The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God

The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God
by Robert Louis Wilken

Wilken is one of the best writers on the early Church around. While each chapter deals with specific issues, he touches on a great deal of relevant points, which makes the read both enlightening and fun. His style is easy to follow, which is something that I cannot always say of the preeminent historian of dogma, Jaroslav Pelikan, who heartily indorses this book. You really won't go wrong with this one. Every page has a distilled quality that comes from teaching and living in the minds of the Fathers for several decades.

The contents are as follows: 1. Founded on the Cross of Christ 2. An Awesome and Unbloody Sacrifice 3. The Face of God for Now 4. Seek His Face Always 5. Not My Will But Thine 6. The End Given in the Beginning 7. The Reasonableness of the Faith 8. Happy the People Whose God is the Lord 9. The Glorious Deeds of Christ 10. Making This Thing Other 11. Likeness to God 12. The Knowledge of Sensible Things

He writes: "The intellectual tradition that began in the early Church was enriched by the philosophical breadth and exactitude of medieval thought. Each period in Christian history makes its own unique contribution to Christian life. The Church Fathers, however, set in place a foundation that has proven to be irreplaceable. Their writings are more than a stage in the development of Christian thought or an interesting chapter in the history of the interpretation of the Bible. Like an inexhaustible spring, faithful and true, they irrigate the Christian imagination with life-giving water flowing from the biblical and spiritual sources of the faith. They are still our teachers today."

In terms of errors or just overstatements, there are few worth noting, none of which deserve to take away from the book's great worth. Even so, he refers to Christ as having a divine and human nature, whereas it should read "natures" in the plural. Maybe a quibble, but we are Chalcedonian Christians, after all. And speaking of the Council of Chalcedon in 451, Wilken seems to think that the Fathers were too vague in that instance. Here I would think that in a way he misses the point of the Council's affirmation, or rather, 'affirmation by negation'. The Fathers were respecting the inherent mystery of the person of Christ and did so in words by remaining apophatic in their teaching by stating, "these things are untrue, of the rest, remain silent". It is a true understanding of that mystery that motivated this approach. It could go too far and lead to heresy to do otherwise. For Wilken this is a lack of clarity, for me, an example of wisdom in the face of the living God's presence. Moreover, a passing remark that Augustine is the premier Father leaves me as an Orthodox a little quizzical. We can say that he is the most widely read Latin theologian, but for us he lacks the Eastern mind and is very much a product and producer of what seperates the Latin and Greek theologies.

If you have an interest in history, you would also enjoy Wilken's Remembering the Christian Past and the works of Georges Florovsky. On the question of the Hellenization of the gospel, a la Harnak, which Wilken (and nearly all modern scholars) rejects thoroughly, see also Florovsky and Martin Hengel's works. Hurtado's Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity is worth buying and having near the desk. Another up and coming patristic scholar from whom we will be reading and hearing much more in the coming years, God willing, is John Behr, dean and professor of Patristics at St. Vladimir's. His new book, "The Way to Nicea" is a very helpful guide on the pre-Nicene Christiological tradition and would make a great companion to Wilken's book. Enjoy!

The Free Church and the Early Church: Bridging the Historical and Theological Divide

by D.H. Williams

This is a fantastic book and I recommend it highly, especially for Protestants and even more so for those who are of the Free Church variety- Baptists, Church of Christ, Disciples of Christ, etc. Topics covered include the canon of Scripture and the notions behind it, tradition and the nature and role of authority in the Church.

My critique of this book, along with others that Williams has written, is that it does not go far enough, and bear in mind this is coming from an ex-Protestant (Lutheran CMS). You see, it is true that there are many commonalities between the free church movement and the early church, and this book shows that and helps other "free churchers" lose their suspicion of tradition and recover from some of their typical historical amnesia. However, it reminds me of something that Frank Schaeffer said in a lecture about 16 years ago, and I think it is worth at least considering in relation to historically-minded Protestants of both the magisterial and non-magisterial traditions. In response to someone who said that they have decided that they agree with the Church Fathers and personally believe their doctrines, and thus are in continuity with them, Schaeffer replied, "That is like saying that since you enjoy things about French culture and have studied the language you are therefore French." And that is my other point about this book. Suspiciously lacking (and something I have noticed in such works) is a full discussion of baptism, eucharist, ordination and grace. This is more of a litmus test to continuity with the past than free church historians usually give due, and at the root of patristic ecclesiology.

