Church History in Plain Language Audio Lectures

Written by Bruce Shelley

Narrated by Marshall Shelley, Stacey Lingle and Ryan Tafilowski

The Zondervan Biblical and Theological Lectures series provides a unique audio learning experience. Unlike a traditional audiobook's direct narration of a book's text, Church History in Plain Language Audio Lectures include high quality live-recordings of college-level lectures that cover the important points from each subject as well as relevant material from other sources.

This is the story of the church for today.

This series, based on Bruce Shelley's classic history of the church, brings the story of global Christianity into the twenty-first century. Taught by experts in the field of Christian history, each lesson tells a story of actual people, in a particular situation, taking action or being acted upon, and provides a window into the circumstances and historical context of a major period or theme of Christian history. Church History in Plain Language Audio Lectures takes a closer 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. Lessons add important stories of the development of Christianity in Asia, India, and Africa, both in the early church as well as in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. It also highlights the stories of women and non-Europeans who significantly influenced the development of Christianity but whose contributions are often overlooked in previous overviews of church history.

This series provides an introductory guide to church history with intellectual substance.

Session Titles and Runtimes:

0 - Introduction (5 min)

1 - Away with the King! The Jesus Movement (14 min)

2 - Wineskins Old and New: The Gospel to the Gentiles (12 min)

3 - Only "Worthless" People: Catholic Christianity (10 min)

4 - If the Tiber Floods: The Persecution of Christians (12 min)

5 - Arguing about the Event: The Rise of Orthodoxy (9 min)

6 - The Rule of Books: Formation of the Bible (12 min)

7 - School for Sinners: A Structure That Fits (12 min)

8 - Apostles to the Intellectuals: Interacting with Other Worldviews (10 min)

9 - Countries of the Sunrise: Early Christianity in Asia and Africa (11 min)

10 - Laying Her Sceptre Down: Conversion of the Empire (8 min)

11 - Splitting Important Hairs: The Doctrine of the Trinity (11 min)

12 - Emmanuel! Christ in the Creeds (12 min)

13 - Exiles from Life: Beginnings of Monasticism (11 min)

14 - The Sage of the Ages: Augustine of Hippo (13 min)

15 - Peter as "Pontifex Maximus": Beginnings of the Papacy (12 min)

16 - Somewhere between Heaven and Earth: Eastern Orthodoxy (13 min)

17 - Bending the Necks of the Victors: Mission to the Barbarians (12 min)

18 - God's Consul: Gregory the Great (12 min)

19 - The Search for Unity: Charlemagne and Christendom (13 min)

20 - Lifted in a Mystic Manner: The Papacy and the Crusader (12 min)

21 - The Nectar of Learning: Scholasticism (12 min)

22 - A Song to Lady Poverty: Francis and the Apostolic Lifestyle (12 min)

23 - Chaos and the Law of Necessity: Decline of the Papacy (13 min)

24 - Judgment in the Process of Time: Wyclif and Hus (10 min)

25 - A Wild Boar in the Vineyard: Martin Luther and Protestantism (13 min)

26 - Radical Discipleship: The Anabaptists (12 min)

27 - Thrust into the Game: John Calvin and the Reformed Rule (12 min)

28 - The Curse upon the Crown: The Church of England (10 min)

29 - "Another Man" at Manresa: The Catholic Reformation (13 min)

30 - Opening the Rock: Uttermost America and Asia (13 min)

31 - The Rule of Saints: Puritanism (14 min)

32 - Unwilling to Die for an Old Idea: Denominations (13 min)

33 - Aiming at the F

• Language: English
• Publisher: Zondervan Academic
• Release date: Apr 23, 2024
• ISBN: 9780310160175

Reviews for Church History in Plain Language Audio Lectures

[justagirlwithabook · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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).

[leandrod-2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Worthy reading. Only the end was too fast, too much information too condensed.

[matthewn_97 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[texlexread · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[misskate_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Good reading making a very complicated subject digestable

[kwmcdonald_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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).