{"product_id":"christendom-the-triumph-of-a-religion-ad-300-1300-9781101974100","title":"Christendom: The Triumph of a Religion, AD 300-1300","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"A colossal book written by a colossus in the field\" (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Review of Books\u003c\/i\u003e): A major reinterpretation of the religious superstate that came to define both Europe and Christianity itself, by one of our foremost medieval historians.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eIn the fourth century AD, a new faith grew out of Palestine, overwhelming the paganism of Rome and resoundingly defeating a host of other rival belief systems. Almost a thousand years later, all of Europe was controlled by Christian rulers, and the religion, ingrained within culture and society, exercised a monolithic hold over its population. But how did a small sect of isolated and intensely committed congregations become a mass movement centrally directed from Rome? As Peter Heather shows in this illuminating new history, there was nothing inevitable about Christendom's rise and eventual dominance. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eFrom Constantine the Great's pivotal conversion to Christianity to the crisis that followed the collapse of the Roman empire--which left the religion teetering on the edge of extinction--to the astonishing revolution of the eleventh century and beyond, out of which the Papacy emerged as the head of a vast international corporation, Heather traces Christendom's chameleonlike capacity for self-reinvention, as it not only defined a fledgling religion but transformed it into an institution that wielded effective authority across virtually all of the disparate peoples of medieval Europe. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eAuthoritative, vivid, and filled with new insights, this is an unparalleled history of early Christianity.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Vintage\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 04\/22\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781101974100\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 752\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.20lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 8.00h x 5.19w x 1.22d","brand":"Peter Heather","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45234754912437,"sku":"9781101974100","price":19.55,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0473\/0804\/6492\/files\/img_9374ecc9-0133-4c3d-89bd-520ed64dd7ae.jpg?v=1743518647","url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/christendom-the-triumph-of-a-religion-ad-300-1300-9781101974100","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}