2000 Years of Christ's Power Volume 4 by Nick Needham

Why read the book? Nick Needham wrote 2000 Years of Christ's Power Volume 4: The Age of Religious Conflict. It is the fourth book in his clear and readable church history series. This volume covers the years from the late sixteenth century to the early eighteenth century. Needham shows how the Reformation left Europe in a state of deep uncertainty and conflict. He gives clear accounts of Lutheran orthodoxy, the Thirty Years War, the Arminian controversy and the Synod of Dort, the rise of Puritanism in England, the Covenanters in Scotland, and the persecution of Protestants in France. He also describes the early Protestant missionary movements. The book shows both the courage of those who stood for the gospel and the suffering that religious division brought. Like the earlier volumes, it includes helpful excerpts from original sources at the end of each chapter. Needham writes in a warm and straightforward style that makes a complex and often violent period easy to follow. Readers see…