Heretics: The Creation of Christianity from the Gnostics to the Modern Church - Hardcover

Wright, Jonathan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 015101387X ISBN 13: 9780151013876

Publisher: Mariner Books, 2011

Synopsis

In Heretics Jonathan Wright charts the history of dissent in the Christian Church through the stories of some of its most emblematic heretics—from Arius, a fourth-century Libyan cleric who doubted the very divinity of Christ, to more successful heretics like Martin Luther and John Calvin. As he traces the Church’s attempts at enforcing orthodoxy, from the days of Constantine to the modern Catholic Church’s lingering conflicts, Wright argues that heresy, by forcing the Church to continually refine and impose its beliefs, actually helped Christianity to blossom into one of the world’s most formidable and successful religions.

Today, all believers owe it to themselves to grapple with the questions raised by heresy. Can you be a Christian without denouncing heretics? Is it possible that new ideas challenging Church doctrine are destined to become as popular as have Luther’s once outrageous suggestions of clerical marriage and a priesthood of all believers? A delightfully readable and deeply learned new history,Heretics overturns our assumptions about the role of heresy in a faith that still shapes the world.

About this title

Product Description:

Jonathan Wright's history of the Christian faith is told through the dissenting voices of heretics who compelled the Church to refine and impose its beliefs.

From the Back Cover:

PRAISE FOR GOD’S SOLDIERS BY JONATHAN  WRIGHT

"Well researched, broadly learned, sophisticated, fast-paced, sympathetic yet critical, somewhat impressionistic in approach and sometimes breezy in style. I recommend it . . . Wright has a gift for ferreting out stories and particularly vivid incidents to illustrate his larger points, and he uses it to great advantage in the book. But do not be deceived. This     is a book by a well-trained historian who just happens to bear his learning lightly." —John O’Malley America: The National Catholic Weekly

 

"Wright’s witty book . . . makes for a rollercoaster read . . . His readers are left in no doubt about the centrality of the Jesuits in world history since 1540." —Eamon Duffy, Sunday Telegraph

 

"God’s Soldiers goes for the broad picture but doesn’t lose the human element, and Wright’s dry wit keeps things lively." —Star-Telegram (Fort Worth)

 

"Wright, a British historian, tells their amazing story in this thoroughly documented account. Given the scope of his subject, Wright's was no small task, and he has neatly compressed the four-century Jesuit saga into a reasonably concise and balanced history." —Publishers Weekly

"Seeking to separate fact from fiction and to set the often romanticized or exaggerated record straight, Wright offers a balanced overview that represents and preserves all the gore and glory of the Jesuit past." —Booklist

About this edition

• Publisher: Mariner Books
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 015101387X
• ISBN 13: 9780151013876
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 338