Illuminates the history and development of Christian thought by offering selections from the writings of 55 great Christian theologians. The volume includes substantial excerpts from notable women theologians and from black and liberation perspectives, plus a new section from deceased theologians such as Thomas Merton, Martin Luther King, Jr., and Karl Rahner. Each passage is prefaced by detailed introductory comments on the life and thought of each theologian and the significance of his/her work. Hugh T. Kerr is Benjamin B. Warfield Professor of Systematic Theology, Emeritus, at Princeton Theological Seminary, and senior editor of Theology Today. Hugh T. Kerr is Benjamin B. Warfield Professor of Systematic Theology, Emeritus, at Princeton Theological Seminary, and senior editor of Theology Today. Readings in Christian Thought By Hugh T. Kerr Abingdon Press Copyright © 1990 Abingdon Press All rights reserved. ISBN: 978-0-687-35547-1 Contents I. ORTHODOXY AND HERESY IN THE EARLY CHURCH, 1. Justin Martyr (c. 100-165), 2. Perpetua (c. 181-203), 3. Irenaeus (c. 130-202), 4. Tertullian (c. 160-c. 220), 5. Origen (c. 185-254), 6. Augustine (354-430), 7. John of Damascus (c. 614—c. 749), 8. The Ecumenical Creeds, II. SCHOLASTICISM AND MYSTICISM IN THE MIDDLE AGES, 9. Anselm (1033-1109), 10. Abelard (1079-1142), 11. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), 12. Peter Lombard (c. 1100-1160), 13. Francis of Assisi (1182-1226), 14. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274), 15. Duns Scotus (c. 1264-1308), 16. William Ockham (c. 1300-c. 1349), 17. Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), 18. Julian of Norwich (1342-1423), 19. Thomas à Kempis (c. 1380-1471), III. REFORMATION AND POST-REFORMATION, 20. Martin Luther (1483-1546), 21. Philipp Melanchthon (1497-1560), 22. John Calvin (1509-1564), 23. Heinrich Bullinger (1504-1575), 24. Thomas Cranmer (1489-1556), 25. The Council of Trent (1545-1563), 26. Menno Simons (1496-1561), 27. The Westminster Confession of Faith (1643-1647), 28. John Woolman (1720-1772), 29. John Wesley (1703-1791), 30. Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), IV. CREATIVE RELIGIOUS IDEAS IN THE MODERN AGE, 31. Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), 32. Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834), 33. David Friedrich Strauss (1808-1874), 34. Albrecht Ritschl (1822-1889), 35. Horace Bushnell (1802-1876), 36. John Henry Newman (1801-1890), 37. Fannie Barrier Williams (1855-1944), 38. Elizabeth Cody Stanton (1815-1902), 39. Adolf von Harnack (1851-1930), 40. William James (1842-1910), 41. Rudolf Otto (1869-1937), 42. Ernest Troeltsch (1865-1923), 43. Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918), V. THE DAY BEFORE YESTERDAY, 44. Sören Kierkegaard (1813-1855), 45. Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965), 46. Karl Barth (1886-1968), 47. Reinhold Niebuhr (1892-1971), 48. Georgia Harkness (1891-1974), 49. Rudolf Bultmann (1884-1976), 50. Paul Tillich (1886-1965), 51. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), 52. Pope John XXIII (1882-1963), 53. Karl Rahner (1904-1984), 54. Thomas Merton (1915-1968), 55. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968), VI. THE CONTEMPORARY QUEST, CHAPTER 1 ORTHODOXY and HERESY in the EARLY CHURCH It is both frustrating and fascinating to study the theological documents of the early period of the history of the Christian church. To the modern reader it is an era remote in time and place, and the issues which commanded most attention often seem obscure. Even the historical boundaries of the period are difficult to determine. Yet this was the formative age of organized Christianity, and it was during these first few centuries that the rudiments of Christian doctrine were formulated. Originally composed of a small band of Jewish disciples who proclaimed that Jesus of Nazareth was the promised Messiah, the Christian church developed first within the limited confines of Palestine. For the most part, however, Jews rejected the Christian claim about Jesus, and henceforth the church moved farther and farther away from Palestine, spreading into the wider and more diverse world of Greco-Roman civilization. The books of the New Testament provide practically all the information we have about the history, doctrine, life, and organization of the earliest or Apostolic church. In the book of the Acts and in Paul's epistles, problems of doctrinal definition were already beginning to absorb the attention of the first Christians. The earliest missionaries of the church ("apostle" means in Greek "one sent forth") were confronted with two major challenges. These arose when Christianity became a self-conscious religious movement, defining itself over against other cultures, traditions, and religions. The first challenge was internal, even inherited, for the Christians had to determine whether they belonged within the Jewish religious tradition, or whether they represented an entirely new departure. The second challenge was posed by the Greco-Roman world of speculative philosophy and practical politics. Th