Customer Reviews

The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God

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I probably cannot add much to the reviews that have already been posted, but I would like to add my 5 stars vote to the chorus.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I know that I will be rereading various chapters, as needed. Wilken's writing style is clear, ordered, thoughtful, and at times lyrical. He evidences a real love for this material.

Wilken looks at the patristic period thematically, focusing on one or two of the Fathers under each theme. Not only are we introduced, therefore, to the theology of the Fathers, but we end up getting to know a bit each of the featured Fathers.

As a Roman Catholic, Wilken of course provides a Western appraisal of the Fathers. His great love is Augustine. But he also has excellent discussions of Origen, Gregory of Nyssa, and Maximus the Confessor. His reading of the Fathers is truly catholic. He is eager learn from all the Fathers, whether Eastern or Western. Even when the Fathers are wrong, they have so much to teach us. More than ever, the Church of Jesus Christ needs to drink at this well and imbibe their spirit.

I would love to read a thoughtful Eastern Orthodox review of Wilken's book. In recent years I have discerned a growing anti-Augustine sentiment among Orthodox writers, with some even dismissing Augustine as heretic. Wilken, on the other hand, considers Augustine to be a giant among the Fathers. One thing I do know, after reading Wilken I am finally going to have to break down and read the City of God. :-)

Wilken is one of the best writers on the early Church around. While each chapter deals with specific issues, he touches on a great deal of relevant points, which makes the read both enlightening and fun. His style is easy to follow, which is something that I cannot always say of the preeminent historian of dogma, Jaroslav Pelikan, who heartily indorses this book. You really won't go wrong with this one. Every page has a distilled quality that comes from teaching and living in the minds of the Fathers for several decades.

The contents are as follows:

1. Founded on the Cross of Christ 2. An Awesome and Unbloody Sacrifice
3. The Face of God for Now 4. Seek His Face Always 5. Not My Will But Thine 6. The End Given in the Beginning 7. The Reasonableness of the Faith 8. Happy the People Whose God is the Lord 9. The Glorious Deeds of Christ 10. Making This Thing Other 11. Likeness to God 12. The Knowledge of Sensible Things

He writes: "The intellectual tradition that began in the early Church was enriched by the philosophical breadth and exactitude of medieval thought. Each period in Christian history makes its own unique contribution to Christian life. The Church Fathers, however, set in place a foundation that has proven to be irreplaceable. Their writings are more than a stage in the development of Christian thought or an interesting chapter in the history of the interpretation of the Bible. Like an inexhaustible spring, faithful and true, they irrigate the Christian imagination with life-giving water flowing from the biblical and spiritual sources of the faith. They are still our teachers today."

In terms of errors or just overstatements, there are few worth noting, none of which deserve to take away from the book's great worth. Even so, he refers to Christ as having a divine and human nature, whereas it should read "natures" in the plural. We are Chalcedonian Christians, after all. And speaking of the Council of Chalcedon, Wilken seems to think that the Fathers we too vague in that instance. Here I would think that in a way he misses the point of the Council's affirmation, or rather, `affirmation of negation'. The Fathers were respecting the inherent mystery of the person of Christ and did so in words by remaining apophatic in their teaching by stating, "these things are untrue, of the rest, remain silent". It is a true understanding of that mystery that motivated this approach. It could go too far and lead to heresy to do otherwise. For Wilken this is a lack of clarity, for me, an example of wisdom in the face of the living God's presence. Moreover, a passing remark that Augustine is the premier Father leaves me as an Orthodox a little quizzical.

You would also enjoy Wilken's "Remembering the Christian Past" and the works of Georges Florovsky. On the question of the Hellenization of the gospel, a la Harnak, which Wilken (and nearly all modern scholars) rejects thoroughly, see also Florovsky and Martin Hengel's works. Hurtado's Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity is worth buying and having near the desk.

Another up and coming patristic scholar from whom we will be reading and hearing much more in the coming years, God willing, is John Behr, professor of Patristics at St. Vladimir's. His new book, "The Way to Nicea" is a very helpful guide on the pre-Nicene Christiological tradition and would make a great companion to Wilken's book.

Enjoy!

Robert Wilken has given us a beautiful book. In the preface, he mentions that he originally intended the book to be a sequel to his earlier excellent _The Christians as the Romans Saw Them_. The first book presented the prosecution's case against early Christianity, as it were, and the new one would present the defense. But he eventually dropped the idea, because as he delved deeper into the writings of the early Church Fathers, he realized that their thinking was much too independent of Greco-Roman thought to be interpreted merely as a response to it. So the new book emerged.

