Starting Your Journey In Studying Church History
A statue of the stool used by Jenny Geddes to protest the Book of Common Prayer
I’ve always been fascinated by history—it was one of the few classes I enjoyed growing up. One gift of studying the past is its clarity to the present. History often moves in cycles: think of the great empires—Rome, Babylon, France, Britain. We watch the build-up, expansion, golden age, and then the political turmoil, betrayal, decline, and eventual disintegration. Looking back helps us avoid repeating old mistakes.
Church history is no different. Many believers feel intimidated by the idea of “2,000 years of history,” so our mental timeline sometimes shrinks to: Apostles → Martin Luther → Jonathan Edwards → Billy Graham → today. But we need more than that. Christians should understand the key players, issues, and councils across the centuries to better read our Bibles and interpret our times.
Church history serves at least three roles in the Christian life:
It exposes the recurring patterns of sin and error that surface in every age.
It proves Christ’s promise is true: however dark the era, “the gates of Hades will not overpower [His church]”(cf. Matt 16:18).
It equips us with tested wisdom, showing how faithful saints handled today's challenges.
How to begin? You have options:
Biographical path — start with a key figure, read a short biography, then widen the lens to their times.
Chronological survey — begin with the apostles and move forward to the present.
Pivotal-moments approach — trace major turning points (councils, revivals, reforms) to cover more ground quickly while collecting “golden nuggets” you’ll remember.
Why Begin the Study With Councils
One persistent feature from the early church to today is the church gathering to settle crucial questions. Historically, these were called ecumenical councils—large assemblies of church leaders convened to resolve significant doctrinal or practical controversies and to define orthodox teaching.
“Ecumenical” comes from the Greek oikoumenē—“the inhabited world.” The goal was to represent the whole church, not merely one region or party.
These councils typically did three things:
Clarified doctrine, especially about God, Christ, and the Holy Spirit (Trinity and Christology).
Condemned heresies that threatened biblical teaching (e.g., Arianism, Nestorianism, Monophysitism).
Produced creeds and canons (authoritative statements and church rules) to guide belief and practice.
In the early period (AD 325–787), there was still a broadly unified institutional church, so “ecumenical” had a real universality. Visible unity fractured after the Great Schism (1054) between East and West and the Protestant Reformation (16th century). Each branch—Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Anglican, Lutheran, Reformed/Baptist, and others—began holding synods or assemblies. These are no longer “ecumenical” in the ancient sense, but they serve the same purposes within their communions: define doctrine, address errors, and guide worship and discipline.
In the 19th–20th centuries, as denominations multiplied and global missions expanded, Protestants also produced interdenominational consensus statements to pursue unity on essentials across traditions in the face of modernism, secularism, and moral redefinition. Documents like the Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1978), the Danvers Statement (1987), and later the Nashville Statement (2017) function as modern, voluntary declarations—not binding on every church, but widely adopted for cooperative ministry and doctrinal clarity.
Key difference:
Ancient ecumenical councils aimed to define the faith for the whole church.
Denominational councils and interdenominational statements aim to defend and articulate biblical truth within or across specific networks of churches.
Why Confessions Follow Councils
Councils often yield confessions, carefully worded summaries of biblical doctrine.
Clarity: Confessions crystallize what Scripture teaches when confusion rises.
Unity: They rally believers around shared essentials-“This we believe.”
Continuity & Protection: Written standards serve future generations as doctrinal guardrails that are not equal to Scripture but are faithful summaries of it.
Witness: Confessing truth is doxology; it glorifies Christ and testifies to the world.
In short, when crises or questions emerge, councils gather; through prayerful study and debate, confessions emerge—the church’s Spirit-guided response to preserve and proclaim biblical truth.
How to Use the Reference List
I’ve compiled a non-exhaustive, quick-reference sheet of key councils, their central problems, and key players. Use it in three ways:
Skim for orientation — get the big picture in minutes.
Deep dive — choose a few councils and chase the primary sources, creeds, or debates behind them.
Biographical track — pick one or two figures from each council era and read short biographies to feel the “atmospherics” of that age.
Whichever path you take, you’ll be encouraged, stabilized, and equipped—and your love for Christ and His church will deepen as you watch His faithfulness across the centuries.
Apostolic & Early Ecumenical
Jerusalem Council (c. AD 49–50) – Settled that Gentiles are saved by grace through faith without taking on the Mosaic law; asked Gentile believers to abstain from a few practices for table fellowship.
Problem: Arguing whether circumcision was required for Gentile converts
Key players: Peter, Paul, Barnabas, and James (the Lord’s brother) in leadership (Acts 15).
Nicaea I (325) – Affirmed the full deity of the Son as homoousios (“of one substance”) with the Father and condemned Arianism; produced the original Nicene Creed.
Problem: Arius made it appear that Jesus is separate from the Father, a created being, or that there was a time in which He did not exist.
