Customer Reviews

The Church in History

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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.

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

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.

This is a well written book covering church history in a way that the general reader can readily understand. It gives good coverage without getting into each event too deeply. It was written for high school student use; as such, it is a good source for most church members who wish to get a feel for the history of the church. The fact that it is written from the reformed point of view, also makes for a well balanced reading for conservative christian believers.

I am a teacher of adult Sunday School classes for over 20 years and find this book an excellent source to review various issues that have confronted the church over the years.

Floyd Heideman
Torrance, CA

I previewed this book, thinking it might be useful for a Church History course. I found it to be very biased, with a very narrow view, and also quite out of date. For example, the author refers to monks and nuns as being misled in their call to a life of celibacy - the author does not recognize that such a call might be genuine. The book has not been updated since the fall of the Berlin Wall - the Wartburg is referred to as being the home of some communist official, when in fact it has been part of the reunited Germany and open as a museum for many years now.
I used another book for the course.

A biased, reform piece of work. I have no problem reading reform authors, but this seemed to intentionally skew history to make reformed theology seem more palatable. If you are going to write a section on Arminius, at least be accurate and try to portray what his purpose and desires were. Don't just tell the story from the swayed viewpoint of detractors. That is not Church History. This book was useless.

Kuiper calls himself a reformer but he does a carefully worded job of making the Reformation look like a mistake. According to him both Romanists and Protestants are linked by the Creeds. He calls the Latin Vulgate "Jerome's noblest achievement". Martin Luther attributed much of the errors in the Roman Catholic Church to Jerome and Origen, but Kuiper leaves such "tidbits" of important information out. If you want to return to Rome and have "historical precedent" from the RC perspective for doing so, this is the book for you.