This is the German-language version, translated by Ernst Neumann, of a book originally completed in 2015. It aims to illustrate the spread and development of Christianity from the past to the present by bringing important milestones into focus accompanied by short historical information. The authors have been supported by the church historian Aaron Denlinger. The book consists of the introduction, five main parts and indices, with a chronology and bibliography at the end. The introduction and foreword outline the structure of the book (pp. 13–15). The first part is about Christians in the first four centuries after the birth of Christ. Its five maps, with short explanations, cover topics such as the journeys of the Apostles, the first Christian communities and further milestones up to the time of Constantine. The second, more substantial, section, ‘Church in oppression’, contains fourteen maps and covers almost a thousand years from Arianism in the fourth century to the Great Schism in the fourteenth. It contains basic information about such theological movements as monophysitism and Nestorianism, illustrates the development of monasticism, presents the western and eastern branches of the Church, Charlemagne, the spread of Islam and concludes with the Great Schism. Part iii, with ten maps, covers the Middle Ages and deals with such topics as the crusades, pilgrimage, the founding of European universities and the views of ‘heretics’. The fourth part, ‘Reformation and its consequences’, covering the period from 1500 until 1750, contains twelve maps illustrating, inter alia, the situation of Christianity on the eve of the Reformation, the significant events in the Thirty Years War, and Christian missionary activity beyond Europe. The final part of the book, ‘Church in modernity’, consists of eighteen maps which mainly concern worldwide mission. A chronology, running from Jesus’ birth to 2015, containing basic dates in the history of the Church follows (pp. 154–61).

Several aspects of this book attract criticism. It is surprising that an A5 format has been used when normally a historical atlas with multiple maps would demand a larger format, which is more user-friendly, especially for teaching purposes This cramped format makes the maps less easy to use. The normal classification of ecclesiastical history has not been respected in parts ii and iii: part ii contains aspects of the Middle Ages which would normally be included in part iii. Therefore the chronology of ecclesiastical history presented here is a little confusing. The choice of highlighted subjects seems odd on occasions. One might wonder why only four crusades are mentioned and illustrated, and why so much space is dedicated to Christian mission in part v. A large problem with the book is that the maps are set across a page spread in such a way that information is lost in the gutter. The bibliography is unfortunately inadequate for such a book. On the other hand the attempt to create such an atlas should be commended whatever its inadequacies of layout, design and selection of topics.

However, this review must end on a note of disappointment. While this atlas might be of some use in primary and secondary schools interested in learning about the Christianity, it will be found less valuable in universities, and to historians and theologians.