Jerald Bauers The Westminster Dictionary of Church History, originally published in 1969, ably served an entire generation of pastors, students, and scholars over the last decades of the twentieth century. In the recognition of both the Dictionarys age and the latest developments in patristics and other fields of study, Westminster John Knox Press commissioned this volume to continue in the previous volumes tradition by providing up-to-date immediate, authoritative, and introductory definitions and explanations of the major personalities, events, facts, and movements in the history of Christianity.
This volume, volume one, covers the early, medieval, and Reformation periods and contains nearly fourteen hundred articles written by over two hundred contributors. Volume two will cover the modern period, from 1700 on.

Robert Benedetto is Director of the Flora Lamson Hewlett Library at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.

Associate editors: James O. Duke, Brite Divinity School; Carter Lindberg, Boston University School of Theology; Christopher Ocker, San Francisco Theological Seminary and the Graduate Theological Union; and Rebecca H. Weaver, Union Theological Seminary and Presbyterian School of Christian Education.