History of Christian Thought

Third in a series of works that have been designed to present a competent, comprehensive, and objective study of the development of Christian doctrine, A History of Christian Thought, Volume III, shows the major trends in Christianity as they developed from the Reformation through the early 1800s. As in Volume I, which dealt with Christian thought from the time of the Apostles to Saint Augustine, and Volume II, which took the reader from the Medieval period through the Renaissance, author John R. Willis, S.J., here singles out the key thinkers of the era and emphasizes those precepts and philosophies that most influenced Christianity. In this book, Father Willis deals with the rapid succession of new and often radical ideas that evolved from the sixteenth to the early nineteenth centuries. He presents the major teachings of Luther, the Anabaptists, and Calvin; of Puritanism, Deism, Pietism, and romanticism; of Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Marx and many others. He shows how each evolved out of the political, social, and theological climate of their times. As in his previous books, Father Willis has made an effort to present the facts objectively by limiting editorial comment and by allowing the great thinkers represented on these pages to speak to the reader in their own words. A History of Christian Thought: From Luther to Marx is an important contribution to the genre of historical theology, both as a single work, and in combination with the preceding volumes in the series. - Jacket flap.