"Church History" offers a unique contextual view of how the Christian church spread and developed. It did so not in a vacuum, but in a setting of times, cultures, and events that both influenced and were influenced by the church. "Church History" looks closely at the integral link between the history of the world and that of the church. Volume one explores the development of the church from the days of Jesus to the years prior to the Reformation. Filled with maps, charts, and illustrations, it offers overviews of the Roman, Greek, and Jewish worlds; insights into the church's relationship to the Roman empire, with glimpses into pagan attitudes toward Christians; the place of art and architecture, literature and philosophy, both sacred and secular; and much more, spanning the time from the first through the thirteenth centuries. Volume One content overview is: The Setting for the Story's Beginning; Jesus and the Beginnings of the Church; .
The Subapostolic Age; The Church and the Empire; Heresies and Schisms of the Second Century; The Defense Against Rival Interpretations; The Fathers of the Old Catholic Church and Their Problems; Church Life in the Second and Third Centuries; Development of the Church During the Third Century; Diocletian and Constantine - On the Threshold of the Fourth Century; The Church in the Fourth Century - Doctrine, Organization, and Literature; The Church in the Fourth and Early Fifth Centuries - Monasticism, Expansion, Life, and Worship; and Christological Controversies to Chalcedon.
The contents also include: Augustine, Pelagius, and Semipelagianism; Transitions to the Middle Ages - Germanic Migrations, Doctrinal Developments, and the Papacy; Eastern and Western Churches in the Fifth and Sixth Centuries; The Eastern Church from the Seventh to Eleventh Centuries; The Western Church from the Seventh to Ninth Centuries; Decline and Renewal of Vitality in the West - The Ninth to Eleventh Centuries; The Papal Reform Movement and the First Crusade; Intellectual Revival - The Rise of Scholasticism; Monastic, Literary, Political, and Cultural Activities in the Twelfth Centuries; The Glory of the Western Medieval Church - The Thirteenth Century; and Portents of Decline.