Rise of Western Christendom (Making of Europe) [Paperback]

Peter Brown (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 16, 1997 | ISBN-10: 1577180925 | ISBN-13: 978-1577180920

This is a history of the people, struggles, defeats and victories, ideas and actions that together comprise the history of the first one thousand years of Christianity.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This is not a history of the Christian church but rather "an attempt to study late antique and early medieval Christianity as it encountered and adjusted to changing situations in changing environments." The period covered is from the conversion of Constantine in 312 to the adoption of Christianity in Iceland in 1000, by which time a Western civilization distinctly different from the East had emerged.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"The Rise of Western Christendom is not only an essential guide for those interested in late antiquity...Pondered carefully, it is also a book for the Christendom of our own times." New York Review of Books

"The author's vast learning is evident on almost every page and the book confirms Brown's status as one of the leading scholars of the early Christian world." History

"There is no better introduction to what western Christendom became than this fine and delightfully readable study." The Economist

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Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell (April 16, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1577180925
• ISBN-13: 978-1577180920
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #491,135 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "An interesting Perspective", August 15, 2001

By 

Johannes Platonicus (South Bend, Indiana) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Rise of Western Christendom (Making of Europe) (Paperback)

From Brown's perspective the Christianization and formation of Europe is the result of a process in which a deeply rooted Christian politic, looking outward from its mediterranean seat, gradually dispersed and emerged from within the tiny Roman sub-cultures, embedded throughout the northwestern frontiers, to establish micro-Christendoms that sucessively meshed together under aristocratic influence, martial conquest, sojourning holy men and missionaries, and the organization and education of the clergy. Brown also looks to the "East Roman Empire" where a more harmonized Christianity boldly sustained the invasions and dominion of the Muslims, and triumphantly struggled for orthodoxy under the Iconoclasts, Nestorians, and Monophysites to eventually convert the Russians, Bulgars, and Slavs. This work is definately a one of a kind, and an interesting and contributing effort to explain the rise of Christendom.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Prof. Brown writes like an angel, September 20, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Rise of Western Christendom (Making of Europe) (Paperback)

It is always a pleasure to read Prof. Brown's writing, prose so gracious that the author's remarkable erudition fades effortlessly into the background. What makes reading The Rise of Western Christendom particularly enjoyable (and educational) is the vast expanse of its theme. In about 350 pages, Brown guides the reader across a spectacular terrain through eight momentous centuries of transformation. With the easy touch of a consummate storyteller, Brown brings to life a cast of characters as remarkable as any novel while tracing the developments of the first millenium in Europe, the Near East, and even the Far East. The scope of the book gives Brown the opportunity to integrate themes that he has explored elsewhere into a composite survey of this age. It is a remarkable accomplishment.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Remarkably readable!, June 20, 2002

By 

Tom Perkins (North Carolina) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Rise of Western Christendom (Making of Europe) (Paperback)

This book is one of those extremely rare achievements - a work of broad and learned scholarship which is easy to read. In fact it is more than easy, it is so fascinating and so perfectly written that I could hardly force myself to stop when I had to. It is a work of secular and religious history, of course, but it gave me in addition a sense of how people actually lived in the ancient world, an experience that only a truly great scholar could give. I recommend this book to anyone who has the faintest interest in what happenmed in the early centuries of the Christian Era, religious or otherwise.