“Church history is the record of God’s gracious, wonderful, and mighty deeds, showing how he rules his church and conquers the world.” ―Nils Forsander, Swedish theologian

 

Table of Contents

• Apostolic Age (30-99)
• Early Church Era (101-284)
• Christendom Begins (301-480)
• Late Ancient Era (524-732)
• Early Middle Ages (754-1273)
• Late Middle Ages (1309-1512)
• Reformation Era (1516-1587)
• Post-Reformation Era (1603-1773)
• Early Modern Era (1783-1865)
• Late Modern Era (1870-1945)
• Post-WWII Era (1947-2017)

 

Apostolic Age (30-99)

c.30/33: Crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus

c.35/37: Stephen becomes first martyr

c. 35/37: Paul converted on the road to Damascus

c.45/46: Epistle of James is first New Testament book written

c.46/47: Barnabas and Paul leave on their first missionary journey

c.49/50: Jerusalem Council

c.50/51: Paul launches his second missionary journey

c.52: Thomas spreads the gospel to India

c.53/54: Paul launches his third missionary journey

c.62/64: Gospel of Mark is first Gospel written

64: Great fire of Rome, Emperor Nero blames Christians

c.66/68: Peter and Paul martyred under Nero’s persecution

70: Destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem

c.93/94: Josephus writes Antiquities of the Jews

c.95-98: Widespread persecution of Christians under Emperor Domitian

96: Clement of Rome writes his letter to the church in Corinth

c.95-99: The Didache written

98/99: John, the last living apostle, dies

 

Early Church Era (101-284)

c.101-115: Gospel spreads significantly outside of the Roman Empire; many Christian communities established in the east

c.108: Ignatius writes seven epistles; later martyred in Rome

135: Emperor Hadrian builds a pagan temple in Jerusalem at the precise site of Jesus’ crucifixion; in 326 Emperor Constantine orders the temple be destroyed and orders that the “Church of the Holy Sepulchre” be built on the same site, preserving the site of Jesus’ crucifixion up to the modern day

144: Marcion of Sinope excommunicated as a heretic

150: Justin Martyr writes his First Apology

c.150: Polycarp writes his epistle to the Philippians

172: Montanist (heretical) movement begins

180: Irenaeus writes Against Heresies

c.195-203: Clement of Alexandria writes three major theological works

c.196-220: Tertullian begins writing; publishes dozens of influential works, coins the term “Trinity”

c.215-290: Rise of the Christian schools at Alexandria and Antioch

220: Sabellius excommunicated for being a heretic, however he coined the helpful Greek term “homoousios” (meaning “same in essence”); this term has been used by faithful Christians to describe the Trinity

250: Origen publishes Contra Celsum

258: Cyprian, theologian and Bishop of Carthage, martyred

260-268: Paul of Samosata serves as Bishop of Antioch; propagates several heresies

c.284-305: Extensive brutal persecution of Christians under Emperor Diocletian

 

Christendom Begins (301-480)

301: Armenia becomes first country in the world to make Christianity its official state religion

306: Constantine rises to power in the Roman Empire

c.311-320: Debates about the nature of Christ between Arius and other church leaders in Alexandria, leads to the Arian Controversy

312: Donatist Schism begins

313: Edict of Milan issued by Emperor Constantine, Christians granted religious freedom in the Roman Empire

323: Eusebius completes Ecclesiastical History; the first major church history work

325: Council of Nicaea, Arianism condemned

c.328: Athanasius writes On the Incarnation

c.340s: Macrina converts her family’s estate into a monastery, launches an influential monastic community; that community became the homebase for the Cappadocian Fathers

c.350s-380s: The Cappadocian Fathers (Basil the Great, Gregory of Nyssa, and Gregory of Nazianzus) produced many brilliant theological works that became major contributions to the development of trinitarian theology across the Roman Empire

