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Truly Divine and Truly Human: The story of Christ and the seven Ecumenical Councils
Stephen W. Need
SPCK £12.99
(978-0-281-05876-1)
Church Times Bookshop £11.70
AN EVANGELICAL ordinand in Cambridge was overheard to say that, although she enjoyed lectures in biblical studies “because they tell me what the Bible says”, she enjoyed lectures in patristics even more, “because they tell me what the Bible means”. Nowhere did the Fathers apply themselves so vigorously to working out “what the Bible means” as in the Ecumenical Councils. This is the story that Stephen Need, the Dean of St George’s College, Jerusalem, tells here with admirable clarity and enthusiasm.
In a reasonably short space, and with a popular audience in mind (as popular, anyway, as readers of early church history get), Need gets just right the balance between sweep and detail. Where a broad brush is used at first, finer detail is painted in later. This book is not going to replace the standard, weightier tomes, some of which are mentioned in the annotated bibliography provided for each chapter, but it might win a larger audience for this vitally important period.
For Need, the Councils were first and foremost about working out how best to describe who Jesus was and is. The first chapter surveys the New Testament material; subsequent chapters take a Council at
a time (except that the latter two Councils of Constantinople are taken together). Surrounding his account of the events of each Council is a survey of the theological and political context, and two or three sketches of prominent personalities. These make the history much more vivid than it would be otherwise.
The final chapter deals with the reception of the Councils, and it sounds a sobering note. We are reminded that they are a cause of division between some Churches, for all that they are the basis of doctrinal common ground between others.
Christians who want to learn about the period during which the Church decided what she believed, and why, will not go wrong with this book. It is destined to appear on reading lists for courses in introductory patristics for some time to come. In the field of popular patristics (admittedly a niche market), Stephen Need has written a potential best-seller.
The Revd Dr Davison is Tutor in Christian Doctrine at St Stephen’s House and Junior Chaplain of Merton College, Oxford.
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