The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford Paperbacks) [Abridged] [Paperback]

Elizabeth A. Livingstone (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 22, 1980 | ISBN-10: 0192830147 | ISBN-13: 978-0192830142 | Edition: Abridged 2nd

A remarkable reference book containing over 5,000 entries on all aspects of the Christian Church, from Aaron to Zwingli. The principle Christian doctrines and denominations are discussed in historical and theological detail including summaries of the opinions of theologians and philosophers. While its main emphasis is naturally on the history of the Christian Church in all its forms, it also explores a host of related subjects. Listed here are composers, painters, sculpters, and writers of religious works, accounts of non -Christian religions, descriptions of cathedrals, as well as significant discoveries in textual criticism and archeology. Ideal for the lay reader, no other handbook of the Christian Church so succinctly and attractively combines comprehensiveness with the authority of scholarship.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A convenient compendium of crisp articles on the Bible and the Christian Church."--Wilson Library Bulletin

"A skillfully done abridgement...of one of the standards in its field."--Christianity Today

"A work quietly objective, generally excellent, and indeed authoritative."--Religious Studies Review

About the Author

About the Editor:
Elizabeth A. Livingstone, a scholar on the Christian Church, is co-editor of The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church.

Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; Abridged 2nd edition (May 22, 1980)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0192830147
• ISBN-13: 978-0192830142
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,030,545 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Valuable Reference on the Christian Church, April 18, 2000

By 

Dennis R. Koers (Gwinn, MI United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford Paperbacks) (Paperback)

The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church is a readable, organized and comprehensive volume of 570 pages. It covers most topics needed for research from Aaron to Zwingli. There is also a list, in chronological order, of popes and antipopes; up to and including John Paul II. I have found the book to be especially useful in researching complicated topics such as the early councils and reformers of the late Middle Ages. Written in the usual high standard of the Oxford series, I have yet to find a topic that I was looking for not covered. Feasts, theologians,Biblical books and lives of the saints are among the five thousand topics covered. If you need to know the difference between "Urbs Beata Hierusalem" and "Urbs Sion Aurea", this is the book.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference for anyone interested in Christianity, February 15, 2001

By 

Kim Boykin (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford Paperback Reference) (Paperback)

This was a required text for a graduate class I took on the history of Christian theology, and it has been one of my most well-used reference books ever since. I almost always find what I'm looking for in this dictionary, and the entries are clear and helpful, neither too short nor too long.

Although I occasionally covet the un-concise version of this dictionary and may ask Santa for it some Christmas, I wonder if I'd actually use the hefty hardback as much as I use this handy, concise paperback.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Mixed Bag, September 25, 2005

By 

Rev. Thomas Scarborough (Cape Town, South Africa) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Concise Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford Paperback Reference) (Paperback)

This book has a strong bias towards higher criticism. This need not have detracted from the value of the book. Higher criticism has, after all, been very mugh a part of the Christian Church during its more recent history, and has often enriched it.

In this case, however, it seriously influences the content of the book, and tends to exclude other perspectives. For instance, with regard to the Fall, the book notes that in the past Christians "regarded the Fall of Adam and Eve as a historical event" -- as though the belief were no longer common. With regard to angels, "the whole concept of such supernatural beings has been challenged" -- and demons receive no entry at all. Further, a great deal of the text is devoted to higher criticism issues. With regard to the resurrection, for example, nearly half the text deals with the way in which critics have "questioned its historicity" and the Gospels "disagree over the details".

A major strength of the book is its scope. For example, it has special entries for the Church in virtually all of the major countries of the world: the USA, Angola, Russia, Vietnam, and so on. It is also strong particularly on less common terms in the Church, which are precisely those which one might wish to look up, e.g. the illuminative way, or banns of marriage. However, it falls down on more recent Church history. For instance, it omits the Lausanne Congress, or Gustavo Gutierrez. Other important entries are merely skimmed over, e.g. the Keswick Convention (one sentence), or the Charismatic movement.

In short, this book would seem to be too fixated with issues of veracity, and to reflect too little of the true life of the Church over past millennia. For a scholar to whom issues of higher criticism are important, this may be just the book. Broadly speaking, however, it is a mixed bag.