A Summary of Christian History, a Review

by T. C. Pinckney                                                                                      Vol. XVI, No. 8, Sep/Oct 2003

A Summary of Christian History was written by Dr. Robert A. Baker and first published in 1959. It has been revised by John M. Landers and republished by Broadman & Holman, our Southern Baptist book publisher.

The preface notes that, “This text began as an attempt to present an overview of Christian history for beginning students.” As such it is clear, straightforward, and well-organized ... an “easy read” for layman or clergy.

The book addresses Christian history in six periods:

– Beginnings, 4 B.C. to 100 A.D.

– Pagan Domination, 100 - 325 A.D.

– Papal Development, 325 - 1215 A.D.

– Western Reform, 1215 - 1648 A.D.

– Encroaching Rationalism, 1648 - 1789 A.D.

– General Secularization, 1789 to the present.

Interspersed throughout are 49 translations from original documents of the respective periods. The great majority of these are highly interesting.

Because of the nature of the book it is impossible to convey briefly a feel for its thrust, but it is filled with interesting tidbits. For example, while no one proceeds from a tabula rasa, it apparently was Bishop Cyprian (195-258) of Carthage who in addressing the pragmatic issues of his day (such as what to do with those who had denied Christ or surrendered Bibles under persecution) corrupted the New Testament pattern of authority. “Instead of the local church, the territorial bishop became the final word of authority. The universal (catholic) church rested upon the sole sovereignty of the bishops as successors of the apostles. Local churches lost every vestige of authority.” p. 50

There is only one negative to the book: It contains numerous editorial errors such as misspellings, using an incorrect word for one which sounds similar (e.g., “than” in place of “then”), omissions of key words. One striking example is in an interesting table on p. 406, almost at the end of the book. The table cites five regions of the world, gives their population, and shows the number of Christians in each region. Unfortunately, the last region shown is Australia which is recorded as having a population of 270 million with 20 million Christians. I called the Australian embassy and was told the country has a total population of about 19 million!

In spite of these annoying errors, A Summary of Christian History is a very informative and interesting book. You can find it at your LifeWay Christian Bookstore or order it online at www.lifewaystores.com.