Customer Reviews

Church History: An Essential Guide (Abingdon Essential Guides)

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Summing up the history of the Christian church, which spans 2000 years, in a mere handful of pages is no easy task. Any history is necessarily selective -- even the most detailed of analyses of particular events or the most comprehensive of encyclopedic tomes will by design have to include only part of the story, and exclude a great deal.

Justo Gonzalez is a name well known in church history circles; there are few more qualified to make the kinds of selection judgements required for a brief overview of church history, and he does this fairly well. 'Church History: An Essential Guide' is part of a series of Essential Guides put out by Abingdon Press, the object of which is to give key topics and subjects a brief but complete outline for introduction, reference, and refresher uses. In fewer than 100 pages, Gonzalez provides a concise yet useful summary of church history.

The first chapter is a summary of the summaries -- in one page for each of nine sections, this is the most basic of outlines of church history. The subsequent nine chapters look at church history according to time period, as follows:

- The Ancient Church (the origins to 313)
- The Christian Empire (313-476)
- The Early Middle Ages (476 - 1054)
- The High Point of the Middle Ages (1054 - 1303)
- The Late Middle Ages (1303 -1453)
- Conquest and Reformation (1453 - 1600)
- The Seventeenth and Eighteen Centuries
- The Nineteenth Century
- The Twentieth Century and the End of Modernity

Several of the dates signify that serve as chapter division points are key turning points in church history -- 313 was the year of the Edict of Milan (which, ironically, though a major division point for the chapters, is never explicitly explained); 476 is commonly held to be the date of the fall of the western Roman Empire; 1054 is the year of formal division between East and West in Christendom, etc.

Each chapter discusses both theological and worship/liturgical practices. After the East/West split, the book is almost exclusively Western in subject material, only occasionally referencing developments in Eastern Orthodoxy (a trend fairly common in church histories generally, although Gonzalez does do a bit more of such referencing than many). Each chapter also has a listing of selected and suggested readings -- given the admitted lack of detail due to space requirements, Gonzalez states that this introduction is meant to inspire readers to seek further information (often from Gonzalez's own well written church histories).

There is no index in the book, which is a drawback for those who might want to use this book as a reference tool. However, the book is well-written and concise, so making notes for one's own use in the back pages would not be a bad idea.

This is a book designed largely for the busy person in mind -- the reading is simple without being simplistic; there are not too many names and terms to wade through, and the whole of the book could be read in but a few hours, making church history readily accessible to even the busiest of lay persons, and a refresher handily available for the busiest of clergy.

This was a nice, brief (very brief) overview of the history of Christianity. It sparked an interest in history that I never thought I had before, and it laid the groundwork for the history courses that I will have to take at some point. I recommend it for those that don't know much about church history and wish to learn as well as for those that might be taking an intense course in church history.

This review was originally a comment left under Rev. Michael J. Quist's review, but I felt it necessary to include it as a review. (See also Louis A. Decaro Jr's helpful comment which I have included at the end of my review.)

First, I just wanted to say that for 95 pages, this little outline packs a punch. Anyone who has read more from the same author is appreciative of the scholarship and scope that goes into his work. As such, the author's ability to provide a framework on the annals of Christian development is extremely valuable in that he gives you the big picture first. Such an introduction to the subject is extremely helpful for those who have a hard time trying to process dates and learning names without first having an answer to the question "Why is this relevant?" Now, on to Rev. Quist's review.

Quist is alluding to some invisible, unexplained standard of what should "spark the imagination." As I see it, anyone who isn't using the book for the express purpose of "prepping" him or herself for further research in the first place is, perhaps, guilty of intellectual pretense, i.e., trying to gain a little knowledge with the vested interest of claiming to be an expert on Church History...because, after all, they just read chapter 6 titled "Conquest and Reformation" [which encompasses all of 10 pgs., including a suggested reading list and a lot of unused white space on page 76]--and now they can tell you (in a nutshell) what the Reformation was all about.

If one doesn't pick up where this small text leaves off, it isn't the author's fault; it's the reader's for failing to follow up what was the author's clarion clear intention--continuing Church Hist. research using the present text as "an essential guide." (The author states plainly on page 9: "Since this book is no more than an outline, it is suggested that you choose at least one of the surveys [suggested readings] and use it to amplify what is said here. Again, this book should not be used as a substitute for those fuller surveys, but rather as a guide to them.") And as for the claim that the text fails to whet the interest of the reader towards further study, the author of a text like this never has that responsibility; in fact, the author assumes this has been done already. Justo Gonzalez simply meets the interested student and guides him or her through the rudiments of what should be expected along the historical journey.

As such, I fully agree with the comment left by Louis A. Decaro Jr. under Rev. Quist's review--which I include now:

"With all due respect to Rev. Quist, to fault this book for supposedly failing 'to spark the imagination or to challenge the reader to do further research' is highly subjective and certainly unfair. This is more than a 'decent attempt' by an excellent scholar and prolific contributor to Christian academics and spirituality. Why would anyone presume that a guide and overview has the burden of sparking imagination and challenging readers to do further research, and who says this work fails in this regard anyway? This book does more than 'suffice' it serves us well and will not be excelled in any significant manner, only complemented by future efforts."

In my honest opinion, the comment is as warranted as it is well said.

