Historical Theology

Written by preeminent religious historian Robert Wilken, this book provides an introduction to early Christian thought.  Focusing on major figures such as St. Augustine and Gregory of Nyssa, as well as a host of less well known thinkers, Wilken chronicles the emergence of a specifically Christian intellectual tradition.

This modern classic of biblical scholarship explains what the apostles meant when they used such words as redeem, covenant, propitiate, reconcile, and justify.  Leon Morris (1914-2006), a well-known Australian New Testament scholar, carefully explores these themes against the backgrounds of both Old Testament Judaism and New Testament Christianity--a rewarding task that results in a more complete understanding of these key Christian terms.

In this classic devotional (taken from the third volume of Calvin's Institutes), John Calvin urges readers to apply the Christian life in a balanced way to mind, heart, and hand.  Rather than focusing on contemplative otherworldliness, the book stresses the importance of a devotedly active Christian life.

In this volume the author traces the development of liberty of conscience from the English Puritan William Perkins to the First Amendment two hundred years later.  He gives special attention to Perkins himself, Roger Williams, the Westminster Assembly, the colonial charters, and state and federal constitutions.  In so doing the author shows how liberty of conscience became a fundamental idea in the American mind and why it remains such an important issue today.

A learned and uniquely constructive book that gently urges "suspicious" Christians to reclaim the patristic roots of their faith. This is the first book of its kind meant to help Protestant Christians recognize the early church fathers as an essential part of their faith. Writing primarily to the evangelical, independent, and free church communities, who remain largely suspicious of church history and the relationship between Scripture and tradition, D. H. Williams (a Baptist who teaches patristics and historical theology at Loyola University of Chicago) clearly explains why every branch of today's church owes its heritage to the doctrinal foundation laid by postapostolic Christianity. Based on solid historical scholarship, this volume shows that embracing the "catholic" roots of the faith will not lead to the loss of Protestant distinctiveness but is essential for preserving the Christian vision in our rapidly changing world.

This second volume in Karl Bihlmeyer's well-known series Church History is a highly scholarly history of the Roman Catholic Church from the end of the 7th century to the start of the Reformation.   It starts with the expansion of the Church through the evangelizing and converting of German, Romanic and Slavic peoples and the separation of the Greek-Oriental Church from Rome.  It ends with the Church in crisis as the Reformation begins.

This three volume series includes A History of Christian Thought: Volume 1: From the Beginnings to the Council of Chalcedon, A History of Christian Thought: Volume 2: From Augustine to the Eve of the Reformation, and A History of Christian Thought: Volume 3: From the Protestant Reformation to the Twentieth Century.  These books cover the evolution of Christian thought from the birth of Christ, to the Apostles, to the early church, to the great flowering of Christianity across the world.  The first volume introduces the central figures and debates culminating in the Councils of Nicea and Chalcedon, among which the theologies of the early church were hammered out.   Beginning with Augustine, Volume 2 covers the flowering of Christian thought that characterized both the Latin West and the Byzantine East during the Middle Ages. The final volume begins with the towering theological leaders of the Protestant Reformation and traces the development of Christian thought through its encounter with modernity.