History of Christianity — a short list of some light reading

(This includes only a few texts that are specifically related history of missions. For missions-related texts, including missions history and primary sources, see my missions / missions history / missiology note. This bibliography also does not include primary sources. I have a separate bibliography for the Restoration Movement / Stone-Campbell Movement. Also see my bibliographies on African ChristianityIndian Christianity, and Syriac / Syro-Persian Christianity; some of those items, but not all, are listed here. I’ve highlighted in bold texts which I would include on a “must read” list.)

Abé, Takao. The Jesuit Mission to New France: A New Interpretation in the Light of the Earlier Jesuit Experience in Japan. Studies in the History of Christian Traditions 151. Brill, 2010.

Afanasiev, Nicholas. The Church of the Holy Spirit. Trans. Vitaly Permiakov. Ed. with an Introduction by Michael Plekon. Foreword by Rowan Williams. University of Notre Dame Press, 2009.

Ahlstrom, Sydey E. A Religious History of the American People. Yale University Press, 1972.

Alfeyev, Hilarion. The Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian: Spiritual World of Isaac the Syrian. With a Foreword by Kalistos Ware. Cistercian Studies 175. Cistercian Publications / Liturgical Press, 2000.

Alikin, Valeriy A. The Earliest History of the Christian Gathering: Origin, Development and Content of the Christian Gathering in the First to Third Centuries. Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae. Texts and Studies of Early Christian Life and Language 102. Brill, 2010.

Aritonang, Jan Sihar and Karel Steenbrink, eds. A History of Christianity in Indonesia. Studies in Christian Mission 35. Brill, 2008.

Arnold, Duane W. H. Francis: A Call to Conversion. Forward by John Michael Talbot. Cantilever Books, 1988.

Arrington, Aminta. Songs of the Lisu Hills: Practicing Christianity in Southwest China.  Foreword by Brian Stanley. Penn State University Press, 2020.

Ayandele, E. A. African Historical Studies. Frank Cass, 1979.

Bagge, Sverre. Cross and Scepter: The Rise of the Scandinavian Kingdoms from the Vikings to the Reformation. Princeton University Press, 2014.

Bailey, Lisa Kaaren. Christianity’s Quiet Success: The Eusebius Gallicanus Sermon Collection and the Power of the Church in Late Antique Gaul. University of Notre Dame Press, 2010.

Bainton, Roland H. Early Christianity. Van Nostrand, 1960.

Bainton, Roland H. The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century. Beacon Press, 1956.

Baker, William R., ed. Evangelicalism and the Stone-Campbell Movement, vol. 1. IVP Academic, 2002.

Baker, William R., ed. Evangelicalism and the Stone-Campbell Movement, vol. 2. ACU Press, 2006.

Bakke, O. M. When Children Became People: The Birth of Childhood in Early Christianity. Fortress Press, 2005.

Bamm, Peter. The Kingdoms of Christ: The Story of the Early Church. Thames And Hudson, 1959.

Bays, Daniel H., ed. Christianity in China: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present. Stanford University Press, 1996.

Bays, Daniel H. A New History of Christianity in China. The Global Christianity Series. Wiley-Blackwell, 2011.

Bantu, Vince L. A Multitude of All Peoples: Engaging Ancient Christianity’s Global Identity. Missiological Engagements. IVP Academic, 2020.

Bar Hebraeus. The Ecclesiastical Chronicle: An English Translation. Trans. David Wilmshurst. Gorgias Eastern Christian Studies 40. Gorgias Press, 2016.
publisher’s blurb: “The Ecclesiastical Chronicle of the Syriac Orthodox polymath Bar Hebraeus (†1286), an important Syriac text written in the last quarter of the 13th century, has long been recognised as a key source for the history of the Syriac Orthodox Church and the Church of the East.”

Baumer, Christoph. The Church of the East: An Illustrated History of Assyrian Christianity. I. B. Tauris, 2008.

Baur, John. 2000 Years of Christianity in Africa. 2nd ed. Paulines, 2009.

Bays, Daniel H., ed. Christianity in China: From the Eighteenth Century to the Present. Stanford University Press, 1996.

Becker, Adam H. Fear of God and the Beginning of Wisdom: The School of Nisibis and the Development of Scholastic CUlture in Late Antique Meopotamia. University of Pennsylania Press, 2006.

Bediako, Kwame. Theology & Identity: The impact of culture upon Christian thought in the second century and modern Africa. Regnum Books, 2002.

Behr, John. The Nicene Faith, part 1: True God of True God. Formation of Christian Theology, vol. 2. St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2004.

Behr, John. The Nicene Faith, part 2: One of the Holy Trinity. Formation of Christian Theology, vol. 2. St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2004.

Behr, John. The Way to Nicaea. Formation of Christian Theology, vol. 1. St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001.

Bell, David N. Many Mansions: An Introduction to the Development and Diversity of Medieval Theology. Cistercian Studies series, 146. Cistercian Publications, 1996.

Bell, David N. A Cloud of Witnesses: An Introductory History of the Development of Christian Doctrine to 500 AD. 2nd ed., revised. Cistercian Studies series 218. Cistercian Publications, 2007.

Blowers, Paul M. Maxmus the Confessor: Jesus Christ and the Transfiguration of the World. Christian Theology in Context. Oxford University Press, 2016, 2018.

Blumenthal, Uta-Renate. The Investiture Controversy: Church and Monarchy from the Ninth to the Twelfth Century. Middle Ages Series. University of Pennsylvania Press, 1988, 1991. (Translated by the author from German original.)

Boehmer, Heinrich. Road to Reformation: Martin Luther to the Year 1521. Trans. Jown W. Doberstein and Theodore G. Tappert. Muhlenberg Press, 1946.

