000			02983cam a2200265 a 4500
001			16890530
003			AU-EpEBC
005			20130131214027.0
008			110726s2011 nyu b 001 0 eng
010			_a 2011031294
020			_a9780062007681 (hbk)
040			_aDLC _cDLC _dNEMB
042			_apcc
082	0	0	_a270/STA
998			_bEW
100	1		_aStark, Rodney.
245	1	4	_aThe triumph of Christianity : _bhow the Jesus movement became the world's largest religion / _cRodney Stark.
260			_aNew York : _bHarperOne, _c2011.
300			_a506 p. ; _bhbk ; _c25 cm.
504			_aInclided bibliographical references (p. [419]-406) and index.
505	0	0	_aIntroduction -- The religious context -- Many Judaisms -- Jesus and the Jesus movement -- Missionizing the Jews and the Gentiles -- Christianity and privilege -- Misery and mercy -- Appeals to women -- Persecution and commitment -- Assessing Christian growth -- Constantine's very mixed blessings -- The demise of paganism -- Islam and the destruction of Eastern and North African Christianity -- Europe responds : the case for the Crusades -- The "Dark Ages" and other mythical eras -- The people's religion -- Faith and the scientific "Revolution" -- Two "churches" and the challenge of heresy -- Luther's reformation -- The shocking truth about the Spanish Inquisition -- Pluralism and American piety -- Secularization : facts and fantasies -- Globalization -- Conclusion.
520			_a"Religious historian and sociologist Rodney Stark has spent his career engaging with that very question. Indeed, after thirty highly regarded books on the matter, he has created a true master course in Christian history. Now, for the first time, he distills his research to just the most important and interesting episodes--the seminal moments in the story that, he now believes, demand new perspectives. Stark gets right to the events of greatest interest, often turning them on their heads: He argues that Constantine's conversion did the Church a great deal of harm, for example, and that the majority of converts to early Christianity were women. And he asks the questions at the heart of the human story: What role did Jesus's family play in the early Church? How was Christianity's rise influenced by the misery of daily life in Greco-Roman cities? What role did vigorous competition play in the success, and failure, of churches in colonial America? Finally, having brought readers to the present day, Stark makes a compelling case that the popular notion that religion must disappear to make room for modernity is amply disproved by the sociological evidence. No one is better equipped than Rodney Stark to get to the heart of the story that has shaped two millennia's worth of history. For scholars and armchair historians alike, The Triumph of Christianity is a brisk and thought-provoking journey through events we think we know--and need to reconsider"--
650		0	_aChurch history.
942			_2ddc
999			_c13389 _d13389