Frances M. YoungBesprekingen

Most comprehensive account in English about first three centuries of Christianity. Written from scientific point of view with plenty of references to the literature from the era. Best read with these sources at a hand for fuller experience.

Most comprehensive account in English about first three centuries of Christianity. Written from scientific point of view with plenty of references to the literature from the era. Best read with these sources at a hand for fuller experience.

This is a profoundly moving book. Now, in retirement, Frances Young is trying to bring together three major themes in her life. One is her career as a theologian and teacher specialising in patristic theology. Another is as mother and carer of Arthur, severely handicaped from birth. The third is as an Methodist minister, preaching to and interacting with modern congregations. As she considers important areas of doctrine, she tries to bring all three threads into a single yarn that works together.½

Frances Young is a patristic scholar, a mother of an adult child who is profoundly disabled and a Methodist preacher. In this book she draws together these three different horizons as she locates her own experience of brokenness, locating it within the framework of the Biblical story in conversation with the Fathers of the early Church. I appreciate her honesty as she shares her own journey and her struggles with her own brokenness and the ways she draws on the wisdom of the Christian tradition (though not-uncritically). Well worth reading.

I made it through this time! Quite honestly, I was way out of my depth, but Frances Young must have anticipated that, because most chapters ended with a summary of what all of that meant. Also the last chapter of the book is again a summary of the conclusions this whole study lead her to. I understand that! No, don't just read the conclusions. The journey is also important, and I think I have come away with several new ideas, and also a few books to read. I might even have another go at Augustine's Confessions.

Material derived from the author's Bampton Lectures devoted to considering patristic theology and how the Fathers may speak to people in the 21st century.

The author clearly has a strong handle on patristic literature and theology. Her stories about herself and her son who has a major disability are touching and provide a compelling lens through which to see the world, patristic theology, etc.

The breadth of discussion is vast: the development of Trintarian theology; understanding of creation; resurrection; the Incarnation; sin and atonement; the work of the Spirit; ecumenism; the experience of God. In many discussions, particularly in theology and resurrection, the author does very well at connecting what the Fathers got right to a workable theology and eschatology today.

Unfortunately for me so much of the material was not to allow the Fathers to have their say but forces the Fathers to work within a modern paradigm. If the Fathers said it but modernism is embarrassed by it (save the two examples above), modernism "wins." Mariology is put to service to commend women in positions of authority and the modern iteration of ecumenism; patristic understanding of creation is being used to come to grips with Darwinism. Most of the time patristic views and exegesis are explained accurately and then immediately discounted because they do not conform to the modernist mode of thinking.

There is much I gained from this book in terms of a better understanding of patristic theology. I found it sad that so much that could be compelling is missed because of the author's devotion to modernism.

**--book received as part of early review program½

Obviously, this book won't interest you if you aren't interested in the subject. If you are, you will expect it to be rather heavy reading.

What really makes this collection of essays better than most books of this genre is that there is very little overlap. The essays all assume the same level of previous knowledge. If you know nothing on the subject you will probably be very quickly lost, but if you have read one or two serious histories of the early church you will be able to follow most of it.

The Christian religion, as are all the "religions of the book" are historical religions and have a strong focus on biography and political science. At a point where I am trying to resolve questions of faith, as are probably most of us, this seems a very important way to proceed.

The first book by Frances Young that I ever read was 'Face to Face' - the story of dealing with a severly handicapped son. Several years later I read 'the Making of the Creeds' as part of a theology course. Both are very good books, but it took me a while to connect the two. Since then I read anything of hers I get my hands on.

This book is in many ways more challenging to read than either of the first two. It is a very personal theology of the connection in her life of themes of those two books - living with the severly handicapped, and studying the early Christian Fathers - combined with the love of Christian Hymnody that could be expected of a Methodist minister.

The introduction has a long reference list of names and theological terms. I found that I did fairly well on recognizing the people. Less well on the words - and that list was not complete enough for me. This is serious theology, and although it might well be useful for someone not used to theological writing, it might be difficult to get through.

I love hymns, and found myself singing several that she mentions, but as neither Methodist nor British, there were many more that I did not recognize. She also includes a lot of references to her personal life and cultural background that were sometimes hard to follow.

I called this book 'challenging' . I mean that in two ways. It was not easy to read. And it will make changes in the way I think. The later is more important.½