Heresies and How to Avoid Them: Why It Matters What Christians Believe
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Book Summary Information
Foreword: Stanley HauerwasEditor: Ben Quash
Editor: Michael Ward
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-09
ISBN: 1598560131
Number of pages: 148
Publisher: Hendrickson Publishers
Book Reviews of Heresies and How to Avoid Them: Why It Matters What Christians Believe
Book Review: What Belief Is, What Belief Is Not
Summary: 4 Stars
In an age when the study of systematic theology by laypeople has largely gone by the wayside, a book like this which discusses these topics in plain English is a Godsend in more ways than one. Twelve theological scholars craft a history of epistemological controversies in Christian interpretation. In the process they define what orthodox Christian belief is, and what it is not. A good blanket synopsis might be: belief is transcendent and a goal of lifetime study, belief is not simple or pat.
These essays began life as a series of sermons. This is helpful, since it means they are not written in academic jargon. However, these sermons were delivered by professional theological scholars, so this isn't a light bedtime read. Plan to dedicate time to committed study of this book, coupled with references to scripture and time spent in prayer.
This book divides heresies in two groups, controversies on the nature of Christ, and controversies on the nature of salvation. Within these groups the heresies are paired up so we see, for instance, the Arian heresy (Christ is a separate being created by God) and the Docetist heresy (Christ is so thoroughly God that He has no humanity whatever) in contrast to each other. Seeing them laid out this way, it appears the most common root of heresy is a tendency to absolute thinking: God must be all one thing or all the other.
The twelve chapters are mostly lucid and can be read and reread easily. Three of them resist quick reading. Nicholas Adams' abstruse, allusive guide to Pelagianism raises more questions than it answers. Anders Bergquist's guide to Gnosticism requires endurance to plow through his dense, marathon-length paragraphs, some of which run to nearly two pages. And I can't put my finger on why, but Michael Ward's overview of Theopaschitism was just opaque to me.
I wish I could read about some of the specific heresies in more detail, since they seem to reveal a great deal about their culture and about Christian faith. But since the chapters don't cite sources, I lack any way to do that. An appendix includes a list of books for further reading, but most of them appear to be other synoptic books like this one. A little more detail in that regard would be rewarding.
Most Christians who fill pews on Sunday morning are woefully unprepared to deal with challenges to the intellectual structure of their faith. The world wants to make Christ simple and salvation cheap, which they are not. If more Christians take time to read guides like this one so they could be aware of what their faith is and what it is not, the church could be a flourishing fountain of rich, thoughtful discourse for spiritual seekers in our difficult, baggage-laden age.
Summary of Heresies and How to Avoid Them: Why It Matters What Christians Believe
Heresies and How to Avoid Them will help Christians understand why they are expected to believe certain things and disbelieve others. Readers will learn about the decisions that radically affected the course of Christian history, and that still shape Christianity today.Here, ten top theologians, all practising Christians, tackle ten ancient heresies and show why the contemporary Church still needs to know about them. Christians need to remember what these great early heresies were and why they were ruled out, or else risk falling prey to their modern-day manifestations. The contributors show how present debates in the Church are often re-enactments of battles which the Church thought it had won against heresies many centuries ago.
The book contains key scriptural passages relevant to each heresy, a glossary of terms, and summaries of historical Church documents in which these heresies were defined and outlawed.
Contributors
Professor Denys Turner, Pitkin Professor of Historical Theology at Yale
Dr Janet Martin Soskice, Fellow of Jesus College and Reader in Philosophical Theology
Dr Anna Williams, Fellow of Corpus Christi College and Lecturer in Patristic and Medieval Theology
The Rev. Dr Ben Quash, Fellow and Dean of Peterhouse
The Rev. John Sweet, Fellow of Selwyn College
The Rev. Dr Michael B. Thompson, Vice Principal of Ridley Hall.
Topics
Adoptionism--did Jesus become the Son of God at his baptism?
Docetism--was Jesus really human or did he just appear to be so?
Nestorianism--was Christ one Person or a hybrid with a divine dimension and a human dimension?
Arianism--was Christ divine and eternal or was there a time when he did not exist?
Marcionism--is the God of the New Testament the same as the God of the Old?
Theopaschitism--is it possible for God to suffer in His divine nature?
Destroying the Trinity--does God have a simple or a complex nature?
Pelagianism--can people save themselves by their own efforts?
`The Free Spirit'--are there two kinds of Church membership, one for the elite and one for the rest?
Donatism--do Christian ministers need to be faultless for their ministrations to be effective?
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