Early Christian Doctrines

Rating:
Summary: Quality overview of the early theological state of the Churc
Review: I cannot say enough about Kelly's masterful work, "Early Christian Doctrines".

In my quest to find a text to introduce others to the various theological viewpoints of the ancient Church to lay and postulant alike, I found this particular work to be a gem.

Topics run the gamut from the canonization of Scripture to the doctrine of the Trinity, Eucharistic theology, redemptive beliefs, and even a glance at early ecclesiology. For the first year seminary student or the highly advanced layperson, this book will prove to be a most excellent introduction to the Early Church.

I must stress, however, that this book is no substitute for reading the words of the ancient Fathers in the ten volume set of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. This material is also avaliable online.

Rating:
Summary: Confusing and Uninclusive
Review: I notice that all the reviews of this book posted so far are quite positive, so please allow me to throw in my two cents. I do appreciate the depth to which Kelly goes in this volume in explaining the development of doctrines and so forth, and I agree that Christians need to understand where their beleifs come from. However, I must state two criticisms of Early Christian Doctrines. First of all, the style in which it is written is rather poor and difficult to follow. I find that his sentence structure is rather confusing and generally requires some time to interpret. My other criticism is that the doctrines are described as if developing in a vacuum. He gives little to no attention to the social and political context in which our theology developed, which I think is very important. While I do appreciate Kelly's knowledge of early Christian theology and its development, I would recommend that anyone interested in the issue supplement this book with others in order to understand not just the doctrines themselves, but also the context in which they developed and how they were influenced by the socio-political environment in which they came to be.

Rating:
Summary: Detailed and precise.
Review: JND Kelly writes a masterpiece and in this edition, he improved upon the last one greatly. He goes thourgh points of Christian Doctrine point by point though the eyes of different Church Fathers and at different periods in time and sums up their thought. Some of his assertions are daring and once in awhile are outright outlandish but not in the sense of doing any harm.

This book, though, is not for those who just want a short introduction to the history of Christian Doctrin b/ there is a good chance that kelly's work will overwhelm them, or even worse, leave them thinking they know more than they really do. I would suggest reading smaller books first if you just want an introduction to the history of Christian doctrine, for example, simple works of Church Fathers like "On the Incarnation" (Saint Athanasius) and "On the Holy Spirit" (Saint Basil the Great). Over all, just make sure you have a firm foundation in Christian History and Doctrine before you try to tackle this book since then you will know what he is writing about in certain areas.

Rating:
Summary: essential reading
Review: Kelly presents a masterful summary of Church theology and history. This is a great price for the content. If you have even the slightest interest in the early Church, this book will serve to both satisfy your initial curiosities and spark new ones.

Other books of interst include Jaroslav Pelikan's "The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600)" and "Christianity and Classical Culture", both of which are technical. Georges Florovsky's works, most of which are out of print, are essential to understanding the Eastern Orthodox patristic tradition. "Aspects of Church History" by G.Florovsky is excellent, although the scope of the work isn't comparable to Kelly's. Meyendorff's "Christ in Eastern Christian Thought" is remarkable in depth, detail, and insight. Leo Donald Davis' "The First Seven Ecumenical Councils (325-787)" is the best in English on the subject of the coucils. Of course, the four volume "Patrology", by Johannes Quasten, is great for beginners and experts (so experts tell me!). A popular account of heresy in the early Church is C. FitzSimons Allison's "The Cruelty of Heresy: An Affirmation of Christian Orthodoxy". "Beginning to Read the Fathers" by Ramsey is also organized and useful. Enjoy!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Distillation
Review: Kelly's book is an excellent distillation of what can be known of the development of the Doctrine of Christianity in the Roman World. It is too dense to be used as a first introduction, but as a review or a reference it is unequalled. Kelly leaves aside the oriental Christian writers, as do almost all western scholars, but that does not impinge on his usefulness for the normal theological course in western academics. Every serious student of early Christian Thought should own this book and read it until it falls to pieces.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent
Review: Kelly's work is definitely a standard in the arena of historical theology. In fact, Kelly himself is considered one of the foremost authorities on Patristic Church history from the 20th century. That being the case, it goes without saying that this work is highly respected and thus a standard in its field. Nonetheless, the text is written in such a way that almost anyone who puts forth an effort to read it can understand it. Kelly has a style of writing that brings the reader into the book without actually confusing the reader in unexplained detail and jargon.

This text is divided into four parts. Each part covers pertinent topics and issues from certain time frames in Patristic Church history. For instance, part two covers the Pre-Nicene theology regarding the Trinity, Christology, Redemption, and Ecclesiology. Each part is broken down in a similar fashion thus working through the Patristic period from the First Century of the Church to Augustine and the fifth century (early medieval period).

All the major doctrines, theologians, apologists, creeds, and councils are covered in some sort or fashion. Moreover, Kelly provides a wonderful Prolegomena (which is part one) to introduce the time frame, setting, background, etc. which leads up the continued formation of the Christian Church.

The wonderful thing about this book is the wide audience it commands. Both theologians and historians will benefit from its pages. Moreover, lay people who are simply trying to gain a better understanding of their heritage and doctrine will find helpful information and facts well organized and easy to follow. Some of the major doctrinal issues in this text include The Trinity, salvation/redemption, original sin, grace and forgiveness, the sacraments, Mariology, and the authority of the Bible.

Other helpful features of this text include an extensive bibliography, the revised edition includes a new chapter on Mary and certain saints, exhaustive references and footnotes, and a very detailed index. This text is an absolute must for those who are studying Church history as well as theology, and for anyone who simply wishes to gain a better understanding of Christianity. I highly recommend this book!

Rating:
Summary: Knowing where we came from
Review: One of the problems with the modern evangelical Christian church is that very few of its members know where they came from. History was reviled by many of us in school, so there are those who would make the mistake of ignoring history. The problem with this outlook is that, as someone famous once said, those who forget history are doomed to repeat it. That is true in the historic Christian faith. Our spiritual forefathers worked hard to distinguish orthodoxy from heresy. From the person of Christ and the nature of God to baptism, Kelly explains what the early church fathers believed. He is quite honest about those early debates, and he shares with us the orthodox conclusions. Today, when we deal with heresy, we should feel free to see what those before us believed. Perhaps this will save a lot of heartache later on when deciding if a church is truly Christian or not.

One minor complaint. The footnotes are hard to read/understand. Most of us will have to take Kelly at his word, as he is the expert. But trying to understand these notes made me almost dizzy. Finally, I point out that the index is a great tool. Even if a person does not read this book from cover to cover--it can get a little dull for some of us, all that history!--the index makes this a wonderful resource when studying certain Christian doctrines. So, for instance, if you want to know what the early church felt about baptism, there are several dozen places in this book to look up. This makes it valuable on an available bookshelf.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Distillation
Review: This book was ok but it does not take things like the Dead Sea Scrolls and other recently found secret documents into account. Nor does it take into account the Catholic Churches admitted policy of "ecclesiastical necessity" [acceptance of doctrines that will increase the churches size and power, rejection of those that would not]. What Jesus thought was so profoundly simple: "love thy neighbor; become as a child; do unto others as you would have them do unto you; abandon the vainglorious things of the world; seek the Kingdom of Heaven WITHIN; lift your consciousness to God in prayer and communion." All of the official decrees added century after century, council after council have eroded the true teachings of Christ. To get back to the basics read 'The Secret Doctrines of Jesus,' by H. Spencer Lewis, find out what the Roman Catholic Church has been hiding all these years. Walking in the footsteps of Jesus will bring us salvation.