TURNING POINTS Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity THIRD EDITION Mark A. Noll, Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity, Third Edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2012), iii.

If you've ever wondered how one Palestinian sect became a global faith of every language and continent, this is the map. Noll, a master historian, picks fourteen moments and shows the before-and-after with unusual fairness to both Catholics and Protestants. Read it if you teach, preach, argue about church history, or simply want your assumptions about 'how Christianity always was' quietly dismantled.

1. 1Chapter 1

   When Jerusalem burned, Christianity had to invent itself

   The Roman destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70 under Titus at the end of the Jewish War (66-73) destroyed the Temple, ended the sacrificial system and the Jewish state, and scattered Jews and Jewish Christians. Josephus recorded that over one million Jews died in the siege, though Noll cautions the number may be exaggerated. The Christian community in Jerusalem fled to Pella before the siege, as reported by Eusebius, and survived the catastrophe; Noll treats the tradition cautiously. The Jerusalem-centered Jewish Christian leadership was scattered or killed. Gentile congregations in Antioch, Alexandria, and Rome now carried the faith alone.

   The idea

   Christianity's defining break from Judaism wasn't a doctrine decided in a seminar — it was a catastrophe. When the Jerusalem-centered leadership vanished, a mostly Gentile church had to define itself apart from the faith that birthed it, and the faith's geographic heart moved permanently westward. What surprises readers: a single military siege, not a theological debate, set Christianity on the path to becoming a Gentile world religion.

   Try this: Read Acts 15 alongside a short account of the fall of Jerusalem and notice how little of the New Testament church survived the siege intact.

2. 2Chapter 2

   One word — homoousios — nearly splits the church

   Arius, a priest in Alexandria, preached that the Son was a created being — 'there was [a time] when he was not.' Constantine, who reportedly saw a cross of light in the sky with the words 'in hoc signo vinces' before the Battle of the Milvian Bridge in 312, summoned about 300 bishops to Nicaea in 325 and presided over the council, though not yet baptized. Athanasius, then a young deacon from Alexandria, vigorously defended the full divinity of Christ against Arius at the council, arguing that if Christ were not fully divine, salvation was not possible. The council condemned Arius and exiled him, and produced the original Nicene Creed: the Son is 'begotten, not made, being of one substance [homoousios] with the Father.'

   The idea

   The creed's single Greek word — same substance — became orthodoxy's touchstone, yet the Arian controversy continued for decades after 325 and was not fully resolved until the Council of Constantinople in 381. Arianism remained influential among some Germanic tribes.

   Try this: Recite the Nicene Creed slowly and locate the one clause — 'begotten, not made' — that a fourth-century riot produced.

3. 3Chapter 3

   Two natures, one person: Chalcedon draws the line

   By 451 the church was tearing itself apart over a question that sounds abstract but wasn't: how do Christ's divine and human natures relate? The Council of Chalcedon in 451 was convened by Emperor Marcian near Constantinople. It rejected both Nestorianism (which over-separated the natures) and Monophysitism (which merged them into one). Its Definition declared Christ 'one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten, made known in two natures without confusion, without change, without division, without separation.'

   The idea

   Most churches accepted the formula; the Chalcedonian definition was rejected by the Oriental Orthodox (monophysite) churches — Coptic, Armenian, Ethiopian, and Syrian — which separated from the imperial church, a split that persists to the present day. Noll's point: the definition became the standard for orthodox Christology, but its cost was the first great lasting fracture. Precision about who Christ is came at the price of communion itself.

   Try this: Read the Chalcedonian Definition's four adverbs aloud — without confusion, change, division, separation — and ask what each one rules out.

4. 4Chapter 4

   Benedict's Rule: a timetable that saved a civilization

   Benedict of Nursia was born around 480. He left Rome to live as a hermit at Subiaco and founded the monastery at Monte Cassino (around 529/530), where he composed his Rule around 530/540. The Rule provided a balanced, practical regimen of prayer, work, and study (ora et labora) under an abbot, and prescribed seven periods of communal prayer each day, beginning with Vigils during the night and ending with Compline before retiring. It became the template for Western monasticism.

   The idea

   The Rule became the standard for Western monasticism, stabilizing and spreading monasticism in the West and preserving learning and faith during the early Middle Ages; monasteries became centers of learning, agriculture, and missionary activity.

   Try this: Try structuring one day around fixed prayer times — even three, not seven — and notice how rhythm changes attention.

