Few events have affected the course of civilization as profoundly as the Crusades, a centuries-long period of violent conflict and competition between Islam and Christianity. The Crusades brought destruction and violence to the third monotheistic faith of Judaism as well. Resurfacing frequently in present-day political conversations about clashes between faiths and cultures, the troubling legacy of the Crusades is undeniable.

Ancient Greece was one of the most fertile civilizations in history, and its influence on Western philosophy, theology, and civilization is undeniable. Now, you can discover the fascinating legacy of ancient Greece through entertaining and enlightening lectures. With Prof. Bellitto, you will gain a deeper understanding of what made ancient Greece so unique: its polis and democracy, its great battles and personalities, its soaring artistic and literary achievements.

The relationship between church and state is a powerful thread stitching the medieval era to modern history. Through this captivating course on Charlemagne, you can follow it back to its inception in the Holy Roman Empire.

Explore some of the most powerful theological ideas, economic tensions, and political struggles that shaped Western civilization. This series traces western European civilization - with detours to the East - from the transformation of the Roman Empire to a thousand-year medieval period that started slowly before 1000, flowered for 300 years, and then declined sharply with the Black Death and social revolts until Constantinople fell in 1453 and Columbus sailed in 1492.

This brilliantly taught audio course will ignite your imagination and enrich your mind. In 12 illuminating lectures, award-winning professor and acclaimed historian Prof. Christopher M. Bellitto (PhD, Fordham University) makes medieval history both engaging and enlightening. Throughout history, humans have conjured images to understand their relationships with other Christians, the wider world, and God. For medieval men and women, those images came from Christendom, which was the air they breathed.

The winner of the “Nobel Prize of Theology” guides you into the world of the first Christians to explore the circumstances, faith, and ideas that indelibly shaped Christianity. In this best-selling audio series by world-renowned patristic scholar Professor Brian E. Daley, S.J., you will encounter the first Christians and the beginnings of our Church.

Internationally best-selling author, renowned professor, and the dean of American Catholic Historians, Fr. John O’Malley presents his monumental course on the papacy. This masterpiece series covers the most fascinating history in the Western world. Now, you can trace the amazing history of the papacy, the oldest still-functioning institution of any kind in the Western world in 36 erudite lectures.

The very word "reformation" is shrouded in conflict, bringing to mind new beginnings, partisan church politics, and the dawn of a modern world vision. Indeed, when you hear it, you probably think of a single event - Martin Luther posting The Ninety-Five Theses on the door of Castle Church in Wittenberg in 1517. The truth, however, is much more nuanced - and interesting - than that. Join award-winning historian, Prof. Christopher M. Bellitto, PhD, in The Reformations, a fascinating journey through Church history.

E. H. Gombrich's world history, an international best seller now available in English for the first time, is a text dominated not by dates and facts but by the sweep of experience across the centuries, a guide to humanity's achievements, and an acute witness to its frailties.

What causes wars? How are they fought, and why do they ultimately end? Join West Point Chief of Military History Bryan Gibby to learn how factors such as politics, economics, ideology, geography, and technology have influenced military conflict.

Taught in an accessible and thoughtful manner, this audio course gives you a deeper understanding of the history of antisemitism as well as a lesson in the strength of the human spirit. In The History of the Holocaust, you’ll reflect on the political, cultural, social, economic, religious, military, and broad historical context in which the extermination of more than five million Jews and other minorities occurred.

Not since the Civil War had the American national consciousness been as strained as it was by the conflict in Southeast Asia. Indeed, the controversies that the Vietnam War spurred on the home front are more familiar to many Americans than the policies and motives that guided the conflict. The History of the Vietnam War fills that gap. From a distance of 50 years, you will reexamine the war and its lessons. Throughout, Prof. Brigham sheds light on the United States and its place in the world today.

In this fascinating series, the saints you’ll meet include a woman who didn't discover her true vocation until she was past sixty, a man who lived for years with a concubine and fathered an illegitimate son, a religious teacher and reformer who was repeatedly charged with heresy, three women who were wives and mothers before they became Sisters, and many more. The words of these great men and women may move you, but their actions will absolutely take your breath away.

The four Gospels are foundational to Christianity. Yet Christian readers are often puzzled by the differences between the Gospels, preferring to harmonize the four into a single narrative. Now, this 24-part lecture course invites you to understand each Gospel's distinctive message. Along the way, you will examine theories about how the three Synoptic Gospels are related. You will also learn why the evangelists are symbolized by four living creatures: the man or angel, the lion, the ox, and the eagle.

The ancient Mediterranean teemed with gods. For centuries, a practical religious pluralism prevailed. How, then, did one particular god come to dominate the politics and piety of the late Roman Empire? In Ancient Christianities, Paula Fredriksen traces the evolution of early Christianity—or rather, of early Christianities—through five centuries of Empire, mapping its pathways from the hills of Judea to the halls of Rome and Constantinople.