Product Description

This comprehensive survey is the ideal introduction to the thinkers and writers who have shaped Christian history and Western Culture - as well as to the major works and movements they generated. From the first century to the 20th, from Palestine via Europe to Asia and Africa, the book covers over 125 people, documents and councils. Each thinker is introduced with a brief summary, and key quotations are included from their work. This completely revised edition has been expanded to include introductions to more recent theologians such as John Hick, George Lindbeck and John Milbank.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #138503 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
"Praise for the first edition: 'This is a book which will prove exceptionally useful, not only to students, but to all those Christians...who know many of the names of the great Christian thinkers of past and present, but, in many cases, have only the vaguest impression of what they actually thought.... Each period has a brief scene-setting introduction, and each thinker is not only described but also quoted - a valuable feature because even a brief paragraph gives the reader something of the 'flavour' of the man's work' Richard Bauckham, Professor of New Testament, St Andrews University, in Third Way."

About the Author
Tony Lane is Professor of Historical Theology and Director of research at the London School of Theology (formerly LBC) and author of Justification by Faith in Catholic-Protestant Dialogue (T&T Clark, 2002) and The Lion Christian Classics Collection (2004)

Customer Reviews

A useful resource, but occasionally partisan and self-indulgent
A wide-ranging but nevertheless helpfully detailed account of some of the major lines of Christian thought and doctrinal development over 2000 years. Lane supports his analysis of each thinker with selected brief quotes to illustrate his point, and has generously selected from a range of different traditions. However, he is sometimes partisan to the point where I felt his work should have been subtitled `from an evangelical perspective'. The author's views are particularly intrusive on Cyprian's style of leadership (as having paved the way for `authoritarian' Catholicism), on Abelard's views of atonement, and on John Henry Newman's thought in general. He is sometimes over-indulgent, too, of what one suspects are pet (and relatively minor) themes - the nature of the Eucharist in the thought of various Reformation figures, for example. Overall, I felt there could have been more on social themes, like attitudes towards war and peace, or women, and correspondingly less on some doctrinal issues. But an invaluable reference source, nonetheless, on some 140 thinkers, movements and epochal moments in the life of the church.

Does Exactly What It Says On The Tin
This book is like an encyclopedia of Christian theological thought through the ages and is invaluable as a work of reference, with many a handy fact and anecdote. It is not perfect though - there is a slight undercurrent of partiality running through this work. Use it as a launchpad, a starting off point that can lead you to deeper study, and you'll be fine. Just don't take the editor's opinion as final.

Worthy, but not a masterpiece. Hence, 4 stars.