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Editorial Reviews
From the Back Cover
Beginning with the Protestant Reformation of the sixteenth century, this fully revised and updated second volume of The Story of Christianity continues the marvelous history of the world's largest religion. Award-winning historian Justo Gonzalez bring to life the people, dramatic events, and theological debates that have shaped Protestantism, Catholicism, and Orthodoxy. From the monk Martin Luther, who dared to stand up to a corrupt pope, to the surprising spread and growing vitality of today's church in Africa, Asia, and South America, The Story of Christianity offers a complete and up-to-date retelling of this amazing history.
With new information on the important contributions of women to church history as well as the latest information on Christianity in developing countries, Gonzalez's richly textured study discusses the changes and directions of the church up to the twenty-first century. The Story of Christianity covers such recent occurrences as the fall of the Soviet Union and the return of the Russian Orthodox Church; feminist, Africa-American, and Third-World theologies; the scandals and controversies facing the reign of Pope Benedict XVI; interfaith dialogue; and the movement toward unity of all Christian churches. This revised and updated edition of The Story of Christianity concludes with a thoughtful look at the major issues and debates facing Christianity today.
About the Author
Justo L. González, retired professor of historical theology and author of the highly praised three-volume History of Christian Thought, attended United Seminary in Cuba and was the youngest person to be awarded a Ph. D in historical theology at Yale University. Over the past thirty years he has focused on developing programs for the theological education of Hispanics, and he has received four honorary doctorates.
Review:
4.9 out of 5
97.78% of customers are satisfied
5.0 out of 5 stars Breathtaking
This book is breathtaking in its breadth and depth, describing not only the people, events and theological developments of Christianity, but also the political environment, and philosophers and theologians who might not all be Christian. I loved Volume I of this two-volume set, and Volume II did not disappoint. Gonzalez seems to be very thorough and very fair towards each theology shift that he describes. I thought I read on Bolo somewhere that he is Roman Catholic, but his Wikipedia page says that he is Methodist and his wife is a professor at a Presbyterian seminary. When Gonzalez tells about Luther’s spiritual journey and his theology, he puts himself in Luther’s place and tells it in a way that is sympathetic to Luther.The book has three parts: The Reformation (p 6-171), Orthodoxy, Rationalism, and Pietism (p 172-292), Beyond Christendom (p293-530)The Bainton biography of Luther and this book have differing explanations for the origin of the word “Protestant.” According to Bainton, the Emperor decreed that each territory could choose between Lutheranism and Roman Catholicism. In Lutheran territories, individuals could choose either Lutheranism or Roman Catholicism. In Roman Catholic territories, only Roman Catholicism was allowed. So the Lutherans protested. According to Gonzalez, in 1529 the Second Diet of Spire the Edict of Worms was reaffirmed. This edict condemned Luther and his followers and his books to be erased from human memory (Page 37), so the Lutherans protested. (Page 44) Maybe both explanations are true.The first four chapters describe the corruption and problems in the Roman Catholic church, Luther’s journey from monk to priest to Bible professor to Reformer, and Luther’s theology. The next several chapters describe other Protestant initiatives, the Roman Catholic response, and the role of emperors, kings, and princes, and religious wars that ensued. All of the persecutions, the burning of “heretics,” burning of books, and wars seem strange to us today, in our age of religious freedom guaranteed by the government. But since the age of Constantine, the church was closely tied to the government. Rulers believed that it was essential that all citizens should be church members of the same church and should be in agreement on dogma. Religious leaders knew that either their own dogma would be imposed on everyone, or someone else’s dogma would be imposed on them. This made it urgent to snuff out any opposing doctrine. The remaining ten chapters in Part 1 deal with other Reformed theologians and the Reformation in other countries. This is where you get a very thorough review of the secular history and how politics impacted Christianity, especially in Great Britain.Part II covers the Thirty Years’ War and various sects, philosophers and theologians, ending with the history of Christianity in the Thirteen Colonies.Part III starts with the American Revolution and ends with the present day. During the time of Pope Pius IX, 1846 – 1878, the Pope lost his influence over civil government, and made up for it by asserting himself in the ecclesiastical government, establishing the doctrine of papal infallibility. This doctrine was used once, in 1950, for the doctrine of the Assumption of Mary. Then Pope John XXIII, 1958 – 1963 and Pope Paul VI (1963 – 1978) convened the Second Vatican Council, relaxing the authoritarian power of the pope and maybe moving a bit toward the Protestant position. Some of the philosophers and theologians: Hegel, Hume, Kant, Wesley, Kierkegaard, Schleiermacher, Descartes, Barth, Bonhoeffer.I have a couple of bones to pick, but not to take away from the wonderful contribution of this book. There is a very brief mention of dispensationalism, but only as an example of fundamentalism (page 343). Cyrus Scofield is mentioned, but not Charles Nelson Darby. It seems that everywhere I turn, I run into people who adhere to Dispensational Premillennialism, and many seem to feel that if you are not a Dispensational Premillennialist, you are not really Christian. So it seems like a very big movement to me, and it gets very little attention in this book. Maybe it’s not as big as it seems.In discussing the turbulent time of the 1960s in America, he says “Then it was discovered that the public – and Congress -- had been purposefully misinformed on the incident in the Gulf of Tonkin which had precipitated the escalation of the war.” This seems over-stated. It is widely agreed that the U.S.S. Maddox was attacked by North Vietnamese torpedo boats on August 2, 1964. Two days later, there was much confusion. A SONAR operator thought there was a torpedo attack, but was almost certainly mistaken. Then he says “The very prosperity that resulted from the war – followed as it was by a significant recession – led some to wonder if the economic system on which the nation was founded did not require the artificial stimulus of war.” This is silly, because there have been many times when the United States was prosperous without the stimulus of war.On my Kindle Paperwhite, I don’t get page numbers or percent finished displayed. I can get page numbers if I tap the top of the screen, then tap an icon that appears at the bottom of the screen. As far as I can tell, this is not because of any settings that I might have changed.I bought the Kindle version in 2017, and the copyright I got is 2010, and it says second edition on the copyright page. I’m not sure this is the latest version. Bolo gives the publication date as November 25, 2014 on their web site.I have only mentioned a few of the topics covered in the book. It is densely packed with information and requires careful reading, or re-reading. I found it very worthwhile and enjoyable, but I know many of my friends do not want to read history, so it is not for everyone.
