Church History in Plain Language: Third Edition (Paperback)

~ Dr. Bruce L. Shelley (Author) "CHRISTIANITY is the only major religion to have as its central event the humiliation of its God..." (more)
Key Phrases: denominational theory, papal office, New York, Jesus Christ, Old Testament (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

With more than 275,000 copies sold, this is the story of the Church for today's readers.

This third edition improves the most engaging and readable single-volume history of the Church by bringing the story into the twenty-first century. Faced with some astonishing changes in the Islamic world, a global resurgence of Roman Catholicism, the decline of Christianity in the West coupled with the rapid growth of evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity in the southern and eastern hemispheres, readers need a current explanation with intellectual substance that will provide historical context and update readers on all these new developments. The new edition of Church History in Plain Language does that in a stimulating manner, and it promises to be the new standard for readable Church History.

Features include:

• Includes contemporary developments, such as the growth of Christianity in China and the rise of global Islam

Product Details

• Paperback: 544 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson; 3 edition (December 2, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0718025539
• ISBN-13: 978-0718025533
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (75 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #26,404 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

115 of 119 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very compact and clear. Excellent organization of the text., November 28, 2000

By	Spiff (Europe) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Church History In Plain Language Updated 2nd Edition (Paperback)

Shelley's book is indeed easy to read and very clear most of the time. The writer doesn't seem biased, so readers don't have to worry about being lead to ideas that don't really reflect what happened. The book mentions people and their motivations, and covers history from the time of Jesus until relatively modern days.

Sometimes it's not so easy to follow the timeline, as Shelley often jumps back and forth in time, but that lack of linearity seems to better necessary to explain some events. The subjects covered are also very dense and such brief explanation might sometimes raise more questions than those it answers. That's the price to pay for trying to cover so many years of history in around 500 pages focusing on clarity. Eventually, you might want to check other sources for a more detailed coverage. The author provides some of the major titles on each chapter, so that will be a start. I fully disagree with the reader from Oklahoma who thinks "the book's format screams "boring," with page after page of bare text, no text boxes, too few paragraph breaks", The second edition has nothing to point regarding that, there are many paragraphs and breaks, several sub-topics inside each chapter. You seldom read more than 2 pages without reaching some break or topic change. In fact, that's an area where Shelley did a really good job, the text separation is superb. (I wonder what the Oklahoma reader would think about G.K.Chesterton's (brilliant) "The Everlasting Man", now THAT is having NO breaks) :-)

Regarding content, I'll mention a few of the main topics of each chapter: The book starts with the Jesus movement, the apostles, and proceeds to the age of Catholic Christianity (Persecution, Rise of orthodoxy, the formation of the bible, the power of the bishops, etc). From there, the age of Christian Roman Empire (Conversion, doctrine of the Trinity, Augustine, The beginning of the papacy, eastern orthodoxy, etc). And we reach the Middle Ages (Gregory the great, Charlemagne and Christendom, the papacy, Scholasticism, The apostolic life-style, decline of the papacy, Wyclif and Hus,etc). In the Age of Reformation Shelly tells us about Martin Luther and Protestantism, The Anabaptists, John Calvin, the Church of England, The Catholic Reformation, America and Asia's situation, Puritanism and denominations. Next come the days of Reason and Revival (Cult of reason, Pascal and the Pietists, Wesley and Methodism and the Great Awakening). In the more recent times the book covers Catholicism in the Age of progress, 19 th century England, protestant missions, Christian America, protestant liberalism, the social crisis, 20 th century ideologies, American evangelicals, the ecumenical movement, roman Catholicism (Vatican II), Christianity in the 3 rd world and Christianity on the world scene. The book also has a list of popes from Leo I to present (John Paul II) and decent indexes (organized by people, movements and events).

The only thing I missed was perhaps a short summary of each age's central events and ideologies at the end of each chapter. (Shelley has some timeline charts, but they are not as useful). Very well organized, very compact (sometimes too much) and perfect for the layman wanting to know more about church history. This is one of the titles that come to my mind when people start asking what's truly the difference between Protestants and Catholics, for instance.

Well worth checking out.

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars clear, engaging, and well written, April 9, 2002

By	NotATameLion (Michigan) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: Church History In Plain Language Updated 2nd Edition (Paperback)

When I first purchased this book, I was rather wary. All too often, historians dealing with religion bring along a few spare axes to grind when writing their texts. I was happily surprised by Bruce Shelley's "Church History in Plain Language." It is a clear, reader-friendly overview of the history of Christianity.

Shelley is as fair as can be expected. He approaches history as neutrally as possible while still acknowledging his Protestant background. Instead of trying to fit history into a doctrinal box, Shelley presents facts. Shelley focuses on the key events and personalities that shaped the history of Christianity.

The most appealing thing about "Church History in Plain Language" is its readability. The author's narrative goes a long way in making what could be dry and boring into an engaging story. In some cases, Shelley has made me feel closer to some of his subjects (Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Calvin) in just a few pages than other authors have with whole books.

I highly recommend Bruce Shelley's "Church History in Plain Language." It is probably the best one volume introduction to the history of Christianity available.

36 of 40 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A decent primer., July 17, 2002

By	Del Myers (BC, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Church History In Plain Language Updated 2nd Edition (Paperback)

Dr. Shelley of Denver Theological Seminary has written an easy to read text on Church History with his book <I>Church History in Plain Language</I>. If there were one good word to describe this book, it would be "decent". The text isn't spectacular, but it isn't bad either. It is simply a short and relatively unbiased account of Christian history.

The book divides the past two thousand years of Christian history into eight ages, telling the stories of major movements and people of each age. This organization causes some problems because most of the movements and personalities of Christianity leave lasting impressions and have long histories. But Dr. Shelley seamlessly overcomes these obstacles by jumping ahead and looking back when it is relevant while keeping the writing cohesive. The end result is a decent, concise account of the history of Christianity. There is one pitfall to the writing style, however. Dr. Shelley never cites quotes with endnotes or parenthesis unless he is quoting the Bible. There is a list of notes at the back of the book, but none of them are referenced. That is a nuisance, but it is a small blemish to the overall writing style.

But, readers beware: though Dr. Shelley tries to be unbiased, he is sometimes unsuccessful. He is from a Protestant background and the book reflects that. When he examines different factions of Christianity on their own, he is relatively fair. But when he looks at them side-by-side, he often has favorites: the Lutherans over the Catholics, the Puritans over the Anglicans. His bias leads him into several contradictions as well. For example, he speaks of the Bible as being the "supreme standard for the churches threatened by heresy"(57) during the first few hundred years of the Christianity, but then goes on to explain the formation of the Bible over the duration of more than 300 years. He also seems to view the immoral acts of some of the Popes as evidence that they were not placed in a divinely instituted position, but is unwilling to put the same test on Luther. Rather, about Luther he says, "Fortunately, the personal defects of an aging rebel do not detract in any way the grandeur of his achievements."(245) He can also tend to be unfair about doctrinal issues. He will sometimes point out <I>apparent</I> problems with doctrines that he doesn't agree with while ignoring similar issues surrounding doctrines that he does agree with. These sorts of problems may make the unprepared reader a little frustrated. The book is also quite centered on western Christianity, especially in the United States. If you want something that will teach you about the history of the Eastern Church, this book is not for you.

So, overall, Dr. Shelley's book is decent. Just remember that history is the story of yesterday seen through the eyes of today. There are biases. So, if you read the book to learn about the people and events throughout Christianity, you'll find a nice story in this text. Don't count on it for its theology, though.