The History of Christian Thought: The Fascinating Story of the Great Christian Thinkers and How They Helped Shape the World As We Know It Today - Hardcover

Hill, Jonathan

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0830827765 ISBN 13: 9780830827763

Publisher: Intervarsity Pr, 2004

Synopsis

Why read about the history of Christian thought? Because, if you are Christian yourself, it helps you to understand the faith--addressing everything from where Christians got their ideas of the Trinity and how Christ can be both human and divine to what they think about issues like feminism, globalization and social justice. And because, even if you are not, all Western society has been shaped by the influence of thinkers like Augustine, Aquinas and Luther. You can't understand the world as it is without knowing something about Christian thought.Jonathan Hill has the uncanny ability to sketch portraits of his subjects--whether early church apologists, medieval doctors of the church, Reformation giants, nineteenth-century philosophical behemoths or contemporary feminist scholars--that are simultaneously lively, brief and revealing. Similarly, he ably penetrates to the nub of their thought, combining apt description with pithy quotations from their work. Significant events, councils, movements and terms are introduced and explained, which put the cast of characters in context and illumine their place within the development of Christian thought. Not content to merely describe, Hill offers pertinent assessments that highlight the strengths and weaknesses of his subjects' contributions to Christian thinking and spurs you to reflect on significant issues for yourself.A society with no grasp of its history is like a person without a memory. So Hill, in this lively and accessible introduction, offers you a wealth of insight on the history of Christian thought and the colorful personalities of those who gave it shape and form.

About this title

About the Author

Jonathan Hill is Lecturer in Philosophy of Religion at the University of Exeter. He holds an MPhil in Theology from Oxford, and a PhD in Philosophy from the National University of Singapore. He is the author of the highly acclaimed The History of Christian Thought (Lion, 2003), What Has Christianity Ever Done for Us? (Lion, 2005), The Big Questions (Lion, 2007), and The New Lion Handbook: The History of Christianity (Lion, 2007).

Review

This is an enormous subject, tackled in a lively and accessible way. Beginning with the Greek philosophers and the rise and fall of the Byzantine Empire, Hill follows the faith through great eras like the Reformation and the Enlightenment, right up to existentialism and postmodernism, telling Christianity's story through its great figures and theologians. His goal is to 'help the reader understand and sympathise' with those thinkers who have both reached up to God themselves, or felt the hand of God on their shoulders. As such the book acts as a biographical reference work for figures of the stature of Luther, Calvin, Tillich and Barthes. And if you wanted to know how the Second Vatican Council differed from the first, this book will tell you.

Edition details

• Publisher: Intervarsity Pr
• Publication date: 2004
• ISBN 10: 0830827765
• ISBN 13: 9780830827763
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 312