Great illustrations and easy reference for dates and names

I've read a few Christian history books over the years. This one is by no means comprehensive, but gives some major highlights within each century. I appreciate the graphics, the highlights and hyperlinks, which make the text much more engaging and interesting to the reader. I think this is a book one can read over and over, pick up new things every time. You can go as deep as you want into the weeds of Christian history, which should be important for every Christian. Overall, it was an enjoyable read, although it took me me a while to complete. (I seem to always peter out when reading Christian history books around the 7-8th century)

Church history condensed into 150 pages. Terrific little summary, easy to understand facts in bullet like format. Great resource material.

A fairly helpful introduction to church history. Interprets Christian history from a particular perspective, and doesn’t really attempt to address other perspectives, but that is to be expected given that it is an introductory text.

This book was read for DC

It was a simple overview of the History of the church touching on some of the basic concepts of Theology and how different groups of believers came about.

It was well done and I wish I had a Paper copy instead of the ebook because it had great pictures!

I give it a 4 but it does cover most of the areas that we need to know within the early church fathers. This book, in no question, had lead me to study further, such as the early church fathers.

While there are some very interesting parts of this book, I can’t say that it or the topic are easy.

This beautiful full-color book highlights the major personalities in Christian development over the last 2,000 years … from A.D. 64 to 2009.

It’s a short book, so I confess I felt a little frustrated at the lack of depth. The book takes on a little too big a topic for 188 pages of text, and religion is a topic where oversimplifying by bouncing along the surface can distort as much as elucidate. Therefore, to get the full benefit of the book, treat it like an instruction course and take advantage of the internet research suggestions peppered throughout the text. But for my money (for a lot more money, I’m sure) I’d love to have 600 pages between the covers of this one.

One other minor frustration: Jones is a Southern Baptist whose subtle preaching permeates the book. For example, Deism is at least twice referred to as a false doctrine. This is probably just a personal issue, but I find it easier to trust a scholar who does a better job of hiding his own religious bias.

With my complaints out of the way, let me say that I thoroughly enjoyed reading the text! It’s a fun read, full of tidbits from history and helpful explanations of Christian terms. Every Christian should know at least the basics of Church history, and I definitely recommend this book as an entertaining stepping stone to whet your appetite for further in-depth reading.

Timothy Paul Jones does a good job walking through Christian History in a small amount of pages. Though his own traditional bias pops it's head now and then, ultimately I will judge it to be a fair account of Christian History starting from the early church and landing in Evangelical/Pentecostal missions.

Reading Level: Early collegiate. Would recommend to a layperson interested in the topic who has been in the church for a while.

This is a great short history of the Christian church through the ages. It is set up for a 12-week class, but I did a 6-week class. This book looks great with pictures and color pages and is not a boring long text book, so I would fully recommend it. In the back it includes outlines for the 12 classes and one-page learning activities you can photocopy and hand out. Before each chapter is a one-page "What you should know about [time period] with _# Events, _ # Names, and _ # Terms. The numbers vary by chapter. There is a Leader's Guide you can buy, but I didn't use it much. For one, the dates were different than the chapters and outlines in the back of this book(!?). And much of it seemed repeated from the outlines. The Leader's Guide says it goes with the DVD-based study, but still, why does it not follow the book? So, in short, the book is great, don't buy the leader's guide unless you get the whole package.

This was a nice little reference book about the span of Christian history. I mainly used it to compile a list of early Church fathers to read from and on certain topics in a chronological order. I appreciated how many issues and topics the book included and is truly an easy laid out book on the topic. It's an easy read that gives you a good number of options for deeper reading. Final Grade - B+

Christian History Made Easy is an extremely well put together book. I am a curious person who is always looking for answers to many things. How we have so many denominations has always had me wondering how they evolved. And, the Bible itself, how did we come to have so many versions?

I found answers to these thoughts/questions and plenty more in this book. The book briefly summarizes the church history throughout the ages touching down at greater length when discussing key figures or moments in history. What I like is enough information is given to address each time period but then the information can be expanded into a further in-depth study with the web references, so you can continue on with your studies if you want.

At the beginning of each chapter is a timeline which basically shows you what is covered in the chapter. In each chapter besides web references, there are key concepts highlighted in a box, pictures, diagrams, and maps pertaining to the subject at hand. You will also find “In Case you’re confused” highlights that help clarify some of the things that are discussed. The “Think About It” and “Did You Know” highlights get you thinking about what you have read.

Truly, this makes learning about church history fun and entertaining. The author interjects little quips here and there that lighten the mood while reading. I appreciate that this book is laid out more or less as a tell it like it is format and doesn’t try to give an opinion on what is right or wrong. That is left up to you as a reader to accept or reject.

I received an ARC from Rose Publishing at my request for review purposes. I so enjoyed it that I will be ordering a print copy!