The Church in the Modern Age: The I.B.Tauris History of the Christian Church

by Jeremy Morris

Given the diversity and complexity of developments in the twentieth century, a history of the Christian Church in the modern period is in some ways the most challenging volume of all to write. But Jeremy Morris succeeds in presenting a coherent account of the Church. He emphasises the changing relationship of Western churches to the many forms of Christianity in other parts of the world, while also departing from the Eurocentric worldview of previous histories. His volume offers three major perspectives. The first is political, in which the history of the modern Church is assessed through a prism of international conflicts and international relations. The second perspective is regional, in which coverage is given not only to Europe and the Americas, but to Christianity in Africa, the Middle East, Asia, the Pacific Rim and Australasia. The author's third major perspective is institutional, in which he discusses particular Christian traditions and their relationships with each other, with other faiths and with wider cultures. An epilogue evaluates the future and prospects for Christianity in the new millennium.

256 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

Reviews

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a concise, well structured survey of twentieth-century Christianity, and it succeeds particularly well as a global history rather than a narrowly European one. Its three-part periodisation shapes the book, and Morris deftly links ecclesiastical developments to war, decolonisation, and the shift of Christianity’s centre of gravity toward the Global South. The book rehearses themes in other histories, but provides fresh insight too.

What makes the book especially valuable, I think, is the balance it strikes between breadth and clarity: it covers Catholicism, Orthodoxy (neglected by some others), and Protestantism, yet it still makes room for thematic chapters. These cover mission, ecumenism, independency, and Pentecostalism across the century. The chapter on Pentecostalism is a particular strength for me, because it treats the movement not as a marginal curiosity but as one of the century’s defining Christian transformations, with attention to its roots, its growth in the Global South, and its charismatic reshaping of Christian life.

Whether that should be tempered by a reading of Steve Bruce is an open question, but it is refreshing to see that depth of insight, rather than treating the pentecostal movement as an also ran.