The First Thousand Years

The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity by Robert Louis Wilken

MANY HISTORIES of early Christianity focus on doctrinal developments, councils, or church structure. Most center on events in Rome or Asia Minor. Wilken purposefully spreads his attention to include political and cultural changes brought about by Christianity, and he widens his view to include the growth of Christianity as far as early missionary movement carried it. With the aim of offering a global history, Wilken draws attention to the ancient Christian heritages of Ethiopia and Egypt, the fledgling churches in India and east Asia, the semitic Christianity of the Syriacs, Christianity’s arrival in Armenia and Georgia, and the baptism of the Russian prince in 988. He also devotes several chapters to chronicling the rise of Islam and the consequent dwindling of Christian communities in Spain, Northern Africa, and the Near East without obscuring the central events in Rome and Constantinople that formed the doctrine and polity of the Church. To capture such a broad picture, chapters are short, detailed scholarly citations avoided. The result is a thorough introduction to the rise of Christianity as a world-shaping faith. We think Wilken’s Spirit of Early Christian Thought one of the finest introductions of its kind. With his beautiful synthesis of substantial scholarship and accessible style, Wilken’s First Thousand Years is just as fine.

388 pp. paper $22.00