Henry Chadwick was a fine historian and this accessible guide to The Early Church is a wonderful resource into the life, controversies and personalities of the first three hundred years of the church.

I enjoyed learning more about Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, Athanasius, Clement, Cyprian, Tertullian, Augustine, Origen, Jerome and John Chysostom these great heroes of our faith who did so much to fight for truth in the church. I thought Chadwick did just enough to bring the characters to life and a great job of explaining the battles and the background of the Roman emperors.

A few things struck me, that truth is worth fighting for and in our post-modern, relativist age that’s something worth being reminded of. The truth is also worth dying for and it’s worth giving up all we have for.

It reminded me that the church has always struggled to agree with one another, that splits and battles have been a feature in its life almost from the beginning so that my passion for truth must be coupled with a larger slice of humility.

The church struggled as wealth, status and power accumulated which reminds me that those things must be handled with great care. The church was beautiful as it demonstrated compassion, generosity, community.

It also struck me how obvious it was that someone was a Christian from the distinctive way of life and somehow I think that’s so often missing from my life. It’s something I need to give some more thought to.

I did occasionally struggle to keep my Donatists, Docetists, Pelagians, Arians, and various forms of Gnostics separate in my head but it’s certainly clearer now than it was before! It’s balanced, readable, erudite and informative so if you want to know about these earliest days of the church then this is an excellent place to start.