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The Lion Concise Book of Christian Thought
A Concise History of Christian Thought offers a succinct, readable survey of key Christian thinkers and significant theological developments from the church's inception to the present. In addition to surveying over one hundred important Christian thinkers from Justin Martyr to Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict XVI), the book also covers major creeds, councils, and documents. Representative extracts allow the reader to hear from each of the key thinkers in his or her own words. After having sold more than 50,000 copies in its earlier editions, the current edition has been refined and updated throughout and includes new material on key contemporary thinkers. It will appeal to church leaders, interested laity, and students.
256 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1984
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June 18, 2025
Lane, Tony. A Concise History of Christian Thought. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006.
Introduction and survey texts face a near-impossible task. They can never go very deep, lest the volume become unwieldy. If they are too shallow, then they are practically useless. Anthony Lane, so it appears, has split the difference. He has given us a useful survey of the currents of Christian thought, never weighing down the reader, yet going “deep” when necessary. His order is mostly chronological, though his dealing with Eastern Christendom, for example, places a few figures out of order. The structure of the book, nonetheless, is straightforward and follows the paths of most texts, beginning with Greek philosophy and ending in the beginning of the 21st century.
Greek Philosophy
For Lane, and I think correctly, Greek philosophy is a dialectic between being and becoming. God is normally placed in the realm of being, a realm changeless and static. We, unfortunately, live in the world of becoming, making problematic God’s interaction with us. Middle Platonism solved this dilemma and in doing so set the stage for the Nicene debates. By means of “Logos” could the world of being “touch” the world of becoming. Thus, Logos mediates between levels of being.
The early fathers saw the power of this conceptual tool and were quick to exploit it, especially since John himself used the term. But herein lies the danger: does Jesus mediate between different levels of being, or does he mediate salvation? The former, perhaps not sensed at first, is subordinationism.
The Eastern Tradition
Standard texts usually label the East as being more interested in deification, union, etc. That is true to a point, but it misses the larger picture. Lane’s narrative focuses more on the East’s correction of certain Origenistic tendencies.
Evaluation
After these opening section, Lane covers the same ground one would find in other texts: the medieval period, the Reformation, etc. He does give a decent analysis of certain 20th century movements: Liberation theology, N(e)o Orthodoxy, the Ecumenical movement, etc. The volume serves as a useful primer. We should be clear, though, that this is not a church history textbook. Lane’s focus is not the historical events; rather, he evaluates the ideas moving through those events.
Introduction and survey texts face a near-impossible task. They can never go very deep, lest the volume become unwieldy. If they are too shallow, then they are practically useless. Anthony Lane, so it appears, has split the difference. He has given us a useful survey of the currents of Christian thought, never weighing down the reader, yet going “deep” when necessary. His order is mostly chronological, though his dealing with Eastern Christendom, for example, places a few figures out of order. The structure of the book, nonetheless, is straightforward and follows the paths of most texts, beginning with Greek philosophy and ending in the beginning of the 21st century.
Greek Philosophy
For Lane, and I think correctly, Greek philosophy is a dialectic between being and becoming. God is normally placed in the realm of being, a realm changeless and static. We, unfortunately, live in the world of becoming, making problematic God’s interaction with us. Middle Platonism solved this dilemma and in doing so set the stage for the Nicene debates. By means of “Logos” could the world of being “touch” the world of becoming. Thus, Logos mediates between levels of being.
The early fathers saw the power of this conceptual tool and were quick to exploit it, especially since John himself used the term. But herein lies the danger: does Jesus mediate between different levels of being, or does he mediate salvation? The former, perhaps not sensed at first, is subordinationism.
The Eastern Tradition
Standard texts usually label the East as being more interested in deification, union, etc. That is true to a point, but it misses the larger picture. Lane’s narrative focuses more on the East’s correction of certain Origenistic tendencies.
