Appeal is often made in ecumenical discussion between East and West to the standard of the undivided Church of the first centuries of the Christian era, but understanding is not helped by the assumption that the divergences between East and West did not seriously arise in this early period. One of the many services rendered by this history is to show that Western Christendom had distinctive features from the beginning, and that it had a unity of 'culture' other than that imposed by the Papal See.

In his use of recent archaeological studies and of the 'apocryphal' New Testament, and in his arrangement of the material at his disposal, the author offers a wide-ranging overview of the growth of the early church. Now available again after several years, The Beginnings of Western Christendom remains an invaluable resource for students of early Christianity and church history.