Early Christianity (The Anvil series)

Written by an eminent church historian, this Anvil tells the stirring story of Christianity during its first five centuries. The struggle with the Roman Empire and with rival religions, the attitude of the Church toward ethical and social questions, and the reasons for the triumph of Christianity in the Roman Empire are clearly outlined in an absorbing narrative and brief selections from crucial documents. The author carries the history forward through periods of triumph and bitter controversy up to Justinian's reign in the east and Augustine's era in the west.