Yale University Press, 2003
Robert Louis Wilken
There are no other words for it: this is a superb book. Written in beautiful prose and thoroughly researched, this study of early Christian thought is, as another reviewer said, "magnificently learned."
Wilkens cites many writers as representative of Christian thought, but there are four whom he favors: Origen in the third century, Gregory of Nyssa in the fourth, Augustine in the fifth, and Maximus the Confessor in the seventh. Through them and others, he traces the developing understanding of the fundaments of Christian thought: the history of Israel and of Jesus Christ; the experience of Christian worship; and the Holy Scriptures. Wilkins demonstrates that Christian thinking is "anchored in the church's life, sustained by such devotional practices as daily recitation of the psalms, and nurtured by the liturgy, in particular the regular celebration of the Eucharist."
Wilkins thinks that previous studies have been too much preoccupied with ideas. In his own work, he stresses that the goal of intellectual effort during these centuries was to "win the hearts and minds of men and women and to change their lives." This corrective is sorely needed in the academies of our time.
It is not often that I recommend a work of historical theology for spiritual reading. This one, however, will feed mind and heart for a long time.
Mary Aquin O'Neill, RSM