The spirit of early Christian thought : seeking the face of God / Robert Louis Wilken.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Wilken, Robert Louis, 1936-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Church history--Primitive and early church, ca. 30-600.

Church history.

Theology--History--Early church, ca. 30-600.

Theology.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (398 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Other Title:

Early Christian thought

Place of Publication:

New Haven : Yale University Press, c2003.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

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. Early Christian thinkers set in place a foundation that has endured. Their writings are an irreplaceable inheritance, and Wilken shows that they can still be heard as living voices within contemporary culture.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1 Founded on the Cross of Christ

Chapter 2 An Awesome and Unbloody Sacrifice

Chapter 3 The Face of God for Now

Chapter 4 Seek His Face Always

Chapter 5 Not My Will But Thine

Chapter 6 The End Given in the Beginning

Chapter 7 The Reasonableness of Faith

Chapter 8 Happy the People Whose God Is the Lord

Chapter 9 The Glorious Deeds of Christ

Chapter 10 Making This Thing Other

Chapter 11 Likeness to God

Chapter 12 The Knowledge of Sensuous Intelligence

Epilogue

Notes

Suggestions for Reading

General Index

Index of Biblical Citations

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786611740993

1-281-74099-3

0-300-12756-1

OCLC:

952732415