Product Description

At a time when Christianity is flourishing in the Southern hemisphere but declining in much of the West, thisVery Short Introduction offers an important new overview of the world's largest religion. Exploring the cultural and institutional dimensions of Christianity, and tracing its course over two millennia, this book provides a fresh, lively, and candid portrait of its past and present. Addressing topics that other studies neglect, including the competition for power between different forms of Christianity, the churches' uses of power, and their struggles with modernity, Linda Woodhead concludes by showing the ways in which those who previously had the least power in Christianity--women and non-Europeans--have become increasingly central to its unfolding story.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6343 in Books
• Published on: 2004-11-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 168 pages

Independent on Sunday
'(the) analysis is subtle and perceptive'

About the Author
Linda Woodhead is Senior Lecturer in Christian Studies in the Department of Religious Studies at Lancaster University. Recent books that she has edited include: Religions in the Modern World (Routledge, 2001), Religion in Modern Times (with Paul Heelas) (Blackwell Publishers, 2000) and Diana: The Making of a Media Saint (I. B. Tauris, 1999). She is currently completing an Introduction to Christianity for Cambridge University Press.

Customer Reviews

An overview of Christian diversity
This is an excellent introduction to the sheer diversity of Christian faith and practice in the world today. Linda Woodhead suggests that it is helpful to explore this diversity by exploring the three main traditions of Christianity within a historical context: those which emphasise the primacy of church authority (Orthodoxy, Roman Catholicism); those which place emphasis on the authority of the bible (most mainstream protestant churches such as Lutherans and Methodists) and the much smaller tradition of those wich emphasise the primacy of the spirit (of which the Society of Friends is a good example.) Like all attempts at a typology, the reality is that the edges of blurred as these emphases are not mutually exclusive.
This is not a book for those who want to read a defence of Christianity nor does it "come down" on the side of any one view of Christianity, which has clearly annoyed one previous reviewer. It is a book written by a first rate scholar of religion who wants to provide an easy to read, engaging, sympathetic book about the origins, growth and diversity of perhaps the world's largest religion. She has achieved her goals magnificently!

A very good book on Christian history.
This book is very good for looking at developments in Christian history and elements of theology, but it is not the book to read if you want to find out what Christians BELIEVE in"jargon-free" English, or how they worship.

Tidying up Christianity
In an important sense writing a very short introduction to Christianity is virtually impossible. The books on Christianity in a University library run into thousands (with many on the New Testament, Contemporary Theology, the Crusades, Reformation, ethics, the Inquisition, patristics, martyrology, ecclesiology and so on); condensing this kind of information into a meaningful little book is an immense task as it involves a high degree of selection and omission; also, what is included is unlikely to receive much treatment; the Reformation, for example, has three and a half pages. Linda Woodhead manages to strike a good balance though whilst also raising relevant questions.

In discussing the significance of Jesus, she touches upon the synoptic problem and introduces the idea of there being many other 'gospels' of a more 'gnostic' or even feminist, nature. She also has very good discussions on the way that divine power is transmitted from God, through a male priesthood in the traditional types of Christianity (the theme of gender runs all through the book). Her main thesis is that Christianity can be braodly analysed into a typology of three types: Church Christianity, Biblical Christianity, and Mystical Christianty. This typology is helpful I think as it is hard to think of many traditions that fall entirely outside of it, though some will contain elements of all three.

Her section on gender is the most engaging I think as she discusses ways in which a traditionally male dominated religion might be attractive to women; all quite provocative.

Woodhead seems to have a very broad view of mysticism that even included Pentecostalism. I felt that this was quite far from the mark. Also, when discussing the Holy Spirit, she lapses into referring to the Spirit as 'it'. The concern is not whether or not the Spirit exists or whether she believes, it is simply not the way the Spirit is conceived to be within the tradition. She also says that for charismatics and pentecostals, salvation is sealed by the baptism of the Spirit and the reception of spiritual gifts; this is simply wrong; they accept all the fundamentals of an evangelical Church. But I want to praise the book, not bury it. It is an excellent introduction and really quite an achievement.