Interpreting Christian History

Preface.
<p>Introduction.</p>
<p>Diversities of Belief, Practice, and Priorities.</p>
<p>History and Diversity.</p>
<p>Steering Between Two Extremes.</p>
<p>The Compass and Structure of the Book.</p>
<p>History and Theory.</p>
<p>1 The Unfolding of Christian History: a Sketch.</p>
<p>Christianity: a Jewish Heresy Spreads Across the Eastern Empire.</p>
<p>Greek and Latin, East and West.</p>
<p>Persecution, Legal Establishment, Empowerment, and Retreat.</p>
<p>The Eastern Church, the Spread of Islam, and Expansion Northwards.</p>
<p>The Western Church of Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages.</p>
<p>Disputes over Control, and the Rise of a Continental Church.</p>
<p>The High Medieval Synthesis.</p>
<p>Later Middle Ages: the Era of Fragmentation.</p>
<p>Challenges and Ruptures: Renaissance and Reformation.</p>
<p>The Age of Competing Orthodoxies.</p>
<p>Challenges to Orthodoxy: Reason, Enlightenment, and Revolution.</p>
<p>The Era of Romanticism and its Implications.</p>
<p>The Multiple Crises of the Twentieth Century.</p>
<p>Reflecting on the Process of Historical Development.</p>
<p>2 Constantly Shifting Emphases in Christian History.</p>
<p>Means to Holiness Become Ultimate Goals.</p>
<p>Asceticism: Giving Things Up for God.</p>
<p>Expecting Miracles.</p>
<p>Martyrdom.</p>
<p>Sacrament and Sacrifice: the Eucharistic Church.</p>
<p>The Company of Heaven: the Communion of Saints.</p>
<p>Purity of Doctrine and Instruction: the School of Faith.</p>
<p>The Christian Community and its Membership.</p>
<p>Reflections on Shifting Priorities.</p>
<p>3 Church Historians Responses to Change and Diversity.</p>
<p>The Early Church: Eusebius of Caesarea.</p>
<p>Early Medieval Church History: Bede.</p>
<p>The High Middle Ages: A Monastic Chronicle.</p>
<p>Renaissance Historiography: Rhetoric and Skepticism.</p>
<p>The Reformation and the Rise of a Sense of History.</p>
<p>The Rise of Reformed Schools of Church History.</p>
<p>Confessional Histories in the Age of Orthodoxy.</p>
<p>Writing Christian History in the Shadow of the Enlightenment.</p>
<p>Toward Modern Histories of Christianity.</p>
<p>Postmodern and Liberation–oriented Approaches to Christian History.</p>
<p>Summary and Conclusions.</p>
<p>4 Some Theologians Reflect on the Historical Problem.</p>
<p>The Historical Background to Historical–critical Theology.</p>
<p>The Challenge of Ludwig Feuerbach to Modernizing Theology.</p>
<p>German Liberal Protestant Theology of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Century.</p>
<p>Responses to Liberalism in the Twentieth Century.</p>
<p>Thomism, Mysticism, and Neo–liberalism: Some Roman Catholic Responses.</p>
<p>Cultural Diversity, Liberation, Postliberalism, and Postmodernity.</p>
<p>Drawing the Threads Together.</p>
<p>Conclusion.</p>
<p>Notes.</p>
<p>Index</p>