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"Building (ALL) the Body of Christ in Love!"
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An affirming gay Christian (GLBT) site dedicated to ... "Building (ALL) the Body of Christ in Love!"
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Jaroslav Pelikan
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Pelikan, Sterling professor emeritus of history at Yale University and author of a number of respected books in the area of Christian belief and tradition (e.g., Jesus Through the Centuries), presents an outstanding introduction to the development, use and acceptance of the biblical canon over the centuries. As the title suggests, different groups have claimed ownership to the canonization process. Even today, Bibles vary in their content and in their philosophy of translation. Beginning with the long heritage of the oral tradition, then exploring the writing and editing of the biblical texts, Pelikan takes the reader through the process of scripture building with a fluency and ease that is both accessible and understandable to the nonscholar. His treatment of modern critical methods is particularly well done. Pelikan has a sure sense of history and context, surrounding the story with a wealth of detail, including some well-chosen anecdotes that add to the reader's enjoyment. He appreciates the ways in which tradition and commentary have influenced both the text itself and our understanding of the text, all the while expressing a love for the Bible and a perceptive grasp of the processes that brought it to its current state. This excellent work merits wide circulation and study.
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Amazon reader review: Writing for the general reader, eminent church historian Pelikan proposes that, while the figure of Jesus provides the chief continuity in the history of Christianity, each age has depicted him in accordance with its own character. He demonstrates this in 18 brief yet magisterial essays, each describing an image of Jesus and its significance for a period in the history of the church. The gospels present Jesus as a rabbi; understanding Jesus as lord first produced tension between Christianity and the Roman Empire and later fostered the development of a Christian empire; an ascetical understanding of Jesus underlay monasticism; incarnational theology was a factor in the Renaissance, etc. Note: some reviewers thought the work was dry and tedious to read.
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Eminent theologian Jaroslav Pelikan has been translating, editing, and studying the Christian creeds and confessions of faith for sixty years. This book is the historical and theological distillation of that work. In Credo, Pelikan addresses essential questions about the Christian tradition: the origins of creeds; their function; their political role; how they relate to Christian institutions, worship, and service; and how they help to explain the major divisions of the Christian church and of Christian history. Credo stands as an independent reference work devoted to the subject of what creeds and confessions are and what their role in history has been. It is also the first of the four volumes of Creeds and Confessions of Faith in the Christian Tradition, edited by Pelikan and Valerie Hotchkiss.
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This book is probably, page for page, the most scholarly and readable of all the history of doctrine books about the early Church (although Kelley's "Early Christian Doctrines" comes close). Pelikan's style is concise, but also detailed, in that on every page he provides references for just about every important thing he says. Pelikan has a take on doctrine that is shared by most scholars and clergy, which is that doctrine developed, and that what the apostles believed was less defined and cloudier than what the later Church believed. In other words, from studying the Bible and the early writers, we see that their formulations and emphases often differed from later generations. For instance, the doctrine of original sin is rarely spoken of before Augustine, and early creeds were less clear about the Son's full equality with the Father, even though they called the Son "God." For those unfamiliar with Christian history, to see important doctrines develop might be troubling, although as many Christians already know, the development and clarification of a doctrine does not make it less true. Pelikan covers all of the major figures and controversies, looking at orthodox and heretic arguments. He explains why orthodox doctrine prevailed, geographically, politically, and philosophically. The major chapters are, 1. Preparatio Evangelica, 2. Outside the Mainstream. 3. Faith of the Catholic Church, 4. Mystery of the Trinity, 5. Person of the God-Man, 6. Nature and Grace, and 7. Orthodox Consensus. Each is then broken down to several sub-chapters. Do not expect a Biblical defense of the Trinity or any other doctrine from this book. Pelikan clearly explains that catholic belief came after a long and hard consideration of biblical concepts, with many dissenters who interpreted the Bible differently. The chapter on the Trinity for instance focuses on the varying ways of interpreting the relationship of Jesus to the Father. This includes heretic doctrines of Modalism, and Adoptianism, as well as proto-orthodox Logos-Theology, and the Nicene Trinity. While he explains the views of those outside the catholic mainstream, even often arguing on their behalf, he (and most scholars outside of a few in the 1800s) does not believe that the heretical groups throughout history agreed on doctrine and practice (they did not) and formed an underground church. Overall, this is a fine book that I use as a reference quite often. His whole series, of which this is the first, is very useful. Another reviewer below, Alan Wong, provides the ISBN numbers of the other books. For anyone wanting to dig deeper in his or her study of Christian doctrine and history, I would suggest this book. It is not for beginners though. He often uses Greek and Latin terms, as well as other "churchy" terms that are probably unfamiliar to most people. Chadwick's "The Early Church" and Reader's Digest's "After Jesus," which is co-edited by Pelikan, are the best places to start. However, after those have intrigued you, move on to Pelikan and you won't be disappointed.
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Amazon reader review: This is one of the best works about Mary in recent years. Jaroslav Pelikan, an excellent scholar, gives an outstanding presentation about the place of the Virgin Mary in the history of culture. As he did with Jesus Through the Centuries, he uses his vast knowledge of history, theology and art to illustrate, in a fascinating and engaging way, the development of Marian theology and devotion. Pelikan goes in a chronological way, from the biblical tradition and the dogmatic and devotional definitions of the first centuries of the Church to the latest dogmatic definitions in Roman Catholic theology. The author also explores the view of Mary in the Islam, Eastern Orthodoxy and Protestantism. The book is both scholarly and readable, making it accessible to the scholar and the general reader. |
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