A Highly Readable Introduction to Christian Thought

   
"Historical Theology: Introduction to the History of Christian Thought" by Alister E. McGrath (WileyBlackwell: 1998)

You've got a year of historical theology coming up, and you've already got a sinking feeling. All those "ologies": Christology, soteriology, ecclesiology...   All the "isms": Arianism, Pelagianism, Apollinarianism, Docetism and so on...   All the councils, the creeds and the synods (not to mention the infamous Diet of Worms)...   And that's before you even get to the Middle Ages and all those infamous philosophical arguments for the existence of God, or the Protestant Reformation.


Alister McGrath (famous as the biologist-turned-theologian who has confronted the arch-atheist Richard Dawkins on his own scientific territory) is a widely admired authority on historical theology, and the structure of this book makes it an ideal study guide. Each major period begins with a gently-paced and highly readable narrative, and for some readers' purposes this will be all that is required. But each such chapter is followed by one or more "case studies" in which the principles and arguments of each of the major theological issues of the period are analyzed in greater depth, and there is an extensive topic-by-topic bibliography for further research.

A key strength of the book is that the main characters (Jerome, Augustine, Luther and the like) are allowed to speak in their own words - just enough to introduce you to the real spirit of their thought but not enough to bog you down in archaic language. In fact most of them come across as far more lucid and down to earth than you might expect. And for those really keen to get inside the heads of the great Christians of old, McGrath has published a separate companion volume comprising longer excerpts from their writings, superbly edited and incorporating a valuable commentary.


Another useful technique is the way tiny boxed biographies of the major players are repeated when their names come up. It saves the reader flicking back and forth to refresh his or her memory, and thus greatly speeds up the assimilation of knowledge. The downside of this method is that you tend to get a feeling of "deja vu" from time to time, as the same explanation may turn up in longer or shorter forms two or three times, as you move from the general background to the specific case-study and onto the biography. However this is not a serious objection, and it is simply the inevitable by-product of a highly effective teaching technique.

A more serious issue is that the author has drawn large sections of this book from his larger book on Christian Theology. This was evidently a deliberate policy, but if you have the original book you probably won't find sufficient new material here to justify the purchase price.

Finally, this is not a general church history - this is an important distinction - but in the area of Christian doctrine it ranks as an outstanding resource for the serious student or for the general reader.