Boxer, C. R. [Charles Ralph]. The Christian Century in Japan 1549 – 1650. 2nd ed.
University of California Press / Cambridge University Press, 1961.

Boyd, Robin H. S. India and the Latin Captivity of the Church: The Cultural Context of the Gospel. Monograph Supplements to the Scottish Journal of Theology. Cambridge University Press, 1974.

Bradly, Ian. Celtic Christianity: Making Myths and Chasing Dreams. Edinburgh University Press, 1999.

Brown, Laurence E. The Eclipse of Christianity in Asia: From the Time of Muhammed to the Fourteenth Century. Cambridge University Press, 1933.

Brown, Laurence E. The Indian Christians of St Thomas: an Account of the Ancient Syrian Church of Malabar. University Press, 1956.

Brown, Peter. Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD. Princeton University Press, 2013.

Bruce, F.F. New Testament History. Anchor, 1972.

Bruner, Jason. Living Salvation in the East African Revival in Uganda. Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora. University of Rochester Press, 2017.

Burns, J. Patout, Jr. and Robin M. Jensen. Christianity in Roman Africa: The Development of Its Practices and Beliefs. Eerdmans, 2014.

Cahill, Thomas. How the Irish Saved Civilization:The Untold Story of Ireland’s Heroic Role From the Fall of Rome to the Rise of Medieval Europe. The Hinges of History. Anchor, 1996.

Cannuyer, Christian. Coptic Egypt: The Christians of the Nile. Trans. (from French) Sophie Hawkes. Ed. Eve Sinaiko. Harry N. Abrams, 2001.

Carman, John B. and Chilkuri Vasantha Rao. Christians in South Indian Villages, 1959-2009: decline and revival in Telangana. Studies in the History of Christian Missions. Eerdmans, 2014.

Chadwick, Henry. The Early Church. Rev. ed. Penguin, 1993.

Chang, Derek. Citizens of a Christian Nation: Evangelical Missions and the Problem of Race in the Nineteenth Century. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010.

Chitty, Derwas James. The Desert a City: An Introduction to the Study of Egyptian and Palestinian Monasticism Under the Christian Empire. St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1977.

Cohick, Lynn H. Women in the World of the Earliest Christians: Illuminating Ancient Ways of Life. Baker Academic, 2009.

Cohick, Lynn H. and Amy Brown Hughes. Christian Women in the Patristic World: Their Influence, Authority, and Legacy in the Second through Fifth Centuries. Baker Academic, 2017.

Collins, Michael and Matthew A. Price. The Story of Christianity: 2000 Years of Faith. DK Publishing, 1999, 2003.

Collins, Raymond F. Accompanied by a Believing Wife: Ministry and Celibacy in the Earliest Christian Communities. Liturgical Press, 2013.

Cragg, Gerald R. The Church and the Age of Reason: 1648-1789. The Penguin History of the Church 4. Penguin, 1970.

D’Ambrosio, Marcellino. When the Church Was Young: Voices of the Early Fathers. Franciscan Media, 2014.

Davies, Horton. Worship and Theology in England. 3 vol. Eerdmans, 1996.
• book 1: From Cranmer to Baxter and Fox, 1534–1690
• book 2: From Watts and Wesley to Martineau, 1690–1900
• book 3: The Ecumenical Century, 1900 to the Present

Decret, François. Early Christianity in North Africa. Trans. (from French) Edward L. Smither. Cascade Books, 2009.
[first edition: Le christianisme en Afrique du Nord ancienne. Editions du Seuil, 1996.]

Demacopoulos, George E. The Invention of Peter: Apostolic Discourse and Papal Authority in Late Antiquity. Divinations: Rereading Late Ancient Religion. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2013.

Dietz, Maribel. Wandering Monks, Virgins, and Pilgrims: Ascetic Travel in the Mediterranean World, A.D. 300–800. Penn State University Press, 2005.

Downs, Frederick S. History of Christianity in India; vol. V., part 5: North-East India in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Church History Association of India, 1992.

Downs, Frederick S. Essays on Christianity in North-East India. NEHU History Series 4. Indus Publications, 1994.

Drummond, Richard Henry. A History of Christianity in Japan. Christian World Mission Books. Eerdmans, 1971.

Dutton, George E. A. Vietnam Moses: Philiphê Bỉnh and the Geographies of Early Modern Catholicism. University of California Press, 2017.

Edwards, David L. Christian England. Eerdmans, 1984.
• vol. 2: From the Reformation to the 18th Century.
• vol. 3: From the 18th Century to the First World War.

Erb, Peter C., ed. Pietists: Selected Writings. Classics of Western Spirituality. Paulist Press, 1983.

Erlich, Haggai. Islam & Christianity in the Horn of Africa: Somalia, Ethiopia, Sudan. Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2010.

Farge, William J. A Christian Samurai: The Trials of Baba Bunko. The Catholic University of America Press, 2016.

Farhadian, Charles E., ed. Introducing World Christianity. Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.

Fasholé-Luke, Edward, Richard Gray, Adrian Hastings, and Godwin Tasie, eds. Christianity in Independent Africa. Rex Collings, 1978.

Ferguson, Everett. Backgrounds of Early Christianity. 2nd ed. Eerdmans, 1993.

Ferguson, Everett. Baptism in the Early Church: History, Theology, and Liturgy in the First Five Centuries. Eerdmans, 2009, 2013.

Ferguson, Everett. Encyclopedia of Early Christianity. Second Edition. Garland Reference Library of the Humanities. Routledge, 1990.

Ferngren, Gary B. Medicine and Health Care in Early Christianity. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2009.

Fletcher, Richard. The Barbarian Conversion: From Paganism to Christianity. Henry Holt, 1997.
[NB: This is the American edition. The British edition, published by HarperCollins, is entitled The Conversion of Europe: From Paganism to Christianity, 371-1386 AD.]

