The history of the American Presbyterian church is wrapped up American history.

I therefore want to recommend some resources to help you learn about the Reformation for yourself and teach it to others.

The great thing here is that McClanahan’s course on “the Presidents: 10 Worst and 10 Best” is completely FREE.

In a previous post, I recommended biographies on the five greatest Christian men in history. Here I would like to recommend the greatest individual work that each of these men produced.

I want to recommend five biographies of what I consider to be the five greatest Christian men in history. They are historical giants and worthy of study by everyone. 

Church history is the story of God’s providential workings in the church. And it is a sad fact that most Christians today know little of it. This is made worse because church history is exciting. The history of Christ’s church includes great people, great events, and great stories.

Sadly, many Americans barely know their own history. This is why comedians make videos of people on the street who cannot answer simple questions about the U.S. I do not want to excuse such ignorance, but it must also be said that this is not entirely the fault of the individuals. Much blame belongs to our educational system.

Modern European history starts where the medieval period ends. The easy marker here is 1500 A.D. The Byzantine Empire fell in 1453 A.D., and the Reformation began in 1517 A.D. Both of these events brought great change to Europe. The makings of the Reformation had been brewing for centuries, with the humanist emphasis on the original sources being pivotal (in this case, the Bible). The invention of the printing press then allowed the Reformers to communicate their message with the masses.

Medieval history is almost completely neglected in modern education. Its very title “Middle Ages” suggests it was a time between the more important ancient and modern worlds (medieval is a combination of the Latin for “Middle Ages,” medium aevum). But this was a pejorative label given by those of the Renaissance era. The period (and more specifically 300 to 1000 A.D.) is often mischaracterized as “the Dark Ages,” though this could not be further from the truth.

I would now like to recommend some resources for such courses, starting with Ancient History. It makes sense to begin the study of history from the beginning. Ancient history should begin with God’s creation of the world and end with the Christianization of the Roman Empire.