From Dogma to History: How Our Understanding of the Early Church Developed - Softcover

William H. C. Frend, who has devoted more than fifty years to the study of the early Church, has since become one of the foremost church historians in the English-speaking world. He has published a series of pioneering books on this period, drawing upon his practical experience and expertise as an archaeologist in North Africa, Egypt, Crete, Asia Minor and Britain. Here, Frend deals with the idealistic phase in the study of early Christian history, from a study of Church doctrine and institutions to the development of the Church's role in the general history of the Greco-Roman world. From Dogma to History considers the work of six eminent historians who had a decisive part in influencing the current approach to the history of early Christianity, not least, through archaeology. Frend reflects upon the various ways in which Adolf von Harnack; Hans Leitzmann; Stéphane Gsell; Sir William Mitchell Ramsey; Mgr Louis Duchesne and Norman Hepburn Baynes have had a determinative influence upon both his own life's work, and that of Church history more generally. The work of these six scholars collectively transformed the study of the early Church from the history of the development of doctrinal orthodoxy to the history of Christianity during the first six centuries AD. From Dogma to History will, therefore, be of particular interest to all students and researchers of late-Antiquity and the history of early Christianity. "This is an unusual and fascinating book. It gathers six studies of important scholars of the Early Church who were formative influences on the author (...) SCM are to be congratulated on producing a book which charts the intellectual biography of this author: it is personal, informative and sometimes moving. It might also motivate some to follow Frend in the path of serious patristic scholarship." Mark D Chapman, Ripon College Cuddesdon. "Frend's book, with its blend of biography and autobiography, does indeed trace the move from dogma to history of the last century, while it also highlights the problems of the discipline and the struggles of major scholars to combine faithfulness to their subject matter with loyalty to their Christian tradition." Alastaire H. B. Logan, University of Exeter, 2006.

W H C Frend was formerly Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Glasgow.