Christianity cover art

Christianity

The First Three Thousand Years

Preview
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free
Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.
Prime members: New to Audible? Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Just £0.99/mo for your first 3 months of Audible.
1 bestseller or new release per month—yours to keep.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, podcasts, and Originals.
Auto-renews at £8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection - including bestsellers and new releases.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, celeb exclusives, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically.

Christianity

By: Diarmaid MacCulloch
Narrated by: Walter Dixon
Get this deal Try Premium Plus free

£8.99/mo after 3 months. Cancel monthly. Offer ends December 16, 2025 11:59pm GMT.

£8.99/month after 30 days. Renews automatically. See here for eligibility.

Buy Now for £29.99

Buy Now for £29.99

Only £0.99 a month for the first 3 months. Pay £0.99 for the first 3 months, and £8.99/month thereafter. Renews automatically. Terms apply. Start my membership

About this listen

Once in a generation, a historian will redefine his field, producing a book that demands to be read and heard - a product of electrifying scholarship conveyed with commanding skill. Diarmaid MacCulloch's Christianity is such a book. Breathtaking in ambition, it ranges back to the origins of the Hebrew Bible and covers the world, following the three main strands of the Christian faith.

Christianity will teach modern listeners things that have been lost in time about how Jesus' message spread and how the New Testament was formed. We follow the Christian story to all corners of the globe, filling in often neglected accounts of conversions and confrontations in Africa and Asia. And we discover the roots of the faith that galvanized America, charting the rise of the evangelical movement from its origins in Germany and England. This audiobook encompasses all of intellectual history - we meet monks and crusaders, heretics and saints, slave traders and abolitionists, and discover Christianity's essential role in driving the enlightenment and the age of exploration, and shaping the course of World War I and World War II.

We are living in a time of tremendous religious awareness, when both believers and non-believers are deeply engaged by questions of religion and tradition, seeking to understand the violence sometimes perpetrated in the name of God. The son of an Anglican clergyman, MacCulloch writes with deep feeling about faith. His last book, The Reformation, was chosen by dozens of publications as Best Book of the Year and won the National Book Critics Circle Award. This awe-inspiring follow-up is a landmark new history of the faith that continues to shape the world.

©2010 Diamaid MacCulloch (P)2010 Gildan Media Corp
Christianity History World Middle Ages Imperialism Thought-Provoking Africa Middle East Crusade War Ancient History Socialism Social justice Tradition

Listeners also enjoyed...

Sanctification: Audio Lectures cover art
Rebel in the Ranks cover art
Turning Points cover art
Confessions cover art
The Stripping of the Altars cover art
The Future of Faith cover art
The Rise of Western Christendom (10th Anniversary Revised Edition) cover art
The New Testament cover art
Forged cover art
Jesus, Interrupted cover art
Did Jesus Exist? cover art
The Ecclesiastical History of the English People cover art
Jesus Wars cover art
History of the Church cover art
Catholic History cover art
The Word of Promise Audio Bible: Complete Bible---Hear the Bible Come Alive (NKJV) cover art

Critic reviews

"Assuming no previous knowledge on the part of readers about Christian traditions, MacCulloch traces in breathtaking detail the often contentious arguments within Christianity for the past 3,000 years. His monumental achievement will not soon be surpassed." ( Publishers Weekly)
"A work of exceptional breadth and subtlety." ( Booklist)
All stars
Most relevant
Whether you are a Christian or not, this book is well worth investigating for it's historical content alone. There are a number of surprises and much thought provoking material contained within. My friend and I listened to this while driving around Europe for two weeks, and it was great to provoke discussion. My only quibble is the reader and the appalling American pronunciations which are irritating and detract from the flow.

Thought provoking

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I actually got the printed book instead after listening to this for awhile. As others have said, the narration is robotic, and would have benefited so much from having better narration - I have previously bought "A History of the World" on Audible by Andrew Marr and narrated by David Timson, and it is a fantastic listen. Just a pity this book didn't have anything near the same quality of narration. I'll hold off on giving the book itself a review because I'm still getting through it, but so far very good.

Narration is very poor but the book is great

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

this book took me by surprise. I'm on the sceptical end of the spectrum, but i think this should be compulsory reading. etymologists of the English language will love it. very interesting introduction to Islam contained within. inspires me to check out various historical and religious phenomena in Greater detail. impressive marathon by the narrator - no doubt some pedants will be upset by some of the pronunciations though... i thought he hit the right tone.

fascinating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Having enjoyed Diarmaid MacCulloch's BBC series, I was thrilled to see this book available on Audible. The content is fascinating - however, I find the American narration off putting and distracting (timbre, pronounciations e.g. deity, Israel etc). Had it been a British narrator, I wouldn't hesitate to give it 5 stars.

Great content - disappointing narration

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This is hard to listen to. the narrator is lukewarm. And for such a famous book you would expect a posh English reader.

This book has been called the best history of its kind in the English language! But we live in the 21st Century and the P.C is still here. So political correctness will be with us forever, like the poor! This is so sad. And the use of bce instead of BC is grating to the ears. And I don't want to hear about evil Christians in Spain bullying the peaceful Muslims anymore. And is Islam really the little cousin of Christianity, another great monotheisticis religion, and Muhammad a prophet?

Sorry to be so negative but this is in adverse proportion to the hyped up blurbs this book has gained.

with those with ears to hear!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I'm an atheist, but I have a continuing interest in the history of the great religions, not least because of the impact that - rightly or, in my view, wrongly - they continue to have on the world. I downloaded this book having seen Diarmaid MacCulloch's BBC Television series on Christianity and also heard him talk on various radio programmes such as In Our Time.

The scale of the project, and in particular the brilliant notion of starting the history of Christianity a thousand years before Christ, is astonishing. Diarmaid MacCulloch wears his scholarship lightly, but never patronises the reader/listener, and the way in which different strands of the worldview are intertwined is absolutely fascinating. It's a big book and it takes a long time to get through, but it is well worth it. Highly recommended.

Comprehensive and endlessly fascinating

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

There are some real treasures of knowledge that you may never have known in here! This is not a shy or retiring history. It presents the facts as they are. It is not coloured by emotion nor is it afraid to point out some of Chrustisniries darkest and most sinful periods. There have been a few. The narrator was very engaging. I write this as an audio book narrator myself, and the historians style is one of a friendly dissemination of knowledge rather than a blunderbus of things you must learn and there's a test aftwrward.

There really is something in here for everyone. I thoroughly enjoyed this and may have to listen to is again.

Loved it!

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

Great book, which received multiple positive reviews on release, and here narrated in a clear and engaging way. Dixon's narration is measured and balanced, hitting just the right tone for a book of such historical and theological complexity.

Epic history of Christianity

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

I would like a part 2 for an update from the authors perspective. It may be a long book but it was well written keeping me interested.

Very informative and interesting

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

This is a very interesting book. The author describes himself as a friend of Christianity. The first few chapter cast doubt on the New Testament which I found difficult listening as a Christian. Once past this New Testament era the author paints a sweeping vista of Christian history which is amazing. It is worth knowing the world wide history of the church to see the amazing grace of God and foolishness of so many Christian leaders. There are real lessons to be learned.

Christianity as history

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

See more reviews