The Church in History [Paperback]

B. K. Kuiper (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 1988

A great textbook for junior and senior high students! This updated edition skillfully weaves a picture of Christian history down through the ages. All of the retained maps have been redrawn and new maps added to correlate with the text. Meanwhile timelines provide excellent overviews. The selection of pictures is broadened, the number doubled, and their quality improved by offset printing. The questions and projects suggested at the end of the chapters aid the teacher and the pupil to think through the chapters contents. A teachers guide accompanies the text.

Product Details

• Paperback: 420 pages
• Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (June 1, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0802817777
• ISBN-13: 978-0802817778
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #297,853 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A captivating read of Church History, October 26, 2003

By 

Kate Thomas (Little Rock, Arkansas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Church in History (Paperback)

There are few history books that I have found to be as accurate and interesting as this one.
Kuiper helps the reader look at history through the lens of the Bible, that God's Church is screwed up, and yet will prevail blameless at Christ's return. He does have a solid reformed perspective, that I respect and agree with.
This book is at the 6th grading level. It's easy to understand and very interesting. He brings the saints stories to life. The maps and timelines are very helpful.
If you are interested in having a greater understanding of the church today, you must understand where it came from.
History is not dead and boring, yet alive, fascinating, and applicable to the Christian.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Complete & Relevant Account Of The Whole Of Church History, November 15, 2007

By 

Jacques Schoeman (SA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Church in History (Paperback)

This book deals with some of the most dramatic episodes in church history. It relates to the modern reader, and most aptly pupils, the original existence of the church and its historical development, with its doctrinal growth, down through the proliferation of Christianity.

The Post-Constantinian age is the most identifiable marker in its historical sequence, for it was in A.D.312 that the Emperor Constantine legalized Christianity. The context of Christianity changed forever, for from that time onwards, united Christendom faced very little resistance. So much so, that the fledgling post-apostolic church grew into an unrecognizable monolithic and political entity. This led to what historians would call the 'Dark Ages' throughout Europe.

The next phase of sequential importance was the Reformation, with its desire to return to the New Testament church, based on the teachings of Christ and the apostles. 'Calvin regarded it as no schism to prefer the early church to all that, and he escaped from the merely official and professional and formal and ceremonial that had formed in the course of centuries, to the true and effectual. He turned from the name to the reality, and his ideal and that of his followers was well stated by John Knox: 'that the reverend face of the primitive and apostolic Kirk should be reduced again to the eyes and memory of man'.' DG Henderson, Presbyterianism p 25 The true church also returned to being tempered by bodily persecution. The confessions played a vital role in developing doctrinal cohesion and, as the lower-class Christians were able to read the Bible in their own languages, the truth of Christ's saving work flourished throughout the European continent. Men that God raised up from every nation who today enjoy celebrated esteem, include Huss, Wycliffe, Luther, Zwingli, Calvin and Knox - ensured that its reach was missiological indeed. The Reformation was the true Enlightenment having its origin in God's preceptive will.

Kuiper then presents the latter centuries, marked by the church's expanse into the Americas, and the birth of the human Enlightenment, accepted to be promulgated by the French Revolution. The ecclesial controversies of Calvinism/Arminianism, and their following, with accurate and enriching detail, are then addressed in this work. The summa ends circa 1950 with a brief look at how Evangelicalism has become divided by Ecumenicism.

Kuiper's work has gone through 6 editions, this final one being a very attractive publication. Not complex to understand, with sufficient reference to the relevant church stages, it is a welcome contribution to church history.

'Zinzendorf favored the founding of exclusive Moravian towns where no one but a member might own real estate and where the church controlled all industrial pursuits.' p 278

5.0 out of 5 stars A great overview of Christian Church history targeted to middle school student, May 25, 2011

By 

Cold fighter "My Critical Mind" (Philadelphia, PA, USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Church in History (Paperback)

This book was initially lent by a friend, but it proved so useful in helping me prepare my late antiquity and medieval history classes for middle school students that I bought my own copy. The book is an easy read with helpful timelines along the tops of certain chapters. Issues like church versus state are clearly described. I have begun assigning readings in this book as I find it very useful for just regular Western European history.