Spreading Flame: The Rise and Progress of Christianity from Its First Beginnings to the Conversion of the English

by F.F. Bruce

In this history of the early Christian Church, Professor Bruce divides the complex story into three sections. The first, The Dawn of Christianity, deals with the Church from its infancy to the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The second section, The Growing Day, continues the story up to the accession of Constantine in A.D. 313 and the Church's consequent official status. Light in the West, the final part, is about Christianity in Rome and its spread to the British Isles after the barbarian invasion. The picture that emerges is of the Church as an unquenchable spiritual force organized for tribulation, whose spiritual resources are never more unlimited than in times of seeming disaster. A wealth of quotations from Jewish and classical sources, combined with F.F. Bruce's straightforward style, make this book a valuable contribution to the study of the history of the Church.

Genres: History, Church History, Christian, Church, Nonfiction, Biblical Studies, Christianity

432 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1953

About the author

Frederick Fyvie Bruce FBA was a Biblical scholar who supported the historical reliability of the New Testament. His first book, The New Testament Documents: Are They Reliable? (1943), was voted by the American evangelical periodical Christianity Today in 2006 as one of the top 50 books "which had shaped evangelicals".

Reviews

[Mitch Teemley]

I first read this as a young believer many years ago, and must say I enjoyed it much more the second time around. Bruce's merit is not in "bringing history to life!" but in presenting it with solid, well-reasoned, richly researched facts. You know you can trust him--and the world-changing event he writes about--and you're grateful for that. Well done, sir!

[Don Bemis]

An interesting, well written history of the Church up to its establishment in Britain.

[Paul Gosselin]

has a good chapter on Christianity as the State religion pp. 293-301