God is not only the subject of theology, but for believers also the One that has the whole world in His hands. How do you describe God? Can you find the right words, concepts and paradigms to get a grip? As long as there have been believers, they’ve tried to express themselves to tell about others about God. And since Christianity had to define its place among the Jewish monotheism and the Greek/Roman polytheism, apostles, church fathers and theologians did their utmost to find the right words. Lois Malcolm dug into the sources of theology. Malcolm surveys the major features which have marked theological understandings of God throughout six distinct periods, including the early church, the medieval era, the Reformation, modernity, the twentieth-century, and the present day. Every author, thinker and scientist is introduced with the historical context. Irenaeus. Tertullian, Origen of Alexandria and Athanasius of Alexandria, but also Martin Luther, Søren Kierkegaard, Jürgen Moltmann and Hans Urs von Balthasar. After a summary all of the consecutive eras and tens of theologians are visited in much more details. God: The Sources of Christian Theology is not to read from beginning to end in one or a few sessions. On every page you encounter Christians that have come to understand God and try to formulate their findings.
About the author
Lois Malcolm is Associate Professor of Systematic Theology at Luther Seminary. She is the author of numerous articles as well as Holy Spirit: Creative Power in Our Lives. She has served on the Editorial Board of the Sources of Christian Theology series, published by Westminster John Knox Press.