Timeline Charts of the Western Church [Paperback]

Susan Lynn Peterson (Author)

Book Description

Series: ZondervanCharts | Publication Date: October 1, 1999

What do the history of the Quaker church and the women's suffrage movement have in common? How did Luther's 95 Theses fit into the wider context of the world in that day? Turn to Timeline Charts of the Western Church to find out! Timeline Charts of the Western Church is the first comprehensive presentation of the history of the Western Church in a proven and clear timetable format. In three sections, it supplies both summarized and detailed information that students, professors, professionals, and lay persons alike will find valuable and accessible. The main part of the book, modeled after Bernard Grun's Timetables of History, organizes in-depth information into four categories: - A. Theological questions/Issues - B. People/Events - C. Wider Culture - D. Texts -- A detailed index supplies enough information to provide a stand-alone resource. Three appendices offer brief overviews that allow the reader to quickly grasp the essentials of different eras in Western Church history.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Timeline Charts of the Western Church is the first comprehensive presentation of the history of the Western church in a standard timetable format covering A.D. 25 to the present. It provides information on theological issues, people and events, the wider culture, and theological texts, all in a time-tested, highly accessible column format. It also includes an extensive index detailed enough to be used as a stand-alone reference work. This volume promises to become a standard reference work that will be equally useful to students, professors and lay persons.

From the Author

Susan Lynn Peterson has 14 years of teaching experience, most recently as a professor of church history at the Episcopal Theological Seminary at Claremont in California. She holds a Ph.D. in humanities and text theory, and an M.A. in linguistics from the University of Texas at Arlington. She also has an M.S. in religion from the School of Theology at Claremont

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan (October 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310223539
• ISBN-13: 978-0310223535
• Product Dimensions: 10.9 x 8.3 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #69,499 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Susan Lynn Peterson has made a career of writing about complex topics in a straightforward, entertaining way. Her books range in topic from martial arts to history, from business to computers. What they all have in common is her interest in taking a few years to wrestle a topic to the ground before presenting it to the reader. Her Timeline Charts of the Western Church took ten years to put together. While writing Western Herbs for Martial Artists and Contact Athletes, she looked at several hundred articles and studies. While writing Clare, she flew to Ireland, and walked the streets her character would walk.

Between the five of them, her books have been translated into five languages. Her Timeline Charts of the Western Church earned a Gold Medallion Book award nomination. Western Herbs for Martial Artists and Contact Athletes won the 2010 USA Book News Best Book Award in the Alternative Medicine category. She has also contributed to several national magazines including Black Belt, New Body, Complete Woman, and Fighting Woman News.

Susan Lynn Peterson holds an MA in Linguistics, and MA in Religion, and a Ph.D. in the Humanities, Text Theory. She has been a martial artist for more than twenty years and holds a fifth-degree black belt in Okinawan Shuri-ryu karate and a second-degree black belt in traditional Okinawan weapons. She has taught writing, critical thinking, history, and history of Western thought in colleges and universities. These days, when she is not writing, she teaches karate at Black Pine Martial Arts and runs Alcuin Communications, an Internet and print media communications company. She resides with her family in Tucson, Arizona.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Good Reference, January 26, 2000

By 

Brandon Hendrickson (Wisconsin, USofA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Timeline Charts of the Western Church (Paperback)

'Timeline Charts' is a wonderful complement to a Church History book. I wouldn't reccommend it for a stand-alone reference work, as it documents single events, not long-term causes. Also, because of its format, it's not good for in-depth studies. However, it excels in what it aims to do. Additionally, it has some interesting charts in the back (who knew that there are currently 8 Baptist organizations!), though I doubt that most people will find these very useful. A slight warning: the book places the dates of the New Testament books later than many conservative scholars would estimate, though it notes the uncertanity (ex: Jude is placed at 105 a.d.). Still, a helpful reference!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Multi-Scale Historical Timelines: Unique Reference, May 21, 2005

By 

Stanford Gibson (Davis, CA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Timeline Charts of the Western Church (Paperback)

I have been a little disappointed with this series after ordering several of them to help study for a comprehensive final for my theology degree. I tended to find them fragmented; good at organizing particular movements but not framing the different movements in the context of a historical narrative. This text however, is one, large chart, or actually 3 on different scales (one single page timeline, one 5 pager and one that's 226 pages); which really helps develop a mental map of historical events and thought. It lists people, events, and movements of note in a large chronological grid. While this may not be particularly helpful for understanding connections between movements or individuals (though the 19 denominational flow charts in the end help), it is a fantastic organizational framework for developing a historical theology.

21 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Conservative Christians Be Careful, February 11, 2003

By 

David A. Vosseller "davhoops" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Timeline Charts of the Western Church (Paperback)

While this is a work of great volume, detail and overall is an excellent timeline, I am disappointed that the editors at Zondervan did not look more closely at the author's content. Suprising for an "evangelical" publisher like Zondervan, this work generally assumes the critical theories of the 19th & 20th centuries as "fact" when it comes to the dating and authorship of much of the New Testament canon.

For example on p. 16 she writes (under the year 65 AD): "The Pastoral Epistles - the Epistles to Timothy and Titus -- are written. (Their dating, not to mention their authorship, is a point of substantial controversy. Estimates range from 65 to 110)." It gets worse!

On p. 17, she writes (under the year 70): "Disciples of the apostle Paul write Colossians and Ephesians. (Possibly as late as 90) Some scholars suggest Colossians is written by Paul around the time of Philemon." Notice here that the authorship by Paul (in her mind) is ruled out right away, and "oh by the way", some people actually think Paul might have written Colossians - can you believe it?.

One more that I've noticed, p. 18 (under the year 100): "1 Peter is written. (ca.)". This clearly shows that she does not believe Peter is the author, since his death is listed as being in 64 or 68 on her charts. She apparently doesn't believe he wrote 2nd Peter either, since 2nd Peter is listed (with 1st, 2nd and 3rd John) as being completed in 110 AD, thus in one listing ruling out Peter and John as the authors of the books that claim their authorship.

The author is much better once she gets into the rest of the timelines of the Western Church, but I have serious problems recommending this resource to anyone who believes that the Scriptures were actually written by who they say they are written by!

An excellent scholarly counter to these types of claims of pseudonymity (writings claiming to be written by one person that were actually written by another)is the excellent "An Introduction to the New Testament" by D.A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo, and Leon Morris (all 1st rate New Testament scholars by the way!)and also published by Zondervan! They go into detail in the case of all NT books that critics claim are pseudopigraphic. Here are a few of their findings:

"One noteworthy fact among the Jews and the Christians is the rarity of pseudepigraphic letters. Writers might claim great names as having been responsible for other kinds of literature, but only two pseudonymous letters have come down to us from Jewish sources....A false claim to writing a letter would probably be easier to detect than, say, a false claim to writing an apocalypse. Whatever the reason, pseudepigraphic letters among the Jews are extremely rare." (P.367).

"The difficulty is not the idea of pseudonymity but the lack of evidence that the New Testament Christians gave any countenance to the idea. Nowhere is evidence cited that any member of the New Testament church accepted the idea that a pious believer could write something in the name of an apostle and expect the writing to be welcomed. The contrary, as we have seen, is often maintained." (p.370).

"There appears to be no example of anyone in the early church accepting a book as truly canonical while denying that it was written by the author whose name it bears." (p. 371).

So, to sum up. You can use this for your post-apostolic history, but be very wary about the dating of the writing of the books of the NT canon. Look for a reliable conservative source instead.