358: Hilary of Poitiers writes his epistle to the Arians

367: Athanasius’ Easter Letter confirmed the books of the Bible

c.370s-390s: Gospel spreads significantly northward amongst the Goths and other barbarian tribes

374-397: Ambrose serves as Bishop of Milan

380: Emperor Theodosius issued the Edict of Thessalonica, declaring Nicene Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire

381: Council of Constantinople, Nicene Creed revised

c.382: Jerome published the Latin Vulgate, would become the standard version of the Bible in the west for the next 1,100+ years

386: Augustine converts to Christianity under the preaching of Ambrose; Augustine is often referred to as the best and most influential theologian in Christian history

391: Pagan worship condemned by Emperor Theodosius, many pagan temples across the Roman Empire are closed

397: Synod of Carthage, confirms the 27 books of the New Testament

c.397-400: Augustine writes Confessions

398: John Chrysostom becomes Bishop of Constantinople; he is often referred to as the best preacher/orator of the ancient world

c.400-428: Augustine writes On the Trinity

c.413-426: Augustine writes City of God

417: Pelagius excommunicated for denying original sin

431: Council of Ephesus, Nestorianism and Pelagianism condemned

432: Patrick becomes a missionary to Ireland

440: Leo the Great becomes the Bishop of Rome (Pope)

449: Leo the Great claims Papal authority; lays foundation for the Bishop of Rome (Pope) to indefinitely assert Papal supremacy

451: Council of Chalcedon, condemned several heresies related to the nature of Christ

476: Fall of the Western Roman Empire

c.480s-510s: Nestorianism spreads through Persia

 

Late Ancient Era (524-732)

524: Boethius publishes Consolation of Philosophy

529: Benedict of Nursia founded the monastery of Monte Cassino, later wrote The Rule of Saint Benedict

553: Second Council of Constantinople

c.564: Irish missionary Columba founded the Iona Abbey in Scotland

590-603: Gregory the Great serves as Pope; he’s remembered for his theological writings, his care for the poor, his reforms in the Catholic Church, and his missionary efforts to the Anglo-Saxons

597: Augustine of Canterbury goes to Britain as a missionary, often nicknamed the “Apostle to the English”

c.602-614: Significant conflicts between pagan Persians and Eastern Roman Empire (aka: Byzantine Empire)

c.630s: Significant conflicts between Arab Muslims and Byzantine Christians

c.630s-640s: Nestorian missionaries travel eastward; launched churches and monasteries along the Silk Road, spreading into China and eventually reaching as far east as Korea

637: Arab Muslims conquer Persia; they recognized Nestorianism as being distinct from western Christianity and granted it legal protection

638: Arab Muslims take control of Jerusalem

c.640s-711: Arab Muslims conquer significant portions of southeastern Europe, northern Africa, and Spain

664: Synod of Whitby

680-681: Third Council of Constantinople, rejects Monothelite heresy

716-754: Boniface does great missionary work amongst Germanic tribes; he was later killed by pagans in Frisia (modern-day Netherlands)

731: Bede writes his Ecclesiastical History; he is often considered the “father of English history”

732: Western Christians stop the Arab Muslim military advance into Europe at the Battle of Tours in France

 

Early Middle Ages (754-1273)

754: Land donation from Pepin III leads to creation of the Papal states

c.754-787: John of Damascus writes Exact Exposition of the Orthodox Faith

768-814: Charlemagne serves as Frankish king; unified the kingdoms of the Franks and conquered much of modern Europe; often referred to as the “father of Europe”

781: Alcuin becomes royal adviser; he was an influential scholar, priest, and poet; Charlemagne and Alcuin together propelled the Carolingian Renaissance

787: Second Council of Nicaea, tackles the controversy over the use of icons in worship

800: Charlemagne is crowned the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire by Pope Leo III; the Holy Roman Empire existed as a political entity in Central Europe until 1806

