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    The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition and Reform
    Unavailable
    The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition and Reform
    Unavailable
    The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition and Reform
    Ebook1,108 pages20 hours

    The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition and Reform

    By Roger E. Olson

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    Christianity Today Book of the Year Award
    ECPA Gold Medallion Award

    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.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIVP Academic
    Release dateAug 20, 2009
    ISBN9780830877362
    Unavailable
    The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition and Reform
    Author

    Roger E. Olson

    Roger E. Olson (Ph.D., Rice University) is professor of theology at George W. Truett Theological Seminary of Baylor University in Waco, Texas. He is the author of The Westminster Handbook to Evangelical Theology (from which this volume is excerpted), The Story of Christian Theology and The Mosaic of Christian Belief.

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    Reviews for The Story of Christian Theology

    4/5

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    • 4/5
      As in all the books I've read so far by Olson, he is consistently precise while at the same time concise and clear. This book maintains that consistency and offers readers interested in the story of how we attained to our present and varied theological systems. He doesn't waste words or jumble around his take on history. The line of the development of Christian theology is easy to follow amid it's own tangles. This book maintains that consistency and offers readers an interesting story of how we attained to our present and varied theological systems.In his introduction, Olson lays out an interesting fact that I have never even realized were he reminds us that, "What people in North America today call ethnic minorities were well represented in the early church and its theology...Anthanasius, for example, was known to his contemporaries without insult as 'the black dark' due to his stature and skin color. He was African, as were many other great thinkers in the early church. Many others were Semitic - of Arabic or Jewish ancestry and ethnic identity...most formative and influential thinkers of early Christianity - both heretical and orthodox - lived and worked in Egypt and other parts ofNorth Africa. They certainly could not rightly be considered 'dead white males'!" (p.19).Olson begins by lining up the "troublers of Apostolic Christianity in the second century"; that is, the heretical notions that prompted the Church Fathers to provide a theological understanding of the Christian faith that would dispel erroneous notion of God, Christ, and salvation. He continues on with the story up to the present time (at least, until 1999 when the book was published) noting the historical development of Christian theology, the divisions and schisms it produced by competing theologies, and the main players, along with a few minor notables, whose influence continues to affect how we view the Christian faith today.What I found helpful was that there were some Christians and lines of thought that I hardly knew about or had an erroneous notion of, e.g. the Pietists, of whom I've heard very little about and had no exposure. Reading Olson's book brought to light a better understanding of not only their theology but also its influence in Christian thought today, which gives me a better grasp of where others are coming from who think a bit differently and, at the same time, also helps to see where our similarities lie.This is a read that not only helps me understand how we got to where we are today in Christian theology, but also helps me to identify and understand the influences of what and why I think theology the way I do.
    • 3/5
      Olson is strongest in his area of expertise, namely 20th century theology. In the area of patristics he relies on the outdated notion of an Antiochene and Alexandrian school of exegesis. Moving to the later Middle Ages he breezes through Medieval Scholasticism, only covering Aquinas. When getting to the Post-Reformation period, Olson gives an excellent overview of Arminius, but fails to give appropriate attention to the Reformed Scholastics. He relies on outdated scholarship such as the idea of predestination as the core of Reformed thinking and a definition of scholasticism as a a certain collection of theological content, rather than simply as a method of inquiry shared by varied theological groups. All in all, one would do better to use a different textbook and supplement it with Olson's full volumes on Arminian and 20th century theologies.
    • 2/5
      At first glance this appears to be a balanced and well written history of the development of Christian Theology. Unfortunately like most written histories of christian doctrine it is written entirely from
      a western point of view with very little coverage of the the east. In fact the east is forgotten after 6th or 7th century. if you are looking
      for the history of christian doctrine go to Pelikan, McGrath, or Gonzalez.