Christianity

Praise for the Previous Edition Meticulous and memorable, Christianity: An Introduction (second edition) takes us on a breathtaking journey, and readers of all kinds will enjoy the ride.Darren J. N. Middleton, Texas Christian University The finest text of its kind available. It is encyclopaedic in scope, reliable and quite accessible to the non-specialist. In this second edition, an already solid resource is made even more valuable.? David L. Johns, Earlham School of Religion

Alister E. McGrath is Andreas Idreos Professor of Science and Religion at the University of Oxford. One of the world's leading theologians, he has written numerous critically acclaimed books, including Why God Won't Go Away: Engaging the New Atheism (2011), Darwinism and the Divine: Evolutionary Thought and Natural Theology (Wiley, 2011), and The Intellectual World of C. S. Lewis (Wiley, 2013). He is also the author of some of the most widely used theology textbooks, including the bestselling Christian Theology: An Introduction, now in its fifth edition (Wiley, 2010), Historical Theology: An Introduction (2nd edition; Wiley, 2012), and Theology: The Basics (3rd edition; Wiley, 2011).

Preface xii List of Illustrations and Maps xiii Introduction 1 1 Jesus of Nazareth and the Origins of Christianity 3 The Significance of Jesus of Nazareth for Christianity 3 The Sources of Our Knowledge about Jesus of Nazareth 5 Jesus of Nazareth in His Jewish Context 7 The Gospels and Jesus of Nazareth 9 The Birth of Jesus of Nazareth 10 The Early Ministry of Jesus of Nazareth 13 The Teaching of Jesus of Nazareth: The Parables of the Kingdom 15 The Crucifixion of Jesus of Nazareth 17 The Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth 19 Events and Meanings: The Interpretation of the History of Jesus 21 The New Testament Understandings of the Significance of Jesus 22 Jesus of Nazareth and Women 25 The Reception of Jesus of Nazareth outside Judaism 26 2 The Christian Bible 28 The Old Testament 30 Major Themes of the Old Testament 32 The creation 32 Abraham: Calling and covenant 32 The exodus and the giving of the Law 33 The establishment of the monarchy 36 The priesthood 37 Prophecy 37 Exile and restoration 38 The New Testament 40 The gospels 41 The New Testament letters 44 The fixing of the New Testament canon 45 The Christian Understanding of the Relation of the Old and New Testaments 47 The Translation of the Bible 49 The Bible and Tradition 51 3 Christian Creeds and Beliefs 54 The Emergence of Creeds 55 What Is Faith? 59 Faith and reason 61 Can Gods existence be proved? 63 The Christian Understanding of God 65 Christian analogies for God 66 God as Father 67 A personal God 69 God as almighty 71 God as spirit 72 The doctrine of the Trinity 74 God as the creator 78 The Christian Understanding of Humanity 82 Humanity and the image of God 83 Humanity, the fall, and sin 84 Jesus of Nazareth 86 Early Christian approaches to the identity of Jesus of Nazareth 87 The Arian controversy and the incarnation 88 The incarnation: The Chalcedonian definition 89 Jesus of Nazareth as mediator between God and humanity 90 Islamic criticisms of the Christian understanding of Jesus of Nazareth 91 The Christian Understanding of Salvation 92 New Testament images of salvation 93 Christ the victor: The defeat of death and sin 94 Christ the harrower of hell: Atonement as restoration 96 Christ the redeemer: Atonement as satisfaction 98 The death of Christ as a perfect sacrifice 99 Christ the lover: Atonement and the enkindling of love 100 Salvation and the threefold office of Christ 101 Grace 102 The Pelagian controversy of the fifth century 103 The Reformation debates of the sixteenth century 105 The Church 106 The unity of the church 106 The holiness of the church 107 The catholicity of the church 109 The apostolicity of the church 110 The Sacraments 112 What is a sacrament? 112 The function of sacraments 113 Debates about baptism 115 Debates about the eucharist 116 The Christian Hope 117 The New Testament and Christian hope 117 The nature of the resurrection body 118 Christian burial or cremation? 119 Conclusion 120 4 Christian History: An Overview 121 The Early Church, c. 100c. 500 122 The apostolic age 122 Early Christianity and the Roman empire 123 Early Christian worship and organization 125 Women and early Christianity 127 The conversion of the Emperor Constantine 129 The cities and the rise of monasticism 131 The fall of the Roman empire 133 The Middle Ages and the Renaissance, c. 500c. 1500 135 The development of Celtic Christianity 135 The rise of the monastic and cathedral schools 137 The Great Schism between East and West (1054) 138 The crusades: Spain and the Middle East 139 Academic theology: The rise of scholasticism 141 Secular and religious power in the Middle Ages 142 Popular religion: The cult of the saints 143 The rise of the Ottoman empire: The fall of Constantinople (1453) 145 The rebirth of western culture: The Renaiss