I’m excited for the opportunity to give away TWO incredible non-fiction titles by popular author Alton Gansky. A few months ago, I joined a review team for Mr. Gansky’s newest release, 30 Events that Shaped the Church. I’ll tell you my thoughts on that book in just a second, but today, I want to announce that you can enter to win a copy of both 30 Events that Shaped the Church and Mr. Gansky’s 60 People Who Shaped the Church. The giveaway ends at 11:59 p.m. EST on August 3, 2015, so enter today! These books are great for leisure reading or make a wonderful supplement to a high school history or Bible class.
“Some history deserves to be repeated. The examples of the brave, the determined, and the dedicated are worth emulating.”
The above quote by Alton Gansky is one of my favorites from the book 30 Events that Shaped the Church. Writing a history of the Church in an interesting, engaging, and non-denominational way is no simple task, but it is one that author Alton Gansky did with exceptional skill. I wanted to sit down with this book. I was drawn in by its stories and amazed at the pieces of history I had heard little or nothing about. I had more than one “light bulb” moment when pieces of the past clicked together into a broader picture.
That is one of the goals of this book, to “help the reader get a sense of the people, times, and events that make the church what it is today.” Choosing which 30 events to include in the book was, by Mr. Gansky’s own admission, difficult. How do you choose from events that span more than two thousand years and cover the entire globe? In the end, Mr. Gansky settled on:
- Pentecost
- The Conversion of Paul
- Gentiles and Judaism: Showdown in Jerusalem
- When Rome Burned
- The Destruction of Jerusalem by Titus
- The Edict of Milan
- The First Council of Nicaea
- Jerome Completes the Vulgate Translation of the Bible
- The East-West Schism
- Innocent III Expands the Power of the Papacy
- Unam Sanctam Proclaims Papal Supremacy
- Gutenberg Produces the First Printed Bible
- The Protestant Reformation
- The Scientific Revolution Begins
- The Council of Trent
- Smyth Baptizes Himself and Begins the Early Baptists
- The King James Version is Published
- Bishop Ussher’s Chronology
- The Great Awakening in the United States
- The Bill of Rights is Written
- Darwin’s On the Origin of Species is Published
- The Scofield Reference Bible is Published
- The Fundamentals
- The Scopes “Monkey Trial”
- The Rise of the Neo-Evangelicals
- The Dead Sea Scrolls Discovered
- The Jesus Movement
- Vatican II
- The Rise of the Christian Right: Confrontational Christianity
- The Rise of New Atheism
Now for the hard questions–which one of those events would you most like to learn more about AND can you think of an event you would like to see explored in a future book? Leave me a comment and let me know!
It’s time for the giveaway! Enter below to win one paperback copy of 30 Events that Shaped the Church and Mr. Gansky’s related book 60 People Who Shaped the Church.
Disclaimer: I received a free copy of 30 Events that Shaped the Church in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.
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