Search Results: Early Church Fathers from Eden Theological Seminary Bookstore

Oxford World's Classics | The only edition of Anselm's major works in English.

Augustine's 'Confessions', written at the close of the fourth century CE, is a highly significant text in the history of European culture. Augustine explains just how and why he came to abandon a successful career and the personal enjoyments of a largely secular existence to follow a life of prayer and study, leading to a true comprehension of God and the Bible. The avowed approach of this introductory book is to 'historicise' - to set Augustine's own experiences of religion, philosophy and Christian faith against the long-standing political, cultural and religious traditions of the classical world. Late antiquity saw the transformation of the classical heritage and its transmission by Christian authors. Augustine's ideas about how texts may be presented and read, how people respond to written and spoken language, find resonance in recent critical theory. The world in which Augustine lived, the structure, style and purpose of the Confessions, and the problems of rhetoric and truth
posed by its… Read More

This third volume in the Westminster History of Christian Thought series is an accessible introduction to the main theological disputes and debates that helped shape the church in the period of early Christianity. Author Lisa Maugans Driver illustrates how early Christians' interactions with one another in worship, and in their care for strangers and the poor, shaped how they came to understand God. This interrelation of faith and practice is the clarifying lens through which the story of emerging Christian thought is told. Questions for discussion with each chapter make this book an excellent resource for classroom use. Designed particularly for undergraduate courses in theology and religion, the Westminster History of Christian Thought series offers reliable and accessible introductions to Christian thought for each major period in Christian history--the early church, the medieval era, the Reformation, the modern age, and the contemporary period--and concludes with a volume on American religious… Read More

New item; may exhibit minor shelf wear. | This volume includes selections from the works of Athanasius, Gregory of Nazianzus, and Gregory of Nyssa. Through these works and those of other early Christian thinkers, this book surveys the development of early church theology.—Publisher

A thought-provoking comparative take on two seminal thinkers in Christian history
In this book -- the first volume in the Kierkegaard as a Christian Thinker series -- Lee Barrett offers a novel comparative interpretation of early church father Augustine and nineteenth-century philosopher-theologian Soren Kierkegaard.
Though these two intellectual giants have been paired by historians of Western culture, the exact nature of their similarities and differences has never before been probed in detail. Barrett demonstrates that on many essential theological levels Augustine and Kierkegaard were more convergent than divergent. Most significantly, their parallels point to a distinctive understanding of the Christian life as a passion for self-giving love.
Approaching Kierkegaard through the lens of Augustine, Barrett argues, enables the theme of desire for fulfillment in God to be seen as much more central to Kierkegaard's thought than previously imagined.—Publisher

Popular Patristics Series
When Christians first began living as monks in the Egyptian desert at the beginning of the fourth century, they had few books and almost no learning. As they gained experience, they concentrated that experience in the form of an oral tradition of tales and sayings (apophthegmata). Apart from the Scriptures (also learned by heart) this was the only training manual they had. Consequently, when the onslaught of barbarians drove many monks out of Egypt early in the following century, they found it better to preserve their oral tradition in writing.Thus, towards the end of the fifth century there eventually emerged a codification of this monastic lore. It was in two parts: one in which the items were arranged in alphabetical order by the name of the monk who either authored the saying or was characterized in the tale; the other in which all the remaining anonymous material was arranged under various heads. The present volume is an attempt to provide the reader with a readable… Read More

Introduction, translation, and notes by Boniface Ramsey (series editor). Daniel E. Doyle, O.S.A. and Thomas Martin, O.S.A., eds.

What is true of Scripture as a result of being inspired? What should divine inspiration cause us to expect from it? The answers to these questions in the early church related not just to the nature of Scripture's truth claims but to the manner in which Scripture was to be interpreted.
In this book Michael Graves delves into what Christians in the first five centuries believed about the inspiration of Scripture, identifying the ideas that early Christians considered to be logical implications of biblical inspiration. Many books presume to discuss how some current trend relates to the traditional view of biblical inspiration; this one actually describes in a detailed and nuanced way what the traditional view is and explores the differences between ancient and modern assumptions on the topic.
Accessible and engaging, The Inspiration and Interpretation of Scripture presents a rich network of theological ideas about the Bible together with critical engagement with the biblical text.

Translation, introduction and notes by Abraham Malherbe and Everett Ferguson. Preface by John Meyendorff. | Here is an award-winning, new translation that brings to light Gregory's complex identity as an early mystic. Gregory (c. 332-395) was one of the Greek Cappadocian Fathers, along with St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory Nazianzen.—Publisher

Translated, with introduction and notes by Kevin Corrigan. | Saint Macrina (327 - 370) was a major guiding force in the early development of monasticism and it was through her example that her brother, Saint Basil the Great, was inspired to establish one of the first monastic communities. This life, written by her other famous brother, Saint Gregory of Nyssa, is one of the masterpieces of Christian literature.—From the back cover

A paperback edition of this well-known study. Since its first publication in 1967 this book has aroused a lively debate among theologians and practicising clergy. The author had since returned to the discussion (The Remaking of Christian Doctrine, SCM Press 1974) and has stressed the contemporary need to define and develop Christian doctrine. In the earlier work Professor Wiles asks how the early Church fathers' doctrinal affirmations - expressed for example in the Nicene Creed and Chalcedonian Definition - remain valid today when the framework of the fathers' learning and discourse has disappeared. Doctrine was necessary, he argues, to answer objections to Christianity in a largely non-Christian world, to tackle the problem of heresy and to satisfy the desire of Christians to express their faith more deeply. He also considers the sources of doctrinal reasoning - Scripture, the practice of worship and the nature of salvation. These sources are still vital to any development of Christian doctrine today… Read More

To Pray and to Love is for all persons who want to pray but do not know how, who pray but feel uncertain about it, and who pray happily but want to grow more deeply. For those who have longing for prayer and yet have never prayed, the author offers some specific suggestions about attitudes, beliefs, and dispositions that get in the way of our prayer without us even noticing. Bondi also shares some of what the founders of early monasticism had to say about prayer and Christian love that she has found especially helpful over the years.—Publisher

Understandings of the Church explores the ways imagery is used by biblical writers and early Christian teachers such as Cyprian, Ignatius of Antioch, Tertullian, Clement of Alexandria, and Origen to describe the concept of church.—Publisher