Author Archives: History of the Christian Church

Three voices tell the story of Jesus with a striking unity of spirit and a bewildering diversity of form. Matthew, Mark, and Luke speak in concert and yet independently, their Gospels echoing each other in harmonies and dissonances that have fascinated and challenged readers for centuries. This phenomenon, known as the Synoptic Problem, invites us into a literary and theological mystery whose solution reaches deep into the heart of apostolic… Read more

Christianity enters history not as a system, a creed, or a philosophy, but as glad tidings—the radiant proclamation of salvation through the incarnate life, sacrificial death, and triumphant resurrection of Jesus Christ. The New Testament thus fittingly opens with the Gospels: four distinct yet harmoniously united witnesses, each presenting the same Christ from a unique perspective. These are not biographies in the modern sense, but reverent, Spirit-breathed portraits of the… Read more

The story of Jesus Christ—his life, teachings, death, and resurrection—has summoned the most sustained literary and scholarly attention in the Christian tradition. From the earliest efforts to harmonize the Gospel accounts to the development of modern critical methods, the Gospels have stirred both devout contemplation and rigorous inquiry. This chapter surveys the monumental body of work devoted to the study of the Four Evangelists, encompassing harmonies, critical investigations, and exegetical… Read more

The New Testament stands as a living substitute for the physical presence and voice of Christ and his apostles—divinely inspired, spiritually potent, and enduringly authoritative. Though clothed in written form, it shares the very substance of the spoken word, and thus carries the same transforming power as the living voice that first stirred hearts in Galilee and Judea. These sacred texts, though prompted by specific occasions and addressed to particular… Read more

The Christian faith was not born as a text but as a life. It radiated first not from scrolls and epistles, but from the incarnate presence of the Son of God—living, walking, suffering among men. The earliest power of Christianity lay not in penned doctrine, but in the divine personality of Christ, the Word made flesh, who tabernacled among us as the true Shekinah. His voice, resonating with uncreated authority,… Read more

The literary scaffolding of the New Testament stands upon a bedrock of rigorous textual criticism, careful editorial labor, and a century-spanning scholarly conversation that continues to refine our understanding of its formation, transmission, and canonical structure. The great editions and critical works of the nineteenth century, produced in the wake of Enlightenment thought and confessional debate, offered not only technical exactitude but also theological resonance, shaping how modern readers and… Read more

The apostolic age, radiant with truth and vitality, was not immune to shadows. As the apostles proclaimed the gospel in all its radiant fullness—uniting Jewish and Gentile elements in Christ—opposing forces surged with equal energy, distorting its purity and threatening its foundations. Heresy, like a dark counterpoint, echoed alongside apostolic proclamation. But in the providence of God, even falsehood served the cause of truth, compelling clarity, defense, and development. As… Read more

In the writings of John—apostle, mystic, and seer—the culmination of apostolic theology is reached. His profound yet simple vision, centered on love and life, binds Jewish and Gentile Christian thought into a single majestic expression of eternal truth. If Paul was the storm of apostolic argument, John is its serene light, radiating the divine warmth of the Incarnate Word. John as the Summit of Apostolic Theology In the waning years… Read more

The fervent intellect and passionate soul of Paul transformed the nascent gospel into the grand architecture of Christian theology. Rooted in Jewish tradition but liberated through a revelation of Christ, his theology harmonized mysticism with logic, love with doctrine, and individual redemption with cosmic reconciliation. The Sources and Spirit of Pauline Theology Paul’s theology, the most developed and profound of the apostolic age, is drawn primarily from his Epistles and… Read more

Peter’s theology centers on Jesus as the Messiah and the living hope of believers. Bridging the Jewish conservatism of James and the Gentile freedom of Paul, Peter emphasizes Christ’s resurrection and promised return, urging Christians to live in joyful anticipation. His teachings proclaim salvation through faith, grounded in both Christ’s atoning death and glorious resurrection. Peter occupies a middle ground between the traditionalism of James and the forward-looking doctrine of… Read more