Beginnings of Western Christendom

Appeal is often made in ecumenical discussion between East and West to the standard of the undivided Church of the first centuries of the Christian era, but understanding is not helped by the assumption that the divergences between East and West did not seriously arise in this early period. One of the many services rendered by this history is to show that Western Christendom had distinctive features from the beginning, and that it had a unity of 'culture' other than that imposed by the Papal See.In his use of recent archaeological studies and of the 'apocryphal' New Testament, and in his arrangement of the material at his disposal, the author offers a wide-ranging overview of the growth of the early church. Now available again after several years, The Beginnings of Western Christendom remains an invaluable resource for students of early Christianity and church history.

Reverend Leonard Elliott Elliott-Binns (18.09.1885-10.04.1963) was educated at Manchester Grammar School, Emmanuel College and Ridley College (Cambridge). He worked as chaplain (Ridley Hall), curate (Plymouth), vicar (Plymouth, Davenport, West Ham), dean (West Ham) and also as canon (Truro). Publications: Mr Wells' Invisible King, 1919 Erasmus the Reformer (Hulsean Lectures), 1923 The Evangelical Party in the English Church (Faiths' Series), 1928 Innocent III, 1931 The Decline and Fall of the Medieval Papacy, 1934 Religion in the Victorian Era, 1936 The Church in the Ancient World, 1938 The Story of England's Church, 1945 The Beginnings of Western Christendom, 1948 The Development of English Theology in the Later Nineteenth Century, 1952 The Early Evangelicals, 1953 Galilean Christianity, 1956