Melody of theology
J. Pelikan
2005. cyrillic, paper back, p. 235, 21 cm
J. Pelikan
2005. cyrillic, paper back, p. 235, 21 cm
The book is a sort of special dictionary of philosophy prepared by Professor Pelikan, one of the world-leading scientist in the field of the history of Christianity.
On the feast of the Annunciation, 1998, Dr. Jaroslav Pelikan was chrismated at the Chapel of St. Vladimir's Seminary and received into the Orthodox Church. Professor Pelikan is recognized as an expert scholar of church history of doctrine. He authored more than 30 books on religion and culture. His well known life's work: The Christian Tradition - A History of the Development of Doctrine, a series in five parts. He was Sterling professor emeritus of history at Yale University, until his recent retirement. He has received the highest honor bestowed upon scholars in the humanities, the Jefferson Award.
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ReplyDeleteThis is the ultimate bedside book. Replete with sinuous, compact discussions of first and last things--sin, faith, grace and John Henry Newman--it reflects Jaroslav Pelikan's life-long commitment to what he calls 'the great new fact of Christianity'...This book works like a tuning fork for the mind. With it, the harmony of Pelikan's thought and life has itself become part of the great Christian tradition. (Thomas D'Evelyn Christian Science Monitor )
[Pelikan] has assembled some 82 gleanings from the rich surplus of his scholarship into a readable, informative, and delightful dictionary of theology...[which is] literate rather than technical in style, and good-humored rather than solemn in tone...[Pelikan's] presentation is always balanced, comprehensive, ecumenical, and thought provoking. (M. Edmund Hussey Antioch Review )
Reflecting on 82 theological/philosophical topics (e.g., atonement), movements (e.g., Enlightenment), and persons (e.g., Augustine), renowned Christian historian and theologian Pelikan deals with 'major themes of scholarship in the history of the Christian theological tradition.' The result is a personal work...A though-provoking glimpse into the mind of a mature scholar, this book should be read, not just referred to. (Library Journal )
JAROSLAV PELIKAN
ReplyDeleteAmerican clergyman
(1923 - 2006)
To invoke a Kierkegaardesque figure of speech, the beauty of the language of the Bible can be like a set of dentist's instruments nearly laid out on a table and hanging on a wall, intriguing in their technological complexity and with their stainless steel highly polished--until they set to work on the job for which they were originally designed. Then all of a sudden my reaction changes from "How shiny and beautiful they all are!" to "Get that damned thing out of my mouth!"
Jaroslav Pelikan, one of the Christian tradition’s greatest historians of doctrine, died Saturday, May 13, 2006, of lung
ReplyDeletecancer. Pelikan had served for many years as Sterling Professor of History at Yale University — holding the university’s
most prestigious professorial title. He was also a prolific author, writing more than thirty books, ranging from classical
studies to considerations of Bach and Faust.
His monumental work was the five-volume history of doctrine, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development
of Doctrine. In this great work, Pelikan offered what I believe to be the quintessential definition of Christian doctrine:
“What the church of Jesus Christ believes, teaches, and confesses on the basis of the word of God.”
Professor Pelikan described doctrine as “the business of the church.” And, even as he titled his great work The
Christian Tradition, he warned that tradition must be distinguished from traditionalism: “Tradition is the living faith of the
dead; traditionalism is the dead faith of the living.”
In his 1965 work, The Christian Intellectual, Professor Pelikan wrote with a prophetic pen:
The Protestant Reformation was launched by a cadre of intellectuals, but the latter-day heirs of the Reformation
sometimes seem determined to do everything they can to live down this past. Luther, Melanchthon, Bucer, Zwingli,
Calvin, Cranmer, Hooker — all thought that they stood, as in fact they did, in the vanguard of intellectuals of their time.
Professor Pelikan’s contribution to Christian scholarship should inspire others to reverse that trend, and to reclaim the
calling of the Christian intellectual.