Title: For Us and for Our Salvation: The Doctrine of Christ in the Early Church
Author: Stephen Nichols
Publisher: Crossway
Publishing Date:August 13, 2007
Pages: 192
Format:Trade Paperback
ISBN: 978-1581348675
Retail Price: $14.99
Table of Contents: n/a
Intro: n/a
Sample Chapter: n/a
From Crossway:
The belief that Christ is the God-man is definitive of Christian orthodoxy and imperative to a right understanding of the gospel. By the middle of the fifth century, the church had wrestled with many challenges to the biblical portrayal of Christ and, in response to those challenges, had formulated the doctrine of Christ that remains the standard to this day. This look to the past helps as Christians contend with present-day challenges and seek to answer Christ’s question—“Who do people say that I am?”—for those living in the twenty-first century.
For Us and for Our Salvation tells the very human story of the formation of the doctrine of Christ in those early centuries of the church. A glossary, numerous charts and timelines, and some helpful appendices make the book accessible and user-friendly. Primary source materials from key theologians and councils complement the engaging narrative.
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Other books by Stephen J. Nichols:
The Reformation: How a Monk and a Mallet Changed the World (2007)
Heaven on Earth: Capturing Jonathan Edwards’ Vision of Living in Between (2006)
An Absolute Sort of Certainty: The Holy Spirit and the Apologetics of Jonathan Edwards (2003)
Martin Luther: A Guided Tour of His Life and Thought (2003)
J. Gresham Machen: A Guided Tour of His Life and Thought (2004)
Jonathan Edwards: A Guided Tour of His Life and Thought (2001)
Jonathan Edwards’ Resolutions: And Advice to Young Converts (2001)
Pages from Church History: A Guided Tour of Christian Classics (2006)
Martin Luther’s 95 Theses (2003)
A God-Entranced Vision of All Things: The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards (contributor) (2003)
The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards: American Religion and the Evangelical Tradition (contributor) (2003)
Initial Thoughts:
Stephen Nichols has been a machine in the past six years, writing nine books on church history while contributing to several others. Having reached deep into the heart of the Protestant Reformation, Nichols has now focused his attention on the Early Church–a very important time of defending the person and work of Jesus Christ (against the likes of Arians, Docetists, Apollinarians, and Nestorians). For the past 2000 years, Christianity has faced false teachers from within and heretics from without who have sought to reinterpret orthodoxy and reformulate Christological matters. The Church Fathers in the first four hundred years, under the guidance and governance of God’s providence, courageously and sacrificially stood their ground on the Incarnation, Deity, Humanity, Sufficiency, and Exclusivity of Jesus Christ. This, of course, is not to say that the Early Church was not without errors. However, there is much that we in the twenty-first century can learn from their exposition and articulation of Christological matters as well as avoid errors of the past.
While it would be easy to dismiss such a book as targeting only Christian academia, let me encourage you to give it personal consideration. Christological matters are of first importance, and every Christian should be prepared to give a biblical, historical, and theological answer to the question, “Who Do You Say That I Am?” No doubt, there is a long line of deceivers and heretics in our day. The question remains if this generation will have an Athanasius, Irenaus, or a Gregory of Nyssa in the 21st century. Perhaps this book would serve well that noble cause.
Endorsements:
n/a
Stephen J. Nichols is a professor at Lancaster Bible College and Graduate School. He earned a Ph.D. from Westminster Theological Seminary. He has written several books, including Pages from Church History. He lives with his wife and two sons in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.
Re: “For Us and for Our Salvation tells the very human story of the formation of the doctrine of Christ in those early centuries of the church.”
What do they mean by “very human story”?
When someone calls something like this–a story or book or artwork, etc–“very human,” or says it has a human quality to it, it means something to the effect that it contains the things that make us human. For example, it’s a story of a fight (something we all know), a fight for truth. It’s a story of passionate argument, mystery, deceit, hope, nobility, pride, sin, truth and beauty. Where all these things come together, this is not a dry, emotionless story, or one devoid of empathy, one we cannot identify with. It’s a story filled with things common to all of us. Kind of like this: “So we can say that the Bible is a very human book, for we see in it both elegance and lack of polish, both finesse and struggle. But it is a divine book as well, for it is the only book in all the world that is truly ‘God-breathed’.”