858: Christian missionaries develop the Cyrillic alphabet; used in 50+ languages today including Russian, Serbian, Bulgarian, and Belarusian

864: Prince Boris of Bulgaria is baptized, leading to the establishment of the Bulgarian Church

912: Rollo and his Vikings convert to Christianity

988: Prince Vladimir is baptized, begins the conversion of the Russian people

1054: Great East-West Schism

1093: Anselm becomes Archbishop of Canterbury, writes several influential works; most famous for the “ontological argument” for the existence of God

1095: Pope Urban II calls for the First Crusade to recapture the Holy Land from Muslims

1096: Oxford University founded

1115: Bernard founds the monastery in Clairvaux

1147: Second Crusade launched to recapture the city of Edessa from the Turks

c.1150: Peter Lombard publishes The Four Books of Sentences; this work became the standard theology textbook in the west for the next 400+ years

1173: Waldensians movement launched by proto-Reformer Peter Waldo

1189: Third Crusade led by Richard the Lionheart of England and Philip II of France

1202: Fourth Crusade launched; ends with western crusaders sacking Constantinople (fighting eastern Christians instead of fighting Muslims), causing additional significant estrangement between East and West

1210: Franciscan Order founded by Francis of Assisi in Italy

1215: Magna Carta

1215: Fourth Lateran Council codifies certain doctrines and lifestyle expectations for Catholic clergymen

1216: Dominican Order established by Dominic de Guzman in France

1250-1252: Bonaventure writes Commentary on the Sentences

c.1250s: Christianity in Asia declines; most of the Christian communities in China and east Asia completely evaporated by the 1400s

1259-1272: William of Moerbeke translates classical Greek philosophical texts, giving western Christians a much clearer picture of Greek philosophy and literature, helping to foster a resurgence in the study of the classics

c.1266-1273: Thomas Aquinas writes Summa Theologiae

 

Late Middle Ages (1309-1512)

1309: Papacy moved from Rome to Avignon

c.1347-1351: Black Death

1370: Catherine of Siena begins her Letters

1376: John Wycliffe writes Civil Dominion, arguing for church reform

1377: Papacy moved from Avignon back to Rome

1378-1417: Great Western Schism, the period of time when there were multiple rival Popes, causing confusion and division within the church and its followers; this weakened the authority of the Catholic Church in the minds of many Europeans

c.1380: John Wycliffe translates the Bible into English

1415: Jan Hus burned at stake for propagating the ideas of Wycliffe; Hus was a Czech theologian, philosopher, and proto-Reformer

1418: Thomas à Kempis publishes The Imitation of Christ

1431: Joan of Arc burned at stake

1438-1439: Several eastern churches associated themselves with Rome after the Council of Florence, forming the Eastern Catholic Churches

1453: Turks capture Constantinople, bringing an end to the Byzantine Empire; many Byzantine Christians and Greek scholars fled westward, reintroducing western Christians to many classical Greek texts

1455: Johannes Gutenberg prints the Bible

1478: Spanish Inquisition established

1491: Franciscan and Dominican missionaries arrive in the Congo

1492: Spanish Catholics reconquer the entire Iberian Peninsula

1492: Columbus sails to the Americas

1494-1499: Catholic missionaries arrive in various parts of the Caribbean

1497: Portuguese colonizers and Catholic missionaries arrive in India, begin to interact with the significant Christian presence in the region (believed to date back to Thomas’ ministry in the first century)

1499: Portuguese Catholic missionaries arrived at Zanzibar and Tanzania, they experienced great ministry success

c.1510s-1540s: Significant numbers of Spanish and Portuguese Catholic missionaries travel to various parts of Latin America

1512: Michelangelo completes artwork at the Sistine Chapel

 

Reformation Era (1516-1587)

1516: Erasmus publishes the Greek New Testament

1517: Martin Luther posts his 95 Theses in Wittenburg; sparked the Protestant Reformation

