The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God"[A] magnificently learned, deeply felt and surprisingly pellucid set of essays."--Michael Dirda, Washington Post Book World "A delight to read. It is written as history ought to be, especially for nonspecialist readers."--Richard A. Kauffman, Christian Century In this eloquent introduction to early Christian thought, eminent religious historian Robert Louis Wilken examines the tradition that such figures as St. Augustine, Gregory of Nyssa, and others set in place. These early thinkers constructed a new intellectual and spiritual world, Wilken shows, and they can still be heard as living voices in the modern world. In chapters on topics including early Christian worship, Christian poetry and the spiritual life, the Trinity, Christ, the Bible, and icons, Wilken shows that the energy and vitality of early Christianity arose from within the life of the Church. While early Christian thinkers drew on the philosophical and rhetorical traditions of the ancient world, it was the versatile vocabulary of the Bible that loosened their tongues and minds and allowed them to construct the world anew, intellectually and spiritually. These thinkers were not seeking to invent a world of ideas, Wilken shows, but rather to win the hearts of men and women and to change their lives. |
Contents
Founded on the Cross of Christ | 1 |
An Awesome and Unbloody Sacrifice | 25 |
The Face of God for Now | 50 |
Seek His Face Always | 80 |
Not My Will But Thine | 110 |
The End Given in the Beginning | 136 |
The Reasonableness of Faith | 162 |
Happy the People Whose God Is the Lord | 186 |
Making This Thing Other | 237 |
Likeness to God | 262 |
The Knowledge of Sensuous Intelligence | 291 |
EPILOGUE | 312 |
NOTES | 323 |
SUGGESTIONS FOR READING | 341 |
353 | |
361 | |
Other editions - View all
The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God Robert Louis Wilken Limited preview - 2003 |
The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God Robert Louis Wilken No preview available - 2003 |