From early basilicas to magnificent medieval cathedrals, from simple churches in rural Africa to 21st-century award-winning designs, this stunning volume reveals the different approaches to faith across the centuries, shifting architectural styles, and the effect of history on Christianity--and how Christianity affected history in return. Encompassing Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, Coptic, Lutheran, Christian Scientist, Baptist, and Calvinist beliefs, the churches include stone and wooden structures; ones that have been knocked down and rebuilt, or even moved from one location to another; buildings cut into rock and earth; and some constructed in some of the least hospitable locations on Earth.

The churches include:
St. Patrick's Cathedral, New York City
Trinity Church, Boston, Massachusetts
The Church of the Holy Ascension, Unalaska, Alaska
Notre-Dame Basilica, Montr al, Qu bec, Canada
Bas lica de Nuestra Se ora de Guadalupe, Ciudad de M xico, Mexico
Catedral de Santa Mar a la Menor, Dominican Republic: Oldest church in the Americas
UNESCO World Heritage Wooden Church, Chiloe Island, Patagonia, Chile
Bras lia Cathedral, Brazil
St Paul's Cathedral, London, England
Westminster Abbey, London, England
Notre-Dame, Paris, France
Chartres Cathedral, France
Frauenkirche, Dresden, Germany (destroyed by Allied bombing during WWII, rebuilt in the 1990s after German reunification)
St Basil's, Red Square, Moscow, Russia
Little Hagia Sophia, Istanbul, Turkey
Hanging Church, Cairo, Egypt
Saint George Greek Orthodox Cathedral, Beirut, Lebanon
Church of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem, Israel
Church of the Nativity, Bethlehem, Israel
Dhanushkodi Portuguese Church, Tamil Nadu, India
San Agustin Church, Manila, Philippines
Saigon Notre-Dame Basilica, Hồ Ch Minh, Vietnam
St Patrick's Cathedral, Melbourne, Australia
Old St Paul's, Pipitea, Wellington, New Zealand