The Learning Theology with Church Fathers - Book Report/Review Example

? Learning Theology with Church Fathers by Christopher A. Hall Dr Chris Hall, a theologian born in 1950, focuses his teachings on the early Christian faith. His core values and teachings of the Christianity belief are explained in his book, Learning Theology with the Church Fathers. The book is a re edition of his earlier book Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers. The book is part of his three series book. The first book is Learning the Scripture with the Church Fathers and the second book is Praying with the Church Fathers. It makes a follow of his earlier book. His new book Learning Theology with Church Fathers is a book that intends to serve as a guide for beginners in either theology or the Christian faith. Christopher intends to offer an insight on the early Christian teachings and writers who are also known as the Church Fathers. He explores their beliefs in amidst to understand the Christian faith and to give answers to the various misconceptions that arise. In his book, he explores three main issues, the wonder of the incarnation of the word, the mystery of the wonder of the trinity and the Orthodox Doctrine. According to Christopher, in his theme of the Orthodox doctrine, the fathers in faith play a very important role in the early church; they were the teachers of the church. In his teaching, the orthodox doctrine streams from the belief that what is taught by the fathers of faith should be in direct response with what is taught by the earlier apostles. The key elements of a teacher according to Christopher are two. The first is, a teacher needs to posses some form of teaching which he passes down to his students. Secondly the teaching left behind should be correlated and relevant, and not in any way controversial to the earlier teachings. The teachings should correlate. Therefore, the father of faith needs to have sufficient background information pertaining the life and the teachings of Jesus Christ. He should be one with utmost trustworthy nature to be entrusted to deliver the teachings with utter faithfulness, without changing or with bias (Hall 2002, 15-35). During the era of the Trinitarian and Christological controversies, bishops who persevered through the teachings of councils earned the title of father. In his book, he explains how the fathers were highly honored. This honor streams from the persevering nature of protecting the orthodox during times marked with intense persecution and testing. In addition to upholding the orthodox doctrine, a good teacher in faith needs to posses other vital qualities according to Christopher. A good teacher in faith ought to uphold holiness in life. Holiness means the strife to in the show of God's work through His scripture. The fathers were not perfect as they were human, still struggling with temptations and shortcomings just like everyone else. Nonetheless, they willingly laid down their lives for Christ's purpose. Secondly, a good father ought to have antiquity. Antiquity refers to fathers who lived between the periods of the First Century and the time of John Damascus, and ministered between those periods too. Thirdly, the need for Ecclesiastical approval qualifies on to be a good teacher. Ecclesiastical approval refers to the approval of the work of service as per the scriptures (Hall 2002, 18-33). The Trinitarian model of the Christian faith is amongst the basic foundation of the faith. The mystery and the wonder of the trinity as discussed by Christopher, forms the basis of the Christian faith. The Trinitarian relationship has three separate and different entities, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Each has its own distinctive role in the Christianity faith and each has its own name. They work simultaneously, hand in hand to separate mankind from sin. Christopher raises the issue of the working and actions of God. According to his writings Christopher indicates that the work of the Holy Spirit is to empower the disciples of Jesus into fulfilling His ministry through the formation of the church through Christ's body. Questions arise of who this Holy Spirit is? Is he different from the Father, and is the Father too distinct from the Son? What is the correlation of the three? He explains in his book that God has to act in unity and as so act in the trinity (Hall 200, 53-78). The third theme in his book, the wonder of the incarnation, Christopher explains that thought he resurrection of the son the glory of incarnation is demonstrated. The incarnation was step into fulfilling the word that He the son is indeed. In his book he compares the understanding of incarnation as viewed by the Archbishop of Constantinople, Chrysostom's to that of Augustine. In his book, he portrays Chrysostom as one who views God as one who relates with human beings. God willingly identifies with human suffering through the suffering that Christ had to go through during His time on earth. He went through a lot of persecution. He later adds on that Christ himself labored, felt thirst and the agonizing death on the cross is evidence that He carried with him the feelings that all human beings bear. According to the book, the suffering is not an indication of God's detection from human beings, rather than its His way of inviting communion and fellowship with human beings while God himself shows His character to man. Conclusively from the book, it is evident that Christ walks before man. He would never let man walk in paths He already has not taken. Augustine similarly takes on a similar view he likens Christ's suffering with that of human beings. He on the other hand derives his teachings from the Biblical book of Psalms 62. In summary the scripture says that which humans suffer, Christ suffers or did suffer too. In addition, tribulations and suffering only draws Christians into fellowship with Christ (Hall 2002, 188-200. 18) Hall’s book is designed to be a guide or an introductory to religious leaders starting their mission and to students in theology. The book has some shortcomings in its delivery. Though the book clearly explains the qualities of a good teacher as holiness, ecclesiastical approval, orthodoxy and antiquity, it fails to relate the same with the present day time. The antiquity point being a good teacher had to have had religious practice during the A.D 96 and 750. This is a little unrealistic right Nonetheless some of those qualities may be hard to uphold in the present day. The early Church father could easily relate with the qualities since they lived during those age. In the modern day, such text needs to be reconstructed to fit and to portray more relevance (Hall 2002, 15). One other weakness of the content in the book, Learning Theology by Church Fathers is the limited case study portrayed in his writing. In his findings, Christopher does not give a clear detail reference of sample Fathers who portrayed antiquity, holiness of life, orthodox principle. This being a book to be used by beginners, it requires to have case studies for the learners to relate to. The learners need clear examples for them to contrast and emulate. Mere definition of the qualities of the fathers is not sufficient. More so, in his argument regarding the mystery of incarnation, Christopher focuses basically on the theory in accordance to Augustine and the theory in accordance to the Archbishop of Archbishop of Constantinople, Chrysostom. He limits his finding to the two who have related information (Hall 2002, 190). One of the winning points of the book is that it approaches a topical approach in dealing with the doctrines. The author moves systematically topic by topic starting with the basis of Christianity while explaining clearly in detail who the Fathers are. He moves on systematically to explain on Christ the begotten and not the made. Hall has an interesting way of putting across the facts. The language he uses is captivating. He writes the book in a bible study sort of approach. It keeps the reader yearning to read more. His introductory particularly is one that is captivating, he elaborates that the basis of understanding the book more is simply through grasping the initial content in the first chapter which he clearly elaborates. His choice of words is appealing to the reader. He describes the book as a feast meant to nourish (Hall 2002, 13). In conclusion the book serves as a guide. It is written in a way that is not only captivating but in a summary of some sort. Beginners in the journey of being Church Fathers may find it to be an interesting read since it offers insight on the relevance of being a Church Father. Christopher has succeeded in his mission to offer a guide to those seeking to make it as successful Church Fathers. Bibliography Hall, Christopher Alan. Learning Theology with the Church Fathers. Madison: Intervarsity Press,2002. Read More