Christianity

Lucy Wooding introduces a highly significant, but often much misunderstood, cultural force.

In the first millennium, Christianity spread east from Palestine to Iraq, and on to India and China, becoming a global religion accepting of, and accepted by, other faiths. But with the Mongol invasions of the 13th century, Christianity’s eastern journey came to an end. Philip Jenkins recovers this lost history.

Simon Lemieux provides an overview of 16th-century Catholicism, focusing on the key issues often selected by examiners.

Penny Young investigates the situation of one of the country’s less-commonly mentioned communities.

The beliefs of the man who painted some of the most famous Christian images are shrouded in mystery. Alex Keller coaxes Leonardo da Vinci’s thoughts out of some little-known personal writings.

Douglas James explains why so many in the Christian West answered Urban II’s call to arms following the Council of Clermont in 1095.

The only Englishman ever to be Pope, Nicholas Breakspear was elected on December 4th, 1154.

Robert Carr draws uncomfortable parallels between Christianity and Nazism.

Pope Boniface VIII issued the papal bull Unam Sanctam, the most famous papal document of the Middle Ages, on November 18th, 1302.

The first Christian missionary to the country, Francis Xavier, departed from Japan on November 21st, 1551, having made perhaps some 2,000 converts.

P.G. Maxwell-Stuart examines the impact of early Christianity on notions of magic and definitions of witchcraft.

Stewart MacDonald introduces the humanist scholar whose writings made him one of the most significant figures of 16th-century Europe.  

Dominic Janes describes how the early Church reconciled its teaching of holy poverty with the accumulation and display of spectacular wealth.