Customer Reviews

Introducing Early Christianity: A Topical Survey of Its Life, Beliefs and Practices

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

 

 

What I got out of this book was a good look at the beliefs and practices of the early church in a way that I haven't found before. Laurie Guy has done a good job describing how practices, culture and doctrines developed in the early years of the church. Even though procedures of the preparation for baptism, communion, and reconciliation for backsliders became very complicated, I was impressed by the intensity and seriousness of church about their beliefs. It helped me to understand Christianity much better and to realize the deep faith of the early believers. It showed me the strong foundation the orthodoxy was built upon.

I wouldn't have thought it possible, but this book takes an extraordinarily fascinating subject and makes it extremely boring. There's a lot of data in here and it was obviously well researched, but wow, is this thing dry! I've had it a month and I'm barely through half of it, primarily because I can't read more than five or ten pages before I get frustrated or fall asleep. Impresses me as a book that was written with the sole purpose of impressing seminary professors, because it's very technical and the use of very complicated words and difficult phrases is prolific.

There needs to be a seriously profound work on the early Christian church and the early church fathers, but this isn't it. Useful only in getting some information that you can then research in a more user friendly format either on the web or in other books. Sad really, this is a gross failure to communicate the information it contains.

If you enjoyed reading the instruction manual for your new camcorder, then this book's for you.

For some reason, I can't seem to enjoy reading this as I have with other books of the time. I'm reading this with Eusebius and they pair well to get a better feeling of the time. This seems like history on the light side. However, the price isn't bad, the font is a good size, the page color is nice and readable. The page thickness allows for re-reading without concern for the pages tearing.

I really enjoyed using this for our Church History class. It is well written and covers a lot of ground.

Book provides good reference for what was occuring in the church at the period listed. recommend for those interested in history of the church