A History of Christian Thought Volume I: From the Beginnings to the Council of Chalcedon

Justo Gonzoles' comprehensive perspective on the historical development of doctrine can be both inspiring and overwhelming. His attempt to summarize the major movements and developments in the first four centuries of the church in Volume one was more successful than the following synthesis of a thousand years in fewer pages. The early church and ecumenical councils develop in a manner linear enough that are amenable to this sort of treatment. Gonzales' text is readable and could, at times, even be classified as fun (rare for a history of doctrine text). He does a particularly good job with the Apostolic Fathers and the early heresies.

In this first volume on the development of Christian thought, Gonzalez outlines the main currents of theology and how they progressed during the first ~450 years after Christ. He begins with an interesting look into the religious culture of the Jews and the Graeco-Romans around the time when Jesus Christ came into the world. He moves on to describe the writings of the "Apostolic Fathers," some of the oldest Christian literature written after the New Testament, and then progresses into the main stream of the book. The main course of the book is devoted to discussing the thought of the major theologians in the first 5 centuries, and how various controversies circulated through the church. Gonzalez explains how the church handled these issues, and the resulting theology that came from responding to various heresies. A great deal of emphasis is placed on the development of trinitarian doctrine and the corresponding refutation of Arianism, and then the later Christological controversies enter in during the latter portion of the book. There is certainly a great deal that the church today can learn from looking at its past, and this book offers a good overview of the main issues in Christianity during those early years. One might find themselves surprised that some of the same issues are still discussed today, reminding us that Solomon was right when he said "There is nothing new under the sun."

This series of books does an excellent job of laying out the issues that confronted Christianity during the first few hundred years. Gonzalez writes in a very accessible style, and tries to keep the technical language to a minimum. No matter what your exposure to the issues, this book provides an excellent summary and introduction, and is one that I recommend to friends who need a basic grounding in eary Christian thought.Gonzalez presents a generally balanced view, though it seems that the "orthodox" position is generally portrayed in the best light in most cases, though not to such an extent that the book is heavily biased. Overall, an excellent introduction and summary. I strongly recommend it.

Justo Gonzalez demonstrates his breadth and depth of the source materials by summarizing the main writers and themes of the early church in a readable translation. Further, he includes other historians' comments in the footnotes on the same page, giving readily available references to more in depth areas if needed. I have used it as the background text for the adult class at my church with great success. I recommend it without qualification.

I found this book to be enlightening on the early Christian years. It seems to be an excellent summary of documentation that is currently available on the early church. Particularly interesting to me were the discussions on early schisms -- particularly with the gnostic movements. The book does well describing the issues that led to the many councils that defined the course of Christianity.