BRUCE L. SHELLEY

Revised by R. L. Hatchett

CHURCH HISTORY

IN PLAIN LANGUAGE

UPDATED 4th EDITION

NASHVILLE DALLAS MEXICO CITY RIO DE JANEIRO

© 2008, 2013 by Bruce L. Shelley

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, scanning, or other—except for brief quotations in critical reviews or articles, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

Published in Nashville, Tennessee, by Thomas Nelson. Thomas Nelson is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc.

Thomas Nelson titles may be purchased in bulk for educational, business, fund-raising, or sales promotional use. For information, please e-mail SpecialMarkets@ThomasNelson.com.

Unless otherwise specified, all Scripture quotations are from the REVISED STANDARD VERSION of the Bible. © 1946, 1952, 1971, 1973 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked nrsv are from the NEW REVISED STANDARD VERSION of the Bible. © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com. The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

ISBN: 978-1-4016-7631-5

The Library of Congress has catalogued the earlier edition of this book as follows:

Library of Congress cataloging-in-publication-data

Shelley, Bruce L. (Bruce Leon), 1927–

Church history in plain language, 3rd edition

Includes bibliographies and index.

ISBN 978-0-7180-2553-3

1. Church history—Popular works. I. Title.

To my students in Church History classes who

pressed the question of significance.

CONTENTS

Foreword

Prologue

The Age of Jesus and the Apostles 6 BC–AD 70

Chapter 1 Away with the King!

The Jesus Movement

Chapter 2 Wineskins: Old and New

The Gospel to the Gentiles

The Age of Catholic Christianity 70–312

Chapter 3 Only Worthless People

Catholic Christianity

Chapter 4 If the Tiber Floods

The Persecution of Christians

Chapter 5 Arguing About the Event

The Rise of Orthodoxy

Chapter 6 The Rule of Books

The Formation of the Bible

Chapter 7 The School for Sinners

The Power of Bishops

Chapter 8 Apostles to Intellectuals

The Alexandrians

The Age of the Christian Roman Empire 312–590

Chapter 9 Laying Her Sceptre Down

The Conversion of the Empire

Chapter 10 Splitting Important Hairs

The Doctrine of the Trinity

Chapter 11 Emmanuel!

Christ in the Creeds

Chapter 12 Exiles from Life

The Beginnings of Monasticism

Chapter 13 The Sage of the Ages

Augustine

Chapter 14 Peter as “Pontifex Maximus”

The Beginnings of the Papacy...

Content not shown in limited preview…
CHPLU4E

About Church History in Plain Language (Updated 4th Edition)

With more than 315,000 copies sold, this is the story of the church for today’s readers. The fourth edition of Shelley’s classic one-volume history of the church brings the story of Christianity into the twenty-first century. This latest edition of the book takes a close look at the rapid growth of evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity in the southern hemisphere, addresses the decline in traditional mainline denominations, examines the influence of technology on the spread of the gospel, and discusses how Christianity intersects with other religions in countries all over the world.

This concise book provides an easy-to-read guide to church history with intellectual substance. The new edition of Church History in Plain Language promises to be the new standard for readable church history.

Support Info

chpllang4ed

Table of Contents