Evaluation
After these opening section, Lane covers the same ground one would find in other texts: the medieval period, the Reformation, etc. He does give a decent analysis of certain 20th century movements: Liberation theology, N(e)o Orthodoxy, the Ecumenical movement, etc. The volume serves as a useful primer. We should be clear, though, that this is not a church history textbook. Lane’s focus is not the historical events; rather, he evaluates the ideas moving through those events.
May 10, 2019
This book provided excellent succinct biographies of the men and women who so shaped Christian thought throughout church history- both the geniuses and the weirdo-bobs. If you can remember everyone's name in one read through, you have my eternal respect.
February 19, 2025
I probably would have liked this more if I had a better understanding of 2000 years of church history beforehand. Good book, but hard to process all the information and pick up on trends if you are reading it with pretty much no prior knowledge.
December 21, 2012
Oh my gosh. I loved this book.
I've always enjoyed history, but this book took it to a new level, for me. One of my university classes used this as a textbook; it felt, somehow, nicer than your usual, average textbook. Tony Lane's writing is so smooth!
This takes the reader from the very beginning of Christian thought--with it's basis immersed in Greek Philosophy--all the way to the present day, in which all sorts of denominations are hashing out their issues and searching for truthful Theology. The book incorporates portions of texts from 100 different thinkers, including Roman Catholics, Liberals, Neo-Orthodox, Evangelicals, and everyone else. Origen and Justin Martyr to Martin Luther, to Martin Luther King Jr. to Karl Barth...I just LOVED this book.
If you are at all interested in learning about Christian Thought, this is the book to read.
It IS very concise though--no pictures. It's all writing, page to page. But it's so meaty!
Which, of course, means it's delicious! :)
I've always enjoyed history, but this book took it to a new level, for me. One of my university classes used this as a textbook; it felt, somehow, nicer than your usual, average textbook. Tony Lane's writing is so smooth!
This takes the reader from the very beginning of Christian thought--with it's basis immersed in Greek Philosophy--all the way to the present day, in which all sorts of denominations are hashing out their issues and searching for truthful Theology. The book incorporates portions of texts from 100 different thinkers, including Roman Catholics, Liberals, Neo-Orthodox, Evangelicals, and everyone else. Origen and Justin Martyr to Martin Luther, to Martin Luther King Jr. to Karl Barth...I just LOVED this book.
If you are at all interested in learning about Christian Thought, this is the book to read.
It IS very concise though--no pictures. It's all writing, page to page. But it's so meaty!
Which, of course, means it's delicious! :)
September 25, 2015
A great resource. Has nearly every major movement, creed, confession, person in the history of Christianity with a short little section introducing the topic. Remarkably, Lane is able to do that in a slim book (comparatively speaking).
October 24, 2009
Substantial and succinct treatment that works directly from the primary sources. Lane sees the issues and clarifies the controversies better than any historical theologian I've read.
November 7, 2010
Excellent historical summation of the past two millenia. This should be required thinking for christians, it would clear up a ton of infighting.
October 15, 2013
Excellent summary of Christian thought through the ages.
May 23, 2022
I love the simplicity of this book. It truly helped me understand as I went through this semester class.
December 27, 2023
A very helpful summary of big ideas and movements that you HEAR a lot about without knowing many specifics. It has helped contextualize my own beliefs tremendously.
January 15, 2019
This work by Lane is a valuable resource cataloguing the primary theologians and documents of Christianity, from the Early Church to the end of the 20th Century. Lane provides a brief summary of each theologian’s life, followed by a summary of his (or in a few cases, her) teaching and a catalogue of the most important books he or she authored. Lane also helpfully provides a minimum level of critique, clarifying the orthodoxy (or lack thereof) of a given theologian’s teaching. This is a resource I will likely revisit many times in the years to come, and it provides a good starting point for further study.
September 17, 2019
This is an excellent book for anyone wanting to better understand the historical development of Christianity. The book goes through and summarized the thoughts and ideas of almost every major Christian theologian since the time of the Acts of the Apostles - showing how Christianity developed into the way we have it today. The book helps one understand why Christians believe what they believe today.
