Rodney Stark Bücher

Dieses Buch räumt mit der gängigen Sicht auf, die Kreuzzüge seien ein brutaler, imperialistischer, räuberischer Feldzug des christlichen Abendlandes gegen einen gebildeten, toleranten und friedlichen Islam gewesen, geführt, um sich zu bereichern und das Christentum zu verbreiten. Ein Krieg, der den berechtigten Hass der muslimischen Welt auf den Westen bis heute begründet. Mit Überblick und dennoch detailreich zeichnet Stark die Geschichte der Eroberung weiter Teile Europas, des Mittleren Ostens und Nordafrikas durch Mohammed und seine Erben nach. Er schildert die Behandlung der Juden und Christen in den besetzten Ländern und die Massaker an den Pilgern, die ins Heilige Land fuhren, um sich dort von ihren Sünden zu befreien. Er beschreibt die flehende Bitte Alexios' I. an den Graf von Flandern, Byzanz vor der Invasion der gerade zum Islam konvertierten Türken zu schützen, sowie den berühmten Aufruf Papst Urbans II. an die Ritter Europas, den Byzantinern zu helfen und den Weg ins Heilige Land für die christlichen Pilger wieder zu sichern. Er analysiert die blutigen Schlachten der Kreuzritter, ihre Siege und fatalen Niederlagen, die unterschiedlichen Strategien der Kriegsführung beider Seiten und die logistische Organisation dieser enormen Truppenbewegungen. Mit Gottes Krieger gibt uns einer der renommiertesten Religionssoziologen ein neues und realistischeres Bild der sieben großen Kreuzzüge und zeigt auf, was in den Jahren von 1095 bis 1291 in Europa und im Nahen Osten wirklich geschah.

Rodney Stark untersucht, wie der unbedeutende Kult der ersten Christen zur dominierenden Religion im Mittelmeerraum wurde. Er nutzt moderne Sozialwissenschaften und widerlegt gängige Ansichten über die Gläubigen. Besonders Juden und Frauen spielten eine zentrale Rolle. Stark verknüpft theologische und sozialwissenschaftliche Erklärungen für den Aufstieg des Christentums.

As we all know and as many of our well established textbooks have argued for decades, the Inquisition was one of the most frightening and bloody chapters in Western history, Pope Pius XII was anti-Semitic and rightfully called “Hitler’s Pope,” the Dark Ages were a stunting of the progress of knowledge to be redeemed only by the secular spirit of the Enlightenment, and the religious Crusades were an early example of the rapacious Western thirst for riches and power. But what if these long held beliefs were all wrong? In this book, Rodney Stark, one of the most highly regarded sociologists of religion and bestselling author of The Rise of Christianity argues that some of our most firmly held ideas about history, ideas that paint the Catholic Church in the least positive light are, in fact, fiction. Why have we held these wrongheaded ideas so strongly and for so long? And if our beliefs are wrong, what, in fact, is the truth?<

Celebrated religious and social historian Rodney Stark traces the extraordinary rise of Christianity through its most pivotal and controversial moments to offer fresh perspective on the history of the world’s largest religion. In The Triumph of Christianity, the author of God’s Battalions and The Rise of Christianity gathers and refines decades of powerful research and discovery into one concentrated, concise, and highly readable volume that explores Christianity’s most crucial episodes. The unique format of Triumph of Christianity allows Stark to avoid dense chronologies and difficult back stories, bringing readers right to the heart of Christian history’s most vital controversies and enduring lessons.

An expose of ten popular misconceptions about the oppressive role of the Catholic Church in history.

An expose of over-inflated claims about the Reformation and what it has done for us.

SOCIOLOGY is truly a classic introductory text which introduces students to the methods and theories of sociology using Rodney Stark's hallmark "Over the Shoulder of a professional sociologist" approach, presenting sociology on a personal level. Stark describes what sociologists do and how they do it, focusing first on the questions they pose and how they search for and formulate their answers, and then moving on to study their answers and conclusions. In this way, he effectively explores themes, raising issues in a straightforward manner with historical accuracy and solid research. The text employs a unique feature titled "A Closer View," which illustrates seminal research studies to introduce students to the sociological imagination and the world around them.

The book explores the remarkable transformation of an obscure Jewish sect into the world's largest religion, highlighting the growth of Christianity, which now encompasses over 40 percent of the global population. Rodney Stark, a distinguished historian, delves into the social and historical factors that contributed to this rapid expansion, offering insights into the dynamics that have allowed Christianity to thrive across cultures and eras.

In The victory of reason, sociologist Stark advances the idea that Christianity and its related institutions are directly responsible for the most significant intellectual, political, scientific, and economic breakthroughs of the past millennium. In Stark's view, what has propelled the West is not the tension between secular and nonsecular society, nor the pitting of science and the humanities against religious belief. Christian theology, Stark asserts, is the very font of reason. While the world's other great belief systems emphasized mystery, obedience, or introspection, Christianity alone embraced logic and reason as the path toward enlightenment, freedom, and progress.--From publisher description