Christians need to study church history. Present-day believers can find soul-encouragement from the perseverance of yesteryear’s saints. Nothing will fuel your faithfulness today like reading about towering Christians who faced ridicule, persecution, and even death for the “crime” of following Jesus. Modern disciples can also learn to be more wary of false doctrine from studying the array of heresies which have arisen over the years, and how theologians in past centuries combatted such lies as beacons of biblical truth. There are a dozen more reasons to savor good books on church history, and today’s believers are blessed to have such a book from Nick Needham, Shapers of Christianity.

Excellent content + skillful writing = a book you cannot put down. I cannot recommend this short volume enough. Nick Needham is a modern-day expert on church history and the gold-nugget details that leave you saying, “Wow. I never knew that.” I burned through this book in four days. Needham paints brief sketches of the church fathers, reformers, and American theologians like B. B. Warfield and J. Gresham Machen.

To whet your appetite, here are a few little-known facts I gleaned from the book:

• Irenaeus of Lyons (who wrote his best works during AD 175-195) was directly discipled by Polycarp, who was directly discipled by John the apostle.

• Most arguments for the deity of Christ, the divine personhood of the Holy Spirit, and the Trinity were first facilitated by Gregory of Nazianzus (AD 330-390). He helped think through the Bible’s teaching on the Triune Godhead, shaping our Trinitarian doctrines into what they are today.

• Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) wrote the first-ever systematic theology on substitutionary atonement.

• John Calvin and other reformers cherished the commentaries written by a little-known Eastern Orthodox theologian, Theophylact of Ochrid (1050-1109). And that is saying something, considering the schism between the two theologies.

• John Wycliffe (1330-1384), who led the way in giving us the English Bible we have today, was so detested by the Roman Catholic Church that they dug up his bones after his death and burned them. And, the Bible societies he founded were still active when the Reformation eventually made its way to England.

• A lesser-known Russian monk named Tikhon of Zadonsk (1724-1783) transformed the world of devotional writing. He loved Western Christian literature, and Western Christians loved him back.

• Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), though known for “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” preached much more on grace than wrath; and his neighborhood experienced such revival that they found it bizarre to engage in small-talk—unless it was biblical.

• Without the organizational genius of John Wesley (1703-1791), Christianity in America would not be what it is today. Wesley also disliked open-air preaching, but did it anyway, explaining, “I love a commodious room, a soft cushion, a handsome pulpit. But where is my zeal, if I do not trample all these under foot in order to save one more soul?” (65).

• Francis Turretin (1623-1687), an older Italian reformed theologian, was perhaps the chief reason why Princeton was once a champion of biblical truth. His “Institutes of Elenctic Theology,” was devoured by then-president Charles Hodge (Hodge persuaded one of his friends to translate the work into English, without which, we would not be able to read it today). And Hodge was a major influence on B. B. Warfield and J. Gresham Machen, whose writings were desperately needed in the age of modernism and liberalism.

Get your copy of Shapers of Christianity by Nick Needham in paperback from Banner of Truth.

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