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Gods and the One God (Library of Early Christianity, Vol 1)

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Robert M Grant is a renowned historian of religion. This volume is one in a series called The Library of Early Christianity, edited by Wayne A. Meeks. Here Grant reports and analyzes the interaction of the Judeo-Christian concept of God with various pagan concepts of divinity.

He begins with a detailed analysis of the encounters of the early Christians in the Roman Empire, primarily recorded in the New Testament book of Acts. He then proceeds to various religious spheres of the world at that time through the fourth century. He specifically discusses primary concepts of God in Christian theology and popular religion.

Grant provides excellent critical detail, analysis, and reflection, as I have encountered previously in Grant's historical works on religion. He provides a coherent and useful description of the variety of thought in early Christian circles, as discussion developed on the triadic concepts of the New Testament revelation.

Grant clarifies the geographic and philosophical aspects of the various ideas. He analyzes the various Christian concepts of God, of the Son-Jesus-Logos-Wisdom, and of the "Spirit," the hardest, apparently, for the theologians to deal with systematically.

He shows how the variety of expressions arise initially from a defense of Christian thought and practice, then various more practical reflection and finally more systematic attempts in the fourth century, that led finally to what we now know as the "Trinity". He does an excellent job of portraying the interaction and mutual influences of pagan and Christian theologians.

The book Gods and the One God is written by Robert M. Grant. It is part of a series entitled the Library of Early Christianity which Wayne Meeks edits. This publication attempts to situate early Christian theology within its appropriate Greco-Roman context. And contrary to one of the blurbs that appears on my copy of this work, Grant does not simply document "the similarities and differences between beliefs of the emerging Christian movement" and beliefs held by the "larger world" in the first century or early second century CE. Rather, he seems to argue that there is a sense in which certain Christian beliefs depended on pagan beliefs or concepts about God (i.e. they were shaped or influenced by pagan thought). An example of this phenomenon is when one analyzes what Grant has to say about the gradual development of Christology (the systematic doctrine of Christ's person and work) and its concomitant teaching, the Trinity. Grant argues that the early church fathers were almost universally subordinationist in thought (concerning the relationship between Christ and his divine Father) prior to the Council of Nicaea (page 160). As Grant writes in his description of Theophilus of Antioch and other early Christian authors like him, "we find the materials for such a doctrine [of the Trinity] but not a doctrine as such" (" (page 156). He also points out that "The doctrine of the trinity in unity is not a product of the earliest Christian period, and we do not find it carefully expressed before the end of the second century" (page 156).

Regarding the structure of this work:

There are three parts to this book and 13 chapters. Grant begins his study with an account of how the Christian God is portrayed in Acts of the Apostles and then he discusses how philosophy, Judaism and Christianity depicted God in antiquity. He concludes his study by focusing on divergent Christologies and the Trinity doctrine. I highly recommend Grant's text. It is illuminating, intellectually honest and objective.