Some books to consider reading in this regard are Werner Elert's Eucharist and Church Fellowship in the First Four Centuries, Common Ground: An Introduction to Eastern Christianity for the American Christian by Jordan Bajis and The Fathers of the Church, Expanded Edition.

God the Holy Trinity: Reflections on Christian Faith and Practice (Beeson Divinity Studies)

God the Holy Trinity: Reflections on Christian Faith and Practice (Beeson Divinity Studies)
by Timothy George

The publication of this book is a welcome addition to what is becoming a renewed focus in Western Christianity; namely, focus upon theology proper, God in God's self. With all of the anti-this & that and solas of the Reformation, God the Father, and thus a proper understanding of both His Son and Spirit, had been distorted and neglected. For a variety of reasons, not the least of which is renewed contact with the Eastern Orthodox liturgical/theological tradition, Western theology, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, is recovering from its amnesia. While this slim volume is not one that I would put on a top ten list of books to read when thinking about Trinitarian theology, it does have its merits.

Alister McGrath's essay on Evangelicals and Trinitarian theology isn't too engaging (is he ever?), but does rightly call us to have a mental humility before the mystery of God. Without limiting God to transcendence, he rightfully remarks that we must stick to our data, and not get so absorbed in our thoughts about God that we forget that loving God covers over a multitude of "unknowings", and that this is just fine. This is akin to the Orthodox approach to apophatic, or negative, theology. God is fundamentally a mystery in which we participate, not understand. This is a good way to set the tone for reading the other essays.

Massey's essay on African-American spirituals notes the role of the Holy Spirit. While useful, I found it to be rather narrow for a larger reading; likewise can be said for Packer's reflections on the Puritan John Owen. In at least two other conferences I have heard him present on Owen and at this point it just doesn't do it for me. Too narrow for general readership.

Essays that I found more general and insightful would include Matthew-Green's reflections on the Eastern Orthodox approach/experience of God as Father, Son and Spirit in Her art & architecture. She reminds us that it is in the context of worship that we come closet to "knowing" God in a communion of love, as the Church is the Body of Christ. That can never be said enough, and one might find in this approach a useful metric to just how Christian much of what passes for worship actually is (or isn't). Dulles' essay echoes the liturgical aspect of theology, with his reflections upon the nature of baptism.

Charry's critique of Barth, Jenson and LaCugna is through her Augustinian lens. This means that she wants to temper the "social" aspect of the Trinity with Augustine's notion of divine simplicity. I am not exactly sold on this at all, but it will resonate with classical Western theology. It can be a tricky conception, but it does serve to guard against tritheism.

Most useful for myself has been George's critique of Muslim critiques of Christian trinitarianism, showing that Mohammed fundamentally misunderstood Christian theology on this point by believing that Mary was the third member of the Trinity and that she had sexual intercourse with God to spawn Jesus. While Mohammed may have been exposed to a heretical Marian cult, and developed his ideas of Christianity form that, it dose show that the Quran is off-base in its critique of the Faith.

Robert Louis Wilken's Remembering the Christian Pasthas an excellent chapter on this topic as well. There are a few other essays that are included that yo can see in the index above. I would steer readers who are interested in this topic to a few other books before buying this one: Being as Communion: Studies in Personhood and the Church (Contemporary Greek Theologians Series, No 4), Energies of the Spirit: Trinitarian Models in Eastern Orthodox and Western Theology (American Academy of Religion Academy Series), The Tripersonal God: Understanding and Interpreting the Trinity, Trinity and Incarnation: The Faith of the Early Church (Theology), The God of the Gospel of John, The Cruelty of Heresy: An Affirmation of Christian Orthodoxy, The Mystery of the Trinity: Trinitarian Experience and Vision in the Biblical and Patristic Tradition and, needed in any approach to theology, Vladimir Lossky's The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church.

On Pascha: With the Fragments of Melito and Other Material Related to the Quartodecimans (St. Vladimir's Seminary Press "Popular Patristics" Series)

On Pascha: With the Fragments of Melito and...
Translated with notes by Alistair Stewart-Sykes

 As lent began, I thought it would be a good time to read On Pascha, with its liturgical reflections on the deliverance of humanity from the bondage of sin, death and evil through the life, death and resurrection of Christ. It is certainly very much worth the brief amount of time it takes to read, and I am left with a deeper appreciation of the early Asian church's understanding of the interplay between the Passion of Jesus Christ and the "deliverance history" of the Old Testament. Nothing is random in salvation history, and Melito's typological approach is beautiful to read and reflect upon.

