A Short History of Christian Thought

478 Pages·1995·36.155 MB·English

by  Linwood Urban

A SHORT HISTORY OF
CHRISTIAN THOUGHT
A Sbort‘History of
CHRISTIAN
THOUGHT
Revised and Expanded Edition
Linwood Urban
New York Oxford
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
I99'5
Oxford University Press
Oxford New York
Athens Auckland Bangkok Bombay
Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi
Florence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi
Kuala Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne
Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore
Taipei Tokyo Toronto
and associated companies in
Berlin Ibadan
Copyright © 1995 by Linwood Urban
Copyright © 1986 by Oxford University Press, Inc.
Published by Oxford University Press, Inc.,
200 Madison Avenue, New York, New York 10016
Oxford is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced.
stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means,
electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,
without the prior permission of Oxford University Press.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Urban, Linwood.
A short history of Christian thought / Linwood Urban.
Rev. and expanded ed.
p. cm. “The new edition has been enlarged
by the addition of chapters on the Sacraments and on the Church
and the ministry"—Pref.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-19-509er
ISBN 0-19-509348-8 (pbk.)
1. Theology, Doctrinal—History. I. Title.
n21.2.u72 1995
230'.09—dczo 94—25731
I35798642
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
To Nancy
Companion, guide, and friend
Prefa cc
This‘ new edition has been enlarged by the addition of chapters on
the sacraments and on the Church and the ministry. In both chap-
ters I use the same general procedure as in the rest of the book:
Beginning with Scripture, the development of thought is traced
through the twentieth century. Other changes include alteration of
two sections on the Principle of Sufficient Reason in Chapter Six
and rewriting the entire Epilogue. In the Epilogue the discussion of
feminist theology has been expanded, with a section on the ordina-
tion of women and a more extensive examination of the use of
gender-inclusive language about God. The treatment of Liberation
Theology contained in the original Epilogue has been absorbed into
the new chapter on the Church and the ministry, and the discus-
sion of the relationship between Christianity and other religions
has been significantly altered.
In preparing this edition, I am especially grateful to Daniel B.
Stevick, Professor Emeritus at the Episcopal Divinity School in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, who gave welcome and thoughtful ad-
vice on the two new chapters, and to my friends in the Conference
of Anglican Theologians with whom I discussed the matters treated
in the Epilogue. I also wish to express my thanks to Cynthia Read of
Oxford University Press, whose help and encouragement are grate-
fully acknowledged.
Swarthmore College L. U.
June I994
Preface to the First Edition
I wrote this book to help my students grasp and be grasped by the
power of Christianity. Not only has this venerable religious tradi-
tion been the foundation and driving force of Western culture, but
it has now become a worldwide phenomenon. Many people who
think of themselves as avant-garde look on Christianity as a relic of
the past. That it is not is amply demonstrated by its present vitality
and continuing growth, particularly in Third World countries. Part
of this vitality is the result of Christianity’s ability to unfold and
develop in the face of new intellectual challenges, while still re-
maining true to its original perception and conviction that God was
present in the life of Jesus of Nazareth. A short account of this
intellectual pilgrimage will be presented here.
An intellectual pilgrimage ought to be a journey toward the
truth. This should especially characterize Christianity's journey
since its seminal vision contains a dedication to truth: “If you con-
tinue in my words, . . . you will know the truth, and the truth
will make you free," said Jesus in the Gospel of John (John 8: 31—32).
I hope that this book makes a contribution to freedom founded on
truth.
I want to take this opportunity to extend my thanks to my
colleagues at Swarthmore College—]. William Frost, Laurence ].
Silberstein, and Demaris Wehr—with whom I have discussed
many of the issues treated in this book, and in particular to Patrick
Henry and Donald Swearer who read parts of the manuscript and
made valuable suggestions for its improvement. I also want to thank
Oxford University Press, especially Cynthia Read and Joan Bossert;
and Ann Blackburn, Patricia Carrera, Christina Devlin, and
viii / PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION
Eileen McElrone of Swarthmore College, who helped in the prepa-
ration of the manuscript.
Swarthmore College L. U.
june 1985
Contents
Introduction, 3
Scriptural Sources, 8
God Is Lord of All Things, 10
God Made a Covenant with Israel, 13
God Gave Israel the Law, 15
God Holds Israel to Account, 17
God Has a Future for Israel, 19
The Son of David, 20
The Heavenly Son of Man, 21
The Gospel of Thomas, 23
The Picture of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels, 26
The Picture in Q, 26
The Picture in Mark, 28
The Picture in Luke, 29
The Picture in Matthew, 31
The Gospel of John and the Epistles of Paul, 34
Paul’s Problem with the Law, 37
Johannine Literature, 39
The Deity of Christ, 40
The Preexistent Son and Wisdom in the
Epistles of Paul, 42
x / CONTENTS
II. The Mystery of the Trinity, 45
The Beginning of Trinitarian Thinking, 46
Philo of Alexandria, 48
Pre-Nicene Trinities, 52
Irenaeus’ Creedal Statement, 53
Monarchianism, 56
Dynamic Monarchianism, 57
Modalistic Monarchianism, 58
The Unity of God, 59
Multiplicity in God, 61
Arianism, 62
The Nicene Reaction to Arianism, 64
Augustine and the Coequal Trinity, 66
The Social Trinity, 68
Karl Rahner's Distinctions between the Persons, 70
III. The Mystery of the Incarnation, 73
Early Heresies, 75
Gnosticism, 77
The Orthodox Reply, 79
Word—Flesh and Word-Man Christologies, 81
Apollinarianism, 83
Nestorianism, 84
Monophysitism, 86
The Achievement of Chalcedon, 88
Since Chalcedon, 89
The Integrity of the Natures, 90
Fallibility and Human Nature, 92
The Unity of the Person, 93
An Organic Theory, 96
xii / CONTENTS
Original Righteousness and Original Guilt, 129
The Idea of Sin in the Old Testament, 130
The Story of the Fall, 132
Jewish Interpretations of the Fall, 133
Jesus’ View of Sin, 134
Paul on the Fall of Adam, 134
Primary and Secondary Sins, 136
Original Sin among the Early Fathers, 137
Irenaeus, 138
Origen, 139
Athanasius, 139
Augustine, 140
The Paradox of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, 141
The Perfection of Adam, 142
The Motivelessness of the Fall, 143
A Protestant-Catholic Divergence, 144
Christianity without the Historical Adam, 145
Original Sin as “Inherited, 146
Reinhold Niebuhr, 147
Responsibility Despite lnevitability, 149
Adam and Eve, 149
Modern Roman Catholic Perspectives, 150
Adam’s Sin as Archetypal, 151
VI. The Age of Natural Theology, 156
The Ontological Argument, 158
Gaunilo's Objection, 159
God as a Construct, 16o
Existence Is Not a Real Property, 161
Is God a Possible Idea?, 162