The book is an attempt to fulfill the long felt need of readers, particularly students undergoing theological training under Senate of Serampore College (University) which pioneers theological education in India and the South East Asia in line with the new curriculum of the Senate. It is a product of the author's 15 years experience of teaching the subject of History of Christianity from the first to the eighteenth century to the Bachelor of Divinity and Master of Divinity students.
The book covers the history of Christianity from the beginnings to the 18th century in seven chapters. The first chapter begins with historiographical questions followed by how Christianity originates in its Judeo-Greco-Roman settings. Issues of monasticism and the relationship with Islam are discussed in the third and fourth chapter. The fifth chapter examines the important developments during the Middle Ages, followed by the sixteenth Century Reform movement in the western church. The seventh and last chapter examines the nature and growth of pietism, evangelicalism and the missionary movement.
Rev. Dr. M. Thongkhosei Haokip has taught History of Christianity at the Academy of Integrated Christian Studies (AICS), Aizawl, Mizoram for about fifteen years. Thongkhosei is an ordained minister of the Kuki Baptist Convention. He is married to Lamkhochin and they are blessed with four daughters.
Dr. Haokip has authored two books in the past, viz. A History of Ecumenical Movement in North East India: With Special Reference to the North East India Christian Council (ISPCK: 2015); and Ecumenism Among the Kukis of North East India: With Special Reference to Kuki Christian Leaders Fellowship (KCLF) and Kuki Worship Service (KWS) (GS Media: 2016). In addition, he has published a number of articles in theological journals both in India and abroad.
I am thankful to my friend Dr. M. Thongkhosei Haokip, Associate Professor of the History of Christianity at AICS, Aizawl, Mizoram who has requested me to write a Foreword to his well conceived study guidebook titled History of Christianity From the First to the 18th Century. Dr. Haokip's academic dynamism remains evident not just during his student's period but thereafter as an established teacher. His first major achievement after finishing his doctoral research was the publication of his dissertation entitled A History of Ecumenical Movement in North East India in 2015. His book was well received in most Senate - affiliated theological institutions, students and teachers alike. It has served as a source book on the development of ecumenism in the North East.
The present guidebook prepared and written in the light of the prescribed guideline of the Senate of Serampore College Syllabus for a course at the Graduate level is not just important but necessary. It is important because this subject is one of the major subjects under the Serampore University. It is necessary because theological students in the country should study and know it not just for the sake of passing the examinations but for their continuing ministry in the church and society.
Unlike common perception that writing history would be a piece of cake, writing history is something of a difficult task, in no small measure due to the incredible amount of information that historians must shift through and subsequently leave out when offering their account of the past. Even a rote retelling of a single day in the life of a human leaves out certain contexts and events which occurred. One can imagine how much harder summarizing hundreds or thousands of years is filled with the lives of millions of human beings and condensing their stories into mere pages. And yet, this is the task to which historians devote themselves. And it is this historical project that is being attempted to write the history of Christianity from the first to the eighteenth century.
**Contents and Sample Pages**
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