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Course 05

Christianity Before the Restoration

A History of Christian Thought

Latter-day Saints talk about "the Apostasy" and "the Restoration" constantly but few have real understanding of what happened in Christian history between roughly 100 AD and 1820.

Episodes

  1. 01

    The World Jesus Entered

    Second Temple Judaism. Messianic expectations. Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes. Hellenistic context.

    Coming soon
  2. 02

    The Apostolic Church & Its Diversity

    What earliest Christians actually believed and practiced. Diversity of early communities. Paul vs. James. Early authority structures.

    Coming soon
  3. 03

    The Creedal Controversies

    Nicaea, Chalcedon, christological debates. What was at stake? Why did the Trinity develop as it did? The creeds as genuine problem-solving, not just "apostasy."

    Coming soon
  4. 04

    The Church Fathers

    Augustine's influence on Western Christianity. Original sin, grace, City of God. Eastern Orthodoxy as a major tradition most LDS know nothing about.

    Coming soon
  5. 05

    Medieval Christianity

    Monasticism, scholasticism, mysticism. Cathedral schools and universities. Aquinas. The mystics. A thousand years of rich Christian intellectual life.

    Coming soon
  6. 06

    The Great Schism & the Reformation

    East-West split. Luther, Calvin, radical Reformation, Counter-Reformation. How one church became dozens and what that did to religious authority.

    Coming soon
  7. 07

    Christianity in Early America

    Puritanism. Great Awakenings. Camp meetings. Restorationism as a broad movement. Campbellites, Shakers. The burned-over district.

    Coming soon
  8. 08

    Rethinking "Apostasy"

    What do Latter-day Saints actually mean by "apostasy"? Total or partial? What was lost vs. preserved? The "great apostasy" as theological claim with a complex relationship to historical evidence.

    Coming soon
  9. 09

    Modern Christianity

    Liberal-conservative split in Protestantism. Fundamentalist reaction. Vatican II. Ecumenism. Where Christianity stands in the 21st century.

    Coming soon
  10. 10

    What Christians Share

    Commonalities across the Christian tradition. What the Restoration shares with broader Christianity. Building an informed and charitable relationship with the Christian world.

    Coming soon