Talk:History of Christian theology

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[edit] Thoughts

I have been thinking about this page a bit. I think the first matter is structural, i.e. identifying which phases of Christian thought to segment things into. The second is topical, i.e. what matters need discussion.

On (1) examples would be the apostolic preaching, post-apostolic fathers, post-nicene fathers, late antiquity, middle ages Latin and Greek, the Reformation, etc.

On (2), important topics would be the development of the creeds, christology & mariology (always related in antiquity), heresies, papal juristiction, east-west topics like the et filio and purgation, theology of the crusade, scholasticism, and so forth. I suppose doctrinal enforcement would be important also, i.e. the role of the Emperor, the place of the inquisition, and so on. I am rambling a bit, but I think we need to hammer out a structure first, then fill in the gaps. The current structure is a good start, but needs to reworking. Lostcaesar 12:49, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

Thanks for the thoughts. I have started acting on some of them but it is clearly a task that needs more than just me to work on. If you can help, it would be much appreciated.

[edit] Heresies

I have been pondering how best to treat heresies in this article. The breakout of "Early Heresies" as a separate section is a legacy from structure of the History of Christianity article. I don't know if we should have a major section on "Heresies" or if we should just spread the discussion of heresies throughout the chronologicial narrative.

--Richard 16:31, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] The Trinity

Somehow, somewhere, we should highlight the doctrine of the Trinity and how the mainstream doctrine of the Trinity was developed. This is connected to Christology and the filioque but there's more to it than just that.

The critical point that I think we need to make is that the mainstream of Christianity is Trinitarian and that only offshoots like Mormonism and the Jehovah's Witnesses do not subscribe to the Trinitarian doctrine.

--Richard 17:25, 1 March 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Organization

Yes, I do think that this is article is a good idea. I would say that there are really 2 options for organization: (1) primarily Chronological, and (2) primarily Topical. The article as it is organized right now is neither, or rather, both.

If the intention is to go chronological, then remove topical organizations, and make the article division primarily about dates. For Example:

• Emerging (Pre-Nicene) Christian Theological Developments (30-315)
• Nicaea to Chalcedon (315-450)
• etc

If the intention is to go topic, then descibe the major developments under topical headings, arranged (very roughly) chronologically. And change the title to "Development of Christian theology", with divisions:

• Events in the development of the Canon
• Events in the development of Trinitarianism
• Events in the development of Christology
• etc.

The Christian theology article, it seems to me, has been trying to do both of these things, plus describing the different schools of theology and theological controversies. There is room, in my mind, for both a chronology and a description of the development. I think you are better off with the chronological method for this particlar article.

Further, consider starting with a slightly narrower focus. Maybe starting with pre-Great Schism or pre-Reformation, and broading the focus as the article develops. Hope all this helps. -- Pastordavid 21:12, 1 March 2007 (UTC)