Fogarty, Gerald P. Commonwealth Catholicism: A History of the Catholic Church in Virginia. University of Notre Dame Press, 2001.

Foster, Elizabeth A. African Catholic: Decolonization and the Transformation of the Church. Harvard University Press, 2019.

Frederiks, Martha and Dorottya Nagy, eds. Religion, Migration, and Identity: Methodological and Theological Explorations. Theology and Mission in World Christianity 2. Ed. Kim Kirsteen, Stephen B. Bevans, and Miikka Ruokanen. Brill, 2016.

Freemantle, Ann. Age of Belief: Medieval Philosophers. The New American Library. Mentor, 1955, 1962.

Froehlich, Karlfried, ed. Biblical Interpretation in the Early Church. Fortress Press, 1984.

Fromont, Cécile. The Art of Conversion: Christian Visual Culture in the Kingdom of Kongo. Omohundro Institute / University of North Carolina Press, 2014.

Frykenberg, Robert Eric. Christianity in India: From Beginnings to the Present. Oxford History of the Christian Church. Ed. Henry and Owen Chadwick. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Furuya, Yasuo, ed. A History of Japanese Theology. Eerdmans, 1997.

García-Arenal, Mercedes. After Conversion: Iberia and the Emergence of Modernity. Catholic Christendom, 1300–1700. Brill, 2016.

Gehman, Richard J. The Spreading Vineyard: The Growth of the Africa Inland Church, Kenya, from 1945 onward. Vol. 2 of The History of the Africa Inland Church, Kenya. Oasis International, 2016.

George, Timothy. Pilgrims on the Sawdust Trail: Evangelical Ecumenism and the Quest for Christian Identity. Beeson Divinity Studies. Baker Academic, 2004.

Geraci, Robert and Michael Khodarkovsky, ed. Of Religion and Empire: Missions, Conversion, and Tolerance in Tsarist Russia. Cornell University Press, 2001, 2018.

Gillman, Ian & Hans-Joachim Klimkeit. Christians in Asia Before 1500. The University of Michigan Press, 1999. (also published by Routledge)

Godwin, R. Todd. Persian Christians at the Chinese Court: The Xi’an Stele and the Early Medieval Church of the East. I. B. Tauris, 2018.

González, Justo L. Faith and Wealth: A History of Early Christian Ideas on the Origin, Significance, and Use of Money. Wipf and Stock, 2002.

González, Justo L. The Story of Christianity: the Early Church to the Present Day. Prince Press, 1999.
[originally published as two separate volumes: Vol. 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation; Vol. 2: The Reformation to the Present Day; Harper & Row, 1984. A revised edition, reverting to two volumes, came out in 2010.]

González, Justo L. and Ondina E. González. Christianity in Latin America: A History. Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Goodspeed, Edgar. Index Patristicus. Hendrikson, 1993.
[An index of the Greek texts of Apostolic Fathers]

Grant, Robert M. with David Tracy. A Short History of the Interpretation of the Bible. 2nd ed. Fortress Press, 1984.

Gray, Richard. Black Christians and White Missionaries. Yale University Press, 1959.

Gray, Richard. Christianity, the Papacy, and Mission in Africa. Ed. and with an Introduction by Lamin Sanneh. Orbis Books, 2012.

Gray, Richard, Edward W. Fasholé-Luke, Adrian Hastings, and Godwin Tasie. Christianity in Independent Africa. Rex Collins, 1978.

Grillmeier, Aloys with Theresia Hainthaler. Christ in Christian Tradition: Vol. 2 From the Council of Chalcedon (451) to Gregory the Great (590-604): Part 4 The Church of Alexandria with Nubia and Ethiopia after 451. Trans. O. C. Dean [from German]. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 1996.

Grafe, Hugald. History of Christianity in India; vol. IV., part 2: Tamilnadu in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. Church History Association of India, 1990.

Greer, Rowan A. Broken Lights and Mended Lives: Theology and Common Life in the Early Church. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1986.

Halfond, Gregory I. Bishops and the Politics of Patronage in Merovingian Gaul. Cornell University Press, 2019.

Hall, Stuart G. Doctrine and Practice in the Early Church. Eerdmans, 1991.

Hanciles, Jehu J.  Migration and the Making of Global Christianity.  Eerdmans, 2021.

Harper, Matthew. The End of Days: African American Religion and Politics in the Age of Emancipation. The University of North Carolina Press, 2017.

Hastings, Adrian. The Church in Africa 1450-1950. Ed. by Henry & Owen Chadwick. Oxford History of the Christian Church. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 2004.

Hastings, Adrian. A History of African Christianity 1950-1975. African Studies Series 26. Cambridge University Press, 1979.

Hastings, Adrian. A World History of Christianity. Eerdmans, 1999.

Hatch, Nathan O. The Democratization of American Christianity. Yale University Press, 1991.

Hayes, Howard A. Thunder Before Daybreak: A Study in Reformation Backgrounds: Late Middle Age Literary Attacks upon Papal Pretensions and Ecclesiastical Abuses. 1993.

Hedlund, Roger E. Christianity Made in India: From Apostle Thomas to Mother Theresa. South Asian Theology. Fortress Press, 2017.

Hedlund, Roger E., Sebastian Kim, and Rajkumar Boaz Johnson, eds. Indian & Christian: The Life and Legacy of Pandita Ramabai. Pune, India: Mylapore Institute for Indigenous Studies, 2011.

Helleman, Wendy Elgersma and Musa A. B. Gaiya. Early Christianity: A Textbook for African Students. Langham Global Library, 2019.

Hillerbrand, Hans. J., ed. The Protestant Reformation. Walker and Company, 1968.

Hofmeyr, J. W. et al., eds. A History of Christianity in South Africa. Vol. 1. HAUM Tertiary, 1994.

