Church history

This article is about the academic discipline. For an overview of the history of the Christian religion, see History of Christianity. For other uses, see Church History (disambiguation) and Ecclesiastical History (disambiguation).

"Church historian" redirects here. For the official of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, see Church Historian and Recorder.

Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception.

Henry Melvill Gwatkin defined church history as "the spiritual side of the history of civilized people ever since our Master's coming". A. M. Renwick, however, defines it as an account of the Church's success and failure in carrying out Christ's Great Commission. Renwick suggests a fourfold division of church history into missionary activity, church organization, doctrine and "the effect on human life".

Church history is often, but not always, studied from a Christian perspective. Writers from different Christian traditions will often highlight people and events particularly relevant to their own denominational history. Catholic and Orthodox writers often highlight the achievements of the ecumenical councils, while evangelical historians may focus on the Protestant Reformation and the Great Awakenings.

Notable church historians

• Hegesippus
• Eusebius
• Macarius Bulgakov
• Daniela Müller
• Leonard J. Arrington
• Hans Werner Debrunner
• Henry Melvill Gwatkin
• Owen Chadwick
• Henry Chadwick
• Diarmaid MacCulloch
• George Marsden
• Martin E. Marty
• Mark Noll
• Jaroslav Pelikan
• Catherine Pepinster
• Philip Schaff
• Carl Trueman
• Paul Woolley
• David Brading

See also

• Ecclesiastical history of the Catholic Church
• Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People
• Historical theology

Further reading

Books

• Bowden, Henry W. (1971). Church History in the Age of Science: Historiographical Patterns in the United States, 1876–1918. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0807811769.
• Bowden, Henry W. (1991). Church History in an Age of Uncertainty: Historiographical Patterns in the United States, 1906–1990. Southern Illinois University Press. ISBN 978-0809316212.
• Bradley, James E.; Muller, Richard A. (2016). Church History: An Introduction to Research Methods and Resources (2nd ed.). William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. ISBN 9780802874054.
• Clark, Elizabeth A. (2011). Founding the Fathers: Early Church History and Protestant Professors in Nineteenth-century America. Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-4319-2. JSTOR j.ctt3fhpx3.
• Daughrity, Dyron B. (2012). Church History: Five Approaches to a Global Discipline. Peter Lang. ISBN 9781433116957.

Anthologies

• Empey, Mark; Ford, Alan; Moffitt, Miriam, eds. (2017). The Church of Ireland and Its Past: History, Interpretation and Identity. Four Courts Press. ISBN 978-1-84682-637-5.
• Gleixner, Ulrike (2009). "Gendering Tradition and Rewriting Church History". In Epple, Angelika; Schaser, Angelika (eds.). Gendering Historiography: Beyond National Canons. Campus Verlag. pp. 105–116. doi:10.25595/775. ISBN 978-3-593-38960-8.
• van Roaden, Peter (2004). "Power and Piety in Contemporary Church History and Social Science". In Frishman, Judith; Otten, Willemien; Rouwhorst, Gerard (eds.). Religious Identity and the Problem of Historical Foundation: The Foundational Character of Authoritative Sources in the History of Christianity and Judaism. Jewish and Christian Perspectives Series. Brill Publishers. pp. 513–532. doi:10.1163/9789047412830_027. ISBN 978-90-04-13021-0.

Journal articles

• Anderson, Josh J. (December 2006). "A Profile of the Membership of the American Society of Church History". Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture. 75 (4): 963–972. doi:10.1017/S0009640700112302.
• Aubert, Annette G. (June 2016). "Henry Boynton Smith and Church History in Nineteenth-century America". Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture. 85 (2): 302–327. doi:10.1017/S0009640716000019.
• Bebbington, David W. (2013). "The Evangelical Discovery of History". Studies in Church History. 49: 330–364. doi:10.1017/S0424208400002229.
• Berezhnaya, Liliya (Fall 2009). "Does Ukraine Have a Church History?". Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. New Series. 10 (4): 897–916. doi:10.1353/kri.0.0123.
• Brakke, David (September 2002). "The Early Church in North America: Late Antiquity, Theory, and the History of Christianity". Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture. 71 (3): 473–491. doi:10.1017/S0009640700130239. JSTOR 4146416.
• Cook, C. W. (1970). "The Writing of South African Church History: Our Appraisal of the English-speaking Traditions". South African Historical Journal . 2: 107–116. doi:10.1080/02582477008671477.
• Costelloe, M. Joseph (1961). "Church History in American Colleges and Universities". The Journal of Higher Education. 32 (2): 70–76. doi:10.1080/00221546.1961.11777654.
• Denis, Philippe (November 1997). "From Church History To Religious History: Strengths and Weaknesses of South African Religious Historiography". Journal of Theology for Southern Africa. 99: 84–93.
• Foot, Sarah (2013). "Has Ecclesiastical History Lost the Plot?". Studies in Church History. 49: 1–25. doi:10.1017/S0424208400001984.
• Heitzenrater, Richard P. (December 2011). "Inventing Church History". Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture. 80 (4): 737–748. doi:10.1017/S0009640711001193.
• Hillerbrand, Hans J. (March 2001). "Church History as Vocation and Moral Discipline". Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture. 70 (1): 1–18. doi:10.2307/3654408. JSTOR 3654408.
• Hudson, Winthrop S. (April 1960). "Shifting Trends in Church History". Journal of Bible and Religion. 28 (2): 235–238. JSTOR 1460071.
• Kollman, Paul V. (Fall 2004). "After Church History? Writing the History of Christianity from a Global Perspective". Horizons. 31 (2): 322–342. doi:10.1017/S0360966900001572.
• Liptak, Dolores (Spring–Winter 1993). "Women Church Historians: First and Second Generation". Records of the American Catholic Historical Society of Philadelphia. 104 (1–4): 19–30. JSTOR 44211200.
• Mallard, William (December 1968). "Method and Perspective in Church History: A Reconsideration". Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 36 (4): 345–365. doi:10.1093/jaarel/XXXVI.4.345.
• Molendjik, Arie L. (2004). "'That Most Important Science': The Study of Church History in the Netherlands in the Nineteenth Century" (PDF). Dutch Review of Church History. 84: 358–387. doi:10.1163/9789047406242_017. ISBN 978-90-474-0624-2.
• Printy, Michael (March 2021). "History and Church History in the Catholic Enlightenment". Modern Intellectual History. 18 (1): 248–260. doi:10.1017/S1479244319000118.
• Ramirez, Daniel (December 2022). "Puritans, Padres, and Pentecostals: Perspectival and Pedagogical Shifts in Americana Church History". Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture. 91 (4): 864–884. doi:10.1017/S0009640722002815.
• Wiesner-Hanks, Merry E. (September 2002). "Women, Gender, and Church History". Church History: Studies in Christianity and Culture. 71 (3): 600–620. doi:10.1017/S000964070013029X.