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Voted a 2000 Book of the Year by Christianity Today!Winner of a year 2000 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.… (more)
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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.
a western point of view with very little coverage of the the east. In fact the east is
for the history of christian doctrine go to Pelikan, McGrath, or Gonzalez.