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| List of illustrations | |
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| Acknowledgments | |
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| List of abbreviations of books of the Bible | |
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| Introduction to Christianity | |
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| Basic questions | |
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| What is religion? | |
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| What is myth? | |
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| What is sin? | |
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| What is salvation? | |
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| What is faith? | |
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| What is the Bible? | |
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| How is Christianity related to other religions? | |
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| Christianity and the divine | |
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| Sacred and profane | |
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| Sacred time | |
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| Sacred space | |
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| Sacred symbols and artefacts | |
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| Sacred interactions | |
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| Sacred personages | |
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| Sacred metatime | |
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| Historical overview of Christinanity | |
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| The historical and intellectual context of Christianity | |
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| Judaism | |
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| The Greco-Roman world | |
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| The founder and the foundational documents | |
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| Jesus Christ | |
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| The historical Jesus and the Christ of faith | |
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| The Christian scriptures | |
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| Defining Christianity | |
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| The first century | |
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| Developments within Christianity | |
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| A Jewish or Greco-Roman religion? | |
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| Conflict and persecution | |
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| Internal struggles | |
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| External struggles | |
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| The triumph of Christianity | |
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| Three early emperors | |
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| The Councils of Nicaea and Constantinople | |
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| Theological reflection, East and West | |
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| The monastic reaction | |
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| The Councils of Ephesus and Chalcedon | |
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| Power shift | |
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| The fall of the Western Roman Empire | |
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| The rise of the Eastern Roman Empire | |
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| The emergence of Islam | |
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| Christianity reascendant | |
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| Christendom at its height | |
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| The Byzantine Empire | |
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| The Holy Roman Empire and Christian Europe | |
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| The rise of the papacy | |
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| Holy war | |
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| Winds of change | |
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| Theological developments | |
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| The Renaissance and Christian humanism | |
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| Efforts to reform the Church | |
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| Christianity beyond the Mediterranean world | |
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| Upheaval in the Church | |
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| The end of the Middle Ages | |
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| The Protestant Reformation | |
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| The Catholic Reformation | |
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| Protestantism settles in | |
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| Orthodoxy | |
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| Different types of orthodoxy | |
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| Reactions to orthodoxy | |
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| Old world and new world | |
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| The Church in the United States | |
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| The Church in Europe | |
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| The Church in Latin America and the Caribbean | |
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| Diversification and expansion | |
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| Developing theology | |
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| Global missions | |
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| The Church and the modern world | |
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| Globalization: war, economy, technology, Christianity | |
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| Eastern Christianity | |
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| Roman Catholicism | |
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| Neo-orthodoxy, Christian realism, and Christian existentialism | |
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| The rise of Protestant fundamentalism | |
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| World War II and its aftermath | |
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| The ecumenical movement | |
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| Varieties of Christianity | |
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| A denominational/traditional perspective | |
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| Varieties of church polity | |
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| Catholic Churches | |
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| Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches | |
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| Anglican and Episcopal Churches | |
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| Churches of the Magisterial Reform | |
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| Free Churches | |
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| Pentecostal and Neocharismatic Churches | |
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| Another way to look at denominations | |
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| A geographical perspective | |
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| The Church in Europe | |
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| The Church in Asia | |
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| The Church in North America | |
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| The Church in Latin America and the Caribbean | |
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| The Church in Africa | |
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| The Church in Australia and Oceania | |
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| A doctrinal perspective | |
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| The Trinity | |
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| The Holy Spirit | |
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| Justification by faith | |
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| Church and state | |
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| Eschatology | |
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| Traditional and progressive churches | |
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| A liturgical perspective | |
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| Early Christian worship | |
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| Liturgical (high-church) worship | |
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| Traditional (low-church) worship | |
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| Contemplative worship | |
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| Christianity's interaction with the world | |
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| Christianity and science | |
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| Cosmology I: the heliocentric universe | |
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| Geology | |
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| Cosmology II: the Big Bang | |
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| Biology | |
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| Christianity and the arts | |
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| Visual arts | |
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| Architecture | |
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| Music | |
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| Drama | |
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| Literature | |
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| Christian ethics and politics | |
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| Christ and culture | |
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| Sexual mores | |
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| Life and death | |
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| Wealth and poverty | |
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| Christianity and politics | |
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| Christianity and other religions | |
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| Christianity and spirituality | |
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| Christian approaches to other religions | |
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| Christianity and Judaism | |
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| Christianity and Islam | |
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| Christianity and the religions of South and East Asia | |
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| Christianity and secularism | |
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| Conclusion | |
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| Timeline of Christian history | |
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| Glossary | |
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| Bibliography | |
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| Index | |