One of the most fascinating and instructive points of Professor Wilken's new book is his claim that Harnack and Co. were wrong to suppose that early Christian thought was thoroughly Hellenized by cultural osmosis. This of course has been the standard way of thinking since the mid-nineteenth century. But in fact, as Wilken's goes to pains to demonstrate, just the converse is true: Christianity dramatically influenced Hellenistic culture. It was Christianity that radically transformed the secular world, not the other way around.

Wilken demonstrates that this radical transformation of Greco-Roman culture--which was at the same time, of course, the coming-into-its-own of Christian thought--was never primarily intellectualistic. Christianity is a religion, not a philosophy. It stresses love, compassion, service in the world, and worship, and these elements define the parameters and shape the content of early Christian thought. Wilken works through this claim by examining, chapter by chapter, how the early Christians viewed (for example) worship, the Resurrection, the Trinity, the Passion, and so on. Chapter 7, on "Faith," where Wilken explores the connection between knowing and loving, may be the single most beautiful and enlightening discussion in the book. Also of particular interest are the final two chapters, which deal respectively with the early Church's understanding of the moral and spiritual life.

Wilken's book is informative for students of historical theology, but it's also inspiring for those readers who might wish to use it as an opportunity for lectio divina. Gracefully written, sensitively nuanced, the book is a real pearl.

If you have a desire to know the thought of the Early Church but have a difficult time working through the volumes of writtings of the Fathers, this book is a blessing beyond belief. Not only does Dr. Wilken allow you to hear them, but you leave the book feeling as if you know then and have walked with them.

The book not only explores the historical realities of what happened, but you experience the motivation and love of the Church that has been given down through the centuries as a precious gift.

Five stars is a gross under statement for this outstanding work. This book makes me desire to return to the class and to explore again that which I may have missed in previous studies.

I've read no better introduction to the Fathers for intelligent, non-academic readers. Wilken has written a clear, lyrical, and winning account of the inner life of the early Christians. And it's about more than doctrine. It's about the development of a Christian culture, with its own strains of poetry, art, philosophy, and politics. Wilken himself is obviously at home in that culture, and in love with it. If you read this book, you probably will be, too. If I could give it more than five stars, I would.

This book left me feeling very torn. On the one hand, it was really a great read. On the other hand, it seemed that there was an underlying agenda that the author refused to admit (or realize). At times, it seemed a little like Bart Ehrman's book--only half the story gets told to bend the conclusion. Of course, Wilken admits that he is not telling the whole story, but he leads the reader to believe that he is being fair. Allow me a few examples. Wilken admits that Augustine is the giant of early Christian thought, and quotes him in every chapter, and on almost every subject. However, when he begins to talk about free-will, there is no talk of Augustine, and Wilken says that all the early fathers believed in free-will. While Augustine may have been in the minority, the average reader (to whom the book is written, as purported by Wilken) would have no other idea. Also, Wilken talks about the monothelite controversy. Usually, he deals with all the bishops and emporers on both sides of a debate. However, in this discussion, he fails to mention Honorius, prelate of Rome. This would be unknown to the average reader, but seems (to me) that it would be important enough to mention. There are a few other, mostly minor, examples of things like this. It all seems to be an apologetic for Roman Catholicism. While that's fine to write an apologetic for your church, telling half the story is deceitful.

That being said, the book is a good read. It flows well, and is enjoyable. Technical terms (usually Greek or Latin words) are explained and used in useful ways. The book contains a good amount of information, yet is presented in an understandable way and is made easy to remember. It isn't just another book on early church history--it traces other things like poetry, etc. Another underlying theme is that knowledge of God is not true knowledge until it is experienced. It seems simple enough, but Wilken explains it quite well. And to this end, I agree with another reviewer, that there is a devotional, not just academic, use for this book.

The negative side of this review shouldn't deter anyone from reading it. This book is a great read, but it needs to be read with discernment (of course, everything does).

If you like well written, well researched, and not too academic historical works, this book is for you. Wilken outlines how the Bible shaped the intellectual history of the early Christian Church. What stands out for me is how Wilken's make a strong case that the early Church Fathers were not as influenced by Greek/Platonic philosophy as I had been led to believe. Wilken's also repeatedly emphasizes the fact that the early Church Fathers were not ivory tower academics. In the most case the leaders were preachers and bishops and even laymen. Finally, Wilken's stresses that the early Church Fathers were as much concerned about transforming the heart as they were about educating the mind.

