A couple of years ago, due to controversies raging within the Episcopal
Church, I became interested in learning more about the history of the
Early Church, and especially the period from Christ’s resurrection up to
Constantine. This book was recommended to me, and it quickly migrated to
my car.

The thing about history books is that they are very often dry; and the
material takes some pondering, or it doesn’t really sink in. At that
time I was regularly stopping for breakfast on my way to work, and I had
the habit of keeping a book in the car to read while I ate. And
Chadwick’s book became that book. Then, of course, I was put on a diet
and started eating breakfast at home every week; and I only got to
Chadwick’s book on the rare occasions when I went out to lunch by myself.
Eventually I finished it.

My considered opinion? It’s OK, but it wasn’t the best book for my
purposes. In addition to getting the basic historical details, I was
also interested in tracing the thread of orthodoxy from its earliest
days, through the various controversies and heresies and schools of
thought. Chadwick covers all this, naturally, but he doesn’t seem all
that interested in the theological details, and I frequently found his
descriptions to be rather opaque. Nor, as he describes the various
disagreements, does he give any indication of which point of view
eventually won out. On top of all this, he writes as though the truth or
falsehood of any of the claims is irrelevant; or, rather, as though they
are all equally false compared to the historical truth he’s attempting to
describe. This is a common attitude among historians, but as a Christian
attempting to discover more about the early days of my faith I found it
uncongenial.

All that said, Chadwick’s better when dealing with the
non-theological details, and I intend to keep the book around for
reference.