Product Description

Was Jesus divine? Was Jesus human? Could God suffer? Can people save themselves by their own efforts? Do Christian ministers have to be perfect? These and other questions were answered by the early Christian Church so as to rule in certain orthodox beliefs and rule out certain heretical beliefs. Anyone could be a Christian, but a Christian could not believe simply anything. Here, twelve top theologians, all practising Christians, tackle ancient heresies and show why the contemporary Church still needs to know about them. The contributors argue that heresies are never finally defeated but always continue in some form or other as live options for belief. Christians therefore need to remember what these great early heresies were and why they were ruled out, or else risk falling prey to their modern-day manifestations. The essays included here are scholarly but accessible, academic but highly relevant. They show how attractive and plausible heresies are and how the Church has always required intellectual effort, moral courage and political skill to resist them.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #287799 in Books
• Published on: 2007-04-19
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 160 pages

Church of England Newspaper, 22/06/2007
"a splendid collection of engaging and readable
essays"
-Andrew Gregory

About the Author
The Rev'd Dr Ben Quash is Dean and Fellow of Peterhouse, Academic Convenor of the Cambridge Inter-Faith Programme, and Canon Theologian of Coventry Cathedral.

Customer Reviews

Well presented
There is, the old saying goes, nothing new under the sun. And this well-presented book reminds Christians of every persuasion that some of the basic orthodoxies of belief have been challenged since the beginning of the Church's history. It also provides a good check-list of whether your own christian beliefs - if you profess them - are in fact true to the Church's actual teachings.

The most famous heresis and disputes are examined here, and the arguments are clearly stated. The book's design is intelligent, too, enabling the reader to answer the questions that each particular heresy poses:

So grapple, if you are up to it, with such knotty issues as "Did Christ really suffer on the Cross at all?", "Was Christ human or divine?" "Are we predestined to be saved" etc etc. This is not just a dry book on ancient history, but startlingly relevent to the present, especially to a christian landscape over-run by the whole gimme prosperity prayers of evangelical US churches.