A Layman's Guide to Protestant Theology

Rating:
Summary: Scholarly, Complete, and Compact
Review: I was introduced to this book by my pastor, who used it as a seminary textbook. Don't let the ugly cover and mass-market paperback format fool you: this is surely the most readable and compact exposition of Protestant theology from Luther to the late 20th century that you will find. It's even-handed, good-tempered, and refreshingly free of fads and axe-grinding.

Rating:
Summary: Scholarly, Complete, and Compact
Review: I was introduced to this book by my pastor, who used it as a seminary textbook. Don't let the ugly cover and mass-market paperback format fool you: this is surely the most readable and compact exposition of Protestant theology from Luther to the late 20th century that you will find. It's even-handed, good-tempered, and refreshingly free of fads and axe-grinding.

Rating:
Summary: Great Introduction to theology
Review: Since this book's first edition in 1955, this has been a great resource. The current edition, like previous ones, provide an understandable presentation of all the current and important options in Protestant theological thinking. Simple, but not simplistic. He does justice to all theologians he presents.

Useful for the Seminary student or the Sunday School student.

Rating:
Summary: Great Introduction to theology
Review: Since this book's first edition in 1955, this has been a great resource. The current edition, like previous ones, provide an understandable presentation of all the current and important options in Protestant theological thinking. Simple, but not simplistic. He does justice to all theologians he presents.

Useful for the Seminary student or the Sunday School student.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Little Book for Any Christian or Philosopher
Review: When I was growing up I was brought up as a United Methodist but like many young people who found church boring I didn't have much interest in or question the doctrines or beliefs that make UM's a unique denomination from (for example) Southern Baptists (which practically every one of my relatives on both sides of my family were...and still are).

Only years later did I become interested in philosophy and along with it, theology. And I've a renewed interest in the Christian faith, it's theology, doctrines and history (my boyfriend is Roman Catholic - another fascinating topic I'm beginning to explore). Looking back at my youth as a UM I began to wonder just what it was that separated all the various Protestant denominations from each other. "Surely", I thought, "there must be more agreement than disagreement...isn't there?" And then realized I could not even name just what it was that UM's believed that made them unique from Southern Baptists or Lutherans or Episcopalians, etc. From there I realized the only way I understood Protestants was by what they were not - they were not Catholics (just goes to show how much trouble I had staying awake at Church and how little attention I paid to the sermons). And just *what* does it mean to say you're a Protestant? Does it only mean you're united with other Protestants in your opposition to the Catholic Church and the Pope? Is a Protestant's primary definition to be in reference only to what he/she is not - a sort of Anti-Catholic? Or is there an over-all guiding philosophy or theology that Protestants of all, or at least the majority, would agree with? These were some of the questions I had.

Then I found this little book. It is not an exhaustive history but then it never claimed to be. Instead it is a clear, simple overview of major Protestant theological thought from the time of the Reformation until 1964 - the year the book was expanded and revised. The author presents an overview of the major history and theology of Protestantism from the Middle Ages, to Luther, to Calvin, all the way to major 20th century theologians such as Karl Barth, Paul Tillich and Dietrich Bonhoeffer (who was hanged for participating in the failed bomb asassination attempt on Hitler only days before the Allies arrived to liberate the area where he was being held prisoner).

I especially appreciated chapters such as "The Growth of Orthodoxy", "Fundamentalism and Conservative Christianity", "Liberalism: The Remaking of Orthodoxy" and "Neo-Orthodoxy:The Rediscovery of Orthodoxy". The style is concise and clearly presents the major arguments and themes of each proponent's thought without any personal opinions whatsoever from the author about what he thinks about the ideas. He gives you the information and leaves it up to you alone to decide whether or not this or that argument or idea makes sense.

I REALLY liked this very balanced, very even-handed method of presentation. No side is favored over any other. He leaves that sort of analysis for other books. Only in the last two chapters does the author finally add some of his own wrap-up commentary on the subject. Those chapters were rather odd for it was like looking back into a time-capsule. He discusses the 60's generation in the present-tense (which of course it was in 1963 when he was revising and expanding the book) and speculates on some of the trends that might have an effect on future Protestant theology. It was odd because much of what he speculated did not happen. His speculations seemed very logical given the Zeitgeist of the time. Yet history was otherwise. Who could've forseen at the height of the 60's the rise of Falwell's Moral Majority or the politically invigorated conservative Christian Fundamentalist movement?

