Three titles I happened to see on book tables at my favorite local theological bookstore that piqued my interest:
Christianity: The First Three Thousand Years (Diarmaid MacCulloch, Viking; reprint: Penguin)
A Companion to Bede: A Reader's Commentary on the Ecclesiastical History of the English People (J. Robert Wright, Eerdmans)
Hear the Ancient Wisdom: A Meditational Reader for the Whole Year from the Early Church Fathers up to the Pre-Reformation (edited by Charles Ringma, Cascade Books / Wipf & Stock)
Three titles
MacCulloch is dry, and not quick reading, but is a phenomenal expert on various aspects of Christian history, particularly the Reformation. The paper copies of these books have gotten pretty hard to find, especially at a reasonable price. A Logos version would be nice.
I'd also add MacCulloch's most recent work: The Reformation: A history, to the list.
Prof MacCulloch did a special series on BBC called A History Of Christianity. Son of a pastor, self-avowed "not a Christian" but a "friend of Christianity", MacCulloch offered some incisive looks at religious history, just the sort of thing to grace public television.
Similarly, his written work is a socio-historical examination, one where faith is basically a phenomenon.
Personally, I'd avoid it in favour of other material.
