A History of the Church in England

This is good. It's really a narrative encyclopedia of "The Church" in England -- an "introduction" as viewed by the author. Moorman hits the major points of history of the church with names, places and dates and quick stories in an interesting tone that saves the book from tedium. No pictures, but for me Google images really help. Not out of reach for beginners, it is still challenging.You should know that The Church here is specifically the Anglican Church of England and its Christian forerunners in England, and the other Christians mentioned are mainly those directly impacting the Anglican Church. William Tyndale gets a couple of sentences which is better than D.L. Moody, G.K. Chesterton or C.S. Lewis who get none. But the Church and its history is pretty darn exciting (as is England's) through the late 1800's, which is a good run. At that point the author conveys the reality that the real church growth then happens in Asia, Africa and other world-wide locations partially as a result of the good work of Anglican and other missionaries. And I thought maybe that's where the book should have ended. The 1900's are described chiefly in terms of consecutive church conferences and meetings, which as a non Anglican reader I found a bit of a letdown.Moorman is exceedingly thorough with documentation and at the same time is often extremely insightful. When writing of Christian's response to the scientific revolution he writes "In the face of this the church clung to its sources of authority - Evangelists to the Bible, Anglo-Catholics to the Church and the Liberals to their belief in . . . truth." That's pretty deep.Somewhat troubling for me was the relatively light treatment of wrongs committed throughout church history in the name of God and the Church. The evil that caused thousands of people to be burned alive or martyred for their faith just seems to be unfortunate outcomes by people that otherwise meant well. Moorman does modestly relay towards the end that he was appointed to key committees involved in historic reconciliation efforts between the Anglican and Catholic Churches.All in all this is a very readable monumental work, clearly showing that the exciting collective church history in England impacted England and the world. It is also filled with stories and characters which to me point to a caring God who obviously is willing to use imperfect people and institutions to reach the lost. In my mind this book deserves the status of essential church history reading.

The media could not be loaded. I’m reading this book along with three others to broaden my understanding of the Anglican Church, of which I am a member ( ACC actually). JRH Moorman has written a compelling book on the subject. A MUST read!

The book is only 459 pages, so it obviously cannot go into a lot of detail in covering almost 2000 years of history. The author has, however, done a pretty good job of providing a good overview of the entire history along with more extensive details for those periods when events of significance were happening -- either in England or on the Continent -- that affected the church and the direction it eventually would take in getting to where is is today. Likewise, the author has provided significant information of the men behind those events -- their backgrounds and their reasoning for what they believed and for what they did.

Reading Moorman was a delight because I did not find myself bogged down in the political intricacies and machinations of the English Reformation. He did a fair job of portraying the Edwardian Reformation and the age of Elizabeth and the Evangelical revivals of the 1700s. He also demonstrated sympathy for the Broad Churchmen and the role of reason and the challenges of modern science to a literal reading of Genesis. He was less sympathetic to the Oxford Movement and the efforts to re-catholicize the English Church, but not so much that an Anglo-Catholic reader would be overly offended. Overall a great read, but one that is still a very brief introduction to the complexities and nuances of that magnificent thing called Anglicanism as it has unfolded over the centuries.

This is one of those rare books showing the long and current history of the church at work in England before Augustine's mission there and onwards. It gives a fine section on the involvement of the church in social concerns, forming of guilds and of education for workers.The book was new and well bound. A pleasure to read.John A Simpson

Moorman does a superb job of bringing fascinating details, anecdotes, and cited history that provide a compelling and engage depiction of historic England. Any chapter is worth reading.

Easy to read. The basic facts that are not hidden within paragraphs of mind-numbing collegiate dissertation. I have found it helpful and useful. Realizing it is a book of history, I have to admit that it is sometimes a slow-read due to the smaller font.

As an RC for my entire life educated exclusively in church institutions, I was interested in learning about the reformed church from the other side. Older histories of the church I have read still portray the church of Rome as a seat of paganism. This book, while acknowledging historical tensions, gives rational reasons for the dissolution of monasteries and the elimination of devotional practices that did not center on Christ. The author holds out hope that truth will prevail over prejudice.