A History of the Christian Church

by Williston Walker

Publisher:

Charles Scribner’s Sons

, 1919

Overview

The vast history of the church is expounded in this textbook volume, with a special focus on the development of Christian doctrine and philosophical thought through the ages. Williston Walker tells the story of the church, including the circumstances of its birth and early years, the changes which led to the Reformation, and the developments in doctrine once the church spread across the Atlantic. He provides a wide bibliography of historical, theological, and encyclopaedic texts that have gone into the making of A History of the Christian Church, giving readers access to a bigger view of research on Christian history.

In Logos, A History of the Christian Church connects to the datasets and other resources in your library, growing your capacity for research and learning. Look up theological or philosophical terms with a right-click or double-click to bring up your preferred dictionary, and see history in context with Logos Bible Software's Timeline of church and world history.

Key Features

• Extensive study on historical events and Christian thought
• References to the early church fathers, medieval writers, and other history books
• Multiple full-color maps and charts

Contents

• Period I: From the Beginnings to the Gnostic Crisis
• Period II: From the Gnostic Crisis to Constantine
• Period III: The Imperial State Church
• Period IV: The Middle Ages to the Close of the Investiture Controversy
• Period V: The Later Middle Ages
• Period VI: The Reformation
• Period VII: The Transition to the Modern Religious Situation

Top Highlights

“In Socrates’s disciple, Plato (B. C. 427–347), the early Greek mind reached its highest spiritual attainment. He is properly describable as a man of mystical piety, as well as of the profoundest spiritual insight. To Plato the passing forms of this visible world give no real knowledge. That knowledge of the truly permanent and real comes from our acquaintance with the ‘ideas,’ those changeless archetypal, universal patterns which exist in the invisible spiritual world—the ‘intelligible’ world, since known by reason rather than by the senses—and give whatever of reality is shared by the passing phenomena present to our senses.” (Pages 3–4)

“This conception of immortality as an attribute of the soul, not shared by the body, was always influential in Greek thought and stood in sharp contrast to the Hebrew doctrine of resurrection.” (Page 4)

“When their doctrines are examined, however, they appear to belong rather to the Middle Ages. Their conception of the Gospel was that of a ‘law.” (Page 306)

“Constantius Chlorus and Galerius now became ‘Augusti” (Page 109)

“Paul looks upon the whole earthly life of Jesus as one of humiliation. It was indeed significant. ‘God was in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself.’⁵ Yet it was only ‘by the resurrection’ that He was ‘declared to be the Son of God with power.’⁶ Paul’s Christology combines, therefore, in a remarkable manner, Hebrew and Gentile conceptions. In it appear the suffering and exalted servant, the pre-existent divine wisdom, the divine agent in creation, and the redeemer power who for man’s sake came down from heaven, died, and rose again.” (Page 37)

Product Details

• Title: A History of the Christian Church
• Author: Williston Walker
• Edition: 1^st
• Publisher: Charles Scribner’s Sons
• Publication Date: 1919
• Pages: 625

About Williston Walker

Williston Walker (1860–1922) was the Titus Street Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Yale University. Born in Portland, Maine, he graduated from Amherst in 1883 and studied further at Hartford Theological Seminary and then Leipzig, where he received his PhD. His other publications include The Reformation, Great Men of the Christian Church, and The Creeds and Platforms of Congregationalism.