Threads
Storylines that run across the eras. Follow one from its beginning to the present to see how events centuries apart belong together.
Covenant and Promise
The binding promises between God and his people, from Noah and Abraham through Sinai and David to the new covenant proclaimed at the Last Supper.
Temple and Worship
Where and how God is worshipped: tabernacle, temple and synagogue, then the Lord’s Supper, church buildings, icons and the liturgies of East and West.
Kingship and Messiah
Israel’s kings, the promise of a lasting throne for David, the loss of the monarchy, and the hope for an anointed deliverer that the New Testament applies to Jesus.
Prophets and Prophecy
Those who spoke in God’s name to kings and people, from Moses, Elijah and Isaiah to John the Baptist, and later movements that claimed the same gift.
Scripture and Canon
How the Bible was written, collected, copied and translated: from the law read by Ezra to the Septuagint, the Vulgate, the printing press and the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Mission and Expansion
How a movement that began in Galilee reached every continent: Paul’s journeys, the conversion of kingdoms, monks and friars, and the modern missionary movement.
Persecution and Martyrdom
Christians who suffered for their faith, under Rome and under modern states, and the times when Christians themselves persecuted others.
Church and State
The changing relation between the churches and political power: illegal sect, imperial religion, medieval contests of pope and emperor, established churches, toleration and religious freedom.
Creeds and Councils
How Christians have defined what they believe: the councils from Jerusalem and Nicaea onward, the creeds and confessions they produced, and the teachers who shaped them.
Papacy and Church Order
How the church has been governed: apostles, bishops and elders, the rise of the bishop of Rome, the patriarchates, and the differing orders of the churches today.
Monasticism and Religious Life
Men and women who left ordinary life for prayer and service: the desert hermits, Benedict’s Rule, Athos, the friars, the Jesuits, and the renewal movements that followed.
East and West
The drifting apart of Greek and Latin Christianity and of the churches beyond the empire, from Chalcedon to the schism of 1054, the crusades, failed reunions and modern dialogue.
Reform and Reformation
Movements to correct and renew the church: Cluny and the friars, Wycliffe and Hus, the Protestant and Catholic reformations, and later campaigns for change.
Revival and Unity
Movements of spiritual renewal, from Pietism and Methodism to Pentecostalism, and the modern search to heal the divisions among the churches.