CHRISTENDOM

Sweeping exploration of how the Christian Europe of the late Middle Ages came to be.

In his latest book, Heather, chair of medieval history at King's College, London, takes readers on a wide-ranging journey through eight centuries and across the length and breadth of Europe (and beyond) to understand the rise of Christendom, which the author defines as “that part of the world where official Christianity exercised a dominant hold on the totality of the population.” By the 12th and 13th centuries, this “dominant hold” was certainly in place across the continent, but just how that situation arose over centuries has not always been properly explained by historians. In this fresh, prodigiously researched approach, the author uses relatively newly found sources to delineate the development of these historical progressions. First, Heather acknowledges Christianity’s failures in the course of its expansions. Second, he explores the diversity of Christian thought and practice through these years. Finally, he examines the reasons why people made the religious choices that they did. Heather divides the book into three eras: imperial Christianity under the influence of late Rome; post-imperial Christianity, when society reordered itself in the wake of the fall of Rome’s influence; and a new imperial Christianity under the Carolingians. Throughout, the author finds ways to turn conventional wisdom on its head—e.g., “At least as important…as the Christianization of the Roman Empire—a traditional topic of historical analysis—was the Romanization of Christianity.” Heather introduces a host of little-known characters who played an outsized role in Christianity’s spread, including Ulfilas, “the Apostle of the Goths,” who crafted a Gothic language translation of the Bible while also diplomatically assisting in the weakening of the western Roman empire. “From the time of Constantine onwards,” writes the author in conclusion, “the Christianization of Europe was closely linked to the exercise of power at every level.”

A worthwhile undertaking for serious students of medieval Europe and/or Christian history.