Hugh T. Kerr (Editor) - Readings in Christian Thought

The use of original source material is everywhere expected at all levels of research and education. Acquaintance with the formative documents is much to be preferred to, and also much more interesting than, secondhand commentary. The development of independent judgment, the ability to make critical evaluations, the satisfying feel of handling historic ideassuch vital learning processes require firsthand knowledge of the sources.

This volume provides such a treasury for the history and development of Christian theology. It has in view students, seminarians, teachers of religious studies in college and university, and all those who need an anthology of the basic texts of the Western Christian tradition.

A selective but not arbitrary editorial judgment has determined the variegated contents of the volume. But the leading outstanding figures are here; these are the names that have made history; these are the books and ideas that are required reading for anyone who would be informed on the history of Christian thought.

A minimum of explanatory comment introduces each main section as well as each person, book, or document. The section introductions and the prefaces for each selection can be read in sequence as a quick overview of the history of theological ideas.

As the selections clearly indicate, theology is an ancient and serious as well as a contemporary and continuing pursuit of truth. Great minds of every age have been tantalized by grappling with such questions as the nature and existence of God, the creation of the world, the relation of male and female, the person of Jesus Christ, the place of faith in the process of salvation, the Church and the sacraments, and the hope of the future.

It might be supposed that the whole point of religious faith is to hold strong convictions about these matters, whereas such a survey as this reveals a ceaseless controversy among theologians themselves. But there is a difference between religious assurance and theological interpretation. The special task of the theologian is to raise questions about the faith in order to strengthen it by making it resilient, articulate, and intellectually respectable.

In the selections that follow, many theological controversies are paraded along the march of history. The unity that ties them together is the persuasion that Christian faith demands not only devotion and obedience but solid thinking and honest questioning.

The volume has been designed so it can be used as a textbook or as supplementary reading. Since it is important to present the selections in the form in which they first appeared, no attempt has been made to achieve complete uniformity of punctuation or style. Contemporary usage prescribes inclusive language, and this rubric has been followed in the introductory prefaces. But it is not possible to rewrite the texts of history, and, by retaining original masculinist and other now obsolete forms, attention is focused on one of the important contemporary developments not only in writing but in thinking and expression.

HUGH T. KERR

Princeton Theological Seminary

Princeton, New Jersey