An Illustrated History of the Church, the Great Challenges is for anyone fascinated by history, for anyone curious about the role of Christianity through the centuries, and for anyone who loves art. This stunning book will present a new way to learn-through two parallel pathways of reading and seeing, of words and images. Together, the author's lucid and engaging text and the 566 illustrations with explanatory captions provide not simply a history, but a vivid, multidimensional experience of the Church from early Christian times to the present day.

The many high-quality reproductions and their illuminating captions allow you to see the architecture, sculpture, pictorial and decorative art of each period, and are designed to lead you to a deeper understanding and appreciation of the role of the Church and art in human events. This lively presentation by a scholar of Church and intellectual history offers solid knowledge, profound insights, and clear explanations of the challenges in each period: how they shaped the Church and how the Church, in turn, helped shape the societies in which she lived.

It is an essential resource for:

• •   High school, college, church, and public libraries 
• •   Students and teachers
• •   Families wanting to bring history alive in the home
• •   Individuals and households wanting to understand the role of religion in history and in society today
• •   Anyone who appreciates great art and stimulating history

An Illustrated History of the Church, the Great Challenges is a worthy centerpiece for any home, school, or church collection. It offers a focused inquiry into a vital subject-how Christianity, and the Roman Catholic Church in particular, helped to form the world we inhabit today.

Guy Bedouelle is a professor of Church history in the School of Theology at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland and president of the Center for Dominican Studies of Saulchoir in Paris. He entered the Dominican Order in 1965 after studying law and political science. A member from its inception of the editorial committee of the "Revue Catholique Internationale", "Communio" and editor of the journals "Mémoire dominicaine" and "La Pierre d'Angle", he has also published a number of books on French and English humanism, on liberal Catholics of the nineteenth century, and on the relationship of the cinema to the spiritual.