5. 5Chapter 5

   Christmas Day, 800: a pope makes an emperor

   Christmas morning, St. Peter's Basilica, Rome. Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne as 'Emperor of the Romans' on Christmas Day, 800, in St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. The act created a new Western Roman Empire (later the Holy Roman Empire) and forged a powerful alliance between the papacy and a Germanic (Frankish) Christian ruler. It shaped medieval Christendom's political and religious structure.

   The idea

   The coronation created a template that dominated Europe for a thousand years: a revived western empire legitimized by the church, and a church protected and empowered by the empire.

   Try this: Sketch the church-state entanglements in one current news story and trace how far back the entanglement goes.

6. 6Chapter 6

   1054: a bull of excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia

   Papal legate Cardinal Humbert placed a bull of excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople on July 16, 1054. Patriarch Michael Cerularius excommunicated the legates in return. The immediate issues included the Western addition of the filioque clause to the Nicene Creed, papal claims to universal jurisdiction, and the use of unleavened (versus leavened) bread in the Eucharist. Deeper cultural, linguistic, and political differences between the Greek East and Latin West had been developing for centuries before 1054.

   The idea

   Noll resists the tidy story: the schism was not fully final in 1054 — the excommunications were not immediately seen as final — but the Fourth Crusade's sack of Constantinople in 1204 hardened the division and made reconciliation impossible. The lesson is that schisms usually become real in stages — a dramatic gesture, then a deeper wound that seals it. What still divides Orthodox and Catholic churches traces to both dates.

   Try this: Compare the Nicene Creed as said in an Orthodox liturgy and a Catholic one, and spot the filioque difference.

7. 7Chapter 7

   Worms, 1521: 'Here I stand'

   Martin Luther posted the Ninety-Five Theses on October 31, 1517, at Wittenberg, attacking the abuse of indulgences, and the controversy spread rapidly through the printing press. At the Diet of Worms in April 1521, Emperor Charles V demanded he recant his writings. Luther refused unless convinced by the testimony of Scripture or clear reason, reportedly saying, 'Here I stand, I can do no other. God help me. Amen.' The Edict of Worms declared Luther an outlaw and heretic, but his stand solidified the Protestant Reformation, which permanently divided Western Christianity, fragmenting it into Lutheran, Reformed, Anglican, and Anabaptist traditions; other reformers like John Calvin in Geneva and Huldrych Zwingli in Zurich developed their own versions of Protestantism.

   The idea

   His stand before the emperor established the principle of conscience bound to Scripture as a foundation of Protestantism. The Reformation permanently divided Western Christianity. Noll's framing makes clear that the individual standing on Scripture against institutional authority became the movement's signature.

   Try this: Read one of the Ninety-Five Theses and identify the specific abuse it targets, then ask what modern practice a reformer would nail today.

8. 8Chapter 8

   1534: Henry VIII makes himself supreme head

   Henry VIII desired to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon, which Pope Clement VII refused; the Act of Supremacy of 1534 declared King Henry VIII 'the only supreme head on earth of the Church of England.' The outcome was England's break from papal authority, establishing a national church under royal control.

   The idea

   The immediate cause was Henry's desire to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

   Try this: Trace one feature of Anglican life — its structure or liturgy — back to whether it serves crown or gospel, and notice how entangled they remain.

9. 9Chapter 9

   Ignatius's wounded leg launches a global counter-reformation

   Ignatius of Loyola was converted after being wounded at the Battle of Pamplona in 1521. The Society of Jesus was founded in 1540, approved by Pope Paul III with the bull 'Regimini militantis ecclesiae.' Ignatius founded the order with his companions (including Francis Xavier); his Spiritual Exercises and the Jesuit vow of special obedience to the pope made the order a spearhead of the Catholic Reformation, emphasizing education, missionary work, and obedience to the pope. Francis Xavier began his missionary journeys in 1542, traveling to India, Southeast Asia, and Japan and the edges of China, baptizing tens of thousands and establishing missions across Asia before his death in 1552.

   The idea

   While Protestantism fragmented the West, the Jesuits became Catholic reform's spearhead — disciplined, educated, and global from the start.

   Try this: Pray through a single page of the Spiritual Exercises and notice how much of it is imagination, not argument.

10. 10Chapter 10

    Aldersgate Street, 1738: a heart 'strangely warmed'

    John Wesley's conversion came on May 24, 1738, at a meeting in Aldersgate Street. While listening to a reading of Luther's preface to Romans, he felt his heart 'strangely warmed' — his journal records: 'I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation.' The conversion experiences of John and Charles Wesley in 1738 in London launched the evangelical revival in Britain and the Methodist movement. John Wesley traveled an estimated 250,000 miles on horseback and preached over 40,000 sermons during his lifetime, organizing Methodist societies across Britain and America.

