Reprint of the original, first published in 1857.

This tenth anniversary revised edition of the authoritative text on Christianity's first thousand years of history features a new preface, additional color images, and an updated bibliography. The essential general survey of medieval European Christendom, Brown's vivid prose charts the compelling and tumultuous rise of an institution that came to wield enormous religious and secular power. Clear and vivid history of Christianity's rise and its pivotal role in the making of Europe Written by the celebrated Princeton scholar who originated of the field of study known as 'late antiquity' Includes a fully updated bibliography and index

A New York Times Notable Book, winner of the Jerwood Award from the Royal Society of Literature, a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice, and named a Book of the Year by the Telegraph, Spectator, Observer, and BBC History Magazine, this bold new history of the rise of Christianity shows how its radical followers helped to annihilate Greek and Roman civilizations. The Darkening Age is the largely unknown story of how a militant religion deliberately attacked and suppressed the teachings of the Classical world, ushering in centuries of unquestioning adherence to "one true faith." Despite the long-held notion that the early Christians were meek and mild, going to their martyrs' deaths singing hymns of love and praise, the truth, as Catherine Nixey reveals, is very different. Far from being meek and mild, they were violent, ruthless, and fundamentally intolerant. Unlike the polytheistic world, in which the addition of one new religion made no fundamental difference to the old ones, this new ideology stated not only that it was the way, the truth, and the light but that, by extension, every single other way was wrong and had to be destroyed. From the first century to the sixth, those who didn't fall into step with its beliefs were pursued in every possible way: social, legal, financial, and physical. Their altars were upturned and their temples demolished, their statues hacked to pieces, and their priests killed. It was an annihilation. Authoritative, vividly written, and utterly compelling, this is a remarkable debut from a brilliant young historian.

Do you practice garage theology? Garage theology is common in today's churches. Some practice it without knowing what it is. A simple definition would be "going to church makes someone a Christian." This is no more logical than believing going into a garage will make someone a Cadillac. This delusional premise is convincingly debunked within this book. The lone traveler is perplexed. Why is he alone so much of the time while such crowds pack the city? Why is the wilderness the way to know God? Here is a classic retelling of the quest of all humanity-to understand the mystery of life. Our unidentified traveler has bouts of certainty interspersed with doubts. The hardships are real; the goal is eternal. He is faced with tests. He is deceived, but he recovers. He struggles to maintain the main thing as the main thing. As a journey of adventure, surprise, hardship, and ultimate triumph, it is an accurate picture of life in the spirit. Finally, the reader is confronted with the question: What is revival? Two options are presented. Which is reality? A time will come when instead of shepherds feeding the sheep, the church will have clowns entertaining the goats. -Charles H. Spurgeon 25

Centers evangelism on the church as a body of witness, reimagining the practice of evangelism from within a post-Constantinian, postliberal narrative of the church and world.