Hi everyone,

I saw the book Early Christian Doctrine by J.N.D. Kelly on ChristianBook.com for $7.99 and was wondering if it's worth picking up. I'm not familiar with Kelly.

Thanks for any feedback!

God Bless,
Paul

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Paul
Bucks Central Church Presbyterian (PCA)
My Facebook

No, but is your username taken from Bertrand Wilberforce Wooster of the P.G. Wodehouse series?

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DAVIDIVS DOCTVS VTRIVSQVE LINGVAE
Husband of Emilia
Member: First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Durham (RPCNA) - Durham, NC
Currently in the process of transferring membership to an as-yet-undecided church in Chapel Hill
Student: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, German Literature and Classics

I will be reading it for a class this Fall semester as it is a required text for Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary - if that is any indication of its value for you.

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Chris Mangum
Presbyterian Reformed Church of Charlotte
student, GPTS
.357 Mangum

Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world. James 1:27

This book was also assigned for one my my classes. I purchased it when I saw I would have to read it. Then the class got a new professor assigned to teach it and he changed all the readings. So, I haven't read it yet. But I presume it is a good book if it was assigned by one of my professors.

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Casey Bessette
Westminster OPC • West Suburbs of Chicago • My Blog: Paradise Regained

"It is part of the calling of the ekklesia to learn to know the love of Christ that surpasses all knowledge and also to make known within the world of science 'the manifold wisdom of God' in order that the final end of theology, as of all things, may be that the name of the Lord is glorified. Theology and dogmatics, too, exist for the Lord's sake." — Herman Bavinck, Reformed Dogmatics, vol. 1, p. 46

Absolutely! I love those stories. There are some great audio dramatizations floating around of them too.

Thanks guys, that's very helpful. I'm going to pick it up.

God Bless,
Paul

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Paul
Bucks Central Church Presbyterian (PCA)
My Facebook

Awesome! That's the best series in the world. My wife and I have all four series on DVD and really want to read some of the books. What are the audio dramatizations you mention?

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DAVIDIVS DOCTVS VTRIVSQVE LINGVAE
Husband of Emilia
Member: First Reformed Presbyterian Church of Durham (RPCNA) - Durham, NC
Currently in the process of transferring membership to an as-yet-undecided church in Chapel Hill
Student: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, German Literature and Classics

I would highly recommend Kelly's ealry Christian doctrines. I have used this is a lot particularly in debates with JWs. Books always seem much cheaper in the US so $7.99 seems like a good price from this end of the pond.

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Stuart
Elder, Lambeg Baptist, Northern Ireland, UK

In Him the fulness of the Godhead dwells in bodily form and in Him you are complete (Col 2.9-10)

The sacrifice of a broken heart doth please Him but the sacrifice of a broken Christ alone doth satisfy Him (Richard Steele)

The book is well done; it was also required reading at WSCAL (at least when I was there).

On the other hand, considering the fact that they allowed me to enroll might make one question anything WSCAL did in those days. And then they allowed me to graduate (mainly to get me out of there)... but I digress.

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Rev. Daniel Kok
Pastor of Grace Reformed Church (URCNA)
Leduc, Alberta CANADA
Church Blog

"there is no creature, either in heaven or on earth, who loves us more than Jesus Christ"
Belgic Confession, Article 26

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

Kelly's book is an excellent rendition of what early Christians believed. From time to time one may disagree with this or that, but generally it is a reliable guide. It was a much needed text given the bizarre historiography that came earlier from Harnack and his school.

Be aware that Kelly himself is an orthodox Anglo-Catholic.

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Marty

"There is nothing so necessary to draw us to repentance as good thoughts of God." (Thomas Manton)

I have read Kelly's book. I recommend it to any who are interested in what the "early church" believed. I have two copies in our church library. It is borrowed often.

For $8.00 you can't go wrong!

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Sterling Harmon
Coventry, CT
PCA
Deacon
________________

"Whatever is laudable in our works proceeds from the grace of God."
-- John Calvin, Institutes III:xv.3.

"Our Lord God must be a good man, to be fond of worthless fellows. I cannot like them, and yet I, myself, am one."
-- Martin Luther, Table Talk

Kelly has a weak view of Holy Scripture in terms of how he views (for example) the authorship of 2 Peter, but he is an excellent church historian. In addition to his Early Christian Doctrines, I recommend highly his biographies of Jerome and Chrysostom. They exhibit sound scholarship and are simply fascinating to read. Their titles are...

Jerome, His Life, Writings, and Controversies

and

Golden Mouth: The Story of John Chrysostom, Ascetic, Preacher, Bishop.

DTK

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Sola Scriptura est norma normans non normata
David T. King, pastor
Christ Presbyterian Church (OPC)
Elkton, Maryland
Augustine (354-430): Therefore what He [i.e., Christ] has deigned to speak to us, we ought to believe that He meant us to understand. But if we do not understand He, being asked, gives understanding, who gave His Word unasked. NPNF1: Vol. VII, Tractates on John, Tractate XXII, §1.

From a church history perspective (especially as a resource), it is a worthwhile purchase (especially for 8 bucks!). If you can get over the image of Christ on the cover (though I think it's being printed with a different cover now), that is.
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Tim Phillips
Pastor, Midlane Park Presbyterian Church
Louisville, KY

Great book on Partristics, but there are others, too. Don't forget W Cunningham and G Bromiley (Historical Theology)

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Independent Reformed Baptist Church (NE England, nr. Durham)

Kelley is a classic. We used it a hundred years ago at Fuller. As has already been mentioned, he will not fit into a PB mold. However, for a patristics guy, he is hard to beat. One of my profs, Geoffrey Bromiley did a fine job in his Historical Theology too. I think I paid more for Kelley back then than what you can get it for now! Grrrrr.

If you want to read up on the controversies of the early church from a Reformed evangelical perspective, Harold O.J. Brown's book Heresies: The Image of Christ in the Mirror of Heresy and Orthodoxy from the Apostles to the Present (1984) is full of good material. With his four degrees from Harvard/Harvard Divinity School, his staunch commitment to the unborn, and his outspoken commitment to the full trustworthiness of Scripture, he is a reliable guide in this area.

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Dennis E. McFadden, Ex Mainline Baptist (in Remission)
Atherton Baptist Homes, CEO
First Baptist Church of Alhambra, Member, Transformation Ministries (CA)

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

Gee you're looking good for your age Dennis. I guess that's what listening to Steely Dan does to people. (Reelin' in the years ...).

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Marty

"There is nothing so necessary to draw us to repentance as good thoughts of God." (Thomas Manton)

Wow, thanks for all the fantastic feedback! I thought I may get one or two responses. I ordered the book today. This is a foundational area that honestly, I haven't studied, so I'm looking forward to reading it.

God Bless,
Paul

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Paul
Bucks Central Church Presbyterian (PCA)
My Facebook

I have the Jeeves Omnibus. Maybe it's time to read it all again.

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Less than the least of all saints,
Peter
All Saints' Church
Reformed Episcopal Church
Taylors, SC, CSA

·Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord
and whose hope the Lord is:
·For he shall be as a tree planted by the waters,
and that spreadeth out its roots by the river
and shall not see when heat cometh;
·But its leaf shall be green,
and shall not worry in the year of drought
neither shall stop from yielding fruit.
Jer. 17:8