The History of the Christian Orthodox Church

Protopriest Peter Alexeyevich Smirnov (1831-1907) — historian of the Church, biblicist, and theologian. After graduating from the Moscow Theological Academy, he preached sermons and engaged in legal teaching activities, during which he wrote textbooks on the Law of God and the history of the Church, translated into foreign languages. Together with the Moscow Commission, he organized public readings, taught the Law of God in courses for teachers of public schools, and led theological readings in the Moscow City Duma. He was the rector of the St. Petersburg Cathedral of St. Isaac. He held the position of editor at «Church News» and prepared articles on issues of church life and thought. Due to his significant contribution to the teaching of the Law of God, he was appointed chairman of the Educational Council under the Holy Synod.
This work of Protopriest Peter Smirnov, serving as a textbook, includes an introduction that defines the main provisions of the history of the Church and a review of the history of Christianity, divided into several milestones: the Apostolic period, the period of the Flourishing of Christianity and the Ecumenical Councils, the schism of the Roman Church and the Emergence of Protestantism, the Christianization of the Slavic Peoples and the Russian Church, and the Synodal Period.