Christianity: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions) PDF
Preview Christianity: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)
Christianity: A Very Short Introduction Very Short Introductions are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide. The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology. Very Short Introductions available now: ANARCHISM Colin Ward CLASSICS Mary Beard and ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw John Henderson ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard Julia Annas THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon ANCIENT WARFARE Continental Philosophy Harry Sidebottom Simon Critchley THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE COSMOLOGY Peter Coles John Blair CRYPTOGRAPHY ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia Fred Piper and Sean Murphy ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn DADA AND SURREALISM ARCHITECTURE David Hopkins Andrew Ballantyne Darwin Jonathan Howard ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes Democracy Bernard Crick ART HISTORY Dana Arnold DESCARTES Tom Sorell ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland DRUGS Leslie Iversen THE HISTORY OF THE EARTH Martin Redfern ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin EGYPTIAN MYTH Geraldine Pinch Atheism Julian Baggini EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY Augustine Henry Chadwick BRITAIN Paul Langford BARTHES Jonathan Culler THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball THE BIBLE John Riches EMOTION Dylan Evans BRITISH POLITICS EMPIRE Stephen Howe Anthony Wright ENGELS Terrell Carver Buddha Michael Carrithers Ethics Simon Blackburn BUDDHISM Damien Keown The European Union CAPITALISM James Fulcher John Pinder THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe EVOLUTION CHOICE THEORY Brian and Deborah Charlesworth Michael Allingham FASCISM Kevin Passmore CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson THE FRENCH REVOLUTION CHRISTIANITY Linda Woodhead William Doyle FREE WILL Thomas Pink NORTHERN IRELAND Freud Anthony Storr Marc Mulholland Galileo Stillman Drake PARTICLE PHYSICS Frank Close Gandhi Bhikhu Parekh paul E. P. Sanders GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger Philosophy Edward Craig GLOBAL WARMING Mark Maslin PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE HEGEL Peter Singer Samir Okasha HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood PLATO Julia Annas HIEROGLYPHS Penelope Wilson POLITICS Kenneth Minogue HINDUISM Kim Knott POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY HISTORY John H. Arnold David Miller HOBBES Richard Tuck POSTCOLONIALISM HUME A. J. Ayer Robert Young IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden POSTMODERNISM Indian Philosophy Christopher Butler Sue Hamilton POSTSTRUCTURALISM Intelligence Ian J. Deary Catherine Belsey ISLAM Malise Ruthven PREHISTORY Chris Gosden JUDAISM Norman Solomon PRESOCRATIC PHILOSOPHY Jung Anthony Stevens Catherine Osborne KAFKA Ritchie Robertson Psychology Gillian Butler and KANT Roger Scruton Freda McManus KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner QUANTUM THEORY THE KORAN Michael Cook John Polkinghorne LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews ROMAN BRITAIN LITERARY THEORY Peter Salway Jonathan Culler ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler LOCKE John Dunn RUSSELL A. C. Grayling LOGIC Graham Priest RUSSIAN LITERATURE MACHIAVELLI Quentin Skinner Catriona Kelly MARX Peter Singer THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION MATHEMATICS S. A. Smith Timothy Gowers SCHIZOPHRENIA MEDICAL ETHICS Tony Hope Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone MEDIEVAL BRITAIN SCHOPENHAUER John Gillingham and Ralph A. Griffiths Christopher Janaway MODERN IRELAND Senia Pasˇeta SHAKESPEARE MOLECULES Philip Ball Germaine Greer MUSIC Nicholas Cook SOCIAL AND CULTURAL Myth Robert A. Segal ANTHROPOLOGY NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner John Monaghan and Peter Just NINETEENTH-CENTURY SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and Socrates C. C. W. Taylor H. C. G. Matthew SPINOZA Roger Scruton STUART BRITAIN John Morrill TWENTIETH-CENTURY TERRORISM