The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition & Reform
Digital Verbum Edition
Overview
History is made up of stories--narratives that recount the events, movements, ideas and lives that have shaped religions and nations. Theologian Roger Olson believes that the history of Christian theology should be told as such a story, one replete with thick plots, exciting twists, interesting people and fascinating ideas. In this panoramic work of historical theology Olson vividly recounts the deeds and words of the cultists and apostolic fathers of the second century, the clash between the theological schools of Alexandria and Antioch, the epochal division between East and West, the revolutionary advent of the Reformation and much more, right on up to the dazzling, sometimes dismaying fallout that has continued to shake Christians through the twentieth century. Through it all Olson detects and traces a common thread: a concern for salvation--God's redemptive activity in forgiving and transforming sinful human beings. Evenhanded, refreshingly readable, impressive in its breadth and depth, The Story of Christian Theology is poised to become a standard historical theology text.
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Top Highlights
“Irenaeus is a crucial figure in the story of Christian theology because he was instrumental in defeating Gnosticism and because he was the first Christian thinker to work out comprehensive theories of original sin and redemption.” (Page 70)
“The satisfaction theory virtually replaced the ransom theory in Roman Catholic theology because of Anselm. Furthermore, during the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, John Calvin presented a completely biblical version of Anselm’s model that has come to be called the penal substitution theory of the atonement. In many ways it is simply an updated version of Anselm’s theory stripped of feudal imagery.” (Page 325)
“This Logos (Christ) was in the world before Jesus Christ” (Page 61)
“In other words, according to Tertullian the God Christians believe in is one substance and three persons (una substantia, tres personae), and by substance he meant that fundamental ontological being-ness that makes something what it is, while by person he meant that identity of action that provides distinctness. The basic, underlying idea is ‘distinction without division.’” (Page 96)
“For Irenaeus, then, redemption was a process of restoring creation rather than one of escaping creation as in the Gnostics’ soteriology.” (Page 76)
Reviews
2 ratings
TheChosenOne
12/7/2024
Read through the entire book. It truly is a Tome. The best part of the book covers the movements that are frequently gloss over (Pietism and Anabaptist just to give an example). He goes sufficiently in-depth to each movement and introduces the settings, players and controversies in a fair manner. There is a strong bibliography for additional reading as well. Even though it is a Tome, it felt like reading a fictional book as he views the story of Christian theology in a narrative format (That's the title of the book after all). Currently, it's the only book I've read that does a big overview of Christian theology. So I can't compare it to other similar works in this area.
Christopher Halliburton
10/14/2023