Early Church History Book?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Tweedle_Dee
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
T

Tweedle_Dee

Guest
Hi,

Can anyone recommend a good, readable book on the first several hundred years after Christ? Growing up Mormon I was always taught that the church fell into apostacy very quickly after the original twelve apostles were gone. It doesn’t make sense to me that Christ would come and establish his church only to have it gone within decades of his death. Anyway, I’d like to learn more about that time in history. Thanks.
 
“Four Witnesses”, a book by the author Bennet, published by Ignatius press. This is the early church in Her own words.

A bit deep, but worth it.

I hope this helps.
 
Any history of the early church is going to draw heavily on the writings of Eusebius (died in the year 309) especially his Ecclesiastical History. His works can be found in many places on the Internet, such as here: ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.html
The article in Wikipedia will give you a feel for his work:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eusebius_of_Caesarea

A book which seems to be popular is “A Concise History of the Catholic Church” which covers from 30 A.D. to 1990 (when the book was published/revised).
amazon.com/Concise-History-Catholic-Revised-Expanded/dp/0385411472
The “early church” is generally thought of as the period between 30 and 325 (the Crucifixion and Constantine). This book covers that period in only 4 chapters (78 pages); so if you want more detail you will have to look elsewhere.

Sorry I couldn’t be more helpful.
 
Highly recommended:

Kenneth D. Whitehead, One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic: The Early Church Was the Catholic Church (Ignatius Press, 2000) [ISBN 0-89870-802-8]

Blessings,

Don
+T+
 
Tweedle_Dee said:
Hi,

Can anyone recommend a good, readable book on the first several hundred years after Christ? Growing up Mormon I was always taught that the church fell into apostacy very quickly after the original twelve apostles were gone. It doesn’t make sense to me that Christ would come and establish his church only to have it gone within decades of his death. Anyway, I’d like to learn more about that time in history. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Try Jaroslav Pelikan…

ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41DBQVD4Y8L.AA240.jpg http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41RCEJEF2EL.AA240.jpg
 
Tweedle_Dee said:
Hi,

Can anyone recommend a good, readable book on the first several hundred years after Christ? Growing up Mormon I was always taught that the church fell into apostacy very quickly after the original twelve apostles were gone. It doesn’t make sense to me that Christ would come and establish his church only to have it gone within decades of his death. Anyway, I’d like to learn more about that time in history. Thanks.
Click to expand...
A Catholic bishop alive at the turn of the fouth century wrote a series of books entitled "History of the Church." He uses many, many quotations from lost works as well as still extant works to lend support to his historical record. he became a friend of Constintine for who he wrote the treatise.

ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.toc.html

I found the book at the library in my town so it can’t be that hard to locate. I just finished reading it. Fascinating stuff!

Subrosa
 
Try reading The Faith of the Early Fathers by William A. Jurgens. This 3-volume set covers the writings of all the Early Church Fathers from the year 105 AD to the Middle Ages.

These writings demonstrate that the Church was alive, well and Catholic from the very beginning, and that there was no break or change in doctrine from the beginning until now.

Paul
 
PaulDupre said:
Try reading The Faith of the Early Fathers by William A. Jurgens. This 3-volume set covers the writings of all the Early Church Fathers from the year 105 AD to the Middle Ages.

These writings demonstrate that the Church was alive, well and Catholic from the very beginning, and that there was no break or change in doctrine from the beginning until now.

Paul
Click to expand...
I can agree with you about this, I have had the three volumes for years. It has elements of many of the basic texts (the Didache, for instance, and the original Nicene Creed), without a whole bunch of wordy commentary. It is a good place to start reading the actual texts themselves, no matter which other sources one uses for the history.

However I also can **wholeheartedly **agree with this very astute comment by another person reviewing the works on Amazon:

"My only complaint is that nearly all the selections are redacted, making the work less useful as an anthology of the writings of the Early Church Fathers. I can understand the need to edit longer works, but even relatively short works like The Martyrdom of Polycarp are redacted. However, citations to the best translations/editions of each text are given if you wish to read a particular selection in its entirety."

Because of the heavy hand upon it, I also see it as a slightly biased work.
 
It’s true, of course - you only get the essentials in the Jurgens series. But for one just starting out studying the beliefs of the early Church, it’s a relatively brief and easy read.

I discovered that New Advent has the full text of most of the ECFs on their website at this site. I like books because I like to read in bed. But when I find something that really trips my trigger, I log onto NewAdvent.org and read the full text.

The best of both worlds. 👍

Paul
 
I would recommend Church History in Plain Language by Bruce L. Shelley.

This is a Protestant-written history that is very readable and not verbose or boring. I’ve read it twice.

What’s so wonderful about it is that it is in agreement with Catholic versions of history! I took this book to Catholic Apologetics class with me, and there were no disagreements between it and the class teacher (who was a former college professor and a convert to Catholicism–he’s been on The Journey Home).

Shelley’s book was one of the factors that convinced me to become Catholic. After reading it, I realized that the Early Church WAS the Catholic Church!

Here is a link: amazon.com/Church-History-Plain-Language-Updated/dp/0849938619
 
Dr. Warren Carroll has written a wonderful series of books covering the “History of Christendom”–the first book in the series, “The Founding of Christendom” covers the time up to 324 AD. It clearly shows that there was no break in the Catholic teaching from the time of Christ onward…
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top