A wonderful primer for anyone delving into Church History. ( )

Here is a good example of a very readable and accessible one-volume church history. The second edition covers the progress -- and regress -- of Christianity from its beginnings to the mid 1990s. Shelley writes in a style that both church history novices and journeymen can appreciate. Of necessity, he uses broad strokes to fit the whole story into a book of only 520 pages. But there is enough detail to make it interesting.

Shelley divides the history of the church into eight chronological parts or "ages":

(1) The Age of Jesus and the Apostles (6 BC - AD 70)
(2) The Age of Catholic Christianity (70-312)
(3) The Age of the Christian Roman Empire (312-590)
(4) The Christian Middle Ages (590-1517)
(5) The Age of the Reformation (1517-1648)
(6) The Age of Reason and Revival (1648-1789)
(7) The Age of Progress (1789-1914)
(8) The Age of Ideologies (1914-1996)

Footnotes (actually, end notes in this case) are kept to a minimum -- possibly too much of a minimum for the more academically-inclined reader. He includes four or five helpful "suggestions for further reading" at the conclusion of each chapter, and at the end of the book, following the "notes," there is a list of Roman Catholic popes, and, following that, separate indexes of people, movements, and events discussed in the book.

Unfortunately, the author completely overlooks my own American religious heritage -- the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement of the 19th century that resulted in today's Christian Churches/Churches of Christ. I believe that is a significant omission. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed reading the book for the third time recently (the first two were readings of the first edition), and will likely read it again one day since a third edition is now available.

Every serious Christian should take the time to become familiar with the major events, movements, and people of church history. This book will help them accomplish that. ( )

I bought my first copy of this book several years ago. I ended up giving it to a friend who was interested in learning about the history of Christianity. I picked up another copy not long after that. This is not an exhaustive history of Christianity. However, it is an exceptionally good starting point for figuring out which aspects of Christian history you want more detail on. He provides just enough info to cover the major points. I would consider this the highly abridged version of church history. The one thing I do wish he would have spent more time on is the modern day church as we know it in the west. Other than that, I recommend this for anyone who wants to know more about the history of Christianity but doesn't know where to start. ( )

This is a very good overall history of the Christian church. I bought it as a resource for a research paper and when the paper was done I read the book front to back. It is not a complete history, but an overview, accurate but not "academic". ( )

I've got to buy this book. Gee, imagine that church hasn't always been done how we do it. Interesting read alongside Barna's Revolution. ( )