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David Hempton, The Church in the Long Eighteenth Century. London: I. B. Tauris, 201 1. Pp. xxii + 243. $49.00 hardcover.
The Church in the Long Eighteenth Century is the latest volume in I. B. Tauris's History of the Christian Church. Edited by G. R. Evans, the series aims to provide a history of global Christianity from the apostles to the present in seven short volumes. David Hemptons contribution covers the period from Peace of Westphalia to the early nineteenth century.
Hempton divides his task into two parts. In the first half of the book, or what he calls "Book One," Hempton explores how Christendom was spreading its reach globally in an age of European imperialism. In "Book Two," he provides an overview of the major developments in Christendom during his period. The first half of the book is more impressionistic, made up largely of case studies and cameos of Christian communities worldwide. The second leans on a more developed historiography and is written thematically. Part two will prove useful to teachers looking for an overview of developments in church history in Europe and North America during this period; part one will give them and their students a better sense of how those churches fared when they encountered other cultures.
Chapter one begins with the quaint device of an imaginary "scholarly space visitor - a Professor of Comparative Interplanetary Religions...