Classical Christian Doctrine: Introducing the Essentials of the Ancient Faith by Ronald E. Heine (review)

For teachers, it is always a work to find a suitable text that is concise, lucid, solid, and yet nuanced enough, especially for an introductory course. Ronald E. Heine’s Classical Christian Doctrine may just be one for teachers of theology. Intended to be a primer, Heine attempts to guide the beginners of Christian theology through the “classical Christian doctrine” from the most formative period of history of Christianity, i.e. the common core of Christian beliefs that “the church accepted in the first four centuries of its existence and gave expression to primarily in the Nicene Creed” (8). Hence, using the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed of 381 c.e. as a basic framework, he starts with an early Christian understanding of Scripture as a foundation of theology and moves through the doctrines of the Trinity and Christology in their historical development and debates over Logos Christology, Monarchianism, Origen’s eternal generation of the Son, Arius’s teachings and the Council of Nicaea, the Chalcedonian Definition, and the Holy Spirit. While staying faithful to the Nicene content, he further explicates the doctrinal formulations of creation, redemption, the church, baptism, the resurrection, and the millennium. The understanding and canon of Scripture is, of course, not part of the Nicene Creed; nonetheless, for Heine, presenting the formation of Christian canon and establishing Scripture as the source of Christian doctrine at the outset is significant, for it shows that the subsequent theological development and formulations involved serious and dynamic engagement with Scripture and therefore never stood independent of Scripture. This in turn provided a certain body of beliefs with an apostolic authority and faith that could claim an aura of orthodoxy and catholicity, even in the midst of theological diversity as the church developed. This overall (implicit) concern is also reflected in the internal structure of most chapters—first beginning with the scriptural witnesses, then moving through the second- and third-century development, and finally addressing the fourth- and fifth-century settlements.

For instance, the chapter on the Holy Spirit begins with its fundamental role in the prophetic texts of the Old Testament and the life of Jesus and the church of the New Testament. Moving through the second and third centuries, Heine highlights the economic Trinitarianism of Irenaeus and Tertullian’s Trinitarian analogies. He then features the Cappadocian Fathers’ ontological arguments on the divinity of the Holy Spirit and analogy of distinction that were instrumental to the Creed in 381 c.e. and provided a classic, Trinitarian language. However, Heine stops short of mentioning Augustine’s Trinitarian thought and the later Western insertion of “filioque” into the Creed with all its theological implications, perhaps justifying this by appealing to his expressed, limited scope. However, given the fact that he includes Augustine’s amillennialism in the last chapter and examines the Christological debates between Cyril of Alexandria and Nestorius leading to the Definition of Chalcedon in the fifth century, this omission appears rather peculiar.

The approach of the book is broadly ecumenical (the scope certainly is) and largely descriptive and historical—and is fair and balanced, I should add. Still, Heine’s theological vantage point and assumptions are noticeable throughout the book. He stresses continuity over discontinuity through the Old Testament, New Testament, and the classical Christian doctrine; he prefers more or less traditional dating and authorship of the New Testament books and the patristic writings (e.g., The Refutation of Heresies and Commentary on Daniel by Hippolytus of Rome); and he treats traditional heresies as heresies (e.g. Gnosticism, Marcionism, and Monarchianism) without using the term heresy and without being triumphalistic, but also without adding any footnote or qualification. Therefore, there is a certain undertone of conservatism and (inevitable) boundary making (even as those doctrines defined Christian boundaries in their historical and theological contexts), which might self-select the readers.

In sum, however, Heine ably and judiciously weaves together classic theological themes as a coherent whole. He also...