Of God and Man: Theology As Anthropology From Irenaeus To Athanasius - Softcover

Steenberg, M. C.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0567033708 ISBN 13: 9780567033703

Publisher: T & T Clark International, 2008

Synopsis

Scholarship in early Christianity has long focused on themes of theological doctrine on the one hand, and anthropology on the other. Doctrinal study has generally concentrated on the rise of Trinitarian language and Christological questions, while anthropological studies explore early perceptions of human nature, sin and redemption. This has produced standard chronologies of doctrine, dividing early Christian history into distinct, if interrelated periods of history in the development of these views.

Building on current scholarship, this volume re-assesses such an approach to early patristic study through a sustained investigation of anthropology and theology as a single project in the fathers. Taking Irenaeus of Lyons, Tertullian of Carthage, Cyril of Jerusalem and Athanasius of Alexandria as chief examples of the period, it explores how concentration on the human provides the context and lens through which doctrinal questions are articulated. Assessing theology as anthropology-as the approach to doctrines of God through understandings of the human-creative insight is gleaned into refined developments of trinitiarian thought far earlier than Nicaea, and advanced reflections on the divinity of the Holy Spirit long before Constantinople. The nature of humanity as 'in the image of God' takes on a fresh potency when it is approached not only as a window on the human, but the means by which the human reveals the nature of God.

About this title

About the Author

Matthew C. Steenberg, D.Phil in Theology, University of Oxford, is Professor of Theology and Head of Theology & Religious Studies at Leeds Trinity and All Saints. He has published numerous articles on Irenaeus and the second-century milieu, and is author of the forthcoming monograph from Brill, Irenaeus on Creation: The Cosmic Christ and the Saga of Redemption.

Edition details

• Publisher: T & T Clark International
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0567033708
• ISBN 13: 9780567033703
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 220