ST-5003 Historical Theology

Follow the history of Christian thought from the church fathers to today, and learn where the church's beliefs come from and how the past can guide and correct it.

The course follows McGrath's Historical Theology through four periods: the early church, the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the Reformation, and the modern age. You see how the great doctrines took shape in debate and how each age shaped what Christians said. With González's Christian Thought Revisited you also compare the three types of theology he finds in the second-century church and follow them, as he traces them, to today.

What you will study

• What historical theology is and why it matters for the church
• The early church: the canon, tradition and the creeds, and the debates on Christ, the Trinity, the church and grace
• The Middle Ages and the Renaissance: scholasticism, humanism, the atonement and the sacraments
• The Reformation: Scripture and tradition, justification by faith, the sacraments and the church
• The modern period: the Enlightenment, the quests of the historical Jesus and recent movements
• González's three types of Christian theology and what they mean for the church today
• Using this history in preaching and teaching

Course materials

• Historical Theology (Alister E. McGrath), a textbook you obtain
• Christian Thought Revisited (Justo L. González), a textbook you obtain
• The Bible