Pilgrims and Popes : A Concise History of Pre-Reformation Christianity in the West

Pilgrims and Popes introduces the foundational fifteen hundred years of the history of Christianity, from Jesus to the eve of the Reformation. The crucial decisions of the first centuries have indelibly shaped the subsequent journey of the Christian faith movement. The book tells how the Christian faith story unfolded in dialectic movements: hegemony and emancipation; institutionalization and protest; petrification and renewal; missionary involvement in the world and separation from the world.
The book bridges the gap between the present and the seemingly remote world of the first fifteen hundred years of Christianity in the West by engaging with present-day readers’ cultures and contexts. The rich material is presented in an easily readable way, combined with charts and with questions for discussion and deepening reflection. This study book will be a welcome learning tool in classrooms and in churches, particularly in the context of the Global South.

Tobias Brandner is an Associate Professor of the History of Christianity and Mission Studies at the Divinity School of Chung Chi College, Chinese University of Hong Kong. He is a native of Switzerland and has lived in Asia since 1996.

H. S. Wilson, a church historian and liberation theologian, is executive secretary of the Department of Theology for the World Alliance of Reformed Churches. Dr. Judo Poerwowidagdo, a theological educator from Indonesia, is executive secretary for Asia and the Pacific in the Ecumenical Theological Education Programme of the World Council of Churches. Dr. Takatso Mofokeng, a professor of systematic theology at the University of South Africa, is chair of the South African Association of Theological Institutions. Robert A. Evans and Alice Frazer Evans are co-directors of the Plowshares Institute and co-editors of several books of case studies, including 'Christian Ethics' and 'The Globalization of Theological Education'.