This is a lyrical book an amazing book. I have read it and re-read it serveral times. I never travel without this book and my bible. Some of the arguments in this book I sensed dimly or indirectly before I read the book but this book as other reviewers have said, makes one realize what can still be learned by these early church fathers, partularly St. Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Wilken has the learned authority of a C.S. Lewis and the faith of a Thomas Merton. This is a book that will be read and studied one hundred years from now and probably beyond that. I can't imagine a a better book on this subject being written in this century.

Most importanly THE SPIRIT OF EARLY CHRISTIAN THOUGHT:Seeking the Face of God is an antidote to the moral confusion of our time which thinks pure reason is sufficient and that there is no such thing as legitimate authority.

Robert Louis Wilken has written what is certainly one of the most important works on early Christianity. Wilken brings his impressive acumen and rigorous scholarship to bear on the shape and texture of early Christian thought in his fine work, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought. Wilken, whose Ph.D. is from the University of Chicago, is a former president of both the American Academy of Religion and the North American Partistics Society. He is currently the William R. Kenan Professor of the History of Christianity at the University of Virginia, and has taught at the University of Notre Dame, Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Fordham University, the Institutum Patristicum Augustiniam, and the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, among other academic institutions. He is a leading authority on patristic exegesis, and has written widely on the history of early Christianity in prestigious academic journals as well as in venues more accessible to non-specialists. This present work represents a mature scholar's reflections on early Christianity.

This book is for both the scholar and the layperson. Scholars will find in Wilken's text a valuable guide to early Christian thought and reflection. Wilken's treatment of early Christian thought is replete with concrete examples, which sets his work apart from much of the comparable academic literature which remains in the abstract. Also praiseworthy, is Wilken's refusal to isolate early Christian thought from the lived context that gave birth to such thought. Wilken situates early Christian reflection and intellectual activities within the historical context of the communal practices that gave rise to them, particularly prayer, reading and commenting upon Scripture, Christian rituals, and especially the liturgy. Wilken shows how the communal practices and particularly the liturgy, provided the rhythm that shaped and ordered Christian thought. With copious citations from early Christian writers, Wilken provides his readers with both the content and context of many of the salient features of early Christian thought and practice, with the added benefit of letting the early Christians speak for themselves. The layperson who picks up Wilken's text will encounter what I believe to be the BEST accessible introduction to early Christianity. Wilken's writing is such that even a novice can benefit from reading his wonderfully written text, and yet, the more background a reader has before coming to Wilken's text, the more the reader will find in its pages. Wilken includes helpful endnotes which do not bog down the narrative flow of his history, but provide the requisite information a scholar needs for academic research. Although many of the titles will be familiar to scholars acquainted with the history of early Christianity, the list of suggested readings at the end of the book equip both the younger scholar and the lay reader with a useful starting point for further study. Both groups of readers will find Wilken's work accessible, clear, intelligent, and beautiful. Wilken writes in a precise and clear style that at the same time has the feel of poetry. His prose is nothing less than beautiful, and his insightful and penetrating look at early Christian thought could only have been written by a scholar of Wilken's stature and experience who has spent a lifetime studying early Christianity.

There are no substitutes for reading early Christian writers in their own words, but for either a prologue or an epilogue to such an engagement, this book is a must! If I could recommend only one book on early Christianity or the study of the early Church, this would be it. If I could recommend two others, I would probably include the first two volumes of Jaroslav Pelikan's The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine, namely volumes 1, The Emergence of the Catholic Tradition (100-600), and 2, The Spirit of Eastern Christendom (600-1700). For the layperson who simply wants to understand the "spirit" of early Christian thought and practice, I can think of no better introduction than Wilken's The Spirit of Early Christian Thought.

This book provides an intriguing overview of Christian beliefs, practices and worship during the relatively early years of the Church. Much of this is ignored by or unknown to American Christians, especially evangelicals whose theological roots go back only 500, and sometimes hardly 100, years. Besides the scholarly footnotes to be expected by a university professor the author provides 11 pages of suggested additional readings broken down according to each chapter.

This is a LOT of thought-provoking material for the lay reader to absorb so I need to start rereading it again already.

Recommended for Christians who seeks to ponder the roots of their faith and how our early brethren thought about Christianity in their lives.