December 9, 2021
Good concise book on the history of Christian thought.
"The proper approach is to treat history like a window. A window is there to look outside, to see something different. We can learn from history, because like foreign travel it shows us that ours is not the only way to do things. If we are humble we will not claim, as Job's friends did, that 'we are the people and wisdom will die with us' (Job 12:2).
"The proper approach is to treat history like a window. A window is there to look outside, to see something different. We can learn from history, because like foreign travel it shows us that ours is not the only way to do things. If we are humble we will not claim, as Job's friends did, that 'we are the people and wisdom will die with us' (Job 12:2).
February 27, 2025
This book is a textbook-style compendium of brief biographies of luminaries and summaries of significant events in Christendom from the early church until the late 20th century. It is an indispensable reference for scholars of church history.
June 1, 2014
I thought this truly excellent; a very useful read, a broad and yet also thorough review of the history of Christian ideas about God, from the early fathers (up to 500 AD), through the medieval times (500-1500 AD), the reformation (1500-1800), and the post-reformation period (1800-current); it also includes viewpoints from the Eastern Orthodox (as oppposed to the Western/Roman Catholic) tradition for the medieval period, and, for the modern era, a discussion of the Protestant vs Catholic dichotomy. Each section is represented by a few key thinkers, with Lane giving a short factual introduction to their life and work, a few quotes from their writings, and then a summing up of where he stands with respect to their views. This presentation is incredibly useful; it is a good jumping off point for anyone wanting to dig deeper; in and of itself it shows in context the evolution of certain ideas, such as the nature of Christ, how to define predestination, infant baptism, etc, etc; as such it also shows as an unfolding narrative the process by which the church has come to be fragmented into various denominations.
It is funny (or maybe more appropriately, it is disturbing) how the church fathers struggled for centuries about some basic questions which today I take very much for granted. The first 500 years seems to be one big quarrel about whether Jesus was god or man, or something in between, or both, etc. Another assumption of the early period was that of God being non-passible (not affected by emotions) -- this apparently derived from Greco-Roman conception of divinity -- and was the basis for a lot of thought; I think this assumption is fairly discredited today in light of OT scholarship. In medieval times the issues multiplied though again a few key issues echo down the centuries; there were a lot of people tortured and killed for what I consider a fairly trivial argument about whether infants should be baptized or not; this was also the period of the Crusades and religion was extremely politicized. Other aspects of this period are shoots of attempts to reconcile Christianity with humanism, and with rational/scientific inquiry.
It is interesting to me to read that the concept of predestination first arose from Augustine (not Calvin centuries later); the basic premise, which Augustine came to late in his life, was that even faith is a gift from God, thus salvation is entirely dependent on God -- which implies that God must have chosen an elect. I think I would quarrel not with the first statement, but with its implication. I note that this concept has been debated through the centuries (e.g. Jakob Arminium in 1500s arguing that God's grace precedes, but man must choose to accept). The concept in fact was originally a step away from rather than toward elitism -- salvatin depending on God's grace means that it is not just the rich and worthy who can attain it, everyone can potentially attain it; only later did the implication of there then being a spiritual elect creep in. Much later, in the 1900s, Barth solves this issue (to me) by arguing that it is Christ who is elect, and we are all in Christ (and all humanity can potentially be).
Another personal bone of contention is that of blessed assurance. Again this is not actually biblical but became a formal doctrine after Wesley; there were periods of and part of the church that sees personal assurance as distinct from saving faith. I think my overall point here is that much of contemporary teaching may or may not be based on the evolution of reading the Word rather than from the Word itself -- and this lends weight to my belief that each must think/read for him/herself.
