Church History

[Greg]

I have never formally studied church history before. A couple of books that I have seen and heard of before are this series by N.R. Needham and this series by Justo Gonzalez.

Are any of these two recommended? If not, what would you recommend for someone who never studied church history, but wants to gain a knowledgable grasp of it

Thanks.

 

[ADKing]

Gonzalez was helpful. It was required in the seminary I went to--NWTS.

 

[PresReformed]

Latourette's "A History of Christianity" is pretty good. Shaff's "History of the Christian Church" is good too, its available on esword.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

This thread and this may be of interest.

 

[Kevin]

I have never formally studied church history before. A couple of books that I have seen and heard of before are this series by N.R. Needham and this series by Justo Gonzalez.

Are any of these two recommended? If not, what would you recommend for someone who never studied church history, but wants to gain a knowledgable grasp of it

Thanks.

Both a very good. Start with Gonzalez he is shorter and (a bit) more general. But do go on to read Needham, he is not to be missed. I have yet to read his latest volume but the first 2 were great.

My prefernce is Needham because his own theological perspective is presbyterian, not that he is unbalanced but he is more 'nuanced' shall we say.

Shaff and Latourette are both good, but a bit dated. Start with the newer stuff & move on to the older ones later after you have a framework.

BTW both are used in reformed seminaries. I used Needham as a text for a church history course I took a couple of years ago.

 

[rmwilliamsjr]

i just finished listening to the covenant seminary worldwide classes on early, medieval, reformation and modern church history. he uses gonzales.

http://www.covenantseminary.edu/worldwide/en/CH310/CH310.asp
http://www.covenantseminary.edu/worldwide/en/CH320/CH320.asp

his syllabus is online as well in pdf format. i started my studies by listening to the mp3's , reading the syllabus and then the readings in Gonzales....

 

[R. Scott Clark]

There isn't any one way of studying church history, but there are some things to bear in mind.

1. As attractive and useful as a great set (e.g., Schaff) might be, one person can only know so much. Second, Schaff was deeply influenced by Neander and Hegel. In this scheme the future is the self-realization of God. The past gets relativized. That's not to say "don't read Schaff," but read him and other such sets with discernment. A lot of scholarship has been done since Schaff wrote. This caveat would be true of all the older histories.

2. Gonzalez is a useful, basic, introduction to major questions. I wouldn't stop with him, however.

3. How much one learns and in what depth, depends upon how well and how much one reads. That means reading thoughtful, carefully researched works. This answer really wants a comprehensive bibliography but I cant' do that just now.

rsc

 

[fredtgreco]

This is just my opinion, but I think it is extremely difficult to understand Church history without a good grasp of secular history as well. I think, for example, it is nearly impossible to understand the Greek church without a good grasp of the political, social and economic situation in the middle-late Byzantine Empire.

 

[Kevin]

This is just my opinion, but I think it is extremely difficult to understand Church history without a good grasp of secular history as well. I think, for example, it is nearly impossible to understand the Greek church without a good grasp of the political, social and economic situation in the middle-late Byzantine Empire.