The book misrepresents the beliefs of the Non-Chalcedonians (the Armenians, Copts, etc.) and the reasons for our rejection of the Council of Chalcedon. We are not Monophysites, and we believe in Christ's perfect and complete humanity. We rejected Chalcedon because of real concerns that it was allowing Nestorianism in through the back door, despite its condemnation of Nestorius. This is not a very scholarly work. Fr. V.C. Samuel's Council of Chalcedon Re-Examined has a much more thorough and scholarly review of what happened at Chalcedon: The Council of Chalcedon Re-Examined

First of all this book almost entirely focuses on Western Church history, but doesn't actually claim that it's anything less than being full "Church History." That issue aside, there is one major issue that makes me wonder if he's even credible on the Western Church history he focuses on.

On page 46, Gonzales makes a huge mistake that causes one to question his scholarship. He accurately defines the Christology known as "Monophysitism," but then goes on to say that the Armenians, Copts, Syrians, and Ethiopians are Monophysites. For one thing, the communion of churches he's referring to comprise the Oriental Orthodox Church, but he only mentions a few main ones.

The important issue is him defining the Oriental Orthodox Christians as Monophysite is simply wrong; their being attributed with that Christology has been a historical pejorative way of dismissing them as heretics. The Oriental churches at the time condemned Monophysitism as a heresy themselves, whereas they affirmed Miaphysitism.

For those that don't know:
Monophysitism: the Christological doctrine that Christ has one nature, within which His human nature is limited, incomplete, diluted, or absorbed into/because of the divine nature.
Miaphysitism: the Christological doctrine that Christ has one nature, within which He is both fully human and fully divine.

While it may seem small to some, this misinformation has been an obstacle to unifying the Eastern/Oriental Orthodox churches for some 1500 years. For him to write volumes on Church history (not this book, obviously) and be such an acclaimed Western historian on the subject, and then proceed to show that he's incapable of doing proper research on the topics he writes on without just making typical Western assumptions causes his credibility to go right out the window.

For more information please go to:

[...]
[...]
[...]
[...]

This book may be meant as a brief guide, outline, or "map," to Church history, but it should at least remain accurate while being concise.

If you're truly interested in church history, this should not be the only church history book that you read. I don't even think it should be the first church history book you read. But I do think that the more church history you read, the more you will appreciate how the author has distilled the most important events and people in church history over the past 2000 years into a concise book.

This book is written by an author whose name I kept coming across as I've been purchasing and reading church history books over the past couple of years, and although I haven't read his two volume church history work, I was glad to see that he'd also written such a small, approachable book. Reading this book gave me a sense of what events and people are generally regarded as the most important ones to focus on, and it gave me a framework to understand all the details that I had come across in all the other books.

If you're looking to get a graduate degree in church history, this book will probably be useless to you. But if you're just a person of faith who needs some help sifting through the massive amount of history for a few key historical names and events, this book will give you good points of reference for further reading and study.

(By the way, if you're interested in church history details, there are a lot of resources online as well, such as:
http://chi.gospelcom.net/centuries/
but, like I said, this book will help give you a framework to understand all the details.)

`Church History, An Essential Guide' by theological historian, Justo L. Gonzalez is a very good introduction to the history of Christian churches in the context of concurrent political history. One also has the assurance that the work will, as far as it goes, be very accurate, as the author has also written several `full length' histories of both Christian churches and Christian theology. Therefore, this book is a condensation of well-received longer volumes.

This history walks the fine line between political and doctrinal history. The author divides the last 2000 years into nine periods which are largely demarked by political events such as the conversion of the Emperor Constantine to Christianity, the Schism between the Eastern (Greek) and Western (Latin) churches, the French Revolution, and the First World War.

Two things with the organization of the book are just a bit odd. The first is that in spite of the very slim size of the book, it is actually divided into a main narrative and an even briefer summary of the author's nine periods. The second is the fact that while the author uses numerous maps and tables in his longer work, `The Story of Christianity', none of these aids to effective synopsis appear in this work.

While I really feel the need for a book of this type, I think it is just a tad too short. One thing which could have been improved without enlarging the book too much was a clearer statement of doctrinal differences between Christian orthodoxy and the various heresies such as Gnosticism and Arianism. A bit of tabular presentation, as I have seen in other church histories would have gone well together with a few maps.

The author has very nicely included a bibliography at the end of each chapter and modestly avoided any references to his own larger books. I'm just a bit puzzled why the author did not include J.N.D. Kelly's `Early Christian Doctrines' in his bibliography, but I guess that's because this book really doesn't deal in any depth with doctrine.

A very nice guide to put major doctrinal changes in an historical perspective.

I received the item for a low price, in great condition as described, and in a very short amount of time...awesome!

An excellent little book to guide a novice in an easy search of Church History. An excellent general review of History without overloading the mind on useless facts and figures. Great book for the avid historian as well. Easy to read and well laid out

For several years I've used this little book as an introductory overview for my Intro to Church History course. After class discussions and a test on this book early in the semester students are well prepared to grapple with more detailed, standard texts. I believe in helping students see the big picture first, and in providing a framework within which they can locate further, more detailed information. Gonzalez' book (plus a couple of time charts) help them see 'the wood' as well as 'the trees'. The book is cleverly structured to assist recall and would be a good entry point for anyone interested in studying Church History. Gonzalez begins with an overview of his overview, and repeats key paragraphs from the introductory chapter in later chapters. This top-ranking scholar is to be commended for making time to write a book for beginners. The only thing I would like to see would be a few maps, charts and illustrations to add interest and further assist recall.