A Survey of Church History, Part 1 A.D. 100-600

A Survey of Church History #1

by W. Robert Godfrey (Narrator)

Many committed, knowledgeable believers still know little about the history of the church. As a result, they’re missing a testament to God’s steadfastness over the centuries. Now, a monumental new teaching series sheds crucial light on church history, demonstrating God’s promise to build and preserve his church so that “the gates of hell will not prevail against it” (Matt. 16:18). Join Dr. W. Robert Godfrey as he takes believers through the first twelve lectures of what will be a seventy-three-lecture series covering theology, apologetics, notable church fathers, and much more. Standard-definition DVD. Twelve 23–minute messages, including Spanish navigation and dubbed equivalent.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Theology, Church History, Religion, Audiobook, Christian

Audio CD

First published September 1, 2013

About the author

Dr. Godfrey has taught church history at Westminster Seminary California since 1981. He taught previously at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, Stanford University, and Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. He is the third president of Westminster Seminary California and is a minister in the United Reformed Churches in North America. He has spoken at many conferences including those sponsored by the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, the Philadelphia Conference on Reformed Theology, and Ligonier Ministries.

Reviews

[Naomi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audiobook, listened while running errands by myself over the past couple weeks (if you have hoopla, they are on there!).

Fantastic! Dr. Godfrey was one of my favorite professors at seminary. These lectures are like sitting down with an Uncle or Grandpa, who happens to be an expert in church history, and having him explain to you some family history. Each lecture is 20-24 minutes long, so he can't go into every detail, but still covers a lot of ground and they are very easy to follow. It's a great reminder that the church is older than just our lifetime, or even just a couple generations ago. The struggles and trials of the early church are easy to forget. It made me thankful for our church fathers and want to go do some more early church reading. I hope to listen to these again in the future as a family.

[NinaB · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is one of a series of lectures on Church History from Ligoniers. If you are unfamiliar, like I am, with the beginning and continuation of church, I highly recommend this series. The first part covers up to 600 AD and answers questions about the canon of Scripture, key players in the forming of our theology, how the Catholic practices and traditions came about.

[Kaysie Campbell · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is actually just a series of lectures on church history. I was listening to it to fulfill a requirement for a reading challenge and was pleasantly surprised on being hooked to the content. The lecturer was witty and made me laugh quite a few times which was a bonus. I'm going to listen to the other parts in the future.

[Michael · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was hoping for something a l̶i̶t̶t̶l̶e lot more academic and scholarly, but instead these lectures felt like a sermon series on finding justification for Calvinism in early church writings, which is fine for Calvinists, but not great for students of history. He barely scratched the surface of the second and third centuries, which were what I was most interested to learn about.

[Mathew Nix · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a series of recorded lectures and not directly a typical audio book per se. As such, though, the teacher is very dynamic and easy to follow and enjoyable to hear. So, this is a very good recording to gain insight into church history from a reformed perspective.

[Jessica]

Download the complete A Survey of Church History series (Parts 1–6, AD 100–2000) in audio & video here.

[Dave Weiss · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a fascinating look into the earliest history of the church. Godfrey is an engaging speaker and his study guide for this is also first rate. Fabulous resource.

[ElaineY · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this entire series of 6 courses. Godfrey's teaching style is almost conversational and I can see myself listening to him while eating my favorite finger food - fried chicken or crabs. Though I would like to have more details, this being a "survey" he has to be brief. So each course is 4.75 hours only but comes up to a total of 28.5 hours. Enough to keep this church history fan happy.

Published by Ligonier Ministries this is an excellent introduction to the subject and I highly recommend it.

[Noel Burke · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was phenomenal! I feel like I was quickly able to grasp the enormity of progress, change, and challenge that occurred in the ancient church. Wow, so much happened. We do owe a lot to brothers and sisters who were faithful to God through a tumultuous time. This is a lecture series by Robert Godfrey.

[Hank Pharis · Rating 2 out of 5]

Since I just started teaching a church history survey class online I thought it would be good to do some refresher overviews. This is good and definitely recommended but not as good as I hoped it would be.

[JT Stead · Rating 5 out of 5]

This lecture series was amazing. I listened to these working out, driving, getting ready in the morning. This series gave me a greater appreciation for historical theology.