Somewhere along the path of my journey as a homeschool mom, I realized that my knowledge of church history was seriously lacking. I knew alot of the “big names” of church history, but there were many more I was not familiar with at all. When it comes to understanding the flow of Christianity through history after Jesus’s ascension, I had certain events or time periods as pegs to hang my hat on - the early church period, the Reformation, the Puritans, etc. - but the events, people, and thought in between were a blur.
I’ve been on a personal quest to remedy my spotty knowledge for the last several years, not only for myself, but in order to give my kids a more complete knowledge of the history of the church. I saw Michael Reeves’s book, Theologians You Should Know, on a curriculum list recently, and I decided to request it for review from Crossway.
This book is the history of Christian thought that I didn’t know I needed. Reeves has collected a series of “introductions” to influential theologians through history, “from the Apostolic Fathers to the 21st century”, as the subtitle states.
The theologians covered in this book are as follows:
-The Apostolic Fathers
-Justin Martyr
-Irenaues
-Athanasius
-Augustine
-Anselm
-Thomas Aquinas
-Martin Luther
-John Calvin
-John Owen
-Jonathan Edwards
-Friedrich Scheiermacher
-Karl Barth
-J. I. Packer
I’m familiar with a handful of these theologians, but many of them were only a name to me before reading this book, and there are a couple I hadn’t even heard of at all. All of them greatly contributed to the development of Christian thought - many in good ways, and some not. Reeves divides each chapter into a brief biographical sketch, and then a summary of the theologians thought as expressed in a selection of their works. Though I’m using words like “sketch” and “summary”, don’t let that fool you - this book is very meaty. The concepts explored require deep thinking - as Reeves says:
“Reading the greats should breed modesty, and he who spends time with these giants should recognize what a clod he is.”
That is indeed how I felt, even just after these brief introductions! I am thankful for Reeves’s explanations - they made some of the weightier subjects more approachable. He ends each chapter with suggestions on how to read more about and by each theologian, and I very much appreciated that guidance.
My favorite part of this book was getting a big-picture look at the development of theology over the centuries. It has helped me understand the theological context for different periods of church history in ways I never had before, and different historical events make more sense in light of the theological momentum of the time. There were a few chapters that also made me understand the current theological atmosphere better - one of the names I had never even heard of actually produced ideas that drive alot of our current church culture in America! Having that information helps me better understand where we are now in history.
This is a book I think I would like my kids to read at some point** in our homeschool as well - it fills in alot of historical gaps that I didn’t even realize were there. Reeves said it well:
“In fact, is that not what roots are for? The healthiest trees in a forest are those with the most extensive roots, for it is by using their roots that trees thrive and blossom. If a tree is to grow great, it’s roots must go deep. It is when those roots are cut that they die.”
I want my kids to have deep roots, not only in Christian history, but in Christian theology and doctrine as well. Theologians You Should Know is a great resource for starting to grow those roots, and I find myself encouraged to dig deeper into reading some of these theologians directly.
“Great theologians are usually infinitely more interesting than the things said about them.”
And indeed, that is Reeves’s purpose for this book - he doesn’t want us to be satisfied reading about theologians, but to be emboldened to read the theologians themselves. Armed with the bird’s eye view that this book provides, I plan on doing just that!
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