Okay, so you've made it through the early church and the Middle Ages with Kurtz. Volume 3 is where everything speeds up. It picks up right after Martin Luther nails his theses to the door and doesn't stop until the late 1800s. We see the Reformation splinter into countless Protestant groups, the Catholic Church fight back with its own reforms, and kingdoms use religion as a tool for power. Then, the story explodes outward: missionaries head across oceans, the Enlightenment makes everyone question old authorities, and new ideas like democracy and modern science completely change the game.

Why You Should Read It

What I love about Kurtz is that he doesn't treat history as a dry procession of facts. He shows the human drama. You feel the tension as political rulers and church leaders clash. You see the genuine zeal of missionaries alongside the cultural conflicts they caused. He also doesn't shy away from the tough stuff, like how the church grappled with (and sometimes resisted) new scientific discoveries. Reading this, you get a real sense of how the religious world we live in today—with its many denominations and its ongoing conversation with science and society—was forged in these turbulent centuries.

Final Verdict

This is the book for you if you're a history fan who wants to understand the last major act of the Christian story. It's perfect for readers who enjoyed the first two volumes and want the conclusion, or for anyone curious about how we got from the Reformation to the modern era. It's dense, sure—it's covering 400 years—but Kurtz's organized approach makes it manageable. Not a light beach read, but incredibly rewarding for anyone wanting to connect the past to the present.