Two thousand years is a long time to survey. Books on church history have to pick-and-choose some things to include and others to omit. This is especially true in a 300 word primer like Turning Points. Despite the limitations, Mark A. Noll has written a compelling book that surveys the sweep of church history in a way that resists oversimplification.

The decision decision to write about thirteen significant “turning points” allows Noll the freedom to delve at significant depth into certain topics while acknowledging that other moments are necessarily left out. The author has a gift for clarifying complex events. Chapters two and three on the Counsels of Nicea and Chalcedon, for example, are both clear and concise—a difficult balance to achieve!

My only quibble is one of Noll’s significant omissions. The final chapter surveys Vatican II and The Lausanne Congress on World Evangelism. While I wholeheartedly agree that Vatican II is a turning point, the Protestant analogue is poor choice. Better would have been the Pentecostal and Charismatic explosion in the twentieth century that has resulted in approximately one third of global Christians identifying as Pentecostal or Charismatic. To be fair, Noll does include a note on this in the Afterword, but given the impact of this movement on the world, a few pages at the end doesn’t seem sufficient.

Whenever you see “Third Edition” on the cover of a book, you know there’s some value there—it has stood the test of time. Turning Points has been read by scores of Bible College students and informed laity for decades now. It deserves to be read for decades to come.

Noll, Mark A. Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity. 3rd Ed. Baker Academic, 2012.