Written by John D. Woodbridge and Frank A. James III
Reviewed by Stephen Eccher
John Woodbridge and Frank James History of the Church: From the pre-Reformation to the present ends a nearly decade-long wait for Zondervan’s companion edition to Everett Ferguson’s previous volume from 2005 (now offered in a second 2013 edition). Woodbridge and James’ new offering describes the last five hundred years of Christian church history, with objectivity as its stated overarching goal. Like Ferguson’s earlier work, this volume presents the story as a narrative in which “God works through sinners to accomplish his good purposes” (p. 29). Thus, the work intends to offer a truthful and unfettered account of the history of Christianity, warts and all.
Woodbridge and James’ work spans twenty-two chapters in total, beginning at the beginning of the fourteenth century and at the precipice of the Reformation and culminating in the twenty-first century. Here, History of the Church: From the pre-Reformation to the present follows the traditional pattern of most survey texts on church history, but offers two notable contributions. First, unlike many of its predecessors, this text attempts to take a much less Western/Eurocentric route by addressing the history of Christianity in countries such as Africa, China, India, and Latin America. Second, the book’s ambitious scope into the twenty-first century sets it apart from many other parallel attempts that eschew such efforts for fear of losing some historical distance and perspective.
Each of Woodbridge and James’s twenty-two chapters is captivating, covering not only the major characters, events, and controversies one might assume to see in a church history text, but also lesser-known contributions to the history of the Church. This balanced approach helps paint a clearer and more authentic picture of the Church since the early modern period. Here, relying on the most recent historiography, the authors avoid idealizing the people and/or actions of the Christian Church. For example, the presentation of Martin Luther in chapter three does not avoid the reformer’s harsh relations with German peasants, the consequences of his ideas independent of the ecclesiastical order, or his anti-Semitic diatribes later in his life (pp. 130 -35, 144). –45). These events are placed alongside Luther’s best-known contributions to Protestantism in a holistic presentation of a very complex figure in church history.
The joint authorship of this work helps clarify difficult or seemingly obscure topics by providing the perspectives of two world-class scholars with different strengths. Woodbridge and James remain confined more closely to their own personal areas of expertise. This approach allows both authors to draw on the wealth of their academic experience to address the detailed philosophical and theological concepts required for any responsible representation of Christian church history. Here, Woodbridge and James treat their subjects with lucidity and nuance, making the text accessible to people of varying academic and intellectual levels. The “For Further Study” sections at the end of each chapter helpfully direct the reader toward more specialized, thematic, and biographical studies.
Some of the highlights of History of the Church: From the pre-Reformation to the present, however, may also be one of its most glaring weaknesses. The voluminous eight hundred and sixty-two pages, while giving the authors ample latitude to navigate the time period in question, are problematic on two fronts. Firstly, and curiously, this leaves the book surprisingly disjointed from its previous companion volume; Ferguson’s previous volume covers twice as much time at almost half its length. Reading the two volumes in tandem highlights this clear dissonance. This may also present logistical challenges for those wishing to implement this two-volume series in a classroom setting. This contrast may even unintentionally suggest to some that the events of the last five hundred years of the Church deserve more consideration than those of the first fifteen hundred years. Second, although written in a clear style and prose that makes this book accessible to most Christians, theologically trained or not, the sheer volume of the text may present this work as an intimidating read for some, inevitably making it less accessible.
Likewise, Woodbridge and James’s twenty-first century scope provides highly informative and useful discussions of such relevant contemporary issues as the relationship between Christianity and Islam, the participation of minorities and women in the modern Church and the engagement of the Christian faith in culture and politics. . Yet at times the book’s promise of objectivity, which was presented in the preface as a pillar of the methodology of this historic effort, can be lost on issues still currently debated within the Church. For example, one can perceive a certain level of authorial judgment on discussions regarding the highly controversial egalitarian-complementarian debate described in chapter twenty-one (pp. 818-19). Additionally, while depictions of the Christian faith in locations outside of the more traditional Western/Eurocentric model are applauded, these studies are largely limited to the modern era. This lack of expansion, beyond the reach of the Western Church when presenting the eight centuries covered in this volume, may leave the reader wondering what global Christianity was like before the 20th and 21st centuries.
Ultimately, Woodbridge and James’s History of the Church: From the pre-Reformation to the present presents itself as a useful investigative book on the history of Christianity. It is presented at a level most conducive to college or graduate level, but is not intellectually elevated to the point of being inaccessible to laypeople interested in knowing the narrative of the Christian faith. Despite some minor weaknesses, this is a useful history book. There have been only a handful of survey texts on church history written by evangelicals in the past decade, and the work of Woodbridge and James rivals any of them in terms of content, readability and fidelity to historical documents.
Stephen Echer
Stephen Echer
Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary
Wake Forest, North Carolina, United States