CLASSICAL

CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE

Introducing The Essentials of the Ancient Faith

RONALD E. HEINE

a division of Baker Publishing Group

Grand Rapids, Michigan

© 2013 by Ronald E. Heine

Published by Baker Academic

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.bakeracademic.com

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Heine, Ronald E.

Classical Christian doctrine: introducing the essentials of the ancient faith / Ronald E. Heine.

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8010-4873-9 (pbk.)

1. Theology—History—Early church, ca. 30–600. I. Title.

BT23.H45 2012

230′.11—dc23

2012034658

Unless noted otherwise, all Scripture translations are those of the author.

Scripture quotations marked NRSV are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

The internet addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers in this book are accurate at the time of publication. They are provided as a resource. Baker Publishing Group does not endorse them or vouch for their content or permanence.

Contents

Preface

Abbreviations

1. What Is Classical Christian Doctrine?

2. Christian Scripture: The Source of Classical Christian Doctrine

3. “The Lord Our God Is One”: The Jewish God and the Christian Faith

4. “And the Word Was God”: The Christian Faith and the Greek Philosophers

5. “He Who Has Seen Me Has Seen the Father”: The Monarchian Approach to God

6. “Today I Have Begotten You”: Origen and the Eternal Generation of the Son

7. “One God the Father” and “One Lord Jesus Christ”: Arius and the Council of Nicaea

8. Truly God and Truly Man: Defining the Nature of Jesus

9. “And in the Holy Spirit”: The Struggle to Understand the Spirit

10. God the Father: “Maker of Heaven and Earth”

11. Binding the Strong Man: The Redemptive Work of Christ

12. “I Will Build My Church”: Defining the Church

13. “The Washing of Regeneration”: “One Baptism for the Forgiveness of Sins”

14. The Christian Eschatological Hope: The Resurrection of the Dead

15. “And They Came to Life and Reigned with Christ a Thousand Years”: The Millennium

Index

Preface

The past several decades have seen an increased interest in returning to the ancient sources of the Christian faith. There has been an expanding interest in the academic field known as patristics, which is the study of the Christian writers of the first five centuries. There have been new commentary series that have drawn their ...