We Believe in One Lord Jesus Christ (Ancient Christian Doctrine) [Hardcover]

John Anthony McGuckin (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0830825320 | ISBN-13: 978-0830825325 | Publication Date: May 18, 2009

"Who do you say that I am?" This question that Jesus asked of his disciples, so central to his mission, became equally central to the fledgling church. How would it respond to the Gnostics who answered by saying Jesus was less than fully human? How would it respond to the Arians who contended he was less than fully God? It was these challenges that ultimately provoked the Council of Nicaea in A.D. 325. In this volume covering the first half of the article in the Nicene Creed on God the Son, John Anthony McGuckin shows how it countered these two errant poles by equally stressing Jesus' authentic humanity (that is, his fleshliness and real embodiment in space and time) and his spiritual glory or full divinity. One cottage industry among some historical theologians, he notes, has been to live in a fever of conspiracy theory where orthodox oppressors dealt heavy-handedly with poor heretics. Or the picture is painted of ancient grassroots inclusivists being suppressed by establishment elites. The reality was far from such romantic notions. It was in fact the reverse. The church who denounced these errors did so in the name of a greater inclusivity based on common sense and common education. The debate was conducted generations before Christian bishops could ever call on the assistance of secular power to enforce their views. Establishing the creeds was not a reactionary movement of censorship but rather one concerned with the deepest aspects of quality control. Ultimately, what was and is at stake is not fussy dogmatism but the central gospel message of God's stooping "down in mercy to enter the life of his creatures and share their sorrows with them. He has lifted up the weak and the broken to himself, and he healed their pain by abolishing their alienation."

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

About the Series: This exciting five-volume series follows up on the acclaimed Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture to provide patristic commentary on the Nicene Creed. The series renders primary Greek, Latin, Coptic and Syriac source material from the church fathers in lucid English translation (some here for the first time) and gives readers unparalleled insight into the history and substance of what the early church believed. Including biographical sketches, a timeline of ancient Christian sources, indexes, bibliographies and keys to original language sources as well as the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed in Greek, Latin and English (ICET version), this series illuminates key theological essentials in the light of classic and consensual Christian faith and makes an excellent resource for preaching and teaching.

About the Author

Editor: John Anthony McGuckin, formerly reader in patristic and Byzantine theology at the University of Leeds in England, is currently Ane Marie and Bent Emil Nielsen Professor in Late Antique and Byzantine Christian History at Union Theological Seminary and professor of Byzantine Christian studies at Columbia University in New York City. A Fellow of both the Royal Society of Arts and the Royal Historial Society, he has written over twenty works of historical theology, including St. Cyril of Alexandria: The Christological Controversy, St. Gregory of Nazianzus: An Intellecutual Biography and The Westminster Handbook to Patristic Theology.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 213 pages
• Publisher: IVP Academic (May 18, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0830825320
• ISBN-13: 978-0830825325
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 7.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #770,987 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing and potentially misleading, December 14, 2010

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D. R. Brown (Princeton, NJ) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: We Believe in One Lord Jesus Christ (Ancient Christian Doctrine) (Hardcover)

One might hope this book would use quotations from fourth and fifth-century pro-Nicene theologians to explicate what they and the ecumenical councils intended to affirm by means of the Nicene Creed, as well as their rationales for its theology, but this is not the case. The book seems to offer as many pre-Nicene, proto-Arian and semi-Arian views as it does Nicene views. As Augustine noted (Exposition on Psalm 55:21-22), the Trinity was not perfectly treated of before the Arians snarled thereat" in the fourth century. It was in the context of these fourth-century controversies that theologians debated and refined the doctrine of the Trinity and came to agree on the final version of the Nicene Creed. One of the Arian views they opposed in the creed was that the Word was created and is not co-eternal with the Father. The Nicene Creed rejected this by saying the Son was begotten before the ages, begotten, not made. Yet the book quotes a statement from Tertullian, at the end of the second century, saying the Word was begotten or created just before the creation of the world. The book quotes Origen as well, even though his views on the Trinity were later rejected as like those of the "semi-Arians."

While the fourth-century theologians were concerned about the views of Arius, the more sigificant debate, which the councils sought to settle, was with the "semi-Arians." The issue was whether the Trinity is one divine Being subsisting as three persons, or three divine beings. Since the focus was on Christ, and since God was assumed to be the supreme essence, the question was reduced to whether the eternal Word, incarnate in Christ, was the same essence as the Father, as Athanasius and others said, or a separate but equal essence, as the "semi-Arians" said. The councils repeatedly agreed with the former view, that God is one, and a tri-unity of one essence subsisting as three persons. They councils affirmed this in the Nicene Creed with the phrase 'consubstantial with the Father,' which is now translated translated as 'of one Being with the Father.' The semi-Arians rejected the term 'consubstantial' (Greek homoousios), because it meant the Trinity was one God, one Being, one Essence. They divided the divine essence among the Father and Son, making them separate but equal beings. So they preferred the Greek term homoiousios, which meant "of the same essence" in a general sense, as equal essences. Some of the semi-Arians continued their service for the church and remained well respected for other aspects of their scholarship and service, even though their views on the Trinity were rejected in the councils. This includes Eusebius of Caesarea and Cyril of Jerusalem. They continued to teach their views, however, using a version of the Nicene Creed with the term 'consubstantial' removed. Cyril's Lectures on the Creed, for example, omit it. Yet the book quotes both of these men frequently on the Creed and the Trinity. It also quotes the Creed of the Second Council of Antioch, which was a semi-Arian synod that opposed the Nicene Creed and issued its own anti-Nicene creed in its place. The book cites the "Council of Sardica" as well, even though it produced an anti-Nicene creed.

When the author explains the terms and concepts of the pro-Nicene theologians, he makes them sound compatible with those of the semi-Arians. This is evident throughout, but to be noted is the explanation of the term 'homoousion/ consubstantialis' (p. 69): "consubstantiality teaches that the Son is of the divine essence, in fact is God in the selfsame sense that the Father is God." That is only part of its meaning, and it is the part the semi-Arians agreed with. What is omitted is the fact the term was intended to affirm, against he semi-Arians, that the Father and Son are the numerically same essence and Being, and not just the same essence in quality. One gets the impression that the author is biased in a semi-Arian direction. That would not be surprising, because semi-Arian ideas have become popular the last thirty years. Semi-Arian Christology, however, is contrary to the original meaning of the Nicene Creed and to the intentions of the theologians who defined Nicene Orthodoxy. It was the conviction of these theologians and councils that semi-Arian teachings are contrary to the Scriptures that say there is only one God, with no one beside him, and that God is one.

Nevertheless, I gave the book two stars, because it includes a nice selection of quotations from ancient authors. These are interesting, as long as one understands that many of the views represented are not compatible with the Nicene Creed. Unfortunately, the selection does not include many selections that actually elucidate the Christological views that the Nicene Creed was intended to affirm.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Basis of the ancient Christian Faith: What We Believe, May 12, 2010

By 

Samuel J. Gantt III "Fr. Sam Gantt" (The Woodlands, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: We Believe in One Lord Jesus Christ (Ancient Christian Doctrine) (Hardcover)

Excellent compilation of Church Fathers who hammered out and continued to affirm the truth of the ancient Christian Faith as expressed in the Nicene Creed.