The actual translation is euphonic, and I actually found it more powerful when I read it aloud. This is connected to Melito's oratory power, and the superb introduction to the text gives a detailed account of how Melito's style fits into the oratory context of the second century. And speaking of the introduction, readers who have more than a devotional interest will be highly impressed with the succinct and detailed overview of the following themes: the role of Judaism in Christianity in the second century in Asia and the West; liturgical rites of Paschal (Easter) celebrations in use at the time, including the resulting controversies (namely, the Quartrodeciman); rhetorical traditions of the time; the Asian church's eschatology, Christology, liturgical rites, and much more. An extensive bibliography and index are included. Please also check out the translator's detailed The Lamb's High Feast: Melito, Peri Pascha, and the Quartodeciman Paschal Liturgy at Sardis (Supplements to Vigiliae Christianae).

Evangelicals and Tradition: The Formative Influence of the Early Church (Evangelical Ressourcement: Ancient Sources for the Church's Future)

Evangelicals and Tradition: The Formative Influence of the Early Church
By D. H. Williams

For those Protestants who have their reservations about the Christian tradition (largely quite "unProtestant") this book is for them. The author is himself a Baptist and very well-versed in both Church history and the Church Fathers. His goal is fourfold: 1) Demonstrate that Scripture and early tradition go hand in hand and that Scripture is part of tradition, given by the Church to proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ correctly., 2) theology exists as a part of the worshipping community, and not as an abstraction. Without right worship, there is no right doctrine 3) our personal liberty in the Holy Spirit is a corporate liberty. That is, we exist as "members one of another" who cannot go off and "do our own thing" 4) the Protestant tradition must be reintegrated into the greater catholic tradition to properly understand itself and the Gospel. In short, the author doesn't try to make a Protestant into a Catholic, but to dispel the myths surrounding the Tradition to show the Protestant what it means to be a Christian in context.

I would recommend the author's other book, Retrieving the Tradition and Renewing Evangelicalism: A Primer for Suspicious Protestants, more than this book, good as it is.

How to Read the Church Fathers

How to Read the Church Fathers
By A. G. Hammon

This is the first book I ever read on the Fathers and it served me very well. Anyone interested in learning about the pioneering figures of Christianity should start here. Tracing the story from the beginnings in Jerusalem, Hammon blends large sections of primary sources, maps, charts and concise and detailed background information to take you by the hand through what can be a rather confusing story. You'll learn all about the philosophical backgrounds that the Fathers worked in and among, the nature of martyrdom (so different form what we think now with the rise of militant Islam), early eucharistic worship and creeds, eastern vs. western theological trends, the role of bishops and the canon of scripture. The attractive layout helps you stay connected to the main points and gives you some entertainment, too. Very well done and highly recommended.

See also Evangelicals and Tradition: The Formative Influence of the Early Church (Evangelical Ressourcement: Ancient Sources for the Churchs Future), Tradition, Scripture, and Interpretation: A Sourcebook of the Ancient Church (Evangelical Ressourcement: Ancient Sources for the Churchs Future), By What Authority?: An Evangelical Discovers Catholic Tradition and Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers (Penguin Classics).

Common Ground: An Introduction to Eastern Christianity for the American Christian

By Jordan Bajis

Eastern Orthodoxy is not just another version of what you heard in Sunday school or saw on tv. It is the ancient faith of the apostles and their followers handed down through the centuries, rooted in the worship and experience of the God who has revealed Himself to us in Jesus Christ. If I had one book to give to someone interested in Eastern Christianity who was coming out of a Roman or Protestant background, this would be it! After rereading the book a few times over the past 15 years, I am more convinced than ever that this is the best book to give to friends who are interested in the Eastern Church, or to read for yourself if you are looking eastward!

Why read this book? He's done his homework! If you read this book several things will happen. You'll get a great introduction to Eastern Orthodoxy, geared to the Protestant and Catholic mindset. You'll get an incredible reading list by reading the very extensive endnotes (almost another book). In addition, you will most likely learn more about your own history, whether you're Protestant or Catholic. It will challenge your assumptions and sterotypes as well as help you rethink what the New Testament actually is for and about. You cannot go wrong with this book. Please buy it. Light and Life publishers sells it currently as a 2006 reissue.

