the history of the church · eusebius

Eusebius, bishop of Caesarea and adviser to Constantine, wrote the first history of the Christian church, from the apostles to the emperor's victory in 324. It preserves lost sources on the succession of bishops, the persecutions and the martyrs, and the heresies, and it reads the church's survival as providence.

Eusebius, The History of the Church: From Christ to Constantine, translated by G. A. Williamson and edited by Andrew Louth (Penguin Books, 1989). Read over two sessions, Freshman Spring at Torrey Honors: Books 1 and 4 to 6, then Books 8 to 10.