The Pilgrim Church: An Account of Continuance Through Centuries of Christian Churches Practising Biblical Principles Taught in the New Testament

by E.H. Broadbent

In this all-embracing Christian church history, E. H. Broadbent details the growth, traditions and teachings of churches and denominations through the ages. Intended as an introduction to organized Christianity, the Pilgrim Church selects examples from the time of Christ onward of Christian denominations. From the beginning, Broadbent is keen to emphasize how gaps in history mean much of the church history is simply obscured. How exactly Christians almost two thousand years ago, or in the pre-Reformation Middle Ages, worshipped and practiced their faith is simply a mystery for theologians and historians. The central argument of Broadbent’s book is that the Catholic church, in its effort to suppress divergence it deemed as heresy, destroyed much of the evidence of other churches. Much of the book is composed with this underpinning principle; a truth that resounds through the entire text, which is informed by the undoubted scholarship of the author.

260 pages, Paperback

Published August 24, 2018

About the author

Edmund Hamer Broadbent (1861 – 1945) was a Christian missionary and author. Born in Lancashire, England, Broadbent operated under the auspices of the Plymouth Brethren movement.[2]

His missionary work from 1900 into the 1920s took him to Austria, Belgium, Egypt, Germany, Poland, Russia, Turkey, the Baltic states, North and South America, and Uzbekistan. He spoke fluently French and German and could speak some Russian.[3]

His book, The Pilgrim Church, first published in 1931, is still in print. The Pilgrim Church is an alternative history of the church, unrecorded by secular history. It covers the history of many small churches throughout the ages that have attempted to follow the New Testament church pattern, the success of those that followed the pattern laid out by the apostles and the consequences to the churches that fell away from the pattern. He looks broadly at many groups such as the Paulicians, the Bogomils, the Nestorians, the Waldensians, the Anabaptists, the Hutterites, the Methodists, the Russian Mennonites and the Mennonite Brethren. He classified early primitive churches to Anabaptist, and to Moravian Brethren were historical Brethren Movement.

Edmund Hamer Broadbent fathered eight children by his wife Dora.

Reviews

[Mark Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent historical perspective dealing with grace-based theology and it's impact and implementation (or lack thereof) in the church.

[Errol Thompson · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is very interesting alternative church history. To some extent I aligned with some of the churches that he covers but his writing style is difficult to read.