Book cover of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years

Book description

Diarmaid MacCulloch's epic, acclaimed history A History of Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years follows the story of Christianity around the globe, from ancient Palestine to contemporary China.

How did an obscure personality cult come to be the world's biggest religion, with a third of humanity its followers? This book,…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

2 authors picked Christianity as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Cooke makes us question what we think we know about gender.

MacCulloch makes us rethink what we think we know about Christianity. There are so many books of Christian history on the market it can be overwhelming. Many have social, theological, or political agendas. Not MacCulloch. A scholar of the first tier, MacCulloch unpacks Christianity, but this is no textbook.

With clarity and readability, MacCulloch rejects traditional Eurocentric narratives to explore Syriac churches, Thomist Christians in India, Orthodoxy, and the oft-forgotten Church of the East. He emphasizes how the strength of Christianity in all its different forms hasn’t been its…

Christianity did not begin with Christ. MacCulloch, world expert on the history of the church, begins his epic tale a thousand years before the birth of Christ. Early chapters reveal Christianity’s antecedents and, over the next 1,000 pages, he takes us through the twists and turns of the early Christian church, the trials and tribulations of its members, and those who patronized and persecuted them. He explains the esoteric theological debates that tore communities apart, he follows the early missionaries into China, and he describes the divisions that formed the Orthodox, Catholic, and Protestant branches. Passionate and critical, MacCulloch gets…

From Fernanda's list on making us rethink global history.

If you love Christianity...

Book cover of These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

Want books like Christianity?

Our community of 13,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Christianity.

Browse books like Christianity

Book cover of Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew
Book cover of Against the Grain: A Deep History of the Earliest States
Book cover of The Master and His Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,395

readers submitted
so far, will you?

📚 If you like Christianity, you might also like...

Book cover of Need to Know: World War II and the Rise of American Intelligence

Need to Know by Nicholas Reynolds,

The authoritative but accessible history of the birth of modern American intelligence in World War II that treats not just one but all of the various disciplines: spies, codebreakers, saboteurs.

Told in a relatable style that focuses on actual people, it was a New Yorker "Best of 2022" selection and…

Book cover of Tsunami

Tsunami by LeeAnn Pickrell,

On the morning of December 26, 2004, an undersea earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. The resulting tsunami killed an estimated 230,000 people across fourteen countries, from Indonesia to Sri Lanka to Thailand to the Maldives to India and all the way to East Africa.…

5 book lists we think you will like!