Hultgren, Arland J. The Rise of Normative Christianity. Fortress Press, 1994.

Hunter, David G. Marriage and Sexuality in Early Christianity. Ad Fontes: Early Christian Sources. Fortress Press, 2018.

Hutton, Joseph Edmund. A History of the Moravian Church. Second edition. 1909.
• Book 1: The Bohemian Brethren, 1457-1673.
• Book 2: The Revival under Zinzendorf, 1700-1760.
• Book 3: The Rule of the Germans, 1760-1857.
• Book 4: The Modern Moravians, 1857-1908.

Huttunen, Niko. Early Christians Adapting to the Roman Empire: Mutual Recognition. Supplements to Novum Testamentum 179. Brill, 2020.

Irvin, Dale T., ed. The Protestant Reformation and World Christianity: Global Perspectives. Reformation Resources, 1517-2017. Eerdmans, 2017.

Irvin, Dale T. and Scott W. Sunquist. History of the World History Movement. Vol. 1: Earliest Christianity to 1453. Orbis Books, 2010.

Irvin, Dale T. and Scott W. Sunquist. History of the World History Movement. Vol. 2: Modern Christianity from 1453-1800. Orbis Books, 2017.

Isichei, Elizabeth. A History of Christianity in Africa: From Antiquity to the Present. Eerdmans, 1995.

Jenkins, Philip.  The Lost History of Christianity:  The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia — and How It Died.  HarperOne, 2009.

Jenkins, Philip. The Next Christendom: The Coming of Global Christianity. Future of Christianity. 3rd ed. Oxford University Press, 2011.

Jensen, Anne. God’s Self-Confident Daughters: Early Christianity and the Liberation of Woman. Trans. O. C. Dean, Jr. Westminster John Knox Press, 1996.
[Trans. and slightly abridged from the German of Gottes selbstbewusste Töchter: Frauenemanzipation im frühen Christentum? Verlag Herder Friburg im Brisgau, 1992.]

Johnson, Maxwell E. Praying and Believing in Early Christianity: The Interplay between Christian Worship and Doctrine. Liturgical Press, 2013.

Kalu, Ogbu U., ed. African Christianity: An African Story. Africa World Press, 2007.

Kane, J. Herbert. A Concise History of the Christian World Mission. Rev. ed. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1982.

Kardong, Terrence G. Columban: His Rule and His Movement. Liturgical Press, 2017.

Kendall, Calivn B., Oliver Nicholson, William D. Phillips, Jr., and Marguerite Ragnow, eds. Conversion to Christianity from Late Antiquity to the Modern Age: Considering the Process in Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Minnesota Studies in Early Modern History 1. Center for Early Modern History, 2009.

Kim, Sebastian and Kirsteen Kim. Christianity as a World Religion: An Introduction. 2nd edition. Bloomsbury, 2016.

Kim, Sebastian C. H. and Kirsteen Kim. A History of Korean Christianity. Cambridge University Press, 2014.

Klaniczay, Gábor, ed. Saints of the Christianization Age of Central Europe: Tenth to Twelfth Centuries. Trans. Cristian Gașpar and Marina Miladinov. Intro. Ian Wood. Central European Medieval Texts 6. Central European University Press, 2012.

Kling, David W. A History of Christian Conversion. Oxford University Press, 2020.

Koehrsen, Jens. Middle Class Pentecostalism in Argentina: Inappropriate Spirits. Religion in the Americas 15. Brill, 2016.

Kollman, Paul. The Evangelization of Slaves and Catholic Origins in Eastern Africa. American Society of Missiology 38. Orbis, 2005.

Kollman, Paul. Understanding World Christianity: Eastern Africa. Understanding World Christianity. Fortress Press, 2018.

Koschorke, Klaus, ed. Transkontinentale Beziehungen in der Geschichte des Aussereuropäischen Christentums / Transcontinental Links in the History of Non-Western Christianity. Studies in the History of Christianity in the Non-Western World 6.
Harrassowitz Verlag, 2002.
chapters include:
• 1: Thornton, John K. “Rural People, the Church in Kongo and the Afroamerican Diaspora (1491-1750),” 33-44.
• 2: Walls, Andrew. “Sierra Leone, Afroamerican Remigration and the Beginnings of Protestantism in West Africa (18th-19th Centuries),” 45-56.
• 3: Martin, Sandy D. “African American Christians and the African Mission Movement during the 19th Century,” 57-72.
• 12: Koschorke, Klaus. “The World Missionary Conference Edinburgh 1910 and the Rise of National Church Movements in Asia and Africa,” 203-218.
• 14: Phan, Peter C. “The Reception of Vatican II in Asia (1972-1998): Historical and Theological Analysis,” 243-257.
• 15: Ludwig, Frieder. “African Independent Churches in West Africa around 1900,” 259-272.
• 16: Hedlund, Roger E. “Emerging Indigenous Christianity in India and Asia (19th and 20th Centuries),” 273-292.

Koschorke, Klaus and Adrian Hermann, eds. Polycentric Structures in the History of World Christianity / Polyzentrische Strukturen in der Geschichte des Weltchristentums. Studies in the History of Christianity in the Non-Western World 25. Harrassowitz Verlag, 2014.
chapters include:
• 1: Koschorke, Klaus. “Polycentric Structures in the History of World Christianity (Inaugural Lecture),” 15-28.
• 2: Hanciles, Jehu J. “The Black Atlantic and the Shaping of African Christianity, 1820-1920), 29-50.
• 5: Kim, Sebastian. “‘Non-Missionary Beginnings’ of Korean Catholic Christianity in the Late Eighteenth Century,” 72-98.
• 7: Kim, Kirsteen. “South Korea as a Missionary Centre of World Christianity: Developments in Korean Protestantism After the Liberation (1945), 111-129.
• 9. Phan, Peter C. “Chinese Catholics in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam, 1865-2012),” 141-152.
• 14: Daniels, David D. “Kongolese Christianity in the Americas of the 17th and 18th Centuries,” 215-226.
• 17: Kriel, Lize. “African Women, Conversion and Evangelism in 19th Century Southern Africa: A View from the ‘Far North’,” 257-267.
• 20: Adogame, Afe. “African ‘Retro-Mission’ in Europe,” 307-316.
22: Müller, Andreas. “Die russisch-orthodoxe Mission in Japan / Russian-Orthodox Missions in Japan,” 335-346.

