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Title: The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God by Robert Louis Wilken ISBN: 0-300-09708-5 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: April, 2003 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (9 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Remembering who we are
Comment: Robert Wilken has given us a beautiful book. In the preface, he mentions that he originally intended the book to be a sequel to his earlier excellent _The Christians as the Romans Saw Them_. The first book presented the prosecution's case against early Christianity, as it were, and the new one would present the defense. But he eventually dropped the idea, because as he delved deeper into the writings of the early Church Fathers, he realized that their thinking was much too independent of Greco-Roman thought to be interpreted merely as a response to it. So the new book emerged.
One of the most fascinating and instructive points of Professor Wilken's new book is his claim that Harnack and Co. were wrong to suppose that early Christian thought was thoroughly Hellenized by cultural osmosis. This of course has been the standard way of thinking since the mid-nineteenth century. But in fact, as Wilken's goes to pains to demonstrate, just the converse is true: Christianity dramatically influenced Hellenistic culture. It was Christianity that radically transformed the secular world, not the other way around.
Wilken demonstrates that this radical transformation of Greco-Roman culture--which was at the same time, of course, the coming-into-its-own of Christian thought--was never primarily intellectualistic. Christianity is a religion, not a philosophy. It stresses love, compassion, service in the world, and worship, and these elements define the parameters and shape the content of early Christian thought. Wilken works through this claim by examining, chapter by chapter, how the early Christians viewed (for example) worship, the Resurrection, the Trinity, the Passion, and so on. Chapter 7, on "Faith," where Wilken explores the connection between knowing and loving, may be the single most beautiful and enlightening discussion in the book. Also of particular interest are the final two chapters, which deal respectively with the early Church's understanding of the moral and spiritual life.
Wilken's book is informative for students of historical theology, but it's also inspiring for those readers who might wish to use it as an opportunity for lectio divina. Gracefully written, sensitively nuanced, the book is a real pearl.
Rating: 5
Summary: Wow
Comment: For an excellent study of the early Christian movement, and especially their theological reflection and self-understandng, go no further! I've read a lot of books dealing with Early Christianity, and many of them turn out to be judgemental and very negative ... so frequently, these days, the authors love the heretics and think that orthodox thinkers were just the "winners," and not right. This book does an excellent job of explaining what the Early Christian Fathers actually beleived, and how they expressed those beliefs. I'm glad a bought and read this book. Give it a go!
Rating: 5
Summary: Spiritually and intellectually enlightening!
Comment: Wilken's beautifully written book not only displays tremendous scholarship, but is also truly inspirational. He helps you to not merely understand intellectually how the Early Church Fathers thought, but to inwardly absorb and appreciate their spirituality. What could have been a very dry, drab presentation is actually a deeply rewarding one. I highly recommend it.
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Title: The Christians as the Romans Saw Them by Robert Louis Wilken ISBN: 0300098391 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: June, 2003 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Credo: Historical and Theological Guide to Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition by Jaroslav Pelikan ISBN: 0300093888 Publisher: Yale Univ Pr Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $40.00 |
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Title: The Resurrection of the Son of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God, 3) by N. T. Wright ISBN: 0800626796 Publisher: Fortress Press Pub. Date: May, 2003 List Price(USD): $39.00 |
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Title: The Creed : What Christians Believe and Why it Matters by LUKE TIMOTHY JOHNSON ISBN: 0385502478 Publisher: Doubleday Pub. Date: 19 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: The Rise of Western Christendom: Triumph and Diversity 200-1000 Ad (Making of Europe) by Peter Robert Lamont Brown ISBN: 0631221387 Publisher: Blackwell Publishers Pub. Date: February, 2003 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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