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Documents of the Christian Church

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Henry Bettenson and Chris Maunder have done a great job of collecting some of the most important documents of the Christian religion from the beginning until today. Almost every major controversy in the universal Church is represented by a document or two. For instance, Arianism, Montanism, Sabellianism, etc, are all covered. Sometimes the writings of the heretics are thrown in for a more balanced perspective. As the authors move past the Reformation, the book becomes less useful. Since there are so many documents from various denominations, it becomes impossible to fit all of them in one small book. The Church of England is heavily represented, as are other religious movements in England. The documents of the Roman Catholic Church are represented, including documents of Trent and Vatican II. Luther's entire `95 Theses' are included. Some of the modern documents relate to issues of women's ordination, black theology, social justice, homosexuality, ecumenical relations, and AIDS. These are useful because they give documents from our own time.

Overall this is a good collection. However, for every document included, there were 20 more that could have been added. This is just the nature of the book. The editors did a great job of choosing relevant documents. So it's a good collection that will scratch the surface, acting as an introduction, but is by no means the only book someone studying Christian thought in-depth would need. However, the book provides original texts, which many people rarely get to read, so that is quite a treat. While the book is small, the print is tiny, so they manage to squeeze in a lot of material in 461 pages! As a collection of primary texts, this is one of the best introductions to the thought of the Church from its birth until today.

If you want to know more about the history of the church, and you want to read the original documents, this is the book. This book will take you deeper into doctrine origination and debate throughout the history of the church. There are many typed of documents represented from Augustine to more modern documents on Jesuits. I appreciate the fact they do some limited notes for you to help you understand dates, but otherwise leave you to figure out for yourself what these documents mean, and if they are valid or not. It leaves it up to you, not someone telling you what they think. Good compilation & scholarship.

Joseph Dworak

There are several ways that one may study history. Firstly, one may read secondary sources: books about a particular period or event. Secondly, one may buy volumes of primary sources, using copious amounts of time to painstakingly go through each volume. Thirdly, one may read a one-volume collection of texts that are considered to represent the major trends in the historical period they represent. This book falls into the third category.

Documents of the Christian Church is wonderfully organized: thematically by historical period. Hence, one reads the early Christian apologists of the 2nd century and then immediately after that one reads of the theologies of martyrdom; one reads of the disputes over the incarnation of Christ before one reads about debates over tansubstantiation; one reads Vatican II documents before one reads liberation theologies. The writings of saints and heretics, Doctors and others, popes, councils and relevant non-Christian writers all appear between the covers of this book.

Of course, it ought to be noted that the excerpts are sometimes tremendously short - only a few lines or so. However, each reference is cited so that the curious reader who wants to go and read volumes of primary texts can do so; for those less inclined to do so, this book is an excellent first-hand introduction to the development/s of Christian thought.

However, the documents are largely confined to the Western church. The documentary history of the Eastern churches is largely absent for almost 1000 years: between 1054 (the Great Schism between the Eastern and the Western church) and the beginning of the ecumenical movement in the 20th century. So, if the reader wants to learn about the Palamite controversy or the Hesychast revival or the monastic influence of the Russian Orthodox monks, one will have to look elsewhere (although, I confess, I do not know where).

Nonetheless, this is an excellent compilation. The reader will learn plenty about recent theological developments, including various perspectives on sexuality, sex and gender, social work, feminist theology and liberation theology. How many of these more recent theological movements and trends will prove to be of long-lasting import remains to be seen, but since they are relevant now, it is important for the reader to be somewhat familiar with them.

All things considered, this is a wonderful collection.

You'll be amazed at how much is provided in just over 450 pages. A vast amount of the essential writings of Western Christianity are collected here: early church fathers, heretics, synods, councils, popes, eucharistic treatises, various dogmas, monastic rites, scholasticism, reformers, etc. As I noted, this is largely focused on Western Christianity with little on Eastern Orthodoxy...which is good because if Eastern Orthodoxy were included, then much material would have to be sacrificed. Bettenson was the Bishop of London, which explains the great amount of Anglican writings included; however, Catholics and Protestants (mainly Lutherans, Calvinists, Baptists, and Methodists) are well covered. The 3rd edition includes contemporary issues such as ecumenism, feminist theology, liberation theology, and contraception. Even though feminist theology has become largely irrelevant and liberation theology has proven useless, they are still important to understand as products (relics?) of the 20th century, although feminist theology will surely become even more radicalized and continue in a cultish fashion among the academic "elite."

