Who says church history is boring? Certainly not when Stephen Nichols is writing it. Stephen, who is a Professor at Lancaster Bible College at Philadelphia has already written introductions to the life of Jonathan Edwards and J. Gresham Machen, as well as an introduction to the Reformation entitled The Reformation: How a Monk and a Mallet Changed the World. These are books worth having, and easy to read.

So too is this book on the way in which the early church struggled to understand who Jesus is. Professor Nichols takes us through the New Testament evidence, introduces us to church documents from the first five centuries of church history, and focuses on the great councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon.

You may not know it, but everything we believe and teach about Jesus Christ we owe to the debates and struggles of these early Christians, who had to work hard to do justice to the Bible’s teaching on Jesus as God, and on Jesus as man, yet with ‘two natures in one person’. This book will guide you through these early movements of theology in a way that is engaging and interesting.

The book also includes a glossary of theological terms, a summary of key Bible texts which shed light on the doctrine of Christ, a list of books to lead you into reading the early church fathers, and an epilogue which makes all of this relevant. The author explains:

The early church labored and sacrificed to ensure that the belief in Christ as fully God and fully human conjoined in one person would prevail. For them this belief was the heart and center of the church’s doctrine and practice. We would do well to follow their example, for Christ is the God-man for us and for our salvation. And he is the God-man for the salvation of the next generation.

If you have never read about the early church fathers and their concern for a biblical doctrine of the Saviour, then this book is for you!

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