The Study of Church History

“It is always essential for us to supplement our reading of theology with the reading of church history…
If we do not, we shall be in danger of becoming abstract, theoretical, and academic in our view of truth;
and, failing to relate it to the practicalities of life and daily living, we shall soon be in trouble.”
Martyn Lloyd-Jones, “Can We Learn from History?” Puritans, pp. 215-16

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In his course on the Ancient and Medieval Church at Covenant Theological Seminary, David Calhoun used the textbook The Story of Christianity, Volume 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation by Justo Gonzalez. In his lecture on “The Study of Church History”, he recommended the following texts:

Clarke, Kenneth.  Civilisation: A Personal View.  1969.
An overview of western history with special emphasis on the arts and a humanistic interpretation of what it all means.

McGrath, Alister E.  Christian Theology: An Introduction.  1994.
Historical theology presented ably and as simply as possible.

Moffett, Samuel H.  A History of Christianity in Asia: Beginnings to 1500.  1992.
The first of two masterful volumes covering the neglected story of Asian Christianity, this history traces the spread of Christianity to Persia and India, and then overland to China, where evidence exists of Christian activity dating from the 7th century.

Pelikan, Jaroslav.  The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine (5 vols.)
The magnum opus of a great scholar (a Lutheran who recently converted to Eastern Orthodoxy).

Potok, Chaim.  Wanderings: History of the Jews.  1978.
A wonderfully written story of the Jews by an acclaimed novelist.

Schaeffer, Francis A.  How Should We Then Live?: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture.  1976.
Schaeffer’s influential study of the rise and (mainly) the decline of western thought.

Shaw, Mark R.  The Kingdom of God in Africa: A Short History of African Christianity.  1996.
Part 1 covers the church before the emergence of Islam; part 2, the medieval centuries of Islamic domination; part 3, the missions and colonial eras; and part 4, the remarkable story of twentieth-century African Christianity.

Williams, Charles.  The Descent of the Dove.  1939.
Idiosyncratic, brilliant, perplexing, and illuminating history. Eugene H. Peterson wrote in Take and Read, “When I started reading [Charles] Williams [The Descent of the Dove], I was a sectarian, ‘related’ only to a small coterie of people who lived and thought and prayed like me. When I finished, I was part of a congregation centuries deep and continents wide” (p. 1).

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And in the subsequent lecture on “The Growth of the Church,” he recommends:

The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in Transmission of Faith.
One of the most important books of Christian history of the 1990s. By a Scottish mission
historian and missionary.

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In lecture three on The Martyrs, he quotes from and/or recommends the following:

Henryk Sienkiewicz, Quo Vadis

F. F. Bruce, Spreading Flame: The Rise and Progress of Christianity from Its First Beginnings to the Conversion of the English

Maier, Paul L. The Flames of Rome: A Documentary Novel

Apologetics & Evangelism Bibliography

In the General Bibliography of I’m Glad You Asked, Kenneth Boa & Larry Moody recommend the following as books that “cover the whole range of topics related to apologetics and evangelism” in a manner less technical than most philosophy of religion books:

Joseph Aldrich, Lifestyle Evangelism

J.N.D. Anderson, Christianity and Comparative Religion

Kenneth Boa, God I Don’t Understand

Kenneth Boa, Cults, World Religions, and You

James Montgomery Boice, Does Inerrancy Matter?

James Mongomery Boice, ed., The Foundation of Biblical Authority

Colin Brown, ed., History, Criticism, & Faith

F.F. Bruce, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable?

Edward John Carnell, The Case for Biblical Christianity

Edward John Carnell, An Introduction to Christian Apologetics

Edward John Carnell, A Philosophy of the Christian Religion

J.V. Langmead Casserly, Apologetics and Evangelism

Colin Chapman, The Case For Christianity

Colin Chapman, Christianity on Trial

Gordon, H. Clark, ed., Can I Trust My Bible

Robert E.D. Clark, Science and Christianity–A Partnership

James F. Coppedge, Evolution: Possible or Impossible?

