The Age of Reason: From the Wars of Religion to the Revolution, 1570-1789 (Baker History of the Church)

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 464 pages
• Published by: Baker Books November 1, 2006
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0801012783
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0801012785
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 1.3 inches
• Weighs: 1.8 pounds

Product Description
The Baker History of the Church series is an accessible and authoritative series that sheds light on the roots of the faith, the foundations of the church, and the sweeping changes occurring during the Reformation. The fifth volume, The Age of Reason, covers the period AD 1570-1789. From the reign of Queen Elizabeth I through the Enlightenment and into the beginning of the French Revolution, the church underwent incredible changes and lost considerable power over the governments of the European continent. The churches of the East were living under Muslim rule and withering slowly. And in the Americas the church took on new forms and marked the beginning of a distinctive experience of Christianity in the New World. Meic Pearse helps pastors, students, and laypeople make sense of it all.

Back Cover Copy
Global Upheavals That Shaped Modern Christianity The Baker History of the Church is a multivolume series by world-renowned historians and theologians. Each comprehensive volume offers an even-handed and readable assessment of the main strands of Christianity within its period. The Age of Reason covers 1570-1789, an era in which events such as the French Revolution and movements such as The Enlightenment spawned religious, cultural, and political upheavals that have not ceased to reverberate. The text explores the conflicts between Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christianity, as well as schisms within those groups. The rise of sectarianism and Pietism, the spread of the faith to various regions of the globe, and the impact of the Great Awakening all played a large role in shaping the context for today's global church and its quest for relevance in a rapidly changing world. Praise for the Series and Previous Volumes "This judiciously crafted, ecumenical survey of early Christianity by Davidson offers just the right combination of social, liturgical, institutional, and intellectual history."--Douglas A. Sweeney, associate professor of church history, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School "Anyone interested in church history will find Reform and Conflict to be the best introduction to one of the critical turning points in Western history."--Robert V. Schnucker, professor of religion, University of Northern Iowa "Four decades ago an great multivolume church history appeared with the title The Advance of Christianity through the Centuries under the editorship of the late F. F. Bruce. The Baker History of the Church replaces that series for the twenty-first century."--Robert G. Clouse, professor of history, Indiana State University Meic Pearse is assistant professor of history at Houghton College, New York. He is the author of Why the Rest Hates the West. John D. Woodbridge is research professor of church history and the history of Christian thought at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois. David F. Wright is professor of patristic and Reformed Christianity at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland. Tim Dowley has written and edited many books, including The Lion Handbook to the History of Christianity.

Reader Reviews
The last two titles in the five-volume The Baker History of the Church series appear this year; Age of Reason by Meic Pearse, and The Medieval Church: Christianity in the Age of Princes And Peasants, AD 600-1450 (Baker History of the Church). This series is intended for college-level courses, and superior (at twice the page count but more than double the retail price [$150 versus $60)] to the two-volume effort by Everett Ferguson Church History Volume One: From Christ to Pre-Reformation: The Rise and Growth of the Church in Its Cultural, Intellectual, and Political Context and Volume Two: Church History (Zondervan, 2005, 2007). Ferguson tends towards a dependency on older secondary sources, a commonplace caveat for works by professors emeriti. The advantage of the Baker series is the option to focus on a particular historical period (generally 300-350 year intervals). Bassett, however, covers 601-1349 AD; a period known for a paucity of quality references (that's why they called half of it the dark ages, folks).