Open University Set Books

Christianity: A Global History

Amazon.co.uk ReviewSynopsisFrom the Publisher
David Chidester is an American academic who teaches in South Africa. He is modest enough to use an old joke against himself: when Chidester told Archbishop Tutu he taught comparative religion, Tutu twinkled, "Ah, comparative religion--that is the religion for those who are comparatively religious." The objectivity and modesty which allows Chidester to poke fun at his own profession enlightens his monumental history of the Christian Church on every page.

Chidester tells the Christian story from its beginnings as a persecuted sect in the Roman Empire up to its present day international diversity. It is a rich and complex tapestry and Chidester handles his huge subject with rigorous scholarship, copious but unobtrusive notes, and a clear and readable style. He keeps track of the big historical trends while focusing on the fascinating personalities who have both dragged the Christian Church into scandal and schism as well as those who have lifted it to the heights of inspiration and holiness.

Chidester splits the Christian era into three chunks: the opening ten chapters deal with the first five hundred years, the next ten deal with the middle millennium and the third section covers the world wide expansion of Christianity since the Reformation. Those who like their Church history to be a disguised religious pep talk won't like this book because Chidester is expert at not taking sides; but for anyone who wants to study the majestic procession of Christianity through the history of the last 2000 years, this big book is worth every penny. --Dwight LongeneckerA monumental new history of Christianity from its beginnings as a persecuted cult, up to its present day international diversity. 'A model of condensation without simplification' - J.M Coetzee 'Clear and balanced. A triumph of compression...invaluable as a work of reference for students' - Karen Armstrong, "Times". 'A new and ambitious concept in presenting Christian history...a triumph. Never before, I suspect, has this cavalcade of thinkers been presented in a manner which so successfully combines depth, breadth, and succinctness' - Gerard Noel, "Catholic Herald".Praise for CHRISTIANITY by David Chidester
"A wonderful book which treats Christianity in all its dimensions. David Chidester knows how to write vividly and incisively about the beginnings of the religion up to the end of the twentieth century. He is to be congratulated" Ninian Smart, author of The World's Religions

"A model of condensation without simplification, Chidester sets out his many-stranded narrative with admirable skill, unraveling the knottiest points of doctrine on the way" J.M. Coetzee, author of Disgrace

"A triumph of compression...Fascinating accounts of the history of Christianity in the Americas, India, the Far East and Africa, which show this originally Semitic faith was able to absorb highly divergent spiritualities...invaluable as a work of reference for students" Karen Armstrong, the Times

"It represents a new and ambitious concept in presenting Christian history. It gives a comprehensive overview that, in the author's own words, also 'dwells in local features'. It is quite a triumph for what has come to be called 'polyfocal scholarship'...Never before, I suspect, has this cavalcade of thinkers been presented in a manner which so successfully combines depth, breadth and succinctness" - Gerard Noel, The Catholic Herald

"The book is useful in shifting the emphasis in Christianity's history away from Europe and across the world, to the Americas and Africa" Stephen Bates, the Guardian

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Christianity in the West 1400-1700 (OPUS)

Product Description
A study not of the institution of the Church but of Christianity itself, this book explores the Christian people, their beliefs, and their way of life, providing a new understanding of Western Christianity at the time of the Reformation. Bossy begins with a systematic exposition of traditional or pre-Reformation Christianity, exploring the forces that tended to undermine it, the characteristics of the Protestant and Catholic regimes that superseded it, and the fall-out that resulted from its disintegration.

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The Death of Christian Britain (Christianity and Society in the Modern World)

Amazon.co.uk ReviewProduct DescriptionSynopsisFrom the Back Cover
The Church is dying, says Callum Brown. So, what's new? The difference, according to The Death of Christian Britain is in how long it's taken to reach the point of no return. Secularisation theory--which emerged with the social sciences in the 19th century--was obsessed with the numbers of people (not) attending church, and was seized upon by Christians as the Industrial Revolution spread to illustrate how godforsaken our cities were becoming, even then. Yet Brown argues this "authorised version" is mistaken. According to him, secularisation began when the Beatles were releasing their first single in 1962. Instead of counting heads, he draws on anecdotal and cultural references to argue that Christianity was alive and well until the swinging sixties. It just wasn't going to church...

He sheds fascinating (and sympathetic) light on the history of conversion, of social action and the Church's public role in the nation. And his use of gender theory in the study of religion could be revolutionary. This may be a text book, but it engages the mind and the soul. Sociologists and Christians in particular will be positively challenged to think harder. For "the Britain of the new millennium is showing the world how religion as we have known it can die". This is bound to unnerve Christians. Many might even take issue with the title, and refuse to read on. But to do so would be folly: a week spent immersed in Brown's book could reap substantially more fruit than a series of revival meetings. --Brian Draper The Death of Christian Britain uses the latest techniques to offer new formulations of religion and secularisation and explores what it has meant to be 'religious' and 'irreligious' during the last 200 years.The Death of Christian Britain examines how the nation's core religious culture has been destroyed. It challenges the generally held view that secularisation has been a long and gradual process beginning with the industrial revolution, and instead proposes that it has been a catastrophic and abrupt cultural revolution starting in the 1960s. This book explores what it has meant to be 'religious' and 'irreligious' during the last 200 years. The concept of secularisation was created by Enlightenment rationality and scientific method, and led to the Victorian obsession with counting churchgoers and non-churchgoers which endures in today's focus on the 'church in crisis'. Brown challenges this approach by shifting attention from statistics to the media, demonstrating that from 1800 to 1960 people drew on novels, magazines, obituaries and tracts for the Christian language, morality and narrative structures with which to tell their own life stories in autobiography and oral history.

But this personal Christian identity broke down suddenly in the 'swinging sixties' when new media, new gender roles and the moral revolution dramatically ended people's conception that they lived Christian lives. The Death of Christian Britain uses the latest techniques to offer new formulations of religion and secularisation. By listening to people's voices rather than purely counting heads, it offers a fresh history of de-christianisation, and predicts that the British experience since the 1960s is emblematic of the destiny of the whole of western Christianity.The Death of Christian Britain argues that the nation's core religious culture has been destroyed. It challenges the generally held view that secularisation has been a long and gradual process beginning with the industrial revolution, and instead proposes that it has been a catastrophic and abrupt cultural revolution starting in the 1960s.
This book explores what it has meant to be 'religious' and 'irreligious' during the last two hundred years. The concept of secularisation was created by Enlightenment rationality and scientific method, and led to the Victorian obsession with counting churchgoers and non-churchgoers which endures in today's focus on the 'church in crisis'. Brown challenges this approach by shifting attention from statistics to the media, demonstrating that from 1800 to 1960 people drew on novels, magazines, obituaries and tracts for the Christian language, morality and narrative structures with which to tell their own life stories in autobiography and oral history. But this personal Christian identity broke down suddenly in the 'swinging sixties' when new media, new gender roles and the moral revolution dramatically ended people's conception that they lived Christian lives.
The Death of Christian Britain uses the latest techniques of gender analysis to offer new formulations of religion and secularisation. By listening to people's voices rather than purely counting heads, it offers a fresh history of de-Christianisation, and predicts that the British experience since the 1960s is emblematic of the destiny of the whole of western Christianity.

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