Two Kingdoms: The Church and Culture Through the Ages.

Norris, Frederick W.

Moody Press and the authors are to be congratulated for presenting a new one-volume history of Christianity. Such ventures are expensive to produce. This one will be successful because it is readable; three indexes also make it quickly usable. Footnotes are minimal, but the thirty-four-page bibliography will be useful in guiding research. Most important, it is audience specific, focused through a conservative Protestant lens. The widest view is of the modern period. The treatments there cover many of the significant stories left out of so-called mainstream Protestant, Roman Catholic, or Orthodox accounts. The nineteenth-century missionary expansion receives attention. For the earlier periods paragraphs on Eastern Orthodoxy, Nestorian missions, developments in Latin American churches, and women in missions are welcome surprises. They make this volume superior to many others.

Some problems stand out. Evangelical in viewpoint, it does not emphasize Pentecostal and holiness contributions. When so much space (55 percent) is given to the modern period, we should read much more about Christianity in Latin America, Africa, and Asia. New figures from David Barrett (1993), printed on p. 571, show that Latin America has more Christians than Europe, Africa more than North America, and that nearly 60 percent of Christians now live in the Southern Hemisphere. That should be the audience for every new church history. Examples of the interplay of church and culture there must be a larger portion of the Northern Hemisphere's sense of church history. Prophet Harris's impact on world Christianity may prove more important than that of Harold Ockenga. It is certainly more significant than that of Friedrich August Tholuck.

In terms of quibbles I find the artwork of poor quality and often mispositioned in the layout. The concern for "two kingdoms," however, is useful. The history of doctrinal development is there when it absolutely has to be, but sometimes avoided when it might help. Why mention Babai the Great if not to describe his Christology? Were Nestorians always dyophysite, while Nestorius was not, and Monophysites ever what the name given them by their opponents implied?

Some of these things might be addressed in a second edition. My guess is that this will be a frequently adopted text for both undergraduate and seminary education, particularly within conservative Protestant circles, but it should also be used by other groups who are wise enough to look for such a reading of church history.

Frederick W. Norris is Professor of Christian Doctrine at Emmanuel School of Religion, Johnson City, Tennessee.