Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity

Mark Noll, one of America’s leading church historians, offers a new edition of his popular survey of church history. This volume isolates key events that provide a framework for understanding the history of Christianity and presents Christianity as a worldwide phenomenon rather than just a Western experience.
Now organized around fourteen key moments in church history, this well-received text provides contemporary Christians with a fuller understanding of God as he has revealed his purpose through the centuries. This new edition includes a new preface;updates throughout the book;revised further readings for each chapter;and two new chapters, including one spotlighting Vatican II and Lausanne as turning points of the recent past. It also features a two-color interior and study questions.
Students in academic settings and church adult education contexts will benefit from this one-semester survey of Christian history.
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Contents
Preface to the Third Edition
Introduction: The Idea of Turning Points and Reasons for Studying the History of Christianity
1. The Church Pushed Out on Its Own: The Fall of Jerusalem (70)
2. Realities of Empire: The Council of Nicaea (325)
3. Doctrine, Politics, and Life in the Word: The Council of Chalcedon(451)
4. The Monastic Rescue of the Church: Benedict’s Rule (530)
5. The Culmination of Christendom: The Coronation of Charlemagne (800)
6. Division between East and West: The Great Schism (1054)
7. The Beginnings of Protestantism: The Diet of Worms (1521)
8. A New Europe: The English Act of Supremacy (1534)
9. Catholic Reform and Worldwide Outreach: The Founding of the Jesuits (1540)
10. The New Piety: The Conversion of the Wesleys (1738)
11. Discontents of the Modern West: The French Revolution (1789)
12. A Faith for All the World: The Edinburgh Missionary Conference (1910)
13. Mobilizing for the Future: The Second Vatican Council (1962–65) and the Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization (1974)
Afterword: The Character of Christianity and the Search for Turning Points
Study Questions
Index