Customer Reviews

A History of the Christian Church

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A History of the Christian Church by Williston Walker was first published in 1918 and has gone through significant revision over the years. This is the fourth edition and includes the latest scholarship in the field of Christian history. The book is the major text for many seminary and university courses on the subject and with good reason, it includes quality research and scholarship. If you are a serious student of the subject you will enjoy the book and find it helpful in your own research. If you are a novice or casual inquirer, I recommend you look elsewhere. It does not offer a smooth flow through history like other texts of this nature. On the spectrum of Christian scholarship, the text is on the liberal end. The reading is more difficult than most introductory texts. Also, the book does not seem to give equal print to subjects of equal value to the history of the world wide Church. Yet, for the serious student of church history, it is an outstanding resource.

This is one of the most comprehensive and thorough single volume works of Christian Church History that I have ever read. Originally published in 1918 by Yale University's 'Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History,' Williston Walker, this work has been 'updated' or revised through the years by three Union Theological Seminary Professors based on new discoveries, insights, data, uncovered archaeological evidence, and historical discoveries.

The subsequent revised versions included a final section on 'Modern Christianity.' So much of what happen in the 20th century was added to later editions. The book is nicely divided into seven (VII) periods. These seven periods are:

Period I - The Beginnings to the Gnostic Crisis. This period covers the first two centuries of Christianity from Christ's time to the apologists ending in the second century.

Period II - From the Gnostic Crisis to Constantine. This is one of the better sections or 'Periods' marking the growth of the Church, the formation of Catholicism, and the development of theology.

Period III - The Imperial State Church. This section covers controversies which arose (Arianism, Pelagianism, etc.). It also covers the division which occurred between the East and the West, Augustine of Hippo, the Growth of the Papacy, etc.

Period IV - The Middle Ages to the Close of the Investiture Controversy. This section covers the expansion of Christianity into Europe, The Greek Church, the Papacy and the Ottoman Empire, and much more.

Period V - The Latter Medieval Ages. This is another excellent section covering the rise of Scholasticism and its thinkers (Anselm, Aquinas, etc.). The rise of Orders (Dominicans, Franciscans, etc.) The effects/theology of mysticism, Wyclif and Hus, and into the Italian Renaissance (and much more).

Period VI - The Reformation. This sections covers every aspect of the Reformation from beginning to end in as much detail as can be allowed in about 150 pages.

Period VII - Modern Christianity. This section covers the end of the Middle Ages to the current day. Christianity in America, Britain, the rise of Protestantism, the Great Awakenings, Deism, Pietism, the Puritans, Colonial discoveries and the spread of Christianity to North America, etc. are all covered in this section.

One of the best features of this work is the bibliography. The compilers have actually created a bibliography for every period mentioned above. So if the reader wants to do more specific research on any given period or thinker, there is a very detailed reference/bibliography section that is 21 pages long. This makes for excellent research sources and further study.

Overall, this work is very well balanced, very well written in such a short space. It covers nearly every detail from major to minor (with the exception of a few things that were left out that should have been included - e.g. Louis de Molina is not included, and thus Molinism is left out). It is quite easy to read, and is systematically put together in a nice chronological order (as history actually unfolded).

If you are looking for a detailed but somewhat brief (709 plus pages) Christian History text, then I recommend this one.

I once heard a taped lecture in which the late church historian John Gerstner recommend Williston Walker's text as the best single volume work on the history of Christian Church that one could find. I have since concluded that Gerstner's assessment is correct. Any single volume work that attempts to cover such a broad and complex field is bound to suffer from gaps and over generalizations, but I must say that Walker, and his later revisers, have nonetheless done a fantastic job with the material covered. One of this book's strengths is the way it successfully ties together both theological issues and the broader historical context as they played a role in shaping the doctrine, life, and practice of the Church. There are a about nine maps scattered throughout, but apart from these there is nothing else in the way of images, just meaty text. An extensive bibliography can be found in the back of the book that is nicely divided up by periods, with each period further divided into various topical categories such as, "Sources and Documents," or "Thought and Theology." It should be noted, however, that this bibliography has not been updated since around 1984.

