The Medieval Theologians: An Introduction to Theology in the Medieval Period (The Great Theologians)

The Medieval Theologians provides a clear and comprehensive introduction to the period through an examination of the key individual theologians of the time. Chronologically arranged, it allows students to explore this crucial period when so many important theological developments took place. Covers the important period from the 5th to the 16th centuries, when theology took shape as an increasingly formal subject of academic study. The only book to trace developments in the field by individual theologian, rather than thematically, as is the case in other texts. Provides a unique and distinctively theological perspective. Written by leading authorities from around the world. "This comprehensive introduction to medieval theology introduces students to the period through examination of the major individual theologians of the time. Chronologically arranged, it allows students to explore the crucial period between the Church Fathers and the Reformation when theology first emerged as an academic discipline and when important controversies took place. These issues clarified the nature and purpose of the Church and the sacraments, and reopened many of the earlier debates about orthodoxy. This was the period which sowed the seeds of divisions in the church which persist today."--Jacket __The Medieval Theologians__* * Covers the important period from the 5th to the 16th centuries, when theology took shape as an increasingly formal subject of academic study. * The only book to trace developments in the field by individual theologian, rather than thematically, as is the case in other texts. * Provides a unique and distinctively theological perspