Finding Pieces of the Puzzle

Book excerpt: Climate change. Radical politics. National debt. Globalization. What do Christians have to say to the big questions we all face? Whatever they try to say, they will be seriously handicapped if they do not know their own story. Finding Pieces of the Puzzle will fill the knowledge gap. It breaks away from the usual manner in which history is written. Here is a sweeping overview of the story of Christianity that takes the reader to parts of the world seldom visited, that watches as the message of Christ encounters cultures as different as ninth century Persia and sixteenth century Kongo. The story is carried from the first to the twenty-first century by a series of mini-biographies--a young woman facing martyrdom, a boy from a little French town who becomes Pope and launches an army, an African-American who uses a successful international trade network to combat slavery. The glory, the confusion, the shame, the holiness of Christianity are all here. As the pieces are slipped into place, the puzzle begins to make sense. Watching Christians of the past face their challenges helps us understand who modern Christians really are.