A World History of Christianity

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A World History of Christianity.

Edited by Adrian Hastings. Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1999. Pp. xiv, 594. $45.

The sure editorial hand of Adrian Hastings and the sturdy work of his contributors have combined to take an important step toward a genuinely global history of Christianity. Recent general histories have made increasingly sincere gestures toward this same goal. But the weight of convention has to date mostly prevented others from reflecting the world's current distribution of believers, where the demographic balance, but not yet the historiography, has shifted from North to South. This volume marks a breakthrough.

It contains thirteen separate …