Mark Noll describes and interprets American Evangelical Christianity, utilising research by theologians, sociologists and political scientists, as well as the author's own historical interests, to explain the position Evangelicalism now occupies at the beginning of the new century.

According to the scholarly and pastoral authors of this essay collection, sixteenth-century Anabaptists have much to teach Baptists and other Free Church evangelicals.

A study of the lives and theology of evangelical Anabaptists encourages a reader to dig deeper into the Bible, count the cost of discipleship to Jesus Christ, and commit oneself to engaging the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. The theological commitment of Anabaptists like Balthasar Hubmaier to the supremacy of the Word of God encourages us to live by the motto that "the truth is unkillable." The example of Leonhard Schiemer, who understood that following Jesus meant taking up the cross of Jesus Christ, prepares one for the joyous difficulty of a life of discipleship. The loving attitude, missionary fervor, and desire for communal integrity of leaders like Hans Denck and Michael Sattler draws us into a stronger commitment to share the gospel from an authentically Christian heart and life.

Finally, such great contemporary leaders as Paige Patterson and Rick Warren have drawn upon the legacy of the evangelical Anabaptists to build great churches and seminaries. Their thoughts and stories are included here to encourage the recovery of the Anabaptist vision among Baptists and other free churches today.

These papers also serve as a Festschrift honoring the lifelong work of Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, in the study of the Radical Reformation. Indeed, he has inspired the recovery of the Anabaptist vision as a means of restoring New Testament Christianity.

"One of the first great events in Christian history was the Council of Nicaea in 325 AD, convened to organize Christian sects and beliefs into a unified doctrine. The great Christian clergymen who wrote before this famous event are referred to as the Ante-Nicenes and the Apostolic Fathers, and their writings are collected here in a ten-volume set. The Ante-Nicenes lived so close to the time of Christ that their interpretations of the New Testament are considered more authentic than modern voices. But they are also real and flawed men, who are more like their fellow Christians than they are like the Apostles, making their words echo in the ears of spiritual seekers. In Volume I of the 10-volume collected works of the Ante-Nicenes first published between 1885 and 1896, readers will find the writings of: Clement of Rome, the fourth pope, who was supposedly martyred by being tied to an anchor and tossed overboard Mathetes, an anonymous writer considered the first Christian apologist Polycarp, a Christian bishop who was stabbed to death after he failed to burn at the stake Ignatius, a student of John the Apostle, who was Bishop of Antioch before he was killed Barnabas, an anonymous writer given the name of Saint Barnabas Papias, author of Interpretations of the Sayings of the Lord, a textbook on quotes from Jesus Justin Martyr, a Christian apologist and accomplished philosopher, and Irenaeus, disciple of Polycarp, apologist, and bishop of Lugdunum."