"Religious historian and sociologist Rodney Stark has spent his career engaging with that very question. Indeed, after thirty highly regarded books on the matter, he has created a true master course in Christian history. Now, for the first time, he distills his research to just the most important and interesting episodes--the seminal moments in the story that, he now believes, demand new perspectives. Stark gets right to the events of greatest interest,...

A noted social historian charts the rise of religion, from Stone Age spirituality through the recent surge in Christianity, addressing numerous questions that range from why most world religions developed simultaneously to the commonalities among disparate faiths.