Koschorke, Klaus, Frieder Ludwig, and Mariano Delgado, eds. A History of Christianity in Asia, Africa, and Latin America, 1450-1990: A Documentary Sourcebook. Eerdmans, 2007.

Koschorke, Klaus with Jens Holger Schjørring, eds. African Identities and World Christianity in the Twentieth Century: Proceedings of the Third International Munich-Freising Conference on the History of Christianity in the Non-Western World (September 15–17, 2004). Studies in the History of Christianity in the Non-Western World 10. Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005.
chapters include:
• 1: Kalu, Ogbu U. “A Trail of Ferment in African Christianity: Ethiopianism, Prophetism, Pentecostalism,” 19-40.
• 2: Ward, Kevin. “African identities in the historic ‘Mainline Churches’: A case study of the negotiation of local and global within African Anglicanism,” 50-62.
• 3: Anderson, Allan. “African Independent Churches and Global Pentecostalism: Historical Connections and Common Identities,” 63-76.
• 10: Stanley, Brian. “Africa through European Christian Eyes: The World Missionary Conference, Edinburgh 1910,” 165-180.
• 14: Adogame, Afe. “African Instituted Churches in Europe: Continuity and Transformation,” 225-244.

Kraemer, Ross Shepard and Mary Rose D’Angelo, eds. Women & Christian Origins. Oxford University Press, 1999.

Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A History of Christianity, vol. 1: Beginnings to 1500. Revised ed. Prince Press, 1997.

Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A History of Christianity, vol. 2: Reformation to the Present. Revised ed. Prince Press, 1997.

Latourette, Kenneth Scott. A History of the Expansion of Christianity. 7 volumes.
• vol. 1. The First Five Centuries: To 500 AD. Harper and Row, 1937, 1965, 1970; Paternoster Press, 1971.
• vol. 2. The Thousand Years of Uncertainty: 500–1500 AD. Harper and Row, 1938, 1966; Paternoster Press, 1971.
• vol. 3. Three Centuries of Advance: 1500–1800 AD. Harper and Row, 1939, 1967; Paternoster Press, 1971.
• vol. 4. The Great Century: Europe and the United States: 1800–1914 AD. Harper and Row, 1941, 1969; Paternoster Press, 1971.
• vol. 5. The Great Century: The Americas, Australasia and Africa: 1800–1914 AD. Harper and Row, 1943; Paternoster Press, 1971.
• vol. 6. The Great Century: North Africa and Asia: 1800–1914 AD. Harper and Row, 1944; Paternoster Press, 1971.
• vol. 7. Advance Through Storm: 1914 and after. Harper and Row, 1945, 1971; Paternoster Press, 1971.

Lawrence, C. H. Medieval Monasticism: Forms of Religious Life in Western Europe in the Middle Ages. 2nd ed. Longman, 1989.

Lewis, Donald M., ed. Christianity Reborn: Evangelicalism’s Global Expansion in the Twentieth Century. Studies in the History of Christian Missions. Eerdmans, 2004.  

Lindenfeld, David.  World Christianity and Indigenous Experience:  A Global History, 1500–2000.  Cambridge University Press, 2021.

Longenecker, Richard N. Biblical Exegesis in the Apostolic Period. Eerdmans, 1976.

Louth, Andrew. The Origins of the Christian Mystical Tradition: From Plato to Denys. Clarendon Press, 1981.

de Lubac, Henri. Medieval Exegesis: vol. 1, the Four Senses of Scripture. Eerdmans, 1998.

Madigan, Kevin and Carolyn Osiek, eds. and trans. Ordained Women in the Early Church: A Documentary History. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011.

Maffly-Kipp, Laurie F., Leigh E. Schmidt, and Mark Valeri, eds. Practicing Protestants: Histories of Christian Life in America, 1630–1965. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006.

Malone, Mary T.  Women and Christianity.  Vol. 1:  The First Thousand Years.  Orbis Books, 2001.

Malone, Mary T.  Women and Christianity.  Vol. 2:  From 1000 to the Reformation.  Orbis Books, 2002.

Malone, Mary T.  Women and Christianity.  Vol. 3:  From the Reformation to the 21st Century.  Orbis Books, 2003.

Martin, Joel, and Mark A. Nicholas, eds. Native Americans, Christianity, and the Reshaping of the American Religious Landscape. Forward by Michelene Pesantubbee. The University of North Carolina Press, 2010.

Maryks, Robert Aleksander and Festo Mkenda, eds. Encounters between Jesuits and Protestants in Africa. Jesuit Studies: Modernity through the Prism of Jesuit History 13. The Boston College International Symposia on Jesuit Studies 2. Brill, 2018.

May, Cedrick. Evangelism and Resistance in the Black Atlantic, 1760–1835. University of Georgia Press, 2008.

Mayhew, Experience and Laura Arnold Leibman. Experience Mayhew’s Indian Converts: A Cultural Edition. University of Massachusetts Press, 2008.

McBirnie, William Steuart. The Search for the Twelve Apostles. 1967.

McCormack, Bruce L., ed. Justification in Perspective: Historical Developments and Contemporary Challenges. Baker Academic, 2006.

