The Early Church: From the Beginnings to 461

by William H.C. Frend

Frend's masterful survey, here presented with a new Preface and updated bibliographies, traces the historical and theological development of the Christian church from apostolic times through the fifth century.

Genres: History, Church History, Theology, Nonfiction, Christianity, Christian, Christian History

276 pages, Paperback

First published November 30, 1964

About the author

William Hugh Clifford Frend was an English ecclesiastical historian, archaeologist and Anglican priest. He served as Professor of Ecclesiastical History at the University of Glasgow and was a fellow of the British Academy.

Reviews

[Joel Zartman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Can be a bit clunky in describing doctrinal controversies. More interested in the social aspects, which are important. He doesn't appear to think too highly of any of the figures he talks about, as if they were all personally disappointing to him.

[abclaret · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up partially to flesh out in my head what Tolstoy was raging against within Christian orthodoxy. Turns out, the book is a bit exhaustive and probably aimed at anyone other than a lay history reader. Possibly this is the norm for ecclesiastical history, but someone pointed me in the direction of Foundations of Christianity which might suffice for my habits, particularly as I was a big fan of Engel's commentary on Christianity.

As I had expected, the church begins from humble beginnings, and as time goes on layers and filters are added until it begins to resemble something else entirely. You have over-drawn debates on the nature of Jesus, the second coming, the role of the trinity/holy spirit; this happens alongside the impact of culture, politics and philosophy - all coinciding with the internal logic of organisations like the the Roman Empire and the Catholic Church.

The book lacks the clarity I was hoping for. It moves along at a steady pace, right up until the Romans get involved in the decision making (what did the Romans ever do for us!) and then the multitude of schisms are then presented in a way that is neither engaging nor clear. The first half of the book and the concluding chapter are easily the better and make for more interesting reading - unless you want to know how many angels can dance on the head of a pin.

[Alan Dees · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was looking to dive into the history of the early church in light of the historical context of the times and this book did not disappoint. It plunges you into the politics of the Roman Empire, the Jews, and the early Christians, and how they developed from the house churches to a semi structured organization recognized by the Roman Empire. It touches on theological issues in light of the conflict they produced but doesn't give too much attention them. It is very well researched with numerous footnotes and is sourced at a university level which meant it was dense and meaty and tough to follow at times. It almost seemed like the author assumed you knew the details of a particular figure or group after he gives a brief introduction and then refers to them later. The author also did not appear to have a positive opinion of anyone of the leaders he wrote about, but maybe he was just trying to be objective. There is so much information that I had to go back and reread paragraphs and sections again multiple times. The author clearly knows his stuff and I learned a ton, but this is not casual reading for beginners. The timeline of 33 AD to around the fall of the Roman Empire was very helpful and I believe that including a glossary of terms and the various groups/persons would have made this read even more digestible. The book left off indicating that the time of middle ages was about to come wherein the Church would be at the forefront of society against barbarianism instead of the Roman Empire.

[Lou Allen · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was some interesting information in this book that I didn't know before. However, I found the style of writing very dry.

[Timothy Dougherty Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Frend does a wonderful job of telling the narrative of Christian history from its inauguration with the Apostles to the time of Augustine. This book, in particular, gives a great sweep of the socio-political spectrum that the surrounds the theological and doctrinal development in the first five centuries of Christianity.