Scripture, Creed, Theology

by Calhoun, Robert L.; Lindbeck, George A.

• ISBN13: 9781556354946
• ISBN10: 1556354940
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-01-01
• Publisher: Cascade Books

Summary

In this Long-Awaited Edition of the late Robert Lowry Calhoun's lectures on the history of Christian doctrine, a powerful case is made for the scriptural basis of the ancient ecumenical creeds. The way Calhoun reads the patristic authors helps us see that the Trinitarian "three-yet-one" and Christological "two-yet-one" creedal formulations provide patterns for sorting out the highly diverse biblical ways of speaking of God and of the Messiah (Jesus) so that they are not contradictory. The implied lesson (all the more effective for many of Calhoun's students, just because he let them draw this conclusion by themselves) is that the creeds are not to be understood as deductions from scripture (which they are not in any straightforward way) but as templates for interpreting scripture. It is Trinitarian and Christological patterns of reading-which are implicitly operative for vast multitudes even in churches that profess to be creedless-that make it possible to treat the entire bible, Old and New Testaments together, as a unified and coherently authoritative whole. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Robert L. Calhoun (1896-1963) was Sterling Professor of Historical Theology at Yale Divinity School. He taught at Yale from 1923 until his retirement in 1965. Among his well-known colleagues and students were Roland Bainton, Hans Frei, Jaroslav Pelikan, Robert Wilken, Stanley Hauerwas, James Gustafson, and George Lindbeck. George A. Lindbeck is Pitkin Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology, Yale University. He is author of several books, including The Church in a Postliberal Age (2003) and The Nature of Doctrine (1984).

Table of Contents

Abbreviations	p. vii
Introduction: Calhoun as Historical Theologian	p. ix
Revelation, Religion, Theology, and Dogma	p. 1
Jesus and the Faith of the Primitive Church	p. 19
Johannine Theology	p. 38
Apostolic Fathers and Second-Century Apologists	p. 59
Heresies: Irregular Versions of the Gospel	p. 89
The Formation of the Apostles' Creed	p. 113
Irenaeus of Lyons	p. 127
Tertullian of Carthage	p. 151
Alexandrine Theology: Clement and Origen	p. 173
Efforts to Define the Christian Doctrine of God	p. 207
Theology in the Nicene Age	p. 224
Appendix: Notes on Terminology	p. 250
Defenders of Nicaea and the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed	p. 256
Christological Controversies before and after Chalcedon	p. 279
Doctrinal Closure in the East	p. 322
Appendix: Pseudo-Dionysius and the Rise of Mysticism	p. 336
Augustine of Hippo	p. 342
The End of the Era: Orange, Leo, and Gregory the Great	p. 398
Bibliography	p. 429
Name Index	p. 433
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