McGinn, Bernard, John Meyendorff, & Jean Leclercq, eds. Christian Spirituality: Origins to the Twelfth Century. World Spirituality 16. Crossroad, 1993.

McManners, John, ed. The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity. Oxford University Press, 1992.

McNary-Zak, Bernadette, et alUseful Servanthood: A Study of Spiritual Formation in the Writings of Abba Ammonas. Liturgical Press, 2010.

Meeks, Wayne A. The Moral World of the First Christians. Library of Early Christianity. The Westminster Press, 1986.

Meyendorff, John. Byzantine Theology: historical trends & doctrinal themes. Fordham University Press, 1979.

Meyendorff, John. St Gregory Palamas and Orthodox Theology. St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1998.

Middleton, Darren J. N., ed. Mother Tongue Theologies: Poets, Novelists, Non-Western Christianity. Pickwick Publications, 2015.

Mingana, Alphonse. The Early Spread of Christianity in Central Asia and the East: A New Document. Analecta Gorgiana 640. Gorgias Press, 2010.
Note: This seminal study originally appeared in 1925. This reprint is most welcome!

Moberg, Jessica and Jane Skjoldli, eds. Charismatic Christianity in Finland, Norway, and Sweden: Case Studies in Historical and Contemporary Developments. Palgrave Studies in New Religions and Alternative Spiritualities. Palgrave Macmillan, 2018.

Moffett, Samuel Hugh. A History of Christianity in Asia; vol. 1: Beginnings to 1500. Orbis Books, 1998.

Morrison, Karl F. Tradition and Authority in the Western Church, 300-1140. Princeton Legacy Library. Princeton University Press, 1969, 2015.

Morrison, Karl F. Understanding Conversion. The Page-Barbour Lectures for 1990. University Press of Virginia, 1992.

Moule, A. C. [Arthur Christopher]. Christians in China Before the Year 1550. Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, 1930. Reprint edition: Martino Publishing, 2011.

Mundadan, A. M. History of Christianity in India; vol. I.: From the Beginning up to the middle of the sixteenth century. Church History Association of India, 1989.

Neill, Stephen. Colonialism and Christian Missions. Cambridge: Lutterworth press, 1966.

Neill, Stephen. A History of Christianity in India: 1707-1858. Cambridge University Press, 1985.

Neill, Stephen. A History of Christianity in India: The Beginnings to AD 1707. Cambridge University Press, 1984.

Neill, Stephen. A History of Christian Missions. 2nd ed. New York: Penguin, 1986.

Noll, Mark A. God and Race in American Politics: A Short History. Princeton University Press, 2010.

Noll, Mark A. A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada. Eerdmans, 1992.

Noll, Mark A. The Old Religion in a New World: The History of North American Christianity. Eerdmans, 2001.

Noll, Mark A. and Carolyn Nystrom. Clouds of Witnesses: Christian Voices from Africa and Asia. IVP, 2011.

Norris, Frederick W. The Apostolic Faith: Protestants and Roman Catholics. Michael Glazier, 1993.

Norris, Frederick W. Christianity: A Short Global History. London: OneWorld Publications, 2002.
Note: If I were to teach a one semester course (in English) on Church History, this would be required reading. Norris treats the expansion of the church East and West (instead of just westward, as is sadly customary) and North and South. This is probably the best introduction to the spread of the church. Norris does not have a western focus, but neither does he have a “non-western” focus. Instead, his coverage is balanced. A reader will learn as much about itinerant monastic Syrian missionaries and early interaction between established churches in Iraq and the Muslim conquerors as Luther and Calvin. The geographical centre of Christianity from the seventh until the late fifteenth century was in Sogdiana (modern Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan). Norris tells this whole story, instead of following the usual Jerusalem-Antioch-Alexandria-Rome-Luther-Calvin-English Reformation-America trajectory. Each chapter is divided into three sections: Christians and people of other faiths, Christians and their cultures, a Christian core.

Oberman, Heiko A. The Harvest of Medieval Theology: Gabriel Biel and Late Medieval Nominalism. Baker Academic, 2000.

Oden, Thomas C. The African Memory of Mark: Reassessing Early Church Tradition. IVP Academic, 2011.

Oden, Thomas C. Early Libyan Christianity: Uncovering a North African Tradition. IVP Academic, 2011.

Oden, Thomas C. How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity. Early African Christianity. IVP, 2007.

Oden, Thomas C., ed. The Songs of Africa: The Ethiopian Canticles. ICCS Press, 2017.

Orr, J. Edwin. Evangelical Awakenings in Africa. Expanded and revised edition. Bethany Fellowship, 1975.

Paas, Steven. The Faith Moves South: A History of the Church in Africa. Kachere Series, 2000.

Payne, Richard E. A State of Mixture: Christians, Zoroastrians, and Iranian Political Culture in Late Antiquity. Transformation of the Classical Heritage 56. University of California Press, 2015.

Pelikan, Jaroslav. The Christian Tradition. University of Chicago Press.
• vol 1: The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600). 1971.
• vol 2: The Spirit of Easter Christendom (600-1700). 1974.
• vol 3: The Growth of Medieval Theology (600-1300). 1978.
• vol 4: Reformation of Church and Dogma (1300-1700). 1984.
• vol 5: Christian Doctrine & Modern Culture (since 1700). 1989.

Pelikan, Jaroslav. Credo: Historical and Theological Guide to Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition. Yale University Press, 2003.

Pelikan, Jaroslav. Divine Rhetoric: The Sermon on the Mount As Message and As Model in Augustine, Chrysostom, and Luther. SVS Press, 2000.

Penn, Michael Philip. Kissing Christians: Ritual and Community in the Late Ancient Church. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.

Penn, Michael Philip. Envisioning Islam: Syriac Christians and the Early Muslim World.
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2015.

