Lion Histories is a major new series aimed at those who are seeking accessible introductions to key periods, people and themes in Christian history. These Histories are excellent resources for pastors, students, Bible study leaders and Sunday school teachers to gain an understanding of these important events and people in Christian history. This series covers the world of Jesus and Paul, and shows how Christianity expanded throughout the Roman Empire and beyond. It introduces important church figures like Augustine, Francis of Assisi, Luther and the Celtic people, as well as significant eras including the Byzantine and Medieval periods, and the Enlightenment.

A society with no grasp of its history is like a person without a memory. This is particularly true of the history of ideas.

The first 400 years after the death of Christ saw huge developments and changes in the emerging faith.

Jonathan Hill begins by describing how the Middle Ages came to an end with the Renaissance and the Reformation, setting the scene for the Enlightenment. Hill then concentrates on the central themes and characteristics of this turbulent period: the Churches, the New Science, the New Philosophy, the Question of Authority, Politics and Society, God, Humanity and the World, and the Reaction and the Legacy. Key figures that Hill features are: Samuel Johnson, Galileo, Newton, Descartes, Hume, Voltaire...

How did a group of scared peasants from a backwater of the Roman empire – followers of an executed criminal – form the largest religion on the planet?

How did a group of scared peasants from a backwater of the Roman empire - followers of an executed criminal - form the largest religion on the planet?

How did a group of scared peasants from a backwater of the Roman empire – followers of an executed criminal – form the largest religion on the planet? The story of Christianity, its transformation from an illegal sect to the religion of emperors, kings and presidents, and its spread across the globe, is an endlessly fascinating one. The History of Christianity gives readers an overview of these extraordinary 2,000 years. It is a history not only of how Christianity has changed the world, but also of how the world has changed Christianity.