{"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\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePETER HEATHER is chair of medieval history at King's College, London. His many books include \u003ci\u003eThe Fall of the Roman Empire, Empires and Barbarians, The Restoration of Rome, \u003c\/i\u003e and, most recently, \u003ci\u003eRome Resurgent\u003c\/i\u003e. He lives in London.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Vintage","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51243771527442,"sku":"9781101974100","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_22223f2f-d4c8-4b24-b9d9-8d671d15da7e.jpg?v=1760433543","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/christendom-the-triumph-of-a-religion-ad-300-1300-9781101974100","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}