Amazon.com description: Product Description: Written in a lively, engaging style, this new "Lion Handbook" tells the story of how Christianity began and developed into the major world religion it is today. The book takes a global perspective and is fully illustrated in colour throughout. The main text of the book is written by Jonathan Hill, with articles by 50 international experts from the U.K, U.S, Italy, France, Africa, Belgium, Canada, the Congo, the Netherlands, Japan and Singapore. The book includes: Christian beginnings; the Church Fathers; expansion to Africa and the Middle East; the Byzantine Empire; the Dark Ages; the High Middle Ages; the Reformation; Russia and the east; the new age of exploration to Africa, South and North America, India and the Far East from the 15th to 17th centuries; the Enlightenment; the age of Colonialism; and the modern world.