Table of Contents

Introduction 7
Part 1: The Church Fathers 10
Greek Philosophy 11
Justin Martyr 13
Rome 14
Irenaeus of Lyons 21
Gnosticism 22
Tertullian 30
Origen 37
Alexandria 37
Neoplatonism 46
The Conversion of Constantine 57
Arianism 58
The First Council of Nicea 59
Athanasius 60
Constantinople 63
The Cappadocian Fathers 65
The First Council of Constantinople 67
The Desert Fathers 72
Pelagianism 73
Augustine of Hippo 75
Cyril of Alexandria 88
The Council of Ephesus 90
The Council of Chalcedon 93
Part 2: The Byzantine Empire 95
Byzantium 96
Pseudo-Dionysius 97
The Second Council of Constantinople 97
Maximus the Confessor 101
The Third Council of Constantinople 102
The Second Council of Nicea 104
Symeon the New Theologian 105
The Rise of Islam 107
The Great Schism 109
Gregory Palamas 110
Mount Athos 112
The Third Rome 116
Part 3: The Middle Ages 118
The Dark Ages 119
Augustine of Canterbury 120
The Holy Roman Empire 121
Erigena 122
The Monasteries 123
Anselm 125
Feudalism 126
Chivalry 130
Peter Abelard 134
Paris 135
The Mendicant Orders 140
Thomas Aquinas 142
The Rediscovery of Aristotle 144
Bonaventure 154
John Duns Scotus 157
Oxford 157
Medieval Mysticism 160
John Wyclif 161
The Inquisition 163
Jan Hus 164
Part 4: The Reformation 171
The Renaissance 172
Martin Luther 175
The Conquistadors 176
John Calvin 188
Geneva 189
The Later Reformation 199
The Council of Trent 200
Puritanism 203
Pietism 204
John Wesley 205
Contents
Part 5: The Modern Era 211
The Enlightenment 212
Gotthold Lessing 214
Immanuel Kant 216
Romanticism 217
Friedrich Schleiermacher 220
Tübingen 221
Søren Kierkegaard 235
Geology and Biology 238
Evangelicalism 241
Albrecht Ritschl 245
John Henry Newman 247
The Oxford Movement 247
The First Vatican Council 252
Albert Schweitzer 253
Part 6: The 20th Century 257
Karl Barth 258
Rudolf Bultmann 269
Existentialism 270
Dietrich Bonhoeffer 277
Reinhold Niebuhr 285
Paul Tillich 291
Karl Rahner 297
The Second Vatican Council 298
Process Theology 304
Liberation Theology 306
Pentecostalism 307
Jürgen Moltmann 308
Feminist Theology 312
Postmodernism 313
Wolfhart Pannenberg 316
African Christianity 319
Asian Christianity 321
Epilogue 324
Glossary 327
Further Reading 336
Index 345

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The fascinating story of the great Christian thinkers and how they helped to shape the world as we know it today

About the Author

JONATHAN HILL has a first class degree in Philosophy and Theology from Oxford University and an MPhil in Theology (also from Oxford). He has worked in publishing and broadcasting since leaving Oxford in 1997 and is the author of Faith in the Age of Reason in the Lion Histories series.

Reviews

This is an enormous subject, tackled in a lively and accessible way. Beginning with the Greek philosophers and the rise and fall of the Byzantine Empire, Hill follows the faith through great eras like the Reformation and the Enlightenment, right up to existentialism and postmodernism, telling Christianity's story through its great figures and theologians. His goal is to 'help the reader understand and sympathise' with those thinkers who have both reached up to God themselves, or felt the hand of God on their shoulders. As such the book acts as a biographical reference work for figures of the stature of Luther, Calvin, Tillich and Barthes. And if you wanted to know how the Second Vatican Council differed from the first, this book will tell you.