Includes bibliographical references (p. 353-357) and indexes.

0 By way of introduction: Reflection 1 : whose story? -- 1. The first four centuries -- The beginning -- Early expansion -- The Christian assemblies -- Persecution -- The triumph -- The emergence of Christian writings -- Theological clarification -- The theologians -- The creeds -- Diversity and heresy -- The monastic impulse -- Reflection 2 : Church and society in the shadow of Constantine -- 2. The medieval church in the West. The heavenly and the earthly kingdom : church and state -- The medieval church : structure and practice -- The renewal of the monastic vision -- The saint : Francis of Assisi -- The theological meaning of the faith : scholasticism -- The church in the East -- The Crusades -- The Christian faith in Asia -- Reflection 3 : Jews and Christians -- 3. The Western Church divides : the Protestant Reformation -- The controversy -- The consequences -- The issues -- The divided house -- The Anabaptist dissent -- The reformer of Geneva : John Calvin -- The Catholic Church in the sixteenth century -- The reform in Europe -- Kings, Queens, and Bishops : Reformation in England -- The Puritan dissent -- Success and failure in France -- The age of confessionalism -- Reflection 4 : studying the faith of the people -- 4. The new challenge : modernity -- The new science -- Religions of the heart -- The turbulent nineteenth century -- Roman Catholicism enters modernity -- The modern missionary impulse -- Christianity in the twentieth century -- Reflection 5 : women in Christianity -- 5. Christianity in the Americas -- The colonial period -- The Protestants arrive -- New churches -- The revivals -- Protestantism and the social order -- The conservative reaction -- The Catholic story -- African American Christianity -- Reflection 6 : Christianity as a global phenomenon -- By way of an epilogue -- Appendix A: Theological currents in the early twenty-first century -- Appendix B: Recurrent themes in the history of Christianity -- Appendix C: On the gap between ideals and practice -- Appendix D: The church moves into the future -- Appendix E: The houses of God : Christianity and material culture.