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{{Short description|Academic discipline studying the history of Christianity}}{{About|the academic discipline|an overview of the history of the Christian religion|History of Christianity|other uses|Church History (disambiguation)|and|Ecclesiastical History (disambiguation)}}{{Redirect|Church historian|the official of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints|Church Historian and Recorder}}__NOTOC__Church history or ecclesiastical history as an academic discipline studies the history of Christianity and the way the Christian Church has developed since its inception.Henry Melvill Gwatkin defined church history as "the spiritual side of the history of civilized people ever since our Master's coming".Henry Melvill Gwatkin, Early Church History to A.D. 313, p. 4. A. M. Renwick, however, defines it as an account of the Church's success and failure in carrying out Christ's Great Commission.A. M. Renwick and A. M. Harman, The Story of the Church (3rd ed.), p. 8. Renwick suggests a fourfold division of church history into missionary activity, church organization, doctrine and "the effect on human life".Church history is often, but not always, studied from a Christian perspective. Writers from different Christian traditions will often highlight people and events particularly relevant to their own denominational history. Catholic and Orthodox writers often highlight the achievements of the ecumenical councils, while evangelical historians may focus on the Protestant Reformation and the Great Awakenings.

Notable church historians

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• Hegesippus
• Eusebius
• Macarius Bulgakov
• Daniela Müller
• Leonard J. Arrington
• Hans Werner Debrunner
• Henry Melvill Gwatkin
• Owen Chadwick
• Henry Chadwick
• Diarmaid MacCulloch
• George Marsden
• Martin E. Marty
• Mark Noll
• Jaroslav Pelikan
• Catherine Pepinster
• Philip Schaff
• Carl Trueman
• Paul Woolley
• David Brading

See also

• Ecclesiastical history of the Catholic Church
• Bede's Ecclesiastical History of the English People
• Historical theology

References

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Further reading

• Reinhold Zippelius, Staat und Kirche. Eine Geschichte von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, 2nd ed. Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen, 2009, {{ISBN|978-3-16-150016-9}}
• Church History and Religious Culture journal.weblink{{dead link|date=August 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}

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