# Jaroslav Pelikan : The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine



## Mayflower (Sep 22, 2005)

Is anyone familiar with these works ?

http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=53800&event=CF


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## rgrove (Sep 22, 2005)

I have a couple of them (the first two I believe). He's not bad. Pelikan was a Lutheran and then made the change to Eastern Orthodox, but if memory serves he wrote these when he was still Lutheran. I'd have to go back and check, though. I've got several books of his and have profited from each one of them. I try to keep his background in mind as I read him, though...

[Edited on 9-22-2005 by rgrove]


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## New wine skin (Sep 22, 2005)

If your interested in Church History, this work is a must have/read. It is not written for laymen however, but is quite detailed and assumes existing familiarity w theological terms and ideas. I would start w J. Gonzales, Chadwick or Shelly for general background, then read Pelikan. Fyi- Pelikan is currently an adherent of Eastern Orthodox theology.


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## Contra_Mundum (Sep 22, 2005)

I second the motions. But be prepared for dense prose. I did not find Pelikan a simple read (but the fault may lie with me...).


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## R. Scott Clark (Sep 22, 2005)

Pelikan is a brilliant scholar and historian. The reader should be a little cautious with all such surveys. None is a specialist in the entire history of Christian theology. It just can't be done. Thus, P. is better in some areas than in others. He's a little behind the contemporary scholarship regarding Protestant orthodoxy, but as a set it is an amazing piece of work. His habit of placing notes in the margins is a strange and unhelp novelty (in my opinion) but that shouldn't stop one from using it (along with others). It is an advanced work and the earlier suggestions for reading are good ones. 

I also assign B. Hagglund's History of Theology (a Lutheran) and for a topical (rather than chronological) treatment one could still start with Berkhof's History of Christian Doctrine. Berkhof was not an historian, but it's a good start. 

For what it's worth, as to to some of the others, over the years I have found Bromiley's survey to be less helpful. Olson's is to be avoided or read with considerable caution. Tillich's historical survey is actually quite good in many respects, even though we would dissent vigorously from his systematic theology.

Most of the older histories (whether Cunningham, one of "our guys") or Neve (which I've not used much) and especially McGiffert, Dorner, Harnack et al were written with assumptions we don't or shouldn't share and have been supersceded or corrected by contemporary monographs.

[Edited on 9-23-2005 by R. Scott Clark]


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## Mayflower (Sep 22, 2005)

> _Originally posted by rgrove_
> Pelikan was a Lutheran and then made the change to Eastern Orthodox, but if memory serves he wrote these when he was still Lutheran.[Edited on 9-22-2005 by rgrove]



Does anyone know if there is like a testimony why he change from a Lutheran to Eastern Orthodox ?


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## rgrove (Sep 22, 2005)

After poking around looking for an interview or something that he let's people know why, the best I could come up with is this article (in which it sounds like he purposely avoids the discussion):

"_ Most stunning perhaps was, in 1996, the conversion of Jaroslav Pelikan, Yale University's celebrated church historian and Luther scholar. Here is a man who has co-edited 22 of the 55 volumes of Luther's Works in English, and then late in life he "moved East," as some theologians like to say.

"I was the Lutheran with the greatest knowledge of the Orthodox Church," Pelikan reportedly quipped, "and now I am the Orthodox with the greatest knowledge of Luther."

He is has also been quoted as saying, "When the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod became Baptist, and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America became Methodist, I became Orthodox."

Presumably, his implication was that the former two denominations were on the verge of losing their doctrinal clarity.

But he does not talk to the media about this move that exemplifies a trend of sorts among some Protestants and Roman Catholics.

"I have received hundreds of requests for interviews and decided not to respond to any of them," he told UPI Tuesday.

Some former associates say that he simply does not wish to hurt his former Lutheran coreligionists. But a ranking OCA cleric gave a clue: "Pelikan said he joined us after he had read a work on the Cappadocian Fathers for a fifth time in the original Greek._"


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## biblelighthouse (Sep 22, 2005)

> _Originally posted by Mayflower_
> Is anyone familiar with these works ?
> 
> http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no=53800&event=CF



Pelikan's Vol I book is required reading for the Ancient Church History class I'm taking at Westminster Seminary via distance learning. 

I'm looking forward to checking it out.


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## RamistThomist (Sep 22, 2005)

I know Keith Mathison quotes it with a vengeance (good veangence, though) in his superb book on Sola Scriptura.


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## ChristopherPaul (Sep 23, 2005)

I have been going back and forth for months on whether or not I should invest in his particular set or not. Some people, whose opinion I respect, recommend it highly and others who I also respect the same are suspicious. So I am getting mixed signals from those who are familiar with Pelikan and/or this work.


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## Scott (Sep 23, 2005)

Chris: WHy not just check it out of the library? If yoru library does not have it, get it through interlibrary loan.


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## rgrove (Sep 23, 2005)

The suspicioun is probably rooted in his conversion to Eastern Orthodoxy in 1996. He is very good at presenting history and theological history, though. And this was written a good bit before he left the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod. I must say that the attention he pays to Eastern Orthodoxy is very helpful. Most westerners, RCC or Protestant, pretty much just ignore them whereas Pelikan provided a lot of useful information in these books on the East. The library recommendation was a good one, I think, unless you're in more of a hurry than that.


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## ChristopherPaul (Sep 23, 2005)

> _Originally posted by Scott_
> Chris: WHy not just check it out of the library? If yoru library does not have it, get it through interlibrary loan.



Do public libraries usually have these types of books? I rarely use libraries, so I am not sure. Then again, I only live six miles from Princeton Theological Seminary"¦


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## rgrove (Sep 23, 2005)

This kind they might. They're history books after all. And Pelikan is a big name in Christian history. Teaches at Yale still I think.

Yep, just looked it up and he still teaches at the Yale history dept:

http://www.yale.edu/history/faculty/pelikan.html

[Edited on 9-23-2005 by rgrove]


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## Mayflower (Sep 23, 2005)

> _Originally posted by rgrove_
> This kind they might. They're history books after all. And Pelikan is a big name in Christian history. Teaches at Yale still I think.
> 
> Yep, just looked it up and he still teaches at the Yale history dept:
> ...



Thanks Ron (rgrove) for the information!


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