1518: Ulrich Zwingli comes to Zurich

1520: Martin Luther publishes The Babylonian Captivity of The Church

1521: Diet of Worms, Luther put on trial by Catholic Church, narrowly escapes alive

1521: Spain colonizes the Philippines; the nation becomes a strategic region for commerce and evangelism in Southeast Asia

1522: Martin Luther’s German New Testament published

1525: William Tyndale completes his English translation of the Bible

1524-1525: German Peasants’ War

1529: Marburg Colloquy

1532: William Farel goes to Geneva

1534: Ignatius of Loyola founds the Jesuits; founded as part of the Counter-Reformation

1534: Act of Supremacy passed in England, officially separating English church from Rome and making King Henry VIII the supreme head of the English church

1535: Martin Luther publishes his famous commentary on Galatians

1536: John Calvin publishes his first edition of The Institutes of the Christian Religion

1536: William Tyndale strangled to death and his body burned at the stake; he was executed for circulating the English Bible to ordinary peoples

1536: Menno Simons baptized as an Anabaptist

1536: John Calvin stops in Geneva while traveling to Strasbourg; William Farel convinces Calvin to stay in Geneva

1538: Calvin expelled from Geneva, goes to Strasbourg

1540: Calvin publishes his Commentary on Romans

1541: Calvin returns to Geneva, pastored there in the city for next 23+ years until his death in 1564

1545: Council of Trent begins

1549: Thomas Cranmer publishes the Book of Common Prayer in England (revised in 1662)

1550s-1560s: John Calvin sends Protestant church planting missionaries from Geneva to other regions in Europe; by 1562 more than 2,000 Protestant churches were planted in France alone, and many more in Italy, the Netherlands, Hungary, Poland, and Rhineland

1553: Michael Servetus burned at the stake in Geneva for heresy

1554: Lady Jane Grey was queen of England for just nine days, at age 16, but later arrested and executed for her Protestant faith

1555: Peace of Augsburg signed

1557: John Calvin sends missionaries from Geneva to Brazil

1559: John Knox returns to Scotland after several years in Geneva, founded the Presbyterian Church

c.1560s: The epithet “Puritans” began to be used to describe any person in England who believed the Church of England needed more purity or that the Church had not yet reformed enough

1560s-1590s: Jesuit missionaries sent to several nations in Africa and Asia; they set-up mission posts and schools in several regions

1563: Foxe’s Book of Martyrs published

1563: Heidelberg Catechism published

1563: First text of the 39 Articles issued

1565: Teresa of Avila publishes The Way of Perfection

c.1570s: Early formations of the English “Separatists” movement

1572: St. Bartholomew’s Day Massacre in France; some estimates assert that as many as 30,000 Huguenots (French Calvinists) were killed

1580: Book of Concord published

1587: “Bloody” Mary Stuart executed

 

Post-Reformation Era (1603-1773)

1603: Jacob Arminius becomes a professor at Leyden

1609: Former Anglican priest and English Separatist leader John Smyth (re)baptizes himself and 40 others in Amsterdam, sparking the modern Baptist movement

1610: Dutch Remonstrance movement begins

1611: Publication of the King James Bible

1612: Thomas Helwys forms the first Baptist church in London

1618-1619: Synod of Dort

1618-1648: Thirty Years War

1620: Mayflower Compact

1630: Massachusetts Bay Colony founded by 1,000+ Puritan refugees under the leadership of John Winthrop

1636: Roger Williams founded the Rhode Island colony as a haven for religious liberty

1636: Harvard College founded to train New England’s pastors

1637: Anne Hutchinson banished from Massachusetts Bay Colony in the wake of the Antinomian Controversy

1641: Rene Descartes publishes Discourse on the Method and Meditations on First Philosophy