Key players: Emperor Constantine (convener), Athanasius (then a deacon, chief defender), Arius (opponent), and Hosius of Cordoba.
Constantinople I (381) – Reaffirmed and expanded Nicaea, confessing the full divinity and personhood of the Holy Spirit and rejecting Macedonianism and Apollinarianism.
Problem: Macedonianism denied the Holy Spirit’s full divinity/personhood; Apollinarianism denied Christ’s full humanity by claiming the Logos replaced a rational human mind
Key players: Emperor Theodosius I; the Cappadocians (notably Gregory of Nazianzus and Gregory of Nyssa).
Ephesus (431) – Upheld the unity of Christ’s person and endorsed Mary as Theotokos (“God-bearer”), condemning Nestorianism.
Problem: Nestorianism made it appear as though Jesus was two different people (divine & human)
Key players: Cyril of Alexandria (majority leader), Nestorius of Constantinople (opponent), Emperor Theodosius II; later reconciliation with John of Antioch.
Chalcedon (451) – Defined Christ as one person in two natures, “without confusion, change, division, or separation,” countering Eutychian/Monophysite errors.
Problem: Monophysitism says Christ has one nature after the incarnation; in its extreme Eutychian form, His divinity overwhelms His humanity.
Key players: Emperor Marcian and Empress Pulcheria (conveners), Pope Leo I (his Tome was pivotal), Flavian of Constantinople, Dioscorus of Alexandria, and Eutyches.
Constantinople III (680–681) – Rejected Monothelitism and affirmed Christ’s two wills and two operations in harmony (dyothelitism), safeguarding the full reality of both natures.
Problem: Monothelitism is the idea that Jesus has only one will (mono = one, thelēsis = will). If Jesus didn’t have a genuine human will, then He couldn’t truly obey as a man or heal our fallen wills, so our salvation would be at stake.
Key players: Emperor Constantine IV, St. Maximus the Confessor, and Pope Agatho as key theological voices.
Medieval Latin Councils
Lateran IV (1215) – Under Innocent III, defined transubstantiation in the Eucharist and issued wide-ranging canons that structured medieval sacramental and pastoral life (e.g., annual confession/communion).
Problem: Clarify the real presence and standardize church discipline amid scholastic debates and pastoral disorder.
Key players: Pope Innocent III (convener), Stephen Langton (theologian-archbishop), hundreds of bishops/abbots.
Constance (1414–1418) – Ended the Western Schism by deposing/routing rival popes and electing Martin V; condemned Jan Hus (and later Jerome of Prague).
Problem: Three competing papal claimants and the crisis of authority (conciliarism vs. papal primacy), alongside calls for moral/doctrinal reform.
Key players: Emperor Sigismund, Pope Martin V, claimants John XXIII and Benedict XIII, theologian Jean Gerson, and Jan Hus.
Florence (1438–1445) – Sought East–West reunion (notably at Ferrara–Florence); issued Laetentur Caeli (1439), addressing the filioque, purgatory, and papal primacy—brief union later rejected in the East.
Problem: Heal the Great Schism’s doctrinal and jurisdictional rifts while Byzantium sought Western aid.
Key players: Pope Eugenius IV, Emperor John VIII Palaiologos, Patriarch Joseph II of Constantinople (d. 1439), Mark of Ephesus (leading opponent), Cardinal Bessarion, Isidore of Kiev.
Reformation & Post-Reformation
Trent (1545–1563) – Catholic Counter-Reformation council that defined Rome’s positions on Scripture & tradition, justification, the sacraments (incl. Eucharistic transubstantiation), and the canon; issued anathemas against key Protestant doctrines.
Problem: Respond to the Protestant Reformation’s challenges to authority, salvation, and worship.
Key players: Popes Paul III, Julius III, Pius IV; Cardinal Pole, Cardinal Seripando, theologians from the major religious orders.
Synod of Dort (1618–1619) – Framed the Canons of Dort (often summarized as TULIP), affirming unconditional election, definite atonement, effectual calling, persevering grace, and rejecting the Remonstrant (Arminian) five points.
Problem: Settle the Dutch church crisis over grace, free will, and assurance.
Key players: Johannes Bogerman (president), Franciscus Gomarus (Contra-Remonstrant), Simon Episcopius (Remonstrant), Prince Maurice of Nassau; international delegates (e.g., John Davenant from England).
Westminster Assembly (1643–1649) – Produced the Westminster Confession of Faith and the Larger/Shorter Catechisms, giving a mature statement of Reformed doctrine, worship, and polity (Presbyterian).
Problem: Provide a Scriptural framework for reforming the church and nation amid the English Civil War.
Key players: William Twisse (prolocutor), divines such as Samuel Rutherford, Thomas Goodwin, Stephen Marshall;oversight by the English Parliament and Scottish commissioners.
Savoy Assembly (1658) – Issued the Savoy Declaration, adapting Westminster theology to Congregational polity and revising chapters on church government and liberty of conscience.
