A Concise History of Christian Thought, rev. & exp. by Tony Lane, Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2006, pbk, 336 pp., $19.99.
This is one of the most accessible histories of Christian doctrine I have seen. The author teaches Historical Theology at London School of Theology and is well regarded in the evangelical community. The method employed in the book is to survey the lives of the eminent theologians from East and West and connect them with the controversies or disputes which oftentimes brought forth their notable works. The book is divided into five parts, covering the early Fathers to AD 500; then the Eastern and Western traditions from AD 500 to the Reformation and the Enlightenment. The last part deals with the Modern world from AD 1800. The influence of Williston Walker’s famous A History of the Christian Church can be traced, especially in Part Four.
The treatment of each thinker is necessarily abbreviated, yet Lane knows what he is doing and therefore makes good use of his space. By viewing Christian thought through the lives of individuals the whole subject becomes less imposing and less abstract; qualities which should recommend this book as a textbook for senior undergraduate and first year graduate students.
Sadly Lane falls into the trap of departing from orthodoxy in giving space to the likes of Barth, Tillich, Bonhoeffer, Urs von Balthasar and others. I suppose this is inevitable in a work such as this, but this should have been redressed more than it is with better coverage of evangelicals such as Gill, Fuller, Darby, Machen, Van Til, Henry, and Lloyd-Jones. There is also a notable dearth of Dutch theologians in the book, both from the Further Reformation (Voetius, Cocceus, Witsius) and the neo-Calvinist movement associated with men like Kuyper, Bavinck and Dooyeweerd. These are important omissions.
But with that said this book does accomplish much and, therefore, deserves our recommendation.