    The idea

    Methodism emphasized personal conversion, holiness, small groups, field preaching, and social reform, profoundly impacting English-speaking Christianity.

    Try this: Join or form a small weekly group that pairs accountability with a shared spiritual practice, Wesley-style.

11. 11Chapter 11

    1789: reason storms Notre Dame

    The French Revolution of 1789 sought to replace the old regime — including the Catholic Church's privileged status — with a new order based on reason and popular sovereignty. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790) subordinated the French church to the state. The de-Christianization campaign closed churches, melted down bells, persecuted priests and nuns, and replaced Christian worship with the Cult of Reason (including the Festival of Reason in Notre Dame Cathedral in 1793) and later the Cult of the Supreme Being. The Catholic Church was eventually reestablished under Napoleon's Concordat of 1801.

    The idea

    The outcome was a massive, violent attack on the church in France, forcing Christians to reconsider the relationship between faith and modern political ideologies.

    Try this: Read a modern secularist argument about religion's public role and ask which of its moves the Revolution pioneered.

12. 12Chapter 12

    Edinburgh 1910: 1,200 delegates, 17 from the Global South

    The World Missionary Conference was held in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1910, chaired by John R. Mott, which marked the high point of the modern Protestant missionary movement. It brought together 1,200 Protestant delegates from mission societies and younger churches — almost entirely Western; only 17 of the 1,200 were from Asia, Africa, or Latin America. Its watchword, coined by Mott, was 'the evangelization of the world in this generation.' The conference led to increased cooperation among Protestant missions, the International Missionary Council, and eventually the World Council of Churches.

    The idea

    The conference launched the modern ecumenical movement; it brought together almost entirely Western delegates.

    Try this: Look up the current membership of the World Council of Churches and count how many of its member churches are non-Western.

13. 13Chapter 13

    Azusa Street, 1906: tongues in Los Angeles

    The Azusa Street Revival began in Los Angeles in April 1906 under the leadership of William J. Seymour, an African American preacher, and became the fountainhead of modern Pentecostalism with its emphasis on speaking in tongues and spiritual gifts. From Azusa Street, Pentecostalism spread globally; by the early twenty-first century, Pentecostal and charismatic Christians numbered over 500 million worldwide.

    The idea

    The fastest-growing branch of global Christianity traces to a revival in a rented hall.

    Try this: Ask a Pentecostal friend how their tradition understands healing or tongues, and listen without debating.

14. 14Chapter 13

    Vatican II: John XXIII opens a window

    The Second Vatican Council was convened by Pope John XXIII in 1962 and concluded under Paul VI in 1965 after four sessions, producing sixteen documents. Key documents include 'Lumen Gentium' on the church, 'Dei Verbum' on revelation, 'Gaudium et Spes' on the church in the modern world, and 'Dignitatis Humanae' on religious liberty. Outcomes included vernacular languages in the liturgy, openness to ecumenical dialogue, a renewed emphasis on the role of the laity. Noll recounts John XXIII's remarks at the council's opening — the desire for 'a new Pentecost' and an 'aggiornamento' (updating) of the church, and the anecdote that the council should open a window to let fresh air into the church — though he treats such anecdotes cautiously.

    The idea

    Outcomes included openness to ecumenical dialogue, a new stance toward other religions and modern culture, affirmation of religious freedom, and a renewed emphasis on the role of the laity. Noll treats such anecdotes cautiously.

    Try this: Attend a Mass in a language you understand and recall that before the 1960s, Latin was the norm worldwide.

15. 15Afterword, Introduction

    From Edinburgh's 17 to a Global South majority

    In 1900 about 66% of Christians lived in Europe; by 2000 that figure was about 26%. By the end of the twentieth century, the majority of the world's Christians lived in the Global South (Africa, Asia, and Latin America) — a dramatic shift from a century earlier when most were in Europe and North America. Noll calls this the 'globalization of Christianity.' The third edition adds a new chapter on the Lausanne Congress of 1974 and revises material on recent Christianity, reflecting the shift of Christianity's center of gravity to the global South. Noll identifies three criteria for a turning point: it must be a decisive moment whose impact is still felt, it must represent a change in direction, and it must be a moment when something new was brought into being.

    The idea

    The faith that once flowed from a Jerusalem scattered by Rome now has its demographic center in lands European missions once targeted.

    Try this: Find the nearest congregation worshipping in a language other than English and visit; you'll be seeing the future of the faith.

Students, pastors, and anyone who suspects church history is boring — Noll proves otherwise in fourteen gripping chapters. Also ideal for small groups wanting a shared map of how Christianity became a worldwide faith.

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