Description
Over 330,000 copies sold. This is the story of the church for today's readers.
Bruce Shelley's classic history of the church brings the story of global Christianity into the twenty-first century. Like a skilled screenwriter, Shelley begins each chapter with three elements: characters, setting, plot. Taking readers from the early centuries of the church up through the modern era he tells his readers a story of actual people, in a particular situation, taking action or being acted upon, provides a window into the circumstances and historical context, and from there develops the story of a major period or theme of Christian history. Covering recent events, this book also:
- Details the rapid growth of evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity in the southern hemisphere
- Addresses the decline in traditional mainline denominations
- Examines the influence of technology on the spread of the gospel
- Discusses how Christianity intersects with other religions in countries all over the world
For this fifth edition, Marshall Shelley brought together a team of historians, historical theologians, and editors to revise and update this father's classic text. The new edition adds important stories of the development of Christianity in Asia, India, and Africa, both in the early church as well as in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It also highlights the stories of women and non-Europeans who significantly influenced the development of Christianity but whose contributions are often overlooked in previous overviews of church history.
This concise book provides an easy-to-read guide to church history with intellectual substance. The new edition of Church History in Plain Language promises to set a new standard for readable church history.
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Instructor Resources
- View Resource Instructor's Manual 1.365 MB
- View Resource Presentation Slides Access 212.703 KB
- View Resource Presentation Slides Sample Deck (Ch -1) 1.487 MB
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Chapter 48 - More People, More Tongues - Emergence of the Global South
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Chapter 47 - New Technologies, New Contexts - Christian Missionaries in the West
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Chapter 46 - The Medicine of Mercy - Roman Catholicism and Vatican II
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Chapter 45 - New Creeds for Breakfast - The Ecumenical Movement
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Chapter 44 - Rootless Immigrants in a Sick Society - American Evangelicals
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Chapter 43 - Graffiti on a Wall of Shame - Twentieth-Century Ideologies
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Chapter 42 - Nothing to Lose But Chains - Slums and the Social Gospel
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Chapter 41 - A Bridge for Intelligent Moderns - Protestant Liberals
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Chapter 40 - The Destiney of a Nation - A Christian America
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Chapter 39 - To Earth's Remotest People - Protestant Missions
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Chapter 38 - A New Social Frontier - Nineteenth Century England
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Chapter 37 - Restoring the Fortress - Catholicism in the Age of Progress
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Chapter 36 - A New Order of the Ages - The Great Awakening
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Chapter 35 - A Brand from the Burning - Wesley and Methodism
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Chapter 34 - The Heart and Its Reasons - Pascal and the Pietists
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Chapter 33 - Aiming at the Foundations - The Cult of Reason
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Chapter 32 - Unwilling to Die for an Old Idea - Denominations
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Chapter 31 - The Rule of Saints - Puritanism
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Chapter 30 - Opening the Rock - Uttermost America and Asia
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Chapter 29 - "Another Man" at Manresa - The Catholic Reformation
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Chapter 28 - The Curse Upon the Crown - The Church of England
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Chapter 27 - Thrust Into the Game - John Calvin and Reformed Rule
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Chapter 26 - Radical Discipleship - The Anabaptists
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Chapter 25 - A Wild Boar in the Vineyard - Martin Luther and Protestantism
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Chapter 24 - Judgment in the Process of Time - Wycliffe and Hus
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Chapter 23 - Chaos and the Law of Necessity - Decline of the Papacy
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Chapter 22 - A Song to Lady Poverty - Francis and the Apostolic Lifestyle
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Chapter 21 - The Nectar of Learning - Scholasticism
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Chapter 20 - Lifted in a Mystic Manner - The Papacy and the Crusader
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Chapter 19 - The Search for Unity - Charlemagne and Christendom
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Chapter 18 - God's Consul - Gregory the Great
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Chapter 17 - Bending the Necks of Victors - Mission to the Barbarians
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Chapter 16 - Somewhere Between Heaven and Earth - Eastern Orthodox
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Chapter 15 - Peter as Pontifex Maximus - Beginnings of the Papacy
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Chapter 14 - Exiles from Life - Beginnings of Monasticism
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Chapter 13 - Exiles from Life - Beginnings of Monasticism
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Chapter 12 - Emmanuel! - Christ in the Creeds
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Chapter 11 - Splitting Important Hairs - The Doctrine of the Trinity
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Chapter 10 - Laying Her Scepter Down - Conversion of the Empire
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Chapter 09 - Countries of the Sunrise - Early Christianity in Asia and Africa
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Chapter 08 - Apostles to Intellectuals - Interacting with Worldviews
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Chapter 07 - School for Sinners - A Structure that Fits
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Chapter 06 - The Rule of Books - Formation of the Bible
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Chapter 05 - Arguing about the Event - The Rise of Orthodoxy
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Chapter 04 - If the Tibor Floods
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Chapter 03 - Only Worthless People - Catholic Christianity
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Chapter 02 - Wineskins Old and New
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Chapter 01 - Away with the King - The Jesus Movement
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