All in all, this is an essential reference book of primary sources for those studying the history of Christian doctrines. This, of course, should be supplemented with secondary sources such as Robert Louis Wilken (Roman Catholic), Jaroslav Pelikan (Greek Orthodox), and Henry Chadwick (Anglican)...the big three of early church studies.

This is a must-have for anyone interested in church history, doctrine, or theology. Important documents from the early days of Christianity up until modern times are included, and new ones are added when new editions are printed. Excellent!

If you are a student of theology, Western history of almost any sort, church-state relations, sociology of religion, philosophy of religion, or are just a mad autodidact, you already have this book. All primary sources, and fascinating reading for any occasion. If it played a role in the formation of Western theology and political-ecclesiological development, it is in this small book. There is information in this book you don't even know that you are missing, so look at it this way: church histories are necessary and very important, but wouldn't you like to read the same documents the historians are reading, and draw your own conclusions? An essential tool for professors, students, pastors, and educated Westerners of all stripes.

Good collection of the most important writings from Church history. Although it is not intended to give a statement of every denominational affiliation, it is an excellent resource for those interested in primary source documents.

This is one of those standard books that ministers, historians, theologians, seminarians and graduate students in any number of disciplines related to the above should have as part of their libraries. The book's task is an ambitious one - to bring together in one volume the key documents of the church through two thousand years of history.

This book is not a simple collection of documents, but rather arranges them thematically and chronologically. Bettenson in the early editions put together the documents with an overarching essay in each section which helps set the context, the controversies, the personalities and the impact of the primary documents. Bettenson was prepared early for the charge of selectivity, as every enterprise of this sort must needs be selective. 'It is unlikely that any two persons could be found who should agree on what should be included in such a book and what omitted; nor would agreement more easily be found on the arrangement to be imposed on the material once selected.'

The first section deals with the early church up to the Fourth Ecumenical Council, setting definitions and key terms from which much of later Christianity either derives or rebels. During this period, there were also persecutions of the church and differing levels of tolerance and acceptance of Christians in parts of the empire. The one downside of this section is that it doesn't include pieces from traditions that vary from what became normative Christianity. It does include in some good detail the workings of church and state from the different philosophical and practical writings of the times.

The second major section is on Creeds; chronologically, this begins back in the period covered by the first section, but thematically presents itself well as a whole unit. The third section includes a few early references to gospel texts. Beginning with the fourth section and proceeding through to the tenth section, documents are arranged dealing with doctrinal issues arising from the early documents - Christology, Ecclesiology, the Nature of Humanity, the Nature of Sin - all of the major themes found in systematic theology are here present. Bettenson ends this part with a collection of Christian inscriptions.

The second major part traces Christian documentary history from the Chalcedon council to the present in essentially chronological order - the East/West split, the Holy Roman Empire, Monastic developments, the Concilliar Movement, Scholasticism, and the many elements of the Reformation (most of which get their own section, but there is a decided advantage to the English history). Some documents are decided obscure (the Bonn Agreement between Old Catholic and Anglican churches in 1931, and the Jansenist 'Five Propositions' being a few examples), whereas others are well-known (Luther's Ninety-Five Theses). The final sections of the later editions have expanded to include documentary examples of peace and justice forms of theological development - Feminist theology and women's ordination, Black theology, Liberation theology. It also includes various pieces on interfaith dialogue and relationship efforts of the past generation. These later sections are primarily the work of Chris Maunder, co-editor of the publication in its later editions.

This is an important collection to have handy. Quite often, histories, commentaries and theological works will reference these documents, but not print them in their entirety (or sometimes not even in part) on the assumption that such documents can be readily found elsewhere - an assumption that is true enough, but it is helpful for the student to actually have the book!

That this book has been through many editions speaks to its ongoing value and importance.

Book so far is a wealth of historical documents adding to my knowledge about the early Christian Church. I am barely into the book as it supplements my Education for Ministry course; this third part of the course being one year in length.

This book is a good "topic reference" book. It is compiled of many original source writings. It is used in my seminary history class to supplement the main history text. A very good source for many topics.