2000 Years of Christ’s Power, Vol. 1: The Age of the Early Church (Nick Needham)

2000 Years of Christ’s Power

Volume 1: The Age of the Early Church

Every generation has an uncanny tendency to view themselves as more enlightened than those that have gone before. The Church certainly has made mistakes all through history – and yet, no insights which we possess would be possible without the efforts, and even some of the mistakes, of our ancestors.

The first volume of 2,000 Years of Christ’s Power covers the period from the 1st Century AD to the start of the Middle Ages. From the works of Saint Augustine of Hippo to the first apologetic ever penned, this time in history established the foundations of what we take for granted today.

Nick Needham is the Church History lecturer at Highland Theological College in Dingwall and the minister at Inverness Reformed Baptist Church. Previous to this, he taught Systematic Theology at Scottish Baptist College in Glasgow.

Table of Contents

Introduction: A Chapter on Time

1. Historical Background: Rome and Israel
2. The Jesus Movement
3. The Apostolic Fathers, persecution and apologetics
4. Gnostics, Catholics, and Montanists
5. African Christianity: Alexandria and Carthage
6. From Persecution to Toleration
7. Christianity, Paganism, and Society in the 4th century
8. The Arian Controversy
9. John Chrysostom, Jerome, and Augustine of Hippo
10. Christological Controversies: From Apollinarius to the Council of Chalcedon
11. The Fall of Rome and the New Germanic Kingdoms in the West
12. The East Divided: From the Monophysites to Maximus the Confessor

Endorsements

“It is a brave historian who tackles the extremely challenging task of writing the 2,000-year history of the Church. Well, Nick Needham has more than risen to the challenge. This eagerly-awaited fourth volume has been well worth the wait and, not to pressure our brother scholar, we now look forward to the concluding volume!”  — Michael A. G. Haykin, Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky

“For many years now I have said: if you want a thorough, learned but accessible and well-written history of the church, read Nick Needham’s 2,000 Years of Christ’s Power. Now, with the fourth volume finally available, Christians have an excellent resource for improving their knowledge of the history of their faith. Highly recommended.”

— Carl Trueman, Paul Woolley Professor of Historical Theology and Church History, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

More Endorsements

“Nick Needham’s volumes on church history explain everything that someone new to the subject might not understand. At the same time, they achieve a depth of detail to interest those who already know something of the subject. We use them as standard texts at LTS and look forward eagerly to forthcoming volumes.”

— Robert Strivens, Principal, London Seminary, London

“What makes the books so useful is that in a non-technical (but not simplistic) way, they bring out the main story line of the history of the church through the centuries. But in addition, and most helpfully, each chapter concludes with a selection of writings (translated of course!) from people discussed in the chapter. This means that we are not only told what certain people believed, but we are able to read some of their actual writings — and this is often extremely illuminating.”

— Martin K. Bussey, Lecturer in theology, Africa International University, Kenya