History of Christianity

Migration and the Making of Global Christianity

Jehu J. Hanciles Foreword by Philip Jenkins A magisterial sweep through 1500 years of Christian history with a groundbreaking focus on the missionary role of migrants in Christianity’s spread

Human migration has long been identi ed as a driving force of historical change. Building on this understanding, Jehu Hanciles surveys the history of Christianity’s global expansion from its origins through 1500 CE to show how migration—more than o cial missionary activity or imperial designs— played a vital role in making Christianity the world’s largest religion.

Church history has tended to place a premium on political power and institutional forms, thus portraying Christianity as a religion disseminated through o cial representatives of church and state. But, as Hanciles illustrates, this “top-down perspective overlooks the multifarious array of social movements, cultural processes, ordinary experiences, and non-elite activities and decisions that contribute immensely to religious encounter and exchange.”

Hanciles’s socio-historical approach to understanding the growth of Christianity as a world religion disrupts the narrative of Western preeminence, while honoring and making sense of the diversity of religious expression that has characterized the world Christian movement for two millennia. In turning the focus of the story away from powerful empires and heroic missionaries, Migration and the Making of Global Christianity instead tells the more truthful story of how every Christian migrant is a vessel for the spread of the Christian faith in our deeply interconnected world. Christian faith in our deeply interconnected world.

“In Beyond Christendom and other writings, Hanciles did so much to de ne an emerging  eld. Now, it is wonderful to see him applying his insights about migration and mission to an earlier era—nothing less than the  rst three-quarters of Christian history.” — PHILIP JENKINS from the foreword

Jehu J. Hanciles is the D. W. and Ruth Brooks Associate Professor of World Christianity at Emory University. Originally from Sierra Leone, he is also the author of Beyond Christendom: Globalization, A ican Migration, and the Transformation of the West and Euthanasia of a Mission: A ican Church Autonomy in a Colonial Context.

978-0-8028-7562-4 | Jacketed Hardcover | 464 pages | $45.00 US | $60.99 CAN £36.99 UK | Available March 2021

Beginning from Jerusalem

Christianity in the Making, VOLUME 2 James D. G. Dunn

 e second volume in the magisterial Christianity in the Making trilogy, Beginning  om Jerusalemcovers the early formation of the Christian faith from 30 to 70 CE. A er outlining the quest for the historical church (parallel to the quest for the historical Jesus) and reviewing the sources, James Dunn follows the course of the movement stemming from Jesus “beginning from Jerusalem.”

Dunn opens with a close analysis of what can be said of the earliest Jerusalem community, the Hellenists, the mission of Peter, and the emergence of Paul.  en he focuses solely on Paul—the chronology of his life and mission, his understanding of his call as apostle, and the character of the churches that he founded.  e third part traces the  nal days and literary legacies of the three principal  gures of  rst-generation Christianity: Paul, Peter, and James, the brother of Jesus. Each section includes detailed interaction with the vast wealth of secondary literature on the many subjects covered.

“A wealth of historical insights about the earliest churches re ected in Acts and the le ers.” — MICHAEL J. GORMAN inINTERPRETATION

“A truly remarkable achievement, re ecting a lifetime of research, writing, teaching, and supervising.” — PAUL BARNE inTHEMELIOS

James D. G. Dunn (1939–2020) was a renowned New Testament scholar and the longtime Lightfoot Professor of Divinity at Durham University. His many other books include  e  eology of Paul the Apostle and Jesus according to the New Testament.

978-0-8028-7800-7 | Paperback | 1363 pages | $65.00 US | $87.99 CAN £52.99 UK | Available

ALSO AVAILABLE IN PAPERBACK: VOLUME 1 OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE MAKING

Jesus Remembered

978-0-8028-7799-4 | 1037 pages | $60.00 US

Justo L. González is a retired United Methodist minister and professor of historical theology. His more than one hundred books, which have been published in ten languages, include A History of Christian  ought,  e Story of Christianity, A Brief History of Sunday, and Knowing Our Faith. Rebekah Eklund is associate professor of theology at Loyola University Maryland, where she teaches Scripture, theology, and ethics. She is the author of Jesus Wept:  e Signi cance of Jesus’ Laments in the New Testament and coauthor, with Samuel Wells and Ben Quash, of the second edition of Introducing Christian Ethics.

Teach Us to Pray

The Lord’s Prayer in the Early Church and Today Justo L. González

 e Lord’s Prayer is one of the oldest and most widely used short summaries not only of how Christians pray but also of what they believe about God, the world, and humankind. Justo González, whose textbooks have taught Christian doctrine and history to thousands of pastors, draws on Scripture, the church fathers, and his own life experience to make this vital prayer from the Christian past comprehensible for readers who want to understand—and live—Christianity in the present. Teach Us to Pray is for all who are learning or practicing Christian discipleship and ministry, from college students and motivated laypeople to veteran pastors and teachers.

“Great teachers always need great assistants, and in Teach Us to Pray we discover that Jesus—the true teacher of prayer—has enlisted Justo González to teach us to pray our Lord’s Prayer ever more faithfully. González has synthesized a treasure trove of wisdom  om the early church with his own deep theological and pastoral insight.  e result is a text I will reach for every time I teach the Lord’s Prayer, but more importantly, a text that will continue to shape my own praying.” — BRENT LAYTHAM Saint Mary’s Ecumenical Institute

“I never miss the opportunity to read Justo González.  e eminent Cuban American church historian has long provided a wealth of insight into the development of Christian doctrine as it has spread across the globe.” — MA HEW BARRE inCHRISTIANITY TODAY

978-0-8028-7796-3 | Paperback | 192 pages | $16.99 US | $22.99 CAN | £13.99 UK | Available

The Beatitudes through the Ages

Rebekah Eklund Foreword by Dale C. Allison Jr. Blessed are the poor in spirit . . . the mourners . . . the meek . . . the hungry . . . the merciful . . . the pure in heart . . . the peacemakers . . . the persecuted

 e Beatitudes are among the most in uential teachings in human history. For two millennia, they have appeared in poetry and politics, and in the thought of mystics and activists, as Christians and others have re ected on their meaning and shaped their lives according to the Beatitudes’ wisdom.

But what does it mean to be hungry, or meek, or pure in heart? Is poverty a material condition or a spiritual one? And what does being blessed entail?

In this book, Rebekah Eklund explores how the Beatitudes and their interpretations have shaped—and been shaped by—the di erent eras and contexts in which they have been read. From Ma hew and Luke in the  rst century, to Martin Luther King Jr. and Billy Graham in the twentieth, Eklund considers how men and women have understood and applied the Beatitudes to their own lives through the ages. Reading in the company of past readers helps us see how rich and multifaceted the Beatitudes truly are, illuminating what they might mean for us today.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction 1. Meet the Beatitudes: Some Basic Questions 2. The Tangled Skein of Our Lives: A Whirlwind

Tour through History 3. Drained of All Other Waters: The Poor in Spirit and the Poor 4. By Trials Furrowed: Those Who Mourn and Weep 5. Yield Your Ground: The Meek 6. Our Daily Bread: The Hungry and Thirsty (for

Justice) 7. Stretching Out the Hand: The Merciful 8. Such Powerful Light: The Pure in Heart 9. The Heart of God: The Peacemakers 10. Mischief-Makers and Bandits: The Persecuted Conclusion

978-0-8028-7650-8 | Jacketed Hardcover | 352 pages | $35.00 US | $46.99 CAN | £27.99 UK | Available April 2021