Church History

Links updated July 2011

"The sadder the desolation into which the Church has been brought,
the less ought our affection to be alienated from her"

John Calvin, commentary on Psalm 102:14.

General

• History of the Christian Church. By Philip Schaff, at CCEL. This in undoubtedly the best history of the church currently on the web.
• Foxe's Book of Martyrs. By John Foxe, the great chronicler of Protestant martyrs.
• Biographisch-Bibliographischen Kirchenlexikon. An excellent resource for biographies and bibliogaphies of notable scholars. In German.
• Shedd's History of Christian Doctrine — William G.T. Shedd, A History of Christian Doctrine (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1865): vol. 1; vol. 2.
• Hefele's History of the Councils — Karl Joseph von Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church: From the Original Documents by Charles Joseph Hefele, translated from the German and edited by William R. Clark, etc. (Edinburgh: T & T Clark, 1871-1883): vol. 1 (1871); vol. 2 (1876); vol. 3 (1883). Also in html format here.

Ancient

• The Church History of Eusebius, translated with prolegomena and notes by Arthur C. McGiffert, from series 2, volume 1, of A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers of the Christian Church edited by Henry Wace and Philip Schaff (Oxford: Parker, 1890). This is the standard English edition of the most important source for ancient Church history. Download the entire book in a variety of formats here.
• Texts on the Persecution of the Early Christians. Compiled by Michael Marlowe.
• Landmarks in the History of Early Christianity. By Kirsopp Lake (New York: Macmillan, 1922).
• A Dictionary of Christian Biography and Literature to the End of the Sixth Century A.D., with an Account of the Principal Sects and Heresies. By Henry Wace. A standard reference book.
• The Private Life of the Romans, by Harold Whetstone Johnston (1903). This interesting little book does not deal with the Church, but it is helpful for background information about the cultural context of the early Church.

Medieval

• The Internet Medieval Sourcebook. From the Fordham University Center for Medieval Studies. Many religious texts from late antiquity to the Reformation.
• Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation. Modern English translation by L.C. Jane (1903), at the Internet Medieval Sourcebook.
• The Medieval Lectionary. A brief history of the medieval lectionary, a complete list of its readings, and a Scripture index.

Reformation

• History of Protestantism. By James A. Wylie (1878). A massive work that covers the beginnings of Christianity to the Glorious Revolution in Great Britain in 1688.
• English Dissenters. Articles on many different groups of English dissenters (such as the Lollards and Puritans), with helpful bibliographies.
• Reformers of the 16th Century : An Online Study. By Elder Barry McWilliams.
• The Printing Press and a Changing World. By Bruce Jones, at the University of California, San Diego.
• Printing: Renaissance & Reformation. By Patrick Scott and Roger Mortimer, at the University of South Carolina.
• The Protestant Reformation: Internet texts. A page of links compiled by the Hanover College History Department.
• Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent. Translated into English and edited By J. Waterworth (Chicago, 1848). From the website of Hanover College.
• The Book of Common Prayer. Several historic editions and related resources, compiled and edited by Charles Wohlers.
• History of the Catholic Church from the Renaissance to the French Revolution. By Rev. James MacCaffrey.
• Documents Illustrative of English Church History. 20 documents from 1558-1640, from the edition of Gee and Hardy (London: Macmillan, 1914), provided online by the Hanover Historical Texts Project.

British

• Fuller's Church History — The Church History of Britain, from the Birth of Jesus Christ until the Year MDCXLVIII [1648], by Thomas Fuller. (Third edition, reprinted 1842): vol. 1, vol. 2, vol. 3.
• Religion in Victorian Britain. An good collection of scholarly articles on the subject from the Victorian Web project supported by the University Scholars Programme, National University of Singapore.

American

• Religion and the Founding of the American Republic. From the Library of Congress.
• Restoration Movement Pages. Books and articles on the nineteenth-century "restoration" movement led by Barton W. Stone and Thomas and Alexander Campbell. Includes the full text of Campbell's verion of the New Testament, called Living Oracles. Provided by Dr. Hans Rollmann, Dept. of Religious Studies at Memorial University of Newfoundland.
• Neo-Evangelicalism: Characteristics and Positions. By Rick Miesel, at Biblical Discernment Ministries.
• Revivalism and the Decline of American Christendom. By Rick Capezza, in the New Christendom Journal.
• Errors of the Invitation System. By Darryl M. Erkel. Briefly examines the origin and history of the invitation system, the key passages used to support it, and the practical and theological problems inherent in the method.
• Revival and Revivalism: A Historical and Doctrinal Evaluation. By Gerald L. Priest, in the Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal 1 (Fall 1996). Priest compares and contrasts two models of revival exemplified by Jonathan Edwards and Charles Finney. The latter is criticized for his doctrinal aberrations.
• The Formation of New Evangelicalism (Part One): Historical and Theological Antecedents. By Rolland D. McCune, in the Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal 3 (Fall, 1998).
• A Call to Separation and Unity: D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones and "Evangelical Unity". By Mark Sidwell, in the Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal 3 (Fall, 1998).
• The Rise and Fall of Harvard. By David Beale, in the Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal 3 (Fall, 1998).
• No Place for Truth: A Review Article. By Michael Harding, in the Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal 1/2 (Fall, 1996).
• A. C. Dixon, Chicago Liberals, and The Fundamentals. By Gerald L. Priest, in the Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal 1/1 (Spring, 1996).
• Religious Conservatives in American Politics, 1980-2000: An Assessment. By Michael L. Cromartie. From a lecture delivered in March 2001. Also here.
• The Battle for the Bible. By Herman C. Hanko, professor at the Protestant Reformed Seminary. Describes the recent slippage of "evangelical" seminaries into liberal ideas about the inspiration and authority of the Bible.
• Female Ministry; or, Woman's Right to Preach the Gospel, by Catherine Mumford Booth (London: Morgan & Chase, 1859). Interesting as an early example of American feminism in religion.
• Surprising Accounts of the Revival of Religion in the United States of America, in Different Parts of the World, and Among Different Denominations of Christians, With a Number of Interesting Occurrences of Divine Providence, by William W. Woodward (1802).
• The Bible in America Museum at Houston Baptist University has online some material related to the history and influence of the Bible in America. See especially the material under "Reprints from the Collection."