For more recent times, there is some good discussion of the modern liberal tradition (basd on historical criticism of the Bible), which generally Lane finds unconvincing (and I agree). Finally and most fascinatingly, the discussion on the modern Catholic church -- post the Second Vatican Council -- suggests that a significant part of the theological differences between Catholic and Protestants have been resolved -- e.g. the original point of division, which is justification by faith rather than by works, seems to be a point on which the Catholics have moved to the Protestant position; though there are of course other key areas of difference, such as papal authority, etc.
All in all, balanced rather than ideological, readable and valuable.
It is funny (or maybe more appropriately, it is disturbing) how the church fathers struggled for centuries about some basic questions which today I take very much for granted. The first 500 years seems to be one big quarrel about whether Jesus was god or man, or something in between, or both, etc. Another assumption of the early period was that of God being non-passible (not affected by emotions) -- this apparently derived from Greco-Roman conception of divinity -- and was the basis for a lot of thought; I think this assumption is fairly discredited today in light of OT scholarship. In medieval times the issues multiplied though again a few key issues echo down the centuries; there were a lot of people tortured and killed for what I consider a fairly trivial argument about whether infants should be baptized or not; this was also the period of the Crusades and religion was extremely politicized. Other aspects of this period are shoots of attempts to reconcile Christianity with humanism, and with rational/scientific inquiry.
It is interesting to me to read that the concept of predestination first arose from Augustine (not Calvin centuries later); the basic premise, which Augustine came to late in his life, was that even faith is a gift from God, thus salvation is entirely dependent on God -- which implies that God must have chosen an elect. I think I would quarrel not with the first statement, but with its implication. I note that this concept has been debated through the centuries (e.g. Jakob Arminium in 1500s arguing that God's grace precedes, but man must choose to accept). The concept in fact was originally a step away from rather than toward elitism -- salvatin depending on God's grace means that it is not just the rich and worthy who can attain it, everyone can potentially attain it; only later did the implication of there then being a spiritual elect creep in. Much later, in the 1900s, Barth solves this issue (to me) by arguing that it is Christ who is elect, and we are all in Christ (and all humanity can potentially be).
Another personal bone of contention is that of blessed assurance. Again this is not actually biblical but became a formal doctrine after Wesley; there were periods of and part of the church that sees personal assurance as distinct from saving faith. I think my overall point here is that much of contemporary teaching may or may not be based on the evolution of reading the Word rather than from the Word itself -- and this lends weight to my belief that each must think/read for him/herself.
For more recent times, there is some good discussion of the modern liberal tradition (basd on historical criticism of the Bible), which generally Lane finds unconvincing (and I agree). Finally and most fascinatingly, the discussion on the modern Catholic church -- post the Second Vatican Council -- suggests that a significant part of the theological differences between Catholic and Protestants have been resolved -- e.g. the original point of division, which is justification by faith rather than by works, seems to be a point on which the Catholics have moved to the Protestant position; though there are of course other key areas of difference, such as papal authority, etc.
All in all, balanced rather than ideological, readable and valuable.
July 7, 2021
I seen this book for $9 on christianbook.com, so I thought I would take a chance on it. It presents orthodox protestant theology in a very engaging and informative way. I don't think it is seminary level material, but the average lay person would benefit from this work. I think it would be an excellent Sunday school text for adults.
July 28, 2011
This completes my required reading for Church History II. The work is definately concise and definately filled with a ton of frustrating stuff. It does not include figures such as Billy Graham or Charles Spurgeon. It covers a great deal of liberal theology and neo orthodoxy but very little in regards to pivotal missions thinking. I found the work to be extremely limiting and not a good introduction to a study of actual church history. It is definately a good addition to other works. Left on its own it would be a great waste of time.
May 1, 2025
An overview of various important figures and movements in Christian thought. Certainly concise. Good resource.
I did find the formatting a bit distracting from time to time reading it straight through, but if you were just consulting sections as a resource it would be very helpful.
I did find the formatting a bit distracting from time to time reading it straight through, but if you were just consulting sections as a resource it would be very helpful.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews