Creeds, Councils, and Christ

by Gerald L. Bray

Book by Bray, Gerald Lewis

Genres: Church History, History, Theology, Christianity

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Gerald L. Bray (Ph.D., University of Paris--Sorbonne) is director of research for the Latimer Trust, based in London, and a research professor at Samford University, teaching in the Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Alabama. A priest of the Church of England, Bray has also edited the post-Reformation Anglican canons. He has edited several volumes of the Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture and Ancient Christian Texts, as well as volume one of the Ancient Christian Doctrine series, all for IVP Academic. General EditorTimothy George (Th.D., Harvard University) is a renowned Reformation historian and author of Theology of the Reformers, as well as many other theological and historical works. He is founding dean of Beeson Divinity School of Samford University and an executive editor of Christianity Today.

Reviews

[Matthew Prydden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gerald Bray starts off by exploring the currently held views regarding Christian orthodoxy, highlighting the scepticism and contempt often found within the liberal theology sector towards it. Bray then seeks to argue the case for the importance of Christian orthodoxy and the respect that it deserves, as he charts its development over the first few hundred years of the Christian church. It probably helps if you already have some basic understanding, at least, of early church history, but this was very helpful in understanding the theological developments, seeing them develop as Bray seeks to highlight the importance and relevance of the Christian church's heritage.

[Lily · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very disappointing, very dry, and written from a conservative evangelical, though Anglican, perspective.

[Trudy Pomerantz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this a somewhat dry review of the subject. It was definitely worth reading since understanding the historical theological background to the creeds is important, and I definitely need to read more on the subject since, even after reading this, I was still somewhat confused as to some of the particulars of the controversies.