'The Great Theologians' by Gerald R. McDermott

This page turner of a little more than 200 pages is well worth reading. It is succinct coverage of just eleven theologians from Origin to Von Balthasar who have shaped the way Christians think about God and Jesus Christ. Especially in America we tend to overlook to what extent our basic Christian beliefs have been defended and conserved and on occasion liberated by the efforts of these individuals.

A notable point for simple clarification is the argument made for Biblical literalism today. It simply isn't as simple as that. In the 3rd century (born in the second), Origen wrote 'the first systematic treatment of Christianity as a whole' called De Principiis (first principles). Origen also explained the fourfold root of Biblical interpretation.

McDermott explains that Origen described four different yet complimentary ways of interpreting Biblical scripture. First is the literal reading (historical). Second is the allegorical (what you should believe). Third is the tropological or moral (what you should do) and fourthly there is the anagogical (leading up). This last interpretation has that interesting word anagogical. This category of interpretation points to the future with Jesus Christ for the elect. We may find meaning throughout the Bible in each of these senses of interpretation very often in the same scripture.

McDermott writes that Athanasius in the 5th century basically saved Christianity from the Arian heresy that Jesus Christ was not fully God and co-eternal with the Father. As a short, dark Egyptian monastic alive in the time of the Eastern Roman Empire of Constantine and later his son Constantinius who each tended to favor the followers of Arius that was no easy task.

Athanasius also developed the theological concept of theopoiesis (it means divination) relating that Christians develop an increasingly Christ like character as they move farther away from the sin nature of fallen humanity. Satan may of course continue to nag Christians and try to draw them back into the human maelstrom of the fallen material condition (possibly enticing them to illicit sex, global warming denial and ecological ecocidal politics), yet Jesus Christ having overcome death and providing a model for Christian right social relations brings the faithful (without becoming godlike) to be more perfect, as He is perfect, through the power of His blessing (shed blood atoning vicariously for all those of faith).

McDermott's breezy treatment of these serious subjects is an excellent reminder of the provident grace provided by a lifetime of sober scholarship. Many of these theologians were themselves dedicated to learning of Jesus Christ and the Biblical truth in trying times of continuous political turmoil. Often they wrote well outside academia and state sponsorship. Today's Christians can find inspiration in that as a generation of spiritual homelessness co-generated by church and state compels conformation to consumerism and globalism in a hierarchical corporatism commercialization; more intelligent and contemplative use of ecological and spiritual resources ought instead to prevail in ecclesiastical structure, economics, ecological and political renewal.