Has anyone here read a Church History that was not Catholic-centered?

Answer 1

Pastor Billy says: try the Baptist fiction "Trail of Blood". It's not only not Catholic-centered, it's not Christian centered as the author of this faith community attempts to link his modern era community to heretics back through time. Major problem is of course absolutely no connection between them at all to allow for a common history. One of the first claims is unity with the Donatists who practiced a re-baptism but also believed in a hierarchy, ancient liturgy and a sacramental faith life.

Foxes book of Martyrs lol, the first half is all Catholic saints

Answer 2

The “first church” is the church that is recorded in the New Testament, especially in the Book of Acts and the Epistles of Paul. The New Testament church is the “original church” and the “one true church.” We can know this because it is described, in great detail, in Scripture. The church, as recorded in the New Testament, is God’s pattern and foundation for His church. On this basis, let’s examine the Roman Catholic claim that it is the “first church.” Nowhere in the New Testament will you find the “one true church” doing any of the following: praying to Mary, praying to the saints, venerating Mary, submitting to a pope, having a select priesthood, baptizing an infant, observing the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper as sacraments, or passing on apostolic authority to successors of the apostles. All of these are core elements of the Roman Catholic faith. If most of the core elements of the Roman Catholic Church were not practiced by the New Testament Church (the first church and one true church), how then can the Roman Catholic Church be the first church? A study of the New Testament will clearly reveal that the Roman Catholic Church is not the same church as the church that is described in the New Testament.

Answer 3

Several... The apostasy that became the catholic church mostly took place over a period of 300-400 years between the deaths of the apostolic generation.

There were several movements during the intervening ~1000 years before widespread attempts to return to the true pattern of the church were allowed to exist without vicious attacks from the catholic machine.

Most of those attempts have not been what they should, either adding human teachings to the scriptures or misinterpreting things, but the restoration of the New Testament church is an ongoing process. With God's help, the church is growing closer and closer to the NT pattern.

Answer 4

here is Polycarp, a key person to the history of the eastern orthodox church, which went down to history alongside the holy roman empire/catholic church but in a separate path.

Answer 5

How far back are you looking? If you want the history of Christianity prior to any sort of denominational split, I'd recommend "The Rise of Christianity" by WHC Frend, or if you want actual source documents from that time, look for "The Church History of Eusebius".

Answer 6

Phillip Schaff's

Answer 7

What do you expect? Protestantism is only 500 years old.
Christainity and Christs Church - the Catholic Church - are 2000 years old.

Jesus promised, "I will build my Church and the gates of hell will not prevail against it" (Matt. 16:18). This means that his Church will never be destroyed and will never fall away from him. His Church will survive until his return.

Among the Christian churches, only the Catholic Church has existed since the time of Jesus. Every other Christian church is an offshoot of the Catholic Church. The Eastern Orthodox churches broke away from unity with the pope in 1054. The Protestant churches were established during the Reformation, which began in 1517. (Most of today’s Protestant churches are actually offshoots of the original Protestant offshoots.) Only the Catholic Church existed in the tenth century, in the fifth century, and in the first century, faithfully teaching the doctrines given by Christ to the apostles, omitting nothing. The line of popes can be traced back, in unbroken succession, to Peter himself. This is unequaled by any institution in history: Even the oldest government is new compared to the papacy.

The Catholic Church has existed for nearly 2,000 years, despite constant opposition from the world. This is testimony to the Church’s divine origin: Any merely human organization would have collapsed long ago. The Catholic Church is today the most vigorous church in the world (and the largest, with 1.3 billion members: one sixth of the human race), and that is testimony not to the cleverness of the Church’s leaders, but to the protection of the Holy Spirit.

Jesus’ Church is called catholic ("universal" in Greek) because it is his gift to all people. He told his apostles to go throughout the world and make disciples of "all nations" (Matt. 28:19–20). For 2,000 years the Catholic Church has carried out this mission, preaching the good news that Christ died for all men and that he wants all of us to be members of his universal family (Gal. 3:28). Nowadays the Catholic Church is found in every country of the world and is still sending out missionaries to "make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19). The Church Jesus established was known by its most common title, "the Catholic Church," at least as early as the year 107, when Ignatius of Antioch used that title to describe the one Church Jesus founded. The title apparently was old in Ignatius’s time, which means it went all the way back to the time of the apostles.

http://www.catholic.com/library/Pillar.asp

Answer 8

"Church" as in Babtist, Protestant, Lutheren,---I for one read "The Church History" The New Testament the Will of God the Testimony of Jesus Christ Our Lord and Mesiah, Savior! Not the history of a denomination, Jesus tells us He is displeased with each of the "churches" for one reason or another, we who are believers are all part of the same body of Christ the same Church serving one another and by so doing--the will of God.

Answer 9

Some Non-Catholic Church History I have Read
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comprehensive_History_of_the_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints
(All six volumes)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Church
http://www.lds.org/churchhistory/0,15478,3900-1,00.html#FlashPluginDetected
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Latter_Day_Saint_texts

Answer 10

If anyone did, it could not be accurate because the church history WAS catholic-centered.
btw: i am not catholic.