History of the Christian Church

Discover 2,000 years of your Christian heritage

• Uncover the story of the ages: how Jesus of Nazareth changed the world forever.
• Guide your high schooler with confidence: daily plans and complete materials ensure you cover what's important.
• Gain a balanced view of Christianity's story through Scripture, history and biographies. Expand your horizons with literary classics.
• Watch your teens gain confidence in their faith, develop as writers and grow academically.
• Purchase this Sonlight Christian church history package and you'll get free shipping (lower 48), a one-year guarantee and other perks.

Overview of the History

Instructor's Guides

We've formatted History 220 for independent study, if desired. Your History and Bible Parent Guide and separate History and Bible Student Guide weave materials together cohesively to direct your students with confidence each day.

The Parent Guide mirrors the Student Guide, but also includes answers and extra notes. So you can discuss their reading, check their progress, and bolster their academic and spiritual learning.

History and Biographies

Sonlight's 220 History of the Christian Church seeks to give young people an understanding of their extended family of believers and their heritage as citizens of God's kingdom. It teaches both traditional "Church History," as well as the expansion of the Gospel from the early days in the Roman Empire until now. It seeks to answer questions such as: What has God done through history? How is he moving today? How are we part of the global Body of Christ, and how is the Body bigger than our local churches and denominations?

Church History can offer a more accurate perspective on Christianity – both the good and the bad. We don't have to pretend Christians have only helped the world. Nor do we have to think that the violent Crusades are a valid representation of most of Church History. We can celebrate the hope, compassion, freedom, and progress Christianity has brought society, while understanding the uncomfortable realities of our history.

The foundational text of this course, The Story of Christianity, is coauthored by a Catholic and a Protestant – providing as balanced a point of view as possible. (I personally come from a Protestant perspective, but recognize that the Protestant movement is only part of the whole, and arrived on the scene after 1,500 years of Church History. I understand that Christians in the Western and Eastern Hemispheres have important places in the Christian story.)

To expand on that book, the schedule interweaves The 100 Most Important Events in Christian History, offering additional insight into key moments in Christian history.

Ruth Tucker tells the history of Christian missions in From Jerusalem to Irian Jaya. Engaging biographical sketches introduce you to people God has used through the ages.

As The Story of Christianity says, "For Christians and non-Christians alike, the story of Christianity is a major part of the world's history. The Christian faith has affected every sphere of life, from morality to politics, from art to literature, from science to philosophy."

Bible and Doctrinal Studies

Equip your students to understand, deepen and defend their faith. Empower them to articulate the fundamental principles of Christianity. Give them a new appreciation for the beauty and cohesiveness of the Bible. And help them consider Jesus as a real person with real implications for their lives. The Bible 210 program does all of these.

My hope and expectation is that students who complete Sonlight 220 will know God better, love Jesus more dearly, understand the world around them more fully, and follow God's call on their lives more completely.

Estimated daily time for History of the Christian Church: Student: 45min.

Our high school courses are separated by subject to allow customers maximum flexibility. Feel free to buy either the History or the Literature, or both, or to mix-and-match with the History and Literature of other Sonlight courses.

Overview of the Literature

Instructor's Guides

Your 230 Instructor's Guides (IG) weaves all your materials into one exciting and cohesive program. Starting in this upper-level program, each course includes both a Parent Guide and a separate Student Guide. This means you'll get a History and Bible Parent Guide, as well as a History and Bible Student Guide.

Your Parent Guide mirrors the Student Guide, but also includes answers, provides extra notes and allows you to check their progress and discuss their reading. This format allows you to be as engaged or as hands-off as you and your students like.

Classical Literature

The underlying framework of 230 Literature is not obvious at first glance, but it has both a chronological progression and a general emphasis on great works by British authors, plus some of my favorites, too.

It is a stand-alone product and, though it moves in the same progression as 220 History, they are not scheduled to match.

As always, I seek to provide a mix of challenging and easier works, by males and females, in a range of genres.

The range of genres, in this case, is especially rich: historical fiction, legend, short story, lyric poetry, detective stories, ghost story, Gothic horror, science fiction, fantasy, memoir, Gothic romance, adventure, novel, allegory, survival tale, tragedy, epistolary, myth, and comedy.

Looking first at the chronological progression, C.S. Lewis's powerful book Till We Have Faces is a retelling of a Greek myth, with a setting something like ancient Greece.

Rosemary Sutcliff's historical novel The Shining Company, set in A.D. 500, is based on a battle attempted and lost, a book shimmery in its beauty. (How many beautiful books about the Dark Ages can you think of? A rarity, for sure.)

One hundred years later, comes The Ramsay Scallop, set in 1299, in which a young man, back from the Crusades, goes on Pilgrimage with his betrothed.

Continuing on, find a tale set in Eyam in 1665, a village in England that, when the Plague arrived, determined to close themselves off from the rest of the world to prevent further outbreak.

And, finally Robinson Crusoe, which Daniel Defoe published in 1719, is credited as beginning the genre of realistic fiction.

Because Shakespeare is important, students get to read my favorite comedy (Twelfth Night) and his most famous tragedy (Romeo and Juliet). Students get to read a book by the incomparable Dickens: Oliver Twist ("Please, sir, I want some more"). Also, one of the world's most famous allegories, Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.

This course is an interesting one to me. When I think of my all-time favorite Sonlight books, few of these come to mind immediately. But when I actually consider these books, it's like they're all sleeper hits. Great reads, all. It's hard to pick favorites because the books are uniformly really solid. When I return to 230, I feel like I'm meeting old friends. When people ask which ones they could cut to make it more manageable, I'm not much help. It's simply a fabulous collection.

Language Arts

Fully integrated with the Literature, this year's Language Arts builds on past years and continues to develop literary analysis, creative writing, research, and essay skills, with weekly writing assignments in a range of lengths and topics.

Know your family

Join the ranks of Sonlighters who know now the story of their Christian family. May you enjoy the fresh conversations and discoveries in store for you. Thank you for being dedicated to your students' academic and spiritual growth!

Estimated daily time for Classic Literature: Student: 45min.

Prefer to build your own course of study?

Create a complete course of study by mixing and matching individual high school courses. Visit sonlight.com/high-school to get started.