1644: First London Baptist Confession published

1646-1647: Westminster Confession and Catechisms published

1647: George Fox begins to preach, propagates Quakerism

c.1650-1672: Anne Bradstreet published several books containing poems and essays

1665: Establishment of Malankara Orthodox Church under the Patriarch of the Syriac Orthodox Church

1667: John Milton publishes Paradise Lost

1670: Blaise Pascal’s Pensés published posthumously

1675: Jacob Spencer publishes Pia Desideria, advances Pietism

1678: John Bunyan publishes Pilgrim’s Progress

1679-1685: Francis Turretin writes Institutes of Elenctic Theology

1688-1689: The Glorious Revolution

1689: Second London Baptist Confession (originally drafted in 1677) republished and circulated

c.1707-1748: Isaac Watts writes nearly 800 hymns and publishes several books

c.1727-1830s: Moravian Community of Herrnhut in Saxony launched an ‘around-the-clock’ prayer meeting that continued nonstop for over a hundred years

1729: Jonathan Edwards becomes the pastor at Northampton

1730s-1770s: The First Great Awakening

c.1734-1761: Anne Dutton publishes 50+ books containing essays, poems, and hymns

1735: George Whitefield converted to Christ in England

1738: John and Charles Wesley experience evangelical conversions

1739: George Whitefield begins his open-air preaching ministry; he would become the most prolific preacher in the world

1740: Whitefield launches the Bethesda Orphanage in Georgia colony

1741: Jonathan Edwards preaches his famous sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God

1743: David Brainerd goes to Stockbridge as a missionary to the Native Americans

1746: Jonathan Edwards publishes Religious Affections

1771: Francis Asbury comes to America; he became the most prolific Methodist revivalist preacher in the nation

1773: Isaac Backus publishes An Appeal to the Public for Religious Liberty

 

Early Modern Era (1783-1865)

1783: George Lisle becomes the first ordained black Baptist pastor and first American foreign missionary, taking the gospel to Jamaica

1785: Andrew Fuller publishes The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation

1787: Lemuel Hayes becomes first black pastor in America to lead a predominantly white congregation

1789: French Revolution begins

1790: Manuel Lacunza, Chilean Jesuit scholar, completes his three-volume work The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty

c.1790s-1840s: The Second Great Awakening

1792: Andrew Fuller, John Sutcliff, John Ryland, and William Carey launched the Baptist Missionary Society

1792: William Carey publishes An Enquiry

1793: Carey goes to India, known as the “father of modern missions”

1799: Fredrich Schleiermacher (heretical theologian) publishes On Religion

1801: Cane Ridge Revival in Kentucky

1802: Thomas Jefferson famously corresponds with the Danbury Baptists Association of Connecticut

1806: Haystack Prayer Meeting in Massachusetts

1807: Williams Wilberforce leads the abolition of the slave trade

1811: Stone-Campbell (Restoration) Movement begins

1812: Adoniram and Ann Judson and Luther Rice go to India to serve as missionaries; the Judsons later serve in Burma

1814: Triennial Convention was formed to serve Baptists’ collaborative missions efforts; delegates from Baptist churches across the United States met at the convention once every three years

1816: Richard Allen founds the African Methodist Episcopal Church

1817: Robert Moffat goes to South Africa as a missionary

c.1820s: Charles Finney becomes America’s most popular revivalist preacher

1830: Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints (Mormons) launched by Joseph Smith; he leads Mormon movement until his assassination in 1844; after Smith’s death the Mormons migrate west under the leadership of Brigham Young, eventually settling in the Utah territory in 1847; the majority of faithful Christians consider the Mormon faith to be a heretical movement

c.1830s-1840s: John Nelson Darby begins preaching ministry; propagated Dispensationalism and established Brethren assemblies

1835: Charles Finney publishes Lectures on Revivals

1836: George Müller opens his first orphanage in England

1837: John Ludwig Krapf goes to Ethiopia as a missionary; later serves in Kenya too

