60 People Who Shaped the Church: Learning from Sinners, Saints, Rogues, and Heroes

by Alton Gansky

Overview

The Church exists today in its current form because of the people who have come before us. Who were those people? Staid and dour scholars? Cultural movers and shakers? How does their contribution to history affect us today?

From a consummate storyteller comes this collection of inspiring biographical sketches of people who played pivotal roles in advancing the Kingdom of God on earth. In rich prose and spanning twenty centuries of church history, these engaging narratives range from the well-known to the obscure, highlighting personalities such as Josephus, Francis of Assisi, Thomas Aquinas, Galileo, John Calvin, Blaise Pascal, Jonathan Edwards, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, William Wilberforce, G. K. Chesterton, and many others. Readers will feel the past come alive and mingle in their minds with the present state of the Church, encouraging and galvanizing them to live their own faith courageously in our time—and shape the Church of the future.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780801015397
Publisher:	Baker Publishing Group
Publication date:	05/20/2014
Pages:	320
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Alton Gansky is the author of twenty-four novels and eight nonfiction books. He is a Carol Award winner and an Angel Award winner, and has been a Christy Award finalist. He holds a BA and an MA in biblical studies and has been awarded a Doctor of Literature degree. Director of the Blue Ridge Mountains Christian Writers Conference, Gansky also serves as an editor and collaborative writer for top tier authors. He lives in California.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments 11

Introduction 13

1 Peter (c. 1 BC-64 AD) 15

2 Paul (5-67) 25

3 Josephus (37-100) 33

4 Polycarp (69-155) 37

5 Justin Martyr (100-165) 42

6 Clement of Alexandria (150-215) 47

7 Origen (185-254) 52

8 Diocletian (244-311) 56

9 Eusebius of Caesarea (c. 264-c. 340) 61

10 Constantine (285-337) 65

11 Athanasius (295-373) 71

12 Ambrose of Milan (337-397) 75

13 Jerome (342-420) 81

14 John Chrysostom (347-407) 85

15 Augustine of Hippo (354-430) 90

16 Pope Leo I (c. 400-61) 99

17 The Venerable Bede (c. 673-735) 104

18 Anselm (1031-1109) 108

19 Francis of Assisi (1183-1226) 112

20 Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) 120

21 John Wycliffe (c. 1320-1384) 126

22 Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) 130

23 Martin Luther (1483-1546) 133

24 Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531) 141

25 King Henry VIII (1491-1547) 146

26 Ignatius of Loyola (1492-1556) 150

27 William Tyndale (c. 1494-1536) 153

28 Menno Simons (1496-1561) 158

29 John Calvin (1509-1564) 164

30 John Foxe (1516-1587) 171

31 Jacob Arminius (1560-1609) 175

32 Francis Bacon (1561-1626) 181

33 Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) 184

34 Brother Lawrence (1611-1691) 190

35 Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) 193

36 John Bunyan (1628-1688) 198

37 Isaac Watts (1674-1748) 203

38 George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) 206

39 Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758) 210

40 John Wesley (1703-1791) 214

41 Charles Wesley (1707-1788) 221

42 George Whitefield (1714-1770) 225

43 John Newton (1725-1807) 232

44 William Wilberforce (1759-1833) 236

45 William Carey (1761-1834) 240

46 Charles Finney (1792-1875) 245

47 William Gladstone (1809-1898) 249

48 Fanny Crosby (1820-1915) 252

49 Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1821-1881) 257

50 William Booth (1829-1912) 261

51 Hudson Taylor (1832-1905) 264

52 Charles Spurgeon (1834-1892) 269

53 Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899) 274

54 Billy Sunday (1862-1935) 280

55 Oswald Chambers (1874-1917) 284

56 G. K. Chesterton (1874-1936) 288

57 T. S. Eliot (1888-1965) 291

58 C. S. Lewis (1898-1963) 294

59 Henry Morris (1918-2006) 299

60 Billy Graham (1918-) 303

Notes 309