Charles Townshend BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan THEOLOGY David F. Ford Wittgenstein A. C. Grayling THE TUDORS John Guy WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman Available soon: AFRICAN HISTORY Habermas Gordon Finlayson John Parker and Richard Rathbone HIROSHIMA THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea B. R. Tomlinson BUDDHIST ETHICS HUMAN EVOLUTION Damien Keown Bernard Wood CHAOS Leonard Smith INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy Paul Wilkinson CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE JAZZ Brian Morton Robert Tavernor MANDELA Tom Lodge CLONING Arlene Judith Klotzko THE MIND Martin Davies CONSCIOUSNESS Sue Blackmore MODERN ART David Cottington CONTEMPORARY ART NATIONALISM Steven Grosby Julian Stallabrass PERCEPTION Richard Gregory THE CRUSADES PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION Christopher Tyerman Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot Derrida Simon Glendinning PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards DESIGN John Heskett THE RAJ Denis Judd Dinosaurs David Norman THE RENAISSANCE Jerry Brotton DREAMING J. Allan Hobson RENAISSANCE ART ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta Geraldine Johnson THE END OF THE WORLD ROMAN EMPIRE Bill McGuire Christopher Kelly EXISTENTIALISM Thomas Flynn SARTRE Christina Howells FEMINISM Margaret Walters THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR THE FIRST WORLD WAR Helen Graham Michael Howard TIME Leofranc Holford-Strevens FOUCAULT Garry Gutting TRAGEDY Adrian Poole FUNDAMENTALISM THE TWENTIETH CENTURY Malise Ruthven Martin Conway For more information visit our web site www.oup.co.uk/vsi Linda Woodhead CHRISTIANITY A Very Short Introduction 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxfordox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Shanghai Taipei Toronto With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan South Korea Poland Portugal Singapore Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Linda Woodhead 2004 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published as a Very Short Introduction 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Woodhead, Linda. (Very short introductions) Christianity : a very short introduction / Linda Woodhead. p. cm. Incudes bibliographical references and index. 1. Christianity. I. Title. II. Series. BR121.3.W66 2004 230—dc22 2004024149 ISBN–13: 978–0–19–280322–1 ISBN–10: 0–19–280322–0 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 Typeset by RefineCatch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk Printed in Great Britain by Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Gosport, Hampshire. Contents List of illustrations ix Introduction 1 1 Jesus: the God-man 6 2 The signs and symbols of Christianity 24 3 Church and Biblical Christianity 46 4 Mystical Christianity 71 5 Modern Christianity: the West 89 6 Christianity beyond the West 109 7 A woman’s religion? 128 Conclusion 147 Source material 151 Further reading 152 Chronology 157 Index 159 This page intentionally left blank This page intentionally left blank List of illustrations 1 Fragment of Matthew’s 6 Crucifixion, Matthias Gospel from Grunewald (1500–8) 33 Oxyrhynchus, Egypt Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe (3rd century ce) 8 7 The Holy Family with Courtesy of the Egypt Exploration Society a Little Bird, Murillo (c. 1650) 34 2 Mosaic of Christ from All rights reserved. © Prado St Peter’s Basilica, Vatican Museum, Madrid City (3rd century ce) 21 8 The Sacred Heart of © 2004 TopFoto.co.uk Jesus on a popular 3 Eve, the Serpent and card (c. 1900) 36 Death, Hans Baldung Mary Evans Picture Library Grien (c. 1520–5) 26 9 The Light of the Agnew & Sons, London/ www.bridgeman.co.uk World, Holman Hunt (1900–4) 37 4 The Way of Good By permission of the Warden and and Evil, American Fellows of Keble College, Oxford woodcut (1826) 28 10 Head of Christ, Warner Courtesy of the Library of Congress Sallman (1941) 38 © Warner Press, Inc., Anderson, 5 Christ Pantocrator, Abbey Indiana. Used by permission Church of Monreale, Sicily (12th century) 32 Duomo of Monreale, Sicily/© Alinari Archives, Florence
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