This is the standard history in two volumes of the development of the early Christian Church, ranging from the ministry of John the Baptist to the establishment of Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire in the 4th century.

Brilliantly written and documented, A History of the Early Church is a seminal work, important for laymen, indispensable for students. Hans Lietzmann's four-volume history of Christianity from its founding through the early Church Fathers and the origins of monasticism is published here in a new two-volume paperback edition. The whole work is complemented by a foreword and updated bibliography by W.H.C. Frend.
Volume 1 contains the first two volumes of the original version: Part I: The Beginnings of the Christian Church, and Part II: The Founding of the Church Universal. Part I covers the period from the ministry of John the Baptist to the Marcionite and Gnostic heresies of the second century. Part II continues the narrative through to the death of Origen. In addition to brilliant character studies of such figures as Tertullian and Origen, it contains notable chapters on the principal problems confronting the early Church.