The sources of Christian church history, the data on which we rely for our knowledge,are partly divine, partly human. For the history of the apostolic age, until about A.D. 68 or 69, we have the inspired writings of the Old and New Testaments. But after the death of the apostles we have only human authorities, which of course cannot claim to be infallible. We will follow the chronological record of events for the early Christian Church,including dates, places and persons involved from the infancy of John the Baptist to the Death of John. This is the period dating from B.C. 5 or 4 to the Death of The Apostle John which happened in a period between A.D. 98-100. We will also give a detailed account of the Jewish war which started in AD 66 and concluded in AD 73. This includes details of the destruction of the Temple in AD 70.

Chadwickʹs Early Church covers, as the book cover suggests, "the story of emergent Christianity from the apostolic age to the dividing of the ways between the Greek East and the Latin West." The story unfolds with the Jewish and Roman background within which the beginning church was nourished. It then goes on to show how important it is for the church to establish order and unity amidst threats of persecution and heresy. The emergence of apologists helps not only the expansion of the church but also the construction of Christian doctrine. At the same time, controversies abound as the church encountered many different cultural and sociological challenges while trying out in reaction a variety of ideas. With chapter seven, the relation between church and state changes, resulting in a stronger influence of the state upon the church while accelerating the split between the Latin West and the Greek East. The Arian controversy shows a period of instability between state and church, and also deepens the split of East and West. But within the turmoil, ascetic practice, papacy, liturgy, and art are established, helping to transmit a common European culture while the Roman Empire begins to degenerate.

This fascinating and lively book provides the first comprehensive discussion of the production, circulation, and use of books in early Christianity. It explores the extent of literacy in early Christian communities; the relation in the early church between oral tradition and written materials; the physical form of early Christian books; how books were produced, transcribed, published, duplicated, and disseminated; how Christian libraries were formed; who read the books, in what circumstances, and to what purposes. Harry Y. Gamble interweaves practical and technological dimensions of the production and use of early Christian books with the social and institutional history of the period. Drawing on evidence from papyrology, codicology, textual criticism, and early church history, as well as on knowledge about the bibliographical practices that characterized Jewish and Greco-Roman culture, he offers a new perspective on the role of books in the first five centuries of the early church.