This book is a priceless little gem in my collection. It has answered many questions and better yet given me many more. From this book I discovered that theology can be a quite fascnating and lively field of debate. My one wish is that it would be updated but I'm guessing that is unlikely to happen.

Nonetheless, I would say that Christians of all faiths - Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Protestant would find this an informative book regardless of whether they personally agreed or not with the philosophical and theological ideas within it.

Rating:
Summary: A Great Little Book for Any Christian or Philosopher
Review: When I was growing up I was brought up as a United Methodist but like many young people who found church boring I didn't have much interest in or question the doctrines or beliefs that make UM's a unique denomination from (for example) Southern Baptists (which practically every one of my relatives on both sides of my family were...and still are).

Only years later did I become interested in philosophy and along with it, theology. And I've a renewed interest in the Christian faith, it's theology, doctrines and history (my boyfriend is Roman Catholic - another fascinating topic I'm beginning to explore). Looking back at my youth as a UM I began to wonder just what it was that separated all the various Protestant denominations from each other. "Surely", I thought, "there must be more agreement than disagreement...isn't there?" And then realized I could not even name just what it was that UM's believed that made them unique from Southern Baptists or Lutherans or Episcopalians, etc. From there I realized the only way I understood Protestants was by what they were not - they were not Catholics (just goes to show how much trouble I had staying awake at Church and how little attention I paid to the sermons). And just *what* does it mean to say you're a Protestant? Does it only mean you're united with other Protestants in your opposition to the Catholic Church and the Pope? Is a Protestant's primary definition to be in reference only to what he/she is not - a sort of Anti-Catholic? Or is there an over-all guiding philosophy or theology that Protestants of all, or at least the majority, would agree with? These were some of the questions I had.

Then I found this little book. It is not an exhaustive history but then it never claimed to be. Instead it is a clear, simple overview of major Protestant theological thought from the time of the Reformation until 1964 - the year the book was expanded and revised. The author presents an overview of the major history and theology of Protestantism from the Middle Ages, to Luther, to Calvin, all the way to major 20th century theologians such as Karl Barth, Paul Tillich and Dietrich Bonhoeffer (who was hanged for participating in the failed bomb asassination attempt on Hitler only days before the Allies arrived to liberate the area where he was being held prisoner).

I especially appreciated chapters such as "The Growth of Orthodoxy", "Fundamentalism and Conservative Christianity", "Liberalism: The Remaking of Orthodoxy" and "Neo-Orthodoxy:The Rediscovery of Orthodoxy". The style is concise and clearly presents the major arguments and themes of each proponent's thought without any personal opinions whatsoever from the author about what he thinks about the ideas. He gives you the information and leaves it up to you alone to decide whether or not this or that argument or idea makes sense.

I REALLY liked this very balanced, very even-handed method of presentation. No side is favored over any other. He leaves that sort of analysis for other books. Only in the last two chapters does the author finally add some of his own wrap-up commentary on the subject. Those chapters were rather odd for it was like looking back into a time-capsule. He discusses the 60's generation in the present-tense (which of course it was in 1963 when he was revising and expanding the book) and speculates on some of the trends that might have an effect on future Protestant theology. It was odd because much of what he speculated did not happen. His speculations seemed very logical given the Zeitgeist of the time. Yet history was otherwise. Who could've forseen at the height of the 60's the rise of Falwell's Moral Majority or the politically invigorated conservative Christian Fundamentalist movement?

This book is a priceless little gem in my collection. It has answered many questions and better yet given me many more. From this book I discovered that theology can be a quite fascnating and lively field of debate. My one wish is that it would be updated but I'm guessing that is unlikely to happen.

Nonetheless, I would say that Christians of all faiths - Catholic, Greek Orthodox and Protestant would find this an informative book regardless of whether they personally agreed or not with the philosophical and theological ideas within it.