Early Church History 101 - early christian church history, the early church fathers, church history for beginners, the New Testament Canon, RA Baker, Al Baker, Alan Baker

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Resources - Learning more about Early Church History

There are many good texts on Christian history - these happen to be my favorite authors and texts for the first few centuries.

Recommended Texts
Rise of Christianity, by W.H.C. Frend. This is the text I recommend most - around 1,000 pages covering the first 600 years of Christian history. It is not a text that you expect to sit and read completely through - rather, it will serve as an outstanding reference book when you want/need to learn about a particular subject...like the Council of Nicea!

The Early Church, by Henry Chadwick. This is an excellent, yet less intimidating text on early church history. Chadwick was a premier British scholar and a great writer.

Men and Movements in the Primitive Church: Studies in Early Non-Pauline Christianity,
by F.F. Bruce. One of my favorite scholars, this little text (a mere 159 pages) is simply power-packed with scholarship and significant implications in the study of early christianity and the New Testament.

Other Good Texts:
Pagans and Christians, by Robin Lane Fox.
A History of the Early Church, Vol.1-4 by Hans Lietzmann (English translation by Bertram Woolf).

Articles and Papers by R.A. Baker
How the New Testament Canon was Formed
Review of Bart Ehrman's Lost Christianities
An Introduction to Gnostic Texts
"Second Repentance" in the Early Church: The Influence of The Shepherd of Hermas
Wine in the Ancient World
The Da Vinci Code: Fact, Fiction, or Faith?

Other Articles
Wine-Drinking in New Testament Times by Robert Stein (Christianity Today 1975)
Decoding The Da Vinci Code, by N.T. Wright
Why the 'Lost Gospels' Lost Out, by Ben Witherington III
Epistemology and Metaphysics: A Theological Critique, by Bruce E. Baker
This is a short essay to get the skeptic thinking. Let me know what you think.

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Early Church History 101 is the place where you can learn about early christian history in an open environment. Some topics of interest: ist century christian church history, Hellenized Jews in the New Testament, How the NT canon was formed, the conflict in the early christian church, the conversion of the apostle paul, early church history of Galatians, first century persecution, James, the brother of Jesus, the Decian persecution, second century church history, wine in the New Testament, wine and alcohol in the Bible, Gnosticism in the early church, the second century apologists, early church history of galations, clement alexandria stromateis summary, early church catechesis, early christianity war and conflict, and other struggles of the 1st century church, Palestine vs Israel and the use of "Palestine" in the Bible and many more.