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    Church History in Plain Language: Fourth Edition
    Unavailable
    Church History in Plain Language: Fourth Edition
    Unavailable
    Church History in Plain Language: Fourth Edition
    Ebook556 pages37 hours

    Church History in Plain Language: Fourth Edition

    By Bruce Shelley

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    With more than 315,000 copies sold, this is the story of the church for today’s readers. The fourth edition of Shelley’s classic one-volume history of the church brings the story of Christianity into the twenty-first century. This latest edition of the book takes a close look at the rapid growth of evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity in the southern hemisphere, addresses the decline in traditional mainline denominations, examines the influence of technology on the spread of the gospel, and discusses how Christianity intersects with other religions in countries all over the world.

    This concise book provides an easy-to-read guide to church history with intellectual substance. The new edition of Church History in Plain Language promises to be the new standard for readable church history.

    Features include:

    • Includes contemporary developments related to the spread of the gospel
    • Discusses how technology has an impact on how the church worships and grows
    • Covers the explosion of Christianity in the southern hemisphere
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherThomas Nelson
    Release dateDec 10, 2013
    ISBN9781401676858
    Unavailable
    Church History in Plain Language: Fourth Edition

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    Reviews for Church History in Plain Language

    4/5

    188 ratings8 reviews

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    • 1/5
      I'm not against apologetics books.I'm not against Church history books written unashamedly from the Christian POV.I'm not even against shameless mixing of the two.I like books written in plain language.I like good books.This one is not. Neither is in in plain language. This is a bad book, the language is above all boring to death. What the book lacks in style, it has in abundance in bad history and pitiful apologetics. I can't understand how anyone could have read it, even on assignment.
    • 5/5
      This book is part of my collection that really focuses in on Biblical Commentary more than anything else (including some well known authors in the theological world). All of these books haven't been read cover to cover, but I've spent a lot of time with them and they've been helpful in guiding me through difficult passages (or if I desire to dig deeper).
    • 1/5
      I thought this was going to be a fact based history of the Church,while it did contain some facts it quickly turns into a sermon to try and justify why the Christian faith is so intolerant of other views and facts. I would stop trying to pass this off as history and call it fictional.
    • 4/5
      Worthy reading. Only the end was too fast, too much information too condensed.
    • 4/5
      I bought my first copy of this book several years ago. I ended up giving it to a friend who was interested in learning about the history of Christianity. I picked up another copy not long after that. This is not an exhaustive history of Christianity. However, it is an exceptionally good starting point for figuring out which aspects of Christian history you want more detail on. He provides just enough info to cover the major points. I would consider this the highly abridged version of church history. The one thing I do wish he would have spent more time on is the modern day church as we know it in the west. Other than that, I recommend this for anyone who wants to know more about the history of Christianity but doesn't know where to start.
    • 5/5
      I've got to buy this book. Gee, imagine that church hasn't always been done how we do it. Interesting read alongside Barna's Revolution.
    • 4/5
      Good reading making a very complicated subject digestable
    • 5/5
      If you're looking for an overview of Christian history, this is great. He has quite a bit of detail (it's 500 pages), but it doesn't go into excessive detail, and it reads more like a novel than a textbook. Anybody could read this book and understand the basics of church history without prior background. One main complaint: he provides chapter notes & references at the end of the book, but they are not numbered; it's things like "the quote from Polycarp came from...." So if you are wondering where he came up with something, you have to look in the back and see if he gave any reference or not. More often than not, he didn't. I know this book is designed to be in an easy reading style rather than "textbook-ish," but he has some very interesting stories from church history that I wish he provided sources for somehow. This book was great for giving me a framework that will be useful when I delve into something a little more detailed (probably Pelikan and/or Latourette).