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Christianity Today, March, 2008 |

Starter Books on Ancient-Future Faith

David Neff, editor in chief, Christianity Today Media Group | posted 3/17/2008 10:03AM

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Ancient-Future Faith: Rethinking Evangelicalism for a Postmodern World
Robert E. Webber

The late Bob Webber wrote the first popular book about the church fathers as a source for contemporary ministry. This volume talks about their relevance for theology, church, worship, and evangelism.

* * *

Reading Scripture with the Church Fathers
Christopher A. Hall

Hall, provost of Eastern University, worked closely with Thomas Oden to birth the massive Ancient Christian Commentary series. In this book, Hall introduces the methods the fathers used to interpret Scripture.

* * *

Getting to Know the Church Fathers: An Evangelical Introduction
Bryan M. Litfin

A teacher at Moody Bible Institute, Litfin knows the suspicions many evangelicals have about the fathers. This book introduces beginners to 10 key figures from the early church.

* * *

A New Song for an Old World: Musical Thought in the Early Church
Calvin R. Stapert

Calvin College professor Stapert is a Bach expert, but he's also well informed on what early Christian writers had to say about music. He'll tell you why Christians first sang the psalms around the dinner table, and what crisis prompted the first hymn-sing inside a church.

* * *

Early Christian Fathers (Library of Christian Classics, volume 1)
Edited by Cyril C. Richardson

It's 54 years old, but this volume is still a handy and reliable collection of key early Christian writings, including the Martyrdom of Polycarp, the Didache, and selections from Irenaeus's Against Heresies.

Related Elsewhere:

Previous top 5 lists had books about the civil rights era, social justice, church history, popular culture, the Civil War, apologetics, atheism, and sex.

Neff, editor-in-chief of the Christianity Today Media Group, blogs at Ancient Evangelical Future.

Christianity Today briefly excerpted Ancient-Future Faith and interviewed Hall and Litfin about their books.

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March 2008, Vol. 52, No. 3

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The Junaluskan

Posted: March 18, 2008 8:08 AM

In response to Gerald: To say, "study the words of Jesus Himself, and of the Apostles. . . .Or is Jesus no longer sufficient?" sounds fine on the surface, but it fails to take into account that nobody reads the Bible free from bias or cultural blinders. To be a modern evangelical is to be a part of a community which comes at the Bible with a world of assumptions, interpretations, interpolations, and such, all of which shape the final conclusions we draw. We can paint ourselves into theological corners, and reading broadly from other eras, especially the early Church, when the faith was fresh, breaks us free. It does not mean that we will agree with everything they thought or said way back then, but it brings to the light that we may be thinking or saying things that have gotten off track. Take for example the subject of free will. The early Church had a much different take on it than, say, Calvin or Wesley. We need to put that into our mental food processors.

Ralph Gaily

Posted: March 17, 2008 7:50 PM


Beware of many false doctrines that are weakening the Church right now.....they come through like contrary winds.....catching the unwary that have their sails up....and are sweeping them out to sea as storms approach. Read your Bible....carefully!

Gerald McNaughton

Posted: March 17, 2008 5:23 PM

While reading the early church "fathers" may stimulate some critical thinking in some Christians today, I believe we need to be wary of the contradictory nature of those writings. There is disagreement among the writers themselves. There are also numerous doctrines presented which only a devout Catholic could love. Today's Evangelicals would be far better advised to study the words of Jesus Himself, and of the Apostles who were inspired by Jesus. Or is Jesus no longer sufficient?