The Top 100 Most Influential Christians of All Time, Volume 1

Christianity has changed greatly since Jesus' day. How much have those changes shaped the nature of the gospel He proclaimed? In this book, the most important changes are traced through brief biographies of the 100 Christians who have been most responsible for bringing about the changes: Christianity's view of sex, monasticism, Church authority, rituals, doctrines, and practices. Through these men and women, we see how Eastern Christianity separated from Western, and how denominations developed. We see that some of the 100 were heroes of the faith who sought to live out Jesus' teachings as best they could in their times. But some were opportunists who used controversy to further their own goals. The lives are arranged in chronological order, so it is easy to understand how every change was affected by its times, and how one change led to another, and how some great Christians tried to reclaim the basic truths of Jesus' teachings. The changes arose not in calm and reasoned conversation but within the roiling crucible of history. Choices had to be made, and they were made. Heresies that changed the very nature of the faith had to be challenged. And they were, sometimes leading to more problems. With Constantine, the church united with the state, and from that time on everything was different. Christians began persecuting Christians, heresies came to be narrowly defined, patriarchs fought for influence, and a thousand other developments dragged the Church down until brave souls cried out for reform. It is an exhilirating story, told in a way you have never read history before.