This is an intensely readable look at the Christian Church down the ages, providing powerful messages for our own times. Many church members know little or nothing about the story of Christianity between the New Testament period and today. They therefore may not realise how much they have been in uenced by traditions developed during that time. These can have both a negative and positive bene t. Negative, because 'those who forget history are condemned to relive it'. Most of the mistakes we make and errors we fall into have happened before and we can learn from our forefathers to avoid them. Positive, because we have such a rich heritage it would be folly to ignore. We can draw inspiration and examples from the spiritual giants who went before us and, after all, we can look forward to meeting them personally in glory.