1840: David Livingstone goes to southern Africa as a missionary

1844: Millerites in America experience the Great Disappointment

1844: Søren Kierkegaard publishes Philosophical Fragments

1845: Phoebe Palmer publishes The Way of Holiness

1845: Triennial Convention splits (primarily over the issue of slavery), forming the Northern Baptist Convention and the Southern Baptist Convention

1847: Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod founded

1852: Harriet Beecher Stowe publishes Uncle Tom’s Cabin

1853: Hudson Taylor went to China as a missionary

1854: Charles Spurgeon enters pastoral ministry in London; he would eventually become the most influential preacher of his era

1855: D.L. Moody converted to Christ

1858: John G. Paton goes to Asia as a missionary to minister to tribes of cannibals

1864: John Henry Newman’s Apologia Pro Vita Sua is published

1865: William and Catherine Booth found the Salvation Army

 

Late Modern Era (1870-1945)

1870-1871: First Vatican Council, asserts Papal infallibility

1872: Lottie Moon left for the mission field, served in China for nearly 40 years

1872: Jehovah’s Witnesses movement launched by Charles Taze Russell; most Christians consider the Jehovah’s Witnesses movement to be a heretical cult

1875: First Keswick Convention

1880: Abraham Kuyper founded the Free University at Amsterdam

1881: B.B. Warfield and A.A. Hodge jointly write their famous article Inspiration

1882: Nyack Missionary Training Institute (later Nyack College) founded by A. B. Simpson in New York

1883-1897: Niagara Bible Conferences helped spread Dispensationalism

1884: Ugandan King Mwanga puts many Christians to death because they objected to Mwanga’s homosexual behaviors and sexual deviance; this contributes to the outbreak of civil war

1886: Chicago Evangelization Society (later Moody Bible Institute) founded in Chicago by D. L. Moody and Emma Dryer

1886: Student Volunteer Movement launches in America

1886: Ugandan Catholic convert Charles Lwanga and his companions are martyred

1888: Annie Armstrong led the creation of the Woman’s Missionary Union

1890: Wheaton College founded

1890s-1910s: Bible college movement gains significant momentum in North America; this eventually leads to the founding of thousands of Bible colleges and missionary training institutes across the globe throughout the twentieth century

1892: Walter Rauschenbusch (heretical theologian) helps found the Brotherhood of the Kingdom, focused on propagating the Social Gospel movement

1893: Rowland Bingham, Walter Gowans, and Thomas Kent founded Sudan Interior Mission; today SIM is one of the largest missionary organizations in the world

1895: Amy Carmichael goes to India as missionary, spends 50+ years doing ministry with no furlough; also published 50+ books

1894: Pope Leo XIII publishes the Encyclical Orientalium Dignitas

1896: Billy Sunday begins leading revival services and meetings; introduces the modern “altar call”

1898: Nestorian Christians from Iran received into the Russian Orthodox Church

1898: Abraham Kuyper gives the renowned Stone Lectures at Princeton Seminary; later published as Lectures on Calvinism

1906: Azusa Street revival begins in Los Angeles, launched the modern Pentecostal movement

1908: G.K. Chesterton publishes Orthodoxy

1909: Scofield Reference Bible published

1910: C.T. Studd established Heart of Africa Mission (now known as WEC International)

1910-1915: The Fundamentals essays published

1914: Assemblies of God denomination founded

1917: Pope Benedict XV promotes the Code of Canon Law, the first ever official codification of Catholic canon law

1919: W.B. Riley founded the World Christian Fundamentals Association

1919: Karl Barth (neo-orthodox theologian) publishes Commentary on Romans

c.1920s: Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy

1921: Pittsburgh radio station KDKA broadcasts the first ever Christian radio program

1922: Harry Emerson Fosdick (liberal theologian) preaches his famous sermon Shall the Fundamentalists Win?

