›Das Christenthum und die christliche Kirche der drei ersten Jahrhunderte‹ (The Church History of the First Three Centuries) is the first example of Baur’s vast depiction of church history in which his method of researching church history was applied. His depiction includes the results of his research on the history of Early Christianity, on Manichaeism and Gnosis, the groundbreaking significance of which was pointed out by Hans Jonas. This work is one of Baur’s most controversial, mainly because he sees Christianity as a mere »result« of the history of religion. It contains »nothing which had not also made itself felt beforehand as a result of sensible thinking, as a need of the human heart or as a requirement of moral consciousness.«