Church History

The historical unfolding of the Christian Church from its origin in the first century to the present, covering doctrinal developments, institutional shifts, schisms, councils, revivals, colonial encounters, and global growth.

• Acts of the Apostles as History

• Founding of the Church at Pentecost

• Missionary Journeys of Paul

• Early Persecutions of Christians

• Formation of the New Testament Canon

• Didache and Early Church Orders

• Role of Women in the Early Church

• Church in Jerusalem, Antioch, Rome, and Alexandria

• Apostolic Fathers

  • Clement of Rome

  • Ignatius of Antioch

  • Polycarp of Smyrna

• Christianity under Roman Rule

• Apologists and Heresiologists

  • Justin Martyr

  • Irenaeus of Lyons

  • Tertullian

  • Origen of Alexandria

• Martyrdom and Early Saints

• Gnosticism and Other Heresies

• Montanism

• Canon Formation Process

• Emergence of the Episcopacy

• Development of Baptism and Eucharist

• Rise of Christian Monasticism (proto-forms)

• Constantine’s Rise to Power

• Constantine and the Edict of Milan

• First Council of Nicaea (325)

  • Arian Controversy

  • Homoousios

• Council of Constantinople (381)

• Council of Ephesus (431)

• Council of Chalcedon (451)

• Augustine of Hippo

  • City of God

  • Confessions

  • Pelagian Controversy

• Development of Creeds

• State Church of the Roman Empire

• Fall of the Western Roman Empire (476)

• Pietism and Spiritual Renewal Movements

• The Great Awakenings (I, II)

• Methodism and John Wesley

• Rise of Evangelicalism

• Deism and Rational Religion

• Enlightenment Critiques of Religion

• 19th-Century Catholic Revival

• Oxford Movement in Anglicanism

• Modern Biblical Criticism Emerges

• Christianity and Colonialism

• Global Missionary Movements

• Modernist vs. Fundamentalist Controversies

• Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements

• Neo-Orthodoxy and Karl Barth

• Vatican II and Catholic Renewal

• Liberation Theology

• Feminist Theology

• Ecumenical Movement

  • World Council of Churches

• Rise of Non-Western Churches

• Global Pentecostalism

• Christianity and Postmodernism

• Digital Church and Online Worship

• Christianity and Social Media

• Persecution and Martyrdom in the Modern World

• Ecumenical Councils

  • Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, Chalcedon, etc.

• Lateran Councils

• Council of Trent

• Vatican I and II

• Creeds

  • Apostles’ Creed

  • Nicene Creed

  • Athanasian Creed

• Protestant Confessions

  • Augsburg Confession

  • Westminster Standards

  • Thirty-Nine Articles

• Christianity in the Roman Empire

• Byzantine Christianity

• Celtic Christianity

• Christianity in the Islamic World

• Eastern Christianity in Asia

• African Christian History

• Latin American Christianity

• North American Church History

• Asian Christianity

• Oceania and Missionary Expansion