THE BREEZE OF THE CENTURIES
Introducing Great Theologians from the Apostolic Fathers to Aquinas
By Michael Reeves. IVP. 152 pages. £8.99
ISBN 978-1-84474-415-2
‘Totally scintillating’, declared the recommendation on the back cover of this book. I thought back to lectures I used to give, and doubted whether my students would have said the same about them.
In answer to the question, ‘Why study them?’, I used to say, ‘What would you feel if you met them in heaven and hadn’t a clue about what they had done?’ Michael Reeves gives a weightier reason. Drawing on C.S. Lewis, he describes how 21st-century people tend to think that ‘newer’ must be better, and that therefore there is nothing of benefit to be learned from thinkers in long-past centuries. He dubs this ‘chronological snobbery’ and shows that we are the poorer if we limit ourselves to the small island of our own century.
His aim in this book is ‘to provide a few introductions to fascinating but potentially intimidating celebrity theologians’. Each of these introductions gives a short biography and background, then summarises the principal works of the subject in a lively and relevant fashion. It is the most readable brief survey I have come across. Students could profitably start here, following up the suggestions for further reading, if desired. The general reader who wants to explore beyond his 21st-century ‘island’ might start by dipping into topics that interest him. Why not get to know Athanasius and his Boy’s Own adventures? Or take the plunge and meet the formidable Augustine? With Michael Reeves, the encounter will not fail to be stimulating.
Joy Horn,
member of Cranleigh Baptist Church;
once Lecturer in Church History, Ridgelands Bible College (subsequently merged into All Nations Christian College)