William Lane Craig, the Existence of God and the Beginning of the Universe

William Lane Craig, the Son Rises: Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

Bolton Davidheiser, Evolution and Christian Faith

David A. DeWitt, Answering the Tough Ones

David Hugh Freeman, A Philosophical Study of Religion

Norman L. Geisler, Apologetics

Norman L. Geisler, ed., Inerrancy

Norman L. Geisler, Philosophy of Religion

Norman L. Geisler an Paul D. Feinberg, Introduction to Philosophy

John Gerstner, Reason for Faith

Jerry H. Gill, the Possibility of Religious knowledge

Michael Green, Man Alive!

Os Guinness, The Dust of Death

Don J. Gutteridge, Jr., The Defense Rests Its Case

Gary R. Habermas, The Resurrection of Jesus

R. Laird Harris, Inspiration and Canonicity of the Bible

Arthur F. Holmes, Faith Seeks Understanding

Arlie J. Hoover, The Case for Christian Theism

Arlie J. Hoover, Fallacies of Unbelief

Cedric B. Johnson and H. Newton Malony, Christian Conversion: biblical and Psychological Perspectives

C.S. Lewis, The Abolition of Man

C.S. Lewis, God in the Dock

C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

C.S. Lewis, Miracles. A Preliminary Study

C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain

Gordon R. Lewis, Judge for Yourself

Gordon R. Lewis, Testing Christianity’s Truth Claims

Paul E. Little, How to Give Away Your Faith

Paul E. Little, Know Why You Believe

Wayne McDill, Making Friends for Christ

Josh McDowell, Evidence That Demands a Verdict

Josh McDowell, More Than A Carpenter

Josh McDowell, The Resurrection Factor

Josh McDowell and Don Stewart, Answers To Tough Questions

Josh McDowell and Don Stewart, Reasons Why Skeptics Ought to Consider Christianity

Alan Loy McGinnis, The Friendship Factor

John Warwick Montgomery, ed., Christianity for the Tough Minded

John Warwick Montgomery, Faith Founded on Fact

John Warwick Montgomery, ed., God’s Inerrant Word

John Warwick Montgomery, History and Christianity

Frank Morrison, Who Moved the Stone?

Henry Morris, biblical Cosmology and Modern Science

Henry Morris, Many Infallible Proofs

Jon Tal Murphree, A Loving God and A Suffering World

J.I. Packer, God Has Spoken

Jim Peterson, Evangelism As A Lifestyle

Clark Pinnock, Reason Enough

Clark H. Pinnock, Set Forth Your Case

Mattew Prince, Winning Through Caring

Richard L. Purtill, Reason To Believe

Earl Radmacher, ed., Can We Trust the Bible?

Bernard Ramm, A Christian Appeal to Reason

Robert L. Reymond, The Justification of Knowledge

Don Richardson, Eternity In Their Hearts

Francis Schaeffer, Escape From Reason

Francis Schaeffer, The God Who Is There

Francis Schaeffer, He Is There and he Is Not Silent

Francis Schaeffer, How Should We Then Live

Hugh Sylvester, Arguing With God

James Sire, The Universe Next Door

A.E. Wilder Smith, Man’s Origin, Man’s Destiny

R.C. Sproul, If There Is a God, Why Are There Atheists

R.C. Sproul, Objections Answered

Kenneth E. Stevenson and Gary R. Habermas, Verdict on the Shroud

John R.W. Stott, Basic Christianity

Merrill C. Tenney, The Reality of the Resurrection

L. Duane Thurman, How to Think About Evolution

Cornelius Van Til, Apologetics

Cornelius Van Til, Christian-Theistic Evidences

Cornelius Van Til, The Defense of the Faith

John Wenham, The Goodness of God

Rheinallt Nantlais Williams, Faith, Facts, History, Science–and How They Fit Together

Clifford A. Wilson, Rocks, Relics, and Biblical Reliability

Nicholas Wolterstorff, Reason Within the Bounds of Religion

Barry Wood, Questions Non-Christians Ask

Edwin Yamauchi, The Stones and the Scriptures

Philip Yancey, Where is God When It Hurts?

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More Books of Interest