Evening Prayer & Church History

McNiell, John Thomas. The History and Character of Calvinism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1962. Dr. McNeill describes the civic functions of magistrates, police and other functionaries. Greg Allison’s “Historical Theology:” Picking off Origen’s theory of the atonement as a ransom paid to the Devil, Prof. Allison outlines Tertullian and Athanasius’s more standard approach: the ransom paid to God, an exchange of a life for a life, a death for a death, a penalty paid and expiation for sin (394). Edward Cairns’s “Christianity Through the Centuries:” Prof. Cairns notes that the Reformation is a complex and multi-facetted, including political, social and economic factors, although the theo-political and theo-religious factors were impactful. Millard Erickson’s “Christian Theology:” Prof. Erickson on divine transcendence is a tad too cold. Put it on ice in the fridge. He is no Dr. Robert Reymond or Messieur Jean Calvin, both of whom are brilliant and warm to the subject more congenially. . Justo Gonzalez’s “History of Christianity: Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation:” Prof. Gonzalez warms to the subject of Syrian Christianity, discussing the Agbarus legend, repeated by Eusebius. He dispenses with the story as a myth and legend. We're not convinced.