2000 years of Christ’s power; the Age of Enlightenment and Awakening

I’m a firm believer that every Christian should have a basic understanding of some of the key moments and happenings in the history of the church. There are plenty of books out there that provide that, let me introduce you to one. Nick Needham is a Church History lecturer at Highland Theological College in Dingwall, Scotland. He’s written a whopper of a series called ‘2000 years of Christ’s power’. The series does as it says on the tin, it starts back at the beginning of the early church father and walks through to the 18th Century in this newest volume.

This book is probably going to be of most interest to those who want to dive into church history in a bit more depth. In this book Needham touches on the enlightenment period, the scientific revolution, the philosopher Immanuel Kant, how the enlightenment impacted people’s view of Scripture and faith. All of that in chapter 1!

In chapter 2 Needham focuses in on the evangelical revival in England and Wales including some of the wonderful things that the Lord did, some of the controversies that took place and some of the tragedies too.

in chapter 3 Needham focuses in on Scotland, then on America in chapter 4, Germany in chapter 5, Catholicism in chapter 6 and Eastern Orthodoxy in chapter 7.

This book, whilst it comes in at a whopping 642 pages, it is a whistle stop tour of a significant time period in the church. Needham does a good job of looking at the entire history of the church, rather than simply focusing in on the theological debates and discussions, he touches on he political and sociological issues that took place and how that impacted the church and the people of God during the time.

If you’re already familiar with church history, the chapters that may be most interesting to you are those on Catholicism, Lutherinism and the Eastern Orthodox faith. Personally, I found these intriguing because I don’t have a huge amount of experience with those three groups so Needham’s book certainly helped me understand their thinking and faith a little more.

This book is probably for you if you’re a Pastor who is wanting to keep his brain ticking as it did in seminary, or as an elder who wants to grow in your understanding of church history or as a church member who is particularly interested in the enlightenment and the awakening.

You can get your own copy here from Christian Focus.

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*** I received a copy of this book from the publishers in exchange for an honest review. This does not change the way I rate the book. My views are my own. ***