Amazon reader review: THE CHURCHES THE APOSTLES LEFT BEHIND is no longer a new volume, and there has been a great deal of research in the early Church since the publication of this book. None the less, I often find myself going back to this gem of a resource whenever I am trying to find something interesting to present about the various Churches founded by the Apostles. The communities that Brown discusses are those of Paul, both from his letters and the Lucan communities often associated with Paul, Peter, John, and Matthew. Brown looks at these major communities from the traditional point of view, but includes current scholarship at the time of the book's publication as well. While Brown's Catholic perspective is evident in much of his writing, he was asked as a Catholic to address an ecumenical audience, so the book demonstrates what unites Christianity, namely a common early history, rather than what divides us today. During his lifetime, Raymond Brown was a Sulpician priest involved in the training of people for ministry. This book reflects his pastoral concern. Actually, many of the chapters were presented as lectures for people involved in ministry.

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Amazon reader review: If you want a short (one chapter) history of the church from a more evangelistic stand point then this is your book. Iverson work contains an excellent section on the early church and how key truths, spiritual gifts and the five fold ministry where removed over time from Her. Iverson then goes on to point out how these truths, gifts and ministries have slowly been restored back to the Church beginning with the reformation.

Amazon reader review: Here is a general church history that covers everything vital to the Church's growth during the first six centuries. In this volume, Henry Chadwick manages to define the Church's uniform identity within the context of the cosmopolitan Greco-Roman world. This work is a finely-crafted and well-researched summation of Christianity's early legacy, and it is written for all Christians and all students of the era. Chadwick is a very judicious historian, and he is one of the foremost authorities on Early Christianity. To say the least, this work is the fruitful product of many years of Chadwickian scholarship. Every university bookstore, church library, secular bookstore, and personal library should have this book on hand.

This enlightening study examines the relationship of the early Christians to the classical tradition. Based on the work of the Christian thinkers, Justine, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, and existing pagan criticism of the Church, the book illustrates how rejection of the classical tradition combined with profound acceptance of its humanism were synthesized by the early Church.

 

 

 

Amazon reader review: This is a excellent work, but it only focuses on the development of doctrine and church official structure (the story of their definition is summarized with concision, interpretation being reduced to a minimum, and with themes often split between different chapters). Because of that, the book is a heavy reading.
 

Philip Schaff (1819-1893) wrote one of the finest histories of the church available. His eight-volume work, which covers Christian history from the apostles to the Swiss Reformation, incorporates discussion of ideas and ideals throughout the history of the church with the requisite facts and figures for each period of history. Each volume contains maps, charts, notes, bibliographies, and an index.

 

 

Hans Kung's The Catholic Church: A Short History is a small masterpiece of historical and theological writing. Kung fairly and comprehensively presents almost 2,000 years of Church history in a mere 207 pages. He begins with Jesus, who "radiated a democratic spirit in the best sense of the word" and "did not proclaim a church, nor did he proclaim himself, but the kingdom of God." Throughout, in his analysis of every phase of Church history, Kung builds a case for a populist church, challenging the idea of a hierarchical Roman Catholic Church led by an infallible pope. The book concludes with a harsh analysis of the Church's betrayal of Vatican II. Kung, the primary writer of Vatican II, was censured by the Vatican in 1979 for questioning Church doctrine and banned from teaching as a Catholic theologian. Here, Kung levels particular criticism toward Pope John Paul II, whose primary accomplishment, he argues, has been to revive a "conservative and authoritarian" spirit in the Church. The pope's conservative views on the ordination of women, sexual morality, mixed marriages, and ecumenism draw Kung's fire. He calls for nothing less than a new Vatican council in order to bring the Church hierarchy back in line with the Church faithful.

Pelikan, Sterling professor emeritus of history at Yale University and author of a number of respected books in the area of Christian belief and tradition (e.g., Jesus Through the Centuries), presents an outstanding introduction to the development, use and acceptance of the biblical canon over the centuries. As the title suggests, different groups have claimed ownership to the canonization process. Even today, Bibles vary in their content and in their philosophy of translation. Beginning with the long heritage of the oral tradition, then exploring the writing and editing of the biblical texts, Pelikan takes the reader through the process of scripture building with a fluency and ease that is both accessible and understandable to the nonscholar. His treatment of modern critical methods is particularly well done. Pelikan has a sure sense of history and context, surrounding the story with a wealth of detail, including some well-chosen anecdotes that add to the reader's enjoyment. He appreciates the ways in which tradition and commentary have influenced both the text itself and our understanding of the text, all the while expressing a love for the Bible and a perceptive grasp of the processes that brought it to its current state. This excellent work merits wide circulation and study.