These two volumes are derived from Dr. Cunningham's lectures to his Church History class at New College, Edinburgh between 1847–1861. Cunningham's living faith, devout submission to God, clarity of thought, and reverence for the authority of the Bible make him well-positioned to comment on the relationship between the church and its theology.The history of the Church is a history of God's interaction with his people; Cunningham tells that story through the history of its theology, chronicling the theological tension between law and grace, sin and forgiveness, and Christ's first and second coming.

Volume one covers the biblical view of the church, the church councils and the apostolic fathers, the development of the church's central doctrines—such as the incarnation and the Trinity—as well as the rise of scholasticism, the Reformation, and the Council of Trent.

Volume two documents the development of the doctrines of justification and the atonement and the Arminian and the Socinian controversies. He also devotes lengthy discussions to Presbyterianism, Congregationalism, and the Free Church of Scotland.