Every so often, a voice or preacher comes to challenge a city: Augustine in Hippo and Carthage, Savonarola in Florence, Calvin in Geneva and more recently Spurgeon in nineteenth-century London. In the late fourth century in Antioch, and then in Constantinople, it was the Golden Mouth (Chrysostom) of John whose voice and teaching carried the day.Given to an ascetic life, he became the principal preacher in Antioch, where followers of the Way were first called Christians, and was the...

The Gospel of Luke uniquely proclaims that the message of good news was for the outsider in Jewish society, and indeed for any outsider in any society where the sleek, the successful and the slick are often preferred to the loser, the lonely and the lowly.In this book, Patrick Whitworth explores how this compassion for the outsider is clear from several levels, and should direct our mission to those who, in whatever shape or form, are outsiders today in our communities.At t...

In this compelling and richly detailed study, Patrick Whitworth brings to life one of the most influential figures of the early Church: Irenaeus of Lyon. Born in Smyrna and shaped by the teachings of Polycarp and the Apostle John, Irenaeus stood at the crossroads of history, theology, and culture in the second century. Confronting the seductive allure of Gnosticism and the theological distortions of Marcion, he crafted Against Heresies—a landmark work of Christian thought that lai...

Throughout its history, the Church has never been far from controversy and conflict, exhibiting its all-too-human nature. The greatest and most fundamental controversy was the fourth-century debate about the status of Christ and the Spirit as being fully divine: in other words, the Doctrine of the Trinity.The controversy lasted at least a hundred years, and much longer among the Goths. Defining God tells the story of that controversy: its main protagonists, the involvement...

Discover the story of the English Church from its earliest times to the present day. Having taken root in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms, it emerged in the medieval world amidst poverty, pandemics and power struggles, and not free from abuses. We see here its struggles during the Reformation, leading to an English Bible and Prayer Book, and the virtual banishment of Roman Catholicism for three hundred years. We see the spawning of new forms of Protestantism, inimical to the Crown, with the emerg...

Although titled the “Acts of the Apostles”, Luke’s second volume to Theophilus could also be called “Acts of the Holy Spirit”. The text begins with the Ascension of Christ and the explosive moment of Pentecost when the Spirt was given to the Church. Thereafter, not only were the Apostles empowered, notably Peter, Paul and John, but also a whole group of Co-Stars: men and women who took forward the advance of the Gospel in those early years. Here we find Stephen and Barnabas, Lydia and Pris...

Includes a foreword by Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury.The Cappadocian fathers of the fourth century—Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa and Gregory Nazianzen—produced thoughts on the Trinity, the creation, the incarnation, the holistic reading of scripture and the discipline of the soul which are playing a more seminal role in Christian theology today that at any time in the last four hundred years. Too often, however, their teachings are appropria...

The period covered by this book (AD 381–451) is the first in which the church can be said to have exercised a dominant role in political history. For some it is the period in which the church lost its innocence. Yet without the innovations of Constantine and his successors, it is hard for us to imagine what Christianity might have been. Without this time of consolidation and increasing conformity, Europe would not have existed as we now know it—nor, for that matter, would Islam.It ...

Patrick Whitworth tells the story of the growth of the early Christian community. Eschewing speculation, he provides a clear narrative interspersed with pithy accounts of the most significant Christian teachers in the period which culminated in the advent of the first Christian Emperor, Constantine.It is a story that is particularly relevant at a time when Christendom is a fading memory and the Christian community is struggling to discover where the Spirit is leading in a global cu...

Mark’s Gospel was written in Rome, the political centre of the ancient world. Its author was a follower of ‘the Way’ and likely an eyewitness of the ministry of Jesus. The Good News according to Mark relies on the recollections of the apostle Peter and was the pioneering prototype of the New Testament Gospels.In this accessible guide to the shortest and oldest of the Gospels in the New Testament, Patrick Whitworth explores some of the key texts and themes of the Gospel of Mark. Fro...

John’s Gospel is like no other. It has a number of unique features. Its principal question is the identity of Jesus as the Word made flesh, full of grace and truth. It records a growing stand-off and enmity between the Jewish leaders and Jesus, as Jesus provokes their prejudices and challenges their power base.In this exploration of the Gospel, Patrick Whitworth shows that it is the relationship of Jesus with the Father and the Spirit that makes this Gospel so distinctive and uniqu...

Matthew’s Gospel seeks to show that the life, teaching and ministry of Jesus fulfils what was promised in the Old Testament and has long been expected by the people of Israel.In this accessible guide to the first book of the New Testament, Patrick Whitworth explores key texts and themes of the Gospel of Matthew, such as the Sermon on the Mount, the Passion Narrative, the story of the resurrection and the Gospel’s finale in the Great Commission to “go into all the world and preach t...