Section 1: Week 1: Series Overview

A 60-week Series on Christian Church History From Pentecost to the Present

“I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not prevail against it.”

(Matthew 16:18)

Series Overview

If excitement and exhilaration are what you are after in your reading, look no further than Christian church history; it has it all! Power and politics, betrayal and conspiracy, murder and assassination, war and crusades, romance and scandal, crime and corruption, heresy and rebellion, exploration and empire — and if mystery is your taste, church history has that too.

Like church history, our personal history is inescapable. Periods of joy and happiness, and periods of failure and regret. History is life's most instructive teacher. What we learn from church history, we must pass faithfully to the next generation.

In this sixty-week series, I will present a weekly narrative offering an informative and inspirational overview of some of the major aspects and periods of church history.

There will be fourteen major sections, though the series may take some tangential journeys along the way — consider the weekly count a guide rather than a guarantee.

Week 1–5: Foundations: The Theological Framework of the Early Church

• Week 1: What is the Church? Definitions and Distinctions

• Week 2: Covenantal Theology — God's Unfolding Promise

• Week 3: Dispensational Theology — Rightly Dividing the Word

• Week 4: Replacement Theology — The Most Dangerous Inference in Church History

• Week 5: The Bible's Grand Narrative

Week 6–10: The Church is Born (30–100): The Apostolic Age

• Week 6: Pentecost — The Spirit Arrives

• Week 7: The Jerusalem Church — Community and Conflict

• Week 8: Paul and the Gentile Mission

• Week 9: The Spread of the Gospel Across the Empire

• Week 10: The Close of the Apostolic Age

Week 11–14: Faith Under Fire (64–313): The Age of Martyrs

• Week 11: Why Rome Hated the Church

• Week 12: The Theology of Martyrdom — Dying as Witness

• Week 13: Persecution and the Purification of the Church

• Week 14: The Apologists — Defending the Faith Intellectually

Week 15–18: The Canon (1st–4th Century): How We Got the Old and New Testaments

• Week 15: What is the Canon and Why Does it Matter?

• Week 16: The Formation of the Old Testament Canon

• Week 17: The Formation of the New Testament Canon

• Week 18: Disputed Books and the Closing of the Canon

Week 19–22: Constantine and a Changed Rome (312–400): The Imperial Church

• Week 19: Constantine's Conversion — Genuine or Political?

• Week 20: The Council of Nicaea — Defining the Person of Christ

• Week 21: Church and State — A Dangerous Alliance

• Week 22: The Christianisation of the Empire

Week 23–26: Augustine and the Fall of Rome (386–500): Grace, Sin and Collapse

• Week 23: Augustine — The Man and His Story

• Week 24: Grace, Free Will and Original Sin

• Week 25: The Sack of Rome and the City of God

• Week 26: The End of the Western Empire

Week 27–30: The Middle Ages Church (500–1000): Missionaries, Monks and Manuscripts

• Week 27: The Rise of the Papacy

• Week 28: Celtic and Benedictine Monasticism

• Week 29: Missionaries to the Barbarians

• Week 30: Charlemagne and the Holy Roman Empire

Week 31–34: The Great Schism and the Crusades (1000–1200): Division and Holy War

• Week 31: East Meets West — The Road to Schism

• Week 32: 1054 — The Great Divide

• Week 33: The First Crusade — Faith, Violence and Politics

• Week 34: The Crusades — Legacy and Lessons

Week 35–38: Francis of Assisi, Aquinas and the Medieval Church (1200–1350): Poverty, Philosophy, and Plague

• Week 35: Francis of Assisi — Poverty and Radical Discipleship

• Week 36: Thomas Aquinas and the Marriage of Faith and Reason

• Week 37: The Inquisition

• Week 38: The Black Death and the Crisis of Faith

Week 39–42: Cracks in the Foundation (1300–1500): Protest and Pre-Reformation

• Week 39: Wycliffe and the Priority of the Word

• Week 40: Hus and the Cost of Conscience

• Week 41: The Corruption of the Medieval Church

• Week 42: The Renaissance and a Changing World

Week 43–48: The Reformation (1517–1600): Luther, Calvin, and the Great Divide

• Week 43: Luther and the Ninety-Five Theses

• Week 44: Justification by Faith Alone

• Week 45: Calvin and Reformed Theology

• Week 46: The English Reformation — Henry to Elizabeth

• Week 47: The Anabaptists — The Radical Reformation

• Week 48: The Reformation's Legacy

Week 49–52: Catholic Reform and Global Mission (1540–1700): Counter-Reformation and New Worlds

• Week 49: The Council of Trent

• Week 50: The Jesuits and the Counter-Reformation

• Week 51: Mission to the New World

• Week 52: Faith and Empire — Collision and Consequence

Week 53–57: Revival and Enlightenment (1700–1900): Awakening and Challenge

• Week 53: The Enlightenment Challenge to Faith

• Week 54: Wesley, Whitefield and the Great Awakening

• Week 55: The Missionary Movement

• Week 56: Slavery, Abolition and the Church

• Week 57: Darwin, Doubt and the Modern Challenge

Week 58–61: The Church in the Modern World (1900–Present): Global Christianity and New Challenges

• Week 58: Pentecostalism and the Global South

• Week 59: The Church Under Totalitarianism — Bonhoeffer and Barth

• Week 60: Vatican II and Ecumenism

• Week 61: The Church Today — Challenges and Hope

I hope you will not only enjoy this historic excursion but that you will also gain knowledge that you did not have before. May God bless you; Kent Warner B.Th.

About This Series

The Story of the Church is an approximately sixty-week teaching series developed for Oasis Christian Church, Hampton. All written content is the original work of Kent Warner B.Th. and is protected by copyright. No part of this series may be reproduced, reprinted, or distributed in any form without the written permission of the author. Exception is made for academic and educational use, provided that all material is correctly cited in accordance with an accepted citation style such as Turabian or Chicago. For permissions or enquiries, please contact the author directly.

© Kent Warner B.Th. All rights reserved. kent.warner@bigpond.com