Studying church history is like learning your genealogy, with ample helpings of family recipes, scandalous disputes, inspiring heroes, quirky uncles and scrapbooks of photos thrown in. Someone needs to point out what's important and remind you of the facts as you learn to tell the story on your own.

The Pocket Dictionary of Church History is designed to help students identify the people, places, events, movements and ideas that checker the story of the church through the ages. Among the three-hundred-plus definitions you'll find

terms, from ad fontes to via media

leaders and theologians, from Abelard to Zwingli

"isms," from Arminianism to Unitarianism

places and events, from the Azusa Street Mission to the White Horse Inn

councils, from Nicaea to Vatican II

Here is an indispensable glossary, the perfect companion to your study and reading of church history.