1923: J. Gresham Machen publishes Christianity and Liberalism

1925: Scopes Monkey Trial

1929: Mother Teresa arrives in India; she served impoverished peoples in India for nearly 70 years

1929-1930: J. Gresham Machen leaves Princeton Seminary with a group of scholars to found Westminster Seminary in the wake of the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy

1931: C.S. Lewis converted to the Christian faith

1931-1936: Red Terror in Spain; more than 6,800 Catholic clergymen were killed

1937: Dietrich Bonhoeffer publishes The Cost of Discipleship

1941: Reinhold Niebuhr (neo-orthodox theologian) publishes The Nature and Destiny of Man

1942: National Association of Evangelicals founded in St. Louis; Harold John Ockenga served as the organization’s first president for three years

1942: Wycliffe Bible Translators founded by William Cameron Townsend

1945: Dietrich Bonhoeffer executed by the Nazis

 

Post-WWII Era (1947-2017)

1947: Lesslie Newbigin leaves England, goes to India as missionary

1947: Fuller Theological Seminary founded in California

1947: Carl F.H. Henry publishes Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism

1947-1956: Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls

1948: A.W. Tozer publishes The Pursuit of God

1948: World Council of Churches organized

1949: Billy Graham’s Los Angeles evangelistic crusades go for several weeks, propelling Graham to national prominence

1949: Evangelical Theological Society founded

1950-1956: C.S. Lewis published Chronicles of Narnia

1951: Richard Niebuhr (neo-orthodox theologian) publishes Christ and Culture

1951: Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Letters and Papers from Prison published posthumously

1955: Donald McGavran published Bridges of God

1956: Christianity Today founded

1956: Jim Elliot martyred in Ecuador with his four companions, they had been trying to evangelize the Huaorani people

1960: Christian Broadcasting Network founded

1960s: Charismatic renewal movement

1962: Second Vatican Council convened

1965: Chuck Smith founds Calvary Chapel

1965: Joint Catholic-Orthodox Declaration issued; it lifted the mutual excommunications that had occurred as part of the Great East-West Schism of 1054

1966-1976: Christian population in China explodes despite significant persecution amid the Cultural Revolution

1971: R.C. Sproul launches Ligonier Ministries

1971: Gustav Gutierrez (liberal theologian) writes Theology of Liberation

1973: Trinity Broadcasting Network founded

1973: J.I. Packer publishes Knowing God

1974: International Congress on World Evangelization in Lausanne, Switzerland; global missions efforts began to dramatically shift after this event due to missiologist Ralph D. Winters’ introduction of the concept of “unreached people groups”

1976: Francis Schaeffer publishes How Should We Then Live?

1978: Chicago Statement on Inerrancy published by the International Council on Biblical Inerrancy

1978: Pope John Paul II becomes first non-Italian pope in 450+ years

1979: Jesus Film released

1980s-1990s: Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention

1987: Danvers Statement published by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

1991-1992: Pope John Paul II makes efforts to reconcile Rome with the Eastern Orthodox churches

1994: Evangelicals and Catholics Together document signed

1999: Chuck Colson published How Now Shall We Live?

2000: John Piper preached his famous Passion One Day conference sermon to 40,000+ young adults

2002: Rick Warren publishes The Purpose Driven Life

2017: Nashville Statement published by the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood

 

Featured image of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre courtesy of the American Society of Overseas Research.

 

Recommended Resources:

Christian History Made Easy (Rose Bible Basics) (by Timothy Paul Jones)

Christian History Made Easy Participant Guide [DVD Series] (by Timothy Paul Jones)

Church History in Plain Language. 5th edition (by Bruce Shelley)

The Story of Christianity, Vol. 1: The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation. 2nd edition (by Justo L. Gonzalez)

The Story of Christianity, Vol. 2: The Reformation to the Present Day. 2nd edition (by Justo L. Gonzalez)

Biographical Dictionary of Evangelicals (multiple contributions, edited by Timothy T. Larsen)