This substantial and comprehensive overview of the emergence of Christian Europe is reprinted to coincide with the tenth anniversary of its superb second edition (itself virtually a different book from the first edition). Brown's synthesis asks the reader to re-evaluate their view of the political and cultural make-up of Europe between 200 and 1000 AD. It also stresses the need to recognise the influence of Mediterranean and Byzantine cultures on Europe's evolution, as well as the wider Eurasian and even Chinese context. Chronological sections examine the aftermath of the Roman empire and the diversity of emergent Christianities; divergent forms of theology and emphasis in the city and in the desert; monasticism; the differences and similiarities between the Christianity of Continental Europe and Ireland; Christianity in Asia and the rise of Islam; Britain; Byzantine iconoclasm and the new Carolingian Christian empire. This tenth anniversary edition contains an extensive new preface, in which Peter Brown reflects on the last ten years of early medieval scholarship, and the relevance of the themes which his covers to the wider modern world.