Despite the fact this is a one volume survey, I do not think this work is for the casual reader looking for a light introduction to church history. I don't mean to suggest that it is difficult reading, because I think it is actually written very well. It just seems to me that this text's appeal and value will be for the serious student who desires a more scholalry survey.

Insightful, especially for Protestant Christians. It fills a mysterious gap, and explains the development of Church dogma within a framework of an uninterrupted apostolic succession particularly between Pentecost (the birth of the Christian Church) and Martin Luther's reformation.

This is the long established basic text for an introduction to church history as used in many Christian colleges. It is an excellent introduction to the development of the Christian Church. Anyone interested in the subject should begin with this book.

I understand that I am differing with other reviewers in giving Walker 5 stars, and at times I found Walker's passe divorcing of "faith and history" annoying, nevertheless, he knows his history and how to write it.

The editors at the beginning make note of how Walker was indebted to the fruits of German scholarship--that becomes evident really quick in the book. In examing the early years of Chrisitanity (Christ through the rise of Docetism), Walker, although I disagree with parts of his methodolgy, has cogent arguments for the development of Christological thought. His contribution to early Trinitarian thought is outstanding. He outperforms himself in the times Jan Hus to the Reformation. Although I had a good grip on the Reformation, I found myself re-reading those chapters simply because they are so good.

This is a well-researched book. However, I was shocked when I saw the price. Nevertheless, and the bigger the checkbook the better, this book is well-worth the horrendous price (ok, I understand there is a reason for the price). Tolle Legge!

The quality of this edition's print layout and typesetting is VERY VERY BAD. I just got the book today and I have to return it because it is very difficult to read: it is like somebody copied and pasted in a word document from an electronic book without doing any formatting at all.

- The index contains only something like:
Section 1 page number
Section 2 page number
.....
.. no titles.

- sections have no titles only "Section 1"
- old page numbers will appear in the middle of the page and in the middle of the sentence
- sections will start or end in the middle of the sentence
- footnotes are not formatted different than the main text, so you don't know when the text ends and the footnotes start
- old titles in the middle of sentences and pages (braking the text of the book).

Awful publishing quality.

Look for an older version of the book from another publisher, it may be of better quality.

This is a public domain reprint - which means that the copyright has expired, and an entity (in this case, Nabu)

As such, it is a copy - either of microfiche or an original copy. It says on about the second page that due to problems with the material being copied or a result of the scanning process that some things are blurred or missing.

From what I can tell, the actual text seems to be all there - though some of it is a bit faded/blurred. Where I noticed the most loss was in footnotes - on some pages one can tell there used to be footnotes, but so little of it copied that you can't read it.

That all being said (and with fair warning given), there is a reason that it was reprinted - it is a solid, respected history of Christianity. One of my professors (graduate level) recommended it as a supplemental, because existing books on this subject tend to be heavy on the pictures and light on the content.

I would probably rate this as 4-5 stars if they could have cleaned up the copy process more - the lower rating is almost exclusively because of that.

Edit: I noticed that the version now available on Amazon is the paperback version of the one found on forgottenbooks.org. From the appearance of the PDF< it appears that FB did a better job copying - I returned my previous copy (by Nabu) and will get the FB one. If the typesetting/clarity are better, I'll certainly re-rate this higher.

A History of the Christian Church was a required textbook for a class I recently completed. There are newer versions of books dealing with church history available, but this book is wonderful. At times the reader would like to see more information on major events such as The Great Awakening, but then it would have to be a multi-volume work. However, for the length and price, it is a wonderful addition to a researcher's library.

This has been an excellent additon to my library and helped me immensely during my seminary studies on ancient and medieval church history. Look up any subject, from Iranaeus to Arianism, and you will find several pages that sum up the topic beautifully.

One caution is to remember the book was written at the beginning of the 20th century and so may be lacking recent scholarship. Nevertheless I recommend it as a good second text on the subject of church history. As the intro says, it is a book noted for its "clarity, compactness, and balance."