Early Christian Theology: A History

An essential guide for understanding early Christian doctrine

The history of Christian theology is often presented as a series of conflicts between orthodox believers and heretics. But such an approach can be reductive, especially if the conflicts are presented primarily as contests for power. J. Warren Smith's Early Christian Theology offers a more nuanced account of these theological disputes. Smith explains the development of Christian theology in terms of diverse efforts to make sense of intellectual and spiritual complexities within Holy Scripture. In Smith's telling, Scripture is polyphonic; as such, it requires an interpretive framework that is flexible but also resistant to complete relativism. According to Smith, the early Christian creeds functioned as just such a framework.

Writing with an experienced teacher's gift for making history meaningful, Smith traces the development of major theological themes and church dogma from the beginning of the second century to the Christological deliberations following the Council of Chalcedon in 451. While Smith focuses primarily on the second through the fifth centuries, he also comments on theological trajectories and controversies that grew out of the patristic period such as the filioque debate and the Monothelite controversy. He examines key theological loci (Trinity, Christology, soteriology, anthropology, ecclesiology, and eschatology) and their treatment in the patristic period by both major and minor voices.

Readers of this volume will come away with a deeper understanding of how and why key Christian doctrines developed within specific historic contexts. A worthy successor to J. N. D. Kelly's classic Early Christian Doctrines, this monumental work is essential reading for divinity students and a valuable reference tool for scholars of historical theology.

J. Warren Smith is professor of historical theology at Duke Divinity School. His research focuses primarily on patristic theology; his books include Ambrose, Augustine, and the Pursuit of Greatness, Christian Grace and Pagan Virtue: The Theological Foundation of Ambrose's Ethics, and Passion and Paradise: Divine and Human Emotion in the Thought of Gregory of Nyssa.