Other books of interest: "Not by Scripture Alone" by Sungenis, "The Orthodox Way", "The Orthodox Church", and "How are We Saved?" by Bishop Kallistos Ware. Congar's "Tradition and Traditions" is a great work of Catholic scholarship by one of the masters. "The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church" by Vladimir Lossky will reshape your brain (and your nous)! For those of you who are more daring and looking to bite into something more meaty: "Being As Communion" by John Zizioulas; "Energies of the Spirit" by Duncan Reid; "The Ground of Union" by Williams. They deal with east/west theologies of the Trinity and the Holy Spirit, but they touch on everything else in between! Very deep stuff, takes time to read, but highly recommended!

A Short History of the Doctrine of the Atonement

A Short History of the Doctrine of the Atonement
by L. W. Grensted

All Christians agree that Jesus is the Messiah and Savoir, but what exactly does that mean? What did his death actually accomplish and for whom was it done? Is God the Father angry at us and needs to have his wrath given out on someone? Does Jesus redeem the world, the universe, or just the elect? Is the devil holding us hostage and in need of a ransom? Is the state of death what needs to be "satisfied" and broken? What do the Gospels tell us? St Paul? The earliest church writers? The Fathers East and West? The Medieval theologians? The later Romans and Reformers? These are the types of questions that are at the heart of Grensted's classic, and until recently out of print, text. Such questions are at the very heart of what we think about the nature and "personality" of our God. Grensted rightly says that from the beginning, all Christian theology is soteriology, having to do with the stuff of salvation.

I have used this book extensively in my own study and have found it a fantastic jumping off point, since he has extensive footnotes to the Fathers, theologians and reformers, and he almost always provides a full quotation in the footnotes in the original language after he translates it in the main body of the text. Also be warned that this edition is a copy of the original text, so some pages are a little faded and there is brief underlining by a previous owner, who provided the "proof pages", but they are minimal and neatly scribed. I have found no pages missing, although the publisher's preface warns of it. I think that it must be a general disclaimer. Something that I thought could have been made much more of is the Eastern doctrine of deification (theosis), since that is to my mind the heart of eastern soteriology, and I provide a title for a book on that subject below.

Other books that go along the lines of this one are: Cur Deus Homo, On The Incarnation, Christus Victor: An Historical Study of the Three Main Types of the Idea of Atonement (which is VERY useful), The Nature of the Atonement: Four Views, Problems With Atonement: The Origins Of, And Controversy About, The Atonement DoctrineThe Background And Content Of Paul's Cultic Atonement Metaphors (Academia Biblica (Society of Biblical Literature) (Paper)), The Atonement: The Origins of the Doctrine in the New Testament (but if you can find Hengel's "The Cross of the Son of God" you will get this book along with two of his others on the subject in one binding. For a new view of Luther, see Union With Christ: The New Finnish Interpretation of Luther. For an Orthodox view, see Partakers of the Divine Nature: The History and Development of Deification in the Christian Traditions. Jordan Bajis' Common Ground is also a good comparison of Eastern and Western models.

The Fathers of the Church

The Fathers of the Church
By Mike Aquilina

Give your ancestors a vote. Christianity is not something that is derived from me and my bible in my prayer closet, but rather the great body of our Lord Jesus Christ who has bestowed upon us this new creation, beginning in the Church and spreading outward. The reason why we think about God in the way that we do if we are traditional Christians, and especially if we are Eastern Orthodox, is very much the result of the prayers, worship and hard work of a group of men who the Church has labeled "Fathers", meaning that they are the ones to whom we look for guidance in terms of reading the bible, trusting which books are in and out of the bible, learning how to worship rightly (just anything won't do) and how to pray, basically showing us what to believe and how to "be Christian" by guarding the great deposit of the faith "once delivered to the saints."

You won't go wrong using this book as a starting point, but you should know that the commentary is very much edited to reflect the Western Roman tradition. You may also consider reading Reading Scripture With the Church Fathers, Learning Theology With the Church Fathers, Early Christian Writings: The Apostolic Fathers (Penguin Classics), Mary and the Fathers of the Church: The Blessed Virgin Mary in Patristic Thought, Greek Orthodox Patrology: An Introduction to the Study of the Church Fathers, The Early Church Fathers (38 Vols.) (if you want to get into it seriously), Beginning to Read the Fathers and The Mass of the Early Christians.