The Guide is quite unlike any other book about Christianity. It approaches Christianity as a foreign land, which it is for a very large number of people.
Written at the level of a serious daily newspaper, it introduces readers to the very different forms of Christianity as they are to be found today on all the continents: to its geographical spread; to its history; to its great works of art from cathedrals to paintings, sculpture and music; to its values and ethical responses to the great issues of the day; to its contrasting forms of prayer and worship; to its Bible and the thinking based on it; to its belief in God.
More than 200 contributors, a team of scholars from the United States, Europe and the Commonwealth who are all experts in their subjects, have written more than 300 major articles which the book contains. In addition, more than 150 provide succinct summaries of information on a whole variety of issues, supplemented by a Who's Who of key figures, along with illustrations, diagrams and time charts, and a comprehensive index.
The Guide assumes that its readers are completely unfamiliar with Christianity and is focussed primarily on them: not a single word or idea goes unexplained. But at the same time it is based on a wealth of scholarship, so that it can serve as an authoritative reference work. And for those who do not so much want information as an answer to the fundamental questions of evil, suffering, death and the meaning of life, it offers possible answers based on the resources of the Christian tradition.