Peterson, Derek R. Ethnic Patriotism and the East African Revival: A History of Dissent, c.1935-1972. African Studies Book 122. Cambridge University Press, 2012.

Peterson, Joan M. Handmaids Of The Lord: The Lives of Holy Women in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. Cistercian Studies 143. Cistercian Publications, 1996.

Phillipson, David D. Foundations of an African Civilization: Aksum & The Northern Horn, 1000 BC – AD 1300. Eastern Africa Series. James Currey, 2012.

Pierson, Paul E. The Dynamics of Christian Mission: History through a Missiological Perspective. William Carey International University Press, 2009.

Pinn, Anne H. and Anthony B. Pinn. Fortress Introduction to Black Church History. Augsburg Books, 2001.

Prien, Hans-Jürgen. Christianity in Latin America. Revised and Expanded Edition. Brill, 2012.

Rainy, Robert. The Ancient Catholic Church: From the Accession of Trajan to the Fourth General Council (AD 98-451). International Theological Library. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1902.

Ranson, Angela, André A. Gazal, and Sarah Bastow, eds. Defending the Faith: John Jewel and the Elizabethan Church. Early Modern Studies. Penn State University Press, 2018.

Prien, Hans-Jürgen. Christianity in Latin America. Revised and Expanded Edition. Trans. Stephen Buckwalter. Religion in the Americas 13. Brill, 2012.

Purinton, William T. Transpacific Evangelicalism in the Twentieth Century: Revival and Evangelism in America and Korea. One Mission Society, 2020.

Rao, O. M. Focus on North East Indian Christianity. ISPCK, 1994.

Rebillard, Éric. Christians and Their Many Identities in Late Antiquity, North Africa, 200–450 CE. Cornell University Press, 2012.

Robert, Dana L. Christian Mission: How Christianity Became a World Religion. Wiley Blackwell Brief Histories of Religion Book 46. Wiley Blackwell, 2011.

Ross, Kenneth R., eds. Atlas of Global Christianity. Edinburgh University Press, 2009.

Ross, Kenneth R., J. Kwabena Asamoah-Gyadu, and Todd M. Johnson. Christianity in Sub-Saharan Africa. Edinburgh Companions to Global Christianity. Edinburgh University Press, 2017.

Ross, Kenneth R., Mariz Tadros, and Todd M. Johnson, eds. Christianity in North Africa and West Asia. Edinburgh Companions to Global Christianity. Edinburgh University Press, 2018.

Rubi, Miri. Emotion and Devotion: The Meaning of Mary in Medieval Religious Cultures. Central European University Press, 2009.

Rudy, Kathryn M. Piety in Pieces: How Medieval Readers Customized their Manuscripts. Open Book Publishers, 2016.

Russell, Norman. The Doctrine of Deification in the Greek Patristic Tradition. Oxford Early Christian Studies. Oxford University Press, 2005.

Sahner, Christian C. Christian Martyrs under Islam: Religious Violence and the Making of the Muslim World. Princeton University Press, 2018.

Saint-Laurent, Jeanne-Nichole Mellon. Missionary Stories and the Formation of the Syriac Churches. Transformation of the Classical Heritage 55. University of California Press, 2015.

Sandgren, David P. Christianity and the Kikuyu: Religious Divisions and Social Conflict. Peter Lang, 2000.

Sanneh, Lamin. West African Christianity: The Religious Impact. Orbis Books, 1996.

Sanneh, Lamin and Michael J. McClymond, eds. The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to World Christianity. Wiley Blackwell Companions to Religion. Wiley-Blackwell, 2016.

Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church. 3rd ed. 1858.
• vol. 1: Apostolic Christianity, A.D. 1–100
• vol. 2: Ante-Nicene Christianity, A.D. 100–325
• vol. 3: Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity, A.D. 311–600
• vol. 4: Medieval Christianity from A.D. 590 to 1517
• vol. 5: The Middle Ages from Gregory VII, 1049, to Boniface VIII, 1294
• vol. 6: The Middle Ages from Boniface VIII, 1294, to the Protestant Reformation, 1517
• vol. 7: Modern Christianity — The German Reformation
• vol. 8: Modern Christianity — The Swiss Reformation

Schnabel, Eckhard J. Early Christian Mission. IVP, 2004.
• vol. 1: Jesus and the Twelve.
• vol. 2: Paul and the Early Church.

Schmidt, Leigh Eric. Holy Fairs: Scottish Communions and the American Revivals in the Early Modern Period. Princeton University Press, 1989.

Schroeder, Caroline T. Monastic Bodies: Discipline and Salvation in Shenoute of Atripe.
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011.

Sernett, Milton C. African American Religious History: A Documentary History. 2nd edition. The C. Eric Lincoln series on the Black experience. Duke University Press, 2012.

Shantz, Douglas H. An Introduction to German Pietism: Protestant Renewal at the Dawn of Modern Europe. Forward by and Peter C. Erb. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013.

Shaw, Ian J. Christianity: the Biography: 2000 Years of Global History. Zondervan, 2016.

Shaw, Ian J. Churches, Revolutions and Empires: 1789-1914. Christian Focus, 2012.

Shaw, Mark R. The Kingdom of God in Africa: A Short History of African Christianity. Baker, 1996.
Note: The second edition, revised and expanded, co-written by Wanjiru M. Gitau, was released by Langham Global Library in 2020.

Shaw, Mark R. Global Awakening: How 20th Century Revivals Triggered a Christian Revolution. IVP Academic, 2010.

W. J. Shiels, ed. The Church and Healing: Papers Read at the Twentieth Summer Meeting and the Twenty-First Winter Meeting of the Ecclesiastical History Society. Studies in Church History 19. Oxford: Blackwell, 1982.
chapters include:
Andrew F. Walls, “‘The Heavy Artillery of the Missionary Army’: The Domestic Importance of the Nineteenth-Century Medical Missionary,” 287-297.

