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Our Review:

If you know almost nothing about church history and would like to have a simple overview this is the perfect resource. Written at the level of perhaps a high school textbook, it has 50 short chapters. Each chapter is divided into roughly 4 to 8 subsections, each subsection having a heading in bold type. This makes it very easy to get the main idea and follow the progression in each chapter. Kuiper takes the time to briefly explain ideas or define terms (e.g. indulgence or the nature of the Holy Roman Empire) that would perhaps be assumed in a more advanced church history book. To someone who is familiar with church history it may seem overly basic, but I think this is one of the strengths of the book. It is very readable and includes time lines, pictures, and maps throughout. Several things you should keep in mind while reading the book: (1) Kuiper is very definitely writing from a Reformed perspective; (2) he seems to gloss over much of the deep corruption of the Roman Catholic church; (3) he almost completely ignores the rise of Dispensationalism without even a mention of the Bible conference movement, Lewis Sperry Chafer, C.I. Scofield or Dallas Theological Seminary; and (4) important recent events from the 2nd half of the 20th century, like Vatican II and the Charismatic Movement, are not covered in any detail because of when the book was written.

Reviewer: Dean Good