Understanding Church History

Catalog description

The course traces the course of Christianity from its beginnings to the present day. Topics include the early controversies and the development of various creeds, the growth of the Roman Catholic Church, early missionary efforts, the development of church hierarchies, church splits, the Great Reformation and Counter-Reformation, the interactions between Christianity and the Islamic world, and the development of various Protestant theological divisions. In addition, the course will examine the decline of Christianity in the West, coupled with the rapid growth of evangelical and Pentecostal Christianity in the Southern and Eastern Hemispheres, particularly China and southern Africa.