Problem: Align confessional standards with Independent/ Congregational convictions post-Westminster.
Key players: John Owen, Thomas Goodwin, Philip Nye, and other Congregational leaders.
Second London Baptist Assembly (1677/1689) – Adopted the Second London Baptist Confession (based mainly on Westminster/Savoy) with Baptist distinctives, especially believers’ baptism and congregational polity; the 1677 text was affirmed publicly in 1689 after toleration.
Problem: Provide a unifying, theologically Reformed confession for Particular Baptists under persecution and legal toleration.
Key players: Benjamin Keach, Hanserd Knollys, William Kiffin, William Collins (among signatories/framers).
New Hampshire Confession of Faith (1853) – A concise, Baptist statement with moderate Calvinism, affirming Scripture’s authority, the Trinity, human depravity, regeneration by the Spirit, repentance and faith, justification by grace through faith, sanctification and perseverance, congregational polity, and the ordinances of believers’ baptism by immersion and the Lord’s Supper; highly influential and a key source for the 1925 Baptist Faith & Message.
Problem: Provide a clear, irenic, and broadly unifying confession for rapidly growing American Baptist churches amid revivalism and doctrinal diversity—less technical than Westminster/1689 while clarifying Baptist distinctives and a moderated view of atonement.
Key players: J. Newton Brown (principal editor/drafter), the New Hampshire Baptist Convention, and the American Baptist Publication Society (dissemination).
Modern Councils/Congresses & Evangelical Statements (broad evangelical frame)
Vatican I (1869–1870) – Defined papal infallibility when the pope speaks ex cathedra on faith and morals (Pastor Aeternus) and affirmed the knowability of God against rationalism (Dei Filius).
Problem: Resolve crises of authority amid modernity and the political upheaval of Italian unification; clarify Rome’s magisterial center.
Key players: Pope Pius IX (convener); theologians like Josef Kleutgen; pro-infallibility leaders (Henry Edward Manning); minority critics (e.g., Ignaz von Döllinger outside the council).
Edinburgh Missionary Conference (1910) – Landmark gathering that catalyzed modern cooperative Protestant missions, emphasizing the world's evangelization in this generation and improved coordination/comity among societies.
Problem: Reduce duplication and rivalry on the mission field; focus resources on unreached peoples with a shared strategy.
Key players: John R. Mott (chair), J. H. Oldham (organizer), delegates from major Protestant mission boards and student movements.
Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy (1978) – Evangelical consensus document affirming that Scripture is without error in all it affirms, with a Short Statement and 19 Articles of Affirmation/Denial; shaped preaching, scholarship, and seminary standards.
Problem: Provide precise, historically rooted language for inerrancy amid higher criticism and intra-evangelical ambiguity.
Key players: The International Council on Biblical Inerrancy (ICBI); leaders/signers including R. C. Sproul (drafting committee chair), James Montgomery Boice (ICBI chair), J. I. Packer, Norman Geisler, and others.
Danvers Statement (1987) – Foundational complementarian affirmation (10 theses) stating men and women are equal in dignity yet designed with distinct, complementary roles in the home and church; limits pastoral/elder authority to qualified men, calls husbands to Christlike headship, and explicitly rejects abuse as sinful and contrary to Scripture.
Problem: Address growing evangelical egalitarianism, role confusion in family/church, and cultural pressures that obscured biblical teaching on sex and gender while safeguarding equal worth.
Key players: Drafted at Danvers, Massachusetts, under the newly formed Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW); associated leaders/signatories include John Piper, Wayne Grudem, James Borland, Ray Ortlund Jr., and George W. Knight III.
Nashville Statement (2017) – A 14-article set of affirmations/denials summarizing a conservative evangelical doctrine of marriage, sexuality, and gender: marriage as one man and one woman, chastity outside marriage and fidelity within, sex differences as created by God, rejection of homosexual practice and transgender self-identification, and a call to gospel hope and forgiveness for all who repent.
Problem: Offer a clear, unified biblical witness amid cultural/legal shifts on same-sex marriage, gender identity, and pastoral practice within churches.
Key players: Sponsored by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood (CBMW); drafting led by Denny Burk (CBMW president), with prominent evangelical signatories such as John Piper, Wayne Grudem, R. Albert Mohler Jr., and many pastors and scholars.
Statement on Social Justice & the Gospel (2018) — often called the “Dallas Statement.” A series of affirmations/denials arguing that Scripture and the Gospel are sufficient and that importing Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, or secular social-justice ideologies into the church distorts doctrine and mission; it affirms the imago Dei, the universality of sin, and gospel reconciliation, while rejecting identity-based partiality.
Problem: Clarify that contemporary social justice/CRT frameworks must not become interpretive authorities in the church or redefine sin, justice, or the gospel.
Key players: Initiated by Josh Buice (G3); prominently supported by John MacArthur, Voddie Baucham, Tom Ascol, Phil Johnson, James White, and other pastors/scholars as signatories.