame for this, for in order to be pious it made sense to disguise one's sex sometimes literally: Dr Cloke gives examples of those wh... View More...
Written between 1824 and 1827 by an English Protestant, "A History of the Protestant Reformation in England and Ireland" has been reprinted many times by Catholic publishers because it gives the true and usually untold story of the Protestant Revolt in England during the 16th century, revealing its disastrous consequences in the lives of the people. William Cobbett is unabashedly pro-Catholic in this writing, showing that England was far better off before the Protestant "Reformation" of Henry VIII and Elizabeth I than she was afterwards. View More...