Author(s): Linda Woodhead (Lancaster University Professor of Sociology of Religion, Lancaster University Lancaster University, UK Lancaster University, UK Lancaster University Lancaster University Lancaster University Lancaster University Lancaster University Lancaster University)

Religion

A candid and wide-ranging overview of the world's largest religion, Linda Woodhead distinguishes three main types of Christianity--Church, Biblical, and Mystical--examining their struggles with one another and with the wider society. Steering away from an idealistic approach, she considers Christianity's relations with worldly power and its attempts to achieve social, political, economic, and cultural dominance. Woodhead concludes by showing how those who had held the least power in Christianity--women and non-Europeans--have become increasingly central to its unfolding story.