Christianity and Western Thought, Volume One: A History of Philosophers, Ideas and Movements: From the Ancient World to the Age of Enlightenment

From Socrates and the Sophists to Kant, from Augustine to Aquinas and the Reformers, Colin Brown traces the turbulent, often tension-filled, always fascinating story of the thinkers, ideas and movements that have shaped our intellectual landscape. Is philosophy the ＂handmaiden of faith＂ or ＂the doctrine of demons＂? Does it clarify the faith or undermine the very heart of Christian belief? Brown writes, ＂This book is about the changes in preconceptions, world views and paradigms that have affected the ways in which people have thought about religion in general and Christianity in particular in the Western world. . . . It is a historical sketch, written to help students--and anyone else who might be interested--to get a better grasp of the love-hate relationship between philosophy and faith that has gone on for close to two thousand years.＂ Students, pastors and thoughtful Christians will benefit from this rich resource. The first in a three-volume work, Brown’s easy-to-read, hard-to-put-down introduction to Christianity and Western thought focuses on developments from the ancient world to the Age of Enlightenment.

Colin Brown is professor of systematic theology at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California. He served as editor of The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology and is the author of several books, including Miracles and the Critical Mind, History and Faith, and Jesus in European Protestant Thought.