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Includes 30 photos and index. Almost without exception, the histories of the Church available in print are, in fact, histories of Western Christianity, with only brief and superficial mentions of the East. This volume - the second in a planned series of six - attempts to achieve a more balanced approach. Filling the needs of students, but also of a wider readership, it describes the expansion of Christianity in the East and the West in the fifth, sixth, and seventh centuries - from Ireland and the Indian Ocean and from Germany to Nubia. It exposes the tensions which arose between the inevitable cultural pluralism and the needs of Church unity - an issue which stands at the center of modern ecclesiological concerns. It discusses the debates on the identity of Christ, formally solved by the decrees of the great ecumenical councils, but which left Christendom divided. It defines the problems raised by the arbitrariness of Eastern Roman emperors and by the gradual development of Roman primacy.

This volume gives an account of the Church in the period from the end of the Sixth Ecumenical Synod in 681 to the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. Although 'Greek East' and 'Latin West' are becoming distinct entities during this expanse of time, the author treats them in parallel, observing the points at which their destinies coincide or conflict and noting developments within the whole of the Church rather than striving simply, or even primarily, to explain the eventual schism between Eastern and Western Christendom. Covering events both unique to each part (the Iconoclastic controversy in the East and the rise of the Carolingian Empire in the West) and common to each part (monastic reform, renaissance, and mission) the author skillfully portrays two Christian civilizations that share much in common yet become increasingly incomprehensible to one another. Despite curious synchronisms between East and West, the author demonstrates how two paths diverged from a once common route, and how eventually Byzantine Orthodoxy defined the Greek East over against the Latin West in theological, religious, cultural, and political terms.

Includes photos and index. Almost without exception, the "histories of the Church" available in print are, in fact, histories of Christianity in the West. References to the East have been brief and superficial at best. This volume - the fourth in a planned series of six and the second to appear - attempts to achieve a more balanced approach. Intended not only for students but also for a wider readership, The Christian East and the Rise of the Papacy describes developments in the churches of East and West in the High Middle Ages. It examines major western movements, such as the revolutionary Reform Papacy, the crusades, scholasticism, and concilarism, and discusses their impact on the East. It explores the theological and spiritual currents spreading from Byzantium to the Orthodox Churches of the Balkans and Rus', which helped to maintain the identity and unity of the "Byzantine Commonwealth" even as the empire itself crumbled. It also presents the little-known story of the native Eastern Churches of Egypt, Ethiopia, Syria, Armenia, and Georgia. In the process, it exposes the many factors which contributed to Christian disunity in the Middle Ages and which made even attempts at reunion divisive. The volume therefore will challenge and stimulate not only church historians but also all who are concerned about issues of Christian unity today.Widely hailed for its fairness, objectivity, and sympathy, it too attempts to provide a comprehensive presentation of Christian history, from Ireland to the Indian Ocean, from Germany to Nubia.