Sexual Astrology - Books : The Early Church (The Penguin History of the Church)

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Rating: - The Early Church
This is a very good introductory book on the early Christian church. It covers the development of church doctrine and shows how Orthodoxy emerged as Christianity established itself as a legitimate religion. Chadwick's knowledge of his subject is vast yet he did not get into long diatribes on any one subject. The pace of the book is steady yet the reader feels well informed upon finishing it.

Chadwick shows how the church responded to gnostic writings and how the more conservative elements came to give validation to those scriptures they believed canonical. Gnosticism was perhaps the greatest threat ever to face the early church and once it was subdued it became easier for the church to deal with future heretical teachings. Two other dogmas receive ample coverage in Chadwick's book, Arianism, and the Catholic/Donatist debates.

Chadwick also gives mini biographies of several key players fromboth the orthodox school as well as those deemed heretics. Tertullian, Marcion, Augustine, Origen, the early Popes, and even certain emperors are given enough coverage to show how their lives impacted the early church.

While Chadwick covers the church well, at times his book suffers a bit from political insufficiencies. The split of the Roman Empire into east and west is not fully explained, even from how it impacted the church's history. He only gives a few sentences on the barbarian sack of Rome in 410 and the removal of the political seat of government to Ravenna. Also there was a mutual distrust between the Roman church and its counterpart in Constantinople, but these issues are not elaborately explained. Persecutions are not detailed to a great extent.

But perhaps the intent of Chadwick was to provide enough background information to pique the reader to seek further knowledge. If that was the case then this book is remarkably successful.

It may not be the book of choice for college level survey courses, but this book works well in its specific niche and should remain popular for years to come.

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Rating: - A Good Read
This book is simple and straightforward, yet full of information that would otherwise be very difficult to track down.

Rather than picking one or two topics and arguing, the author gives the reader a survey of Christian history from Christ's time until the Council of Chalcedon. Chadwick interprets the sources and gives a great description of early Christian practices, beliefs, and expansion.

The best part about this book: it is both unbiased and based on historical fact. Chadwick explains the gnostic sects for what they were, and does not get lost while doing so. He never loses sight of the mainstream Christian movement.

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Rating: - Material for teaching
The Early Church History gives good information for teaching in a Bible study class. It clears up many mysteries and spectulations about other characters involved in the early christian church that is not found in The King James versions used by many Bible Study Classes.

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Rating: - A good primer on early church history.
The Early Church, by Henry Chadwick is a good place to start if you are interested in early church history. He does an excellant job describing the issues that were affecting the development of the church from the apostolic age to around 500 a.d.

I do have mixed feelings about this book. You will find information that you probably have not seen elsewhere if you haven't read a book about church history. You will be introduced to Augustine, Cyril of Jerusalem, Hippolytus, and others that you may not even have heard about. The issues concerning the Council of Nicaea are discussed at length. You will see that the acceptance of the four gospels as canonical, no more, no less, was made very early in the history of the church.

On the other hand, I did find myself really wanting a glossary or something similar many times when I was reading the book. I'm still not sure, for example, exactly what a Monophysite is. I also have to admit that there were a few stretches in the book where I was just finishing a section just to finish it. Maybe it's the fault of the author, maybe church history is by nature not that interesting. Another way to say it is that some of the issues that arose in the church were detailed and legalistic, which is probably hard to write about in an engaging way.

All in all, this is a solid book. As a source of information, it is 4 star book. Based on style and readability, it's more of a 3 star book. Once you've read it, you will at least know what areas of church history you want to know more about, and you can read further on those subjects. Though I doubt this will ever be a best seller, it is a good place to start your study of church history.

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Rating: - A Superb General History from a Judicious Historian
Here is a general church history that covers everything vital to the Church's growth during the first six centuries. In this volume, Henry Chadwick manages to define the Church's uniform identity within the context of the cosmopolitan Greco-Roman world. This work is a finely-crafted and well-researched summation of Christianity's early legacy, and it is written for all Christians and all students of the era. Chadwick is a very judicious historian, and he is one of the foremost authorities on Early Christianity. To say the least, this work is the fruitful product of many years of Chadwickian scholarship. Every university bookstore, church library, secular bookstore, and personal library should have this book on hand.