Passing by much that is of the highest importance, [the author] has attempted to point out the main movements of Christian thought from the close of the Apostolic Age to the dawn of the Reformation. . . .
The writer believes firmly in the evolutionary standpoint as alone explanatory of the history of the Christian Church as the expression of the will of the Holy Spirit. He admits, therefore, the principle of development as not only an historic fact, but as part of the work of God. True Christianity is not to be found by going back to some ill-defined period of antiquity, the beliefs and practices of which it is now almost impossible to reconstruct, but by the incorporation into itself of the ever-enlarging knowledge, the ever-expanding horizons of life. It is the glory of Christianity that this can be done.
--from the Preface

Herbert Brook Workman (1862-1951) was born in London and educated at Owens College, Manchester. He entered the Wesleyan ministry in 1885 and served as a circuit minister in England and Scotland until 1903 when he was appointed Principal of Westminster College. He was elected President of the Wesleyan Conference in 1930.
A distinguished historian, Workman was Cole Lecturer at Vanderbilt University in 1916 and Visiting Professor of Methodist Church History at the University of Chicago in 1927. He published extensively in the field of medieval church history as well as Methodism.
His other publications include 'The Dawn of the Reformation,' 'The Evolution of the Monastic Ideal,' 'Martyrs of the Early Church,' 'Methodism,' and 'The Age of Hus.'