Sheldrake, Philip. Love Took My Hand: the spirituality of George Herbert. Darton, Longman & Todd, 2000.

Shields, Bruce E. & David A. Butzu. Generations of Praise: The History of Worship. College Press, 2006.

Sheils, W. J., ed. The Church and Healing: Papers Read at the Twentieth Summer Meeting (1981) & the Twenty-First Winter Meeting (1982) of the Ecclesiastical History Society. Oxford: Blackwell, 1982. Studies in Church History 19.

Smith, Kyle. Constantine and the Captive Christians of Persia: Martyrdom and Religious Identity in Late Antiquity. Transformation of the Classical Heritage 57. University of California Press, 2016.

Smither, Edward L. Christian Mission: A Concise Global History. Lexham Press, 2019.

Spear, Thomas and Isaria N. Kimambo, eds. East African Expressions of Christianity. Eastern African Studies. James Currey / Mkuki na Nyota / EAEP / Ohio University Press, 1999.

Stanley, Brian. Christianity in the Twentieth Century: A World History. Princeton University Press, 2018.

Stine, Phillip C. Bible Translation and the Spread of the Church: The Last 200 Years. Leiden: Brill, 1990.

Studer, Basil. Trinity and Incarnation: The Faith of the Early Church. Liturgical Press, 1993.

Suberg, O. M. The Anglican Tradition in South Africa: A Historical Overview. UNISA Press, 1999.

Sundkler, Bengt and Christopher Steed. A History of The Church in Africa. Cambridge University Press, 2000.

Sunquist, Scott W., ed. A Dictionary of Asian Christianity. Trinity Press International, 2001.

Sunquist, Scott W. Explorations in Asian Christianity: History, Theology, and Mission. Missiological Engagements. IVP Academic, 2017.

Sykes, Norman. The English Religious Tradition: Sketches of its influence on Church, State, and Society. Hyperion, 1986.

Tapsell, Grant. The Later Stuart Church, 1660–1714. Manchester University Press, 2017.

Tavárez, David. Words and Worlds Turned Around: Indigenous Christianities in Colonial Latin America. Forward by William B. Taylor. University Press of Colorado, 2017.

Thekkedath, Joseph. History of Christianity in India; vol. II: From the Middle of the Sixteenth Century to the End of the Seventeenth Century. Church History Association of India, 1988.

Tilley, Maureen A. The Bible in Christian North Africa: the Donatist World. Fortress Press, 1997.

Tilley, Maureen A., trans. with notes and introduction. Donatist Martyr Stories: The Church in Conflict in Roman North Africa. Translated Texts for Historians 24. Liverpool University Press, 1996.

Traylor, Richard C. Born of Water and Spirit: The Baptist Impulse in Kentucky, 1776-1860.  The University of Tennessee Press, 2015.

Trigg, Joseph W. Origen. Routledge, 1998.

Tucker, Ruth A. and Walter L. Liefeld. Daughters of the Church: Women and Ministry from New Testament Times to the Present. Zondervan, 1987.

Urban, Linwood. A Short History of Christian Thought. Revised ed. Oxford University Press, 1986.

Valenze, Deborah M. Prophetic Sons and Daughters: Female Preaching and Popular Religion in Industrial England. Princeton Legacy Library. Princeton University Press, 1985, 2017.

Van Dam, Raymond. Becoming Christian: The Conversion of Roman Cappadocia. University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003.

Veyne, Paul. When our World Became Christian: 312-394. Polity Books, 2010.

Walker, Williston, Richard A. Norris, David W. Lotz, and Robert T. Handy. A History of the Christian Church. 4th ed. Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1985.

Walls, Andrew F. The Missionary Movement in Christian History: Studies in the Transmission of Faith. Orbis Books, 1996.

Ward, Kevin and Emma Wild-Wood, eds. The East African Revival: History and Legacies. Fountain Studies in East African History. Fountain Publishers, 2010. (2nd edition, priced for the academic Western market, published by Routledge , 2017)

Ware, Timothy. The Orthodox Church. New edition. Penguin, 1997.

Weber, Timothy, ed. The Treasury of Christian Spiritual Classics. Thomas Nelson, 1994.
includes:
• Augustine. Confessions.
• Bernard of Clairvaux. On the Song of Songs.
• Julian of Norwich. Revelations of Divine Love.
• Thomas à Kempis. The Imitation of Christ.
• Brother Lawrence. The Practice of the Presence of God.

Werner, Roland, William Anderson, and Andrew Wheeler. Day of Devastation, Day of Contentment: The History of the Sudanese Church across 2000 Years. 2nd ed. Paulines, 2010.

Welsby, Derek A. The Medieval Kingdoms of Nubia: Pagans, Christians and Muslims along the Middle Nile. British Museum Press, 2002.

Wilken, Robert Louis. The First Thousand Years: A Global History of Christianity. Yale University Press, 2012.

Williams, Rowan. Why Study the Past? The Quest for the Historical Church. Eerdmans, 2005.

Witte, John, Jr. and Michael Bourdeaux. Proselytism and Orthodoxy in Russia: the new war for souls. Orbis Books, 1999.

Woodson, Carter Godwin. The History of the Negro Church. The Associated Publishes, 1921.

Yates, Timothy. The Expansion of Christianity. IVP Histories. IVP Press / Lion Press, 2004.

Ye’or, Bat. The Decline of Eastern Christianity Under Islam: From Jihad to Dhimmitude. Forward by Jacques Ellul. Trans. (from French) Miriam Kochan and David Littman. Associated University Presses, 1996.

Zernov, Nicolas. The Russians and their Church. 3rd ed. St Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1994.