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent resource for class
I needed this book for a church history class, and it was a great resource!
5.0 out of 5 stars Easy to read
This is a great entry-level and comprehensive overview of Christian History, especially for theological students. I bought the set (vol. 1 & 2), because I wanted a refresher on the subject as I prepare for a Ph.D. in Systematics and Historical Theology. It was recommended to me by a professor. I have no regrets. Some may find it lacking in details, but for a comprehensive work, it would have been difficult to be any more detailed than it is.
4.0 out of 5 stars Meat and Potatoes
There are several good, and one or two "great" histories of Christianity, and there are probably dozens which rank would fare as "good home cooking". Nourishing, but not impressive. Gonzales' history is mashed potatoes with meat, as prepared by Joel Robuchon. It is the things we want to know about the people and the movements, primarily in European and American Christianity, even though the main action in Christian expansion in the 20th century and later will be in the global south (Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and East Asia. For that, go to Philip Jenkins' book, "The Next Christendom."Gonzales' book is NOT about theology. You will get very little on the differnces between Luther and Calvin and Wesley and the Council of Trent in this book. You will get much about the effects of these theologies on the social directions of Catholicism and various varieties of Protestantism.One of the most interesting threads in this discussion is the revelation that the United States was the hothouse of religious experimentation. The separation of church and state provisions in the constitution were dramatic in a time when every Christian country had a state religion, including England. But they were necessary, since each of the 13 colonies had a different religious foundation. From that diversity comes most of the major changes, many of the biggest ones today grew from American Wesleyism, even thought the Methodist movement started in England. Even so, there are many topics in early American Christianity which get no mention. Increase and Cotton Mather between them get only one page and Jonathan Edwards gets only four mentions on widely separated pages.Appropriate to a target audience of non-professionals, the writing is brisk and easy to follow. Appropriate to the title, it reads like a "Story". The down side to that is that there are very few notes (two pages for 552 pages of text) about sources. For that, you would need to go to Jaroslav Pelikan's History of Doctrine. For a more authoritative social history, you would need to go to the 8 volume Cambridge History of Christianity, which costs about $200 per volume.If I were to do one thing to improve the book, it would be to put a Bibliography at the end of each chapter. Gonzales, I'm sure, could hire a Grad student to do that for him. If it had such a Bibliography, I would give it a higher rank, because then it would be useful as a reference volume, where you could read the chapters which interest you, and find books to elaborate on that interest.One reviewer believed he saw a Spanish slant to the writing in this book. Frankly, I read the whole book and detected no such "prejudice". If there were, Gonzales did it very, very poorly, because neither I nor the seven other members of my class, nor the instructor, mentioned anything about it. If Gonzales was less critical of the Spanish Inquisition that we have been lead to believe it deserves, just maybe we have been mislead about the relative horrors of that versus so much else we have seen since the Reformation began.
Reached me on time.
I love the book. It complimented my collection on various book Church History.
Husband delighted!
Excellent book. Bought for my husband who is extremely pleased with it.
Five Stars
Brilliant introduction to Christian Church History. Read it like a novel, and enjoyed it immensely
Sweeping easy to read epic
Provides a sweeping view of Christianity around he world from the Reformation on. Easy to read, and well organized. You can set it down and pick it up later to read as each section stands on its own. Massive task, and decisions required to decide what to put in or not. He did a very good job on all accounts. A must read for someone wanting to know the history of this time in one book.
Five Stars
excellent
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The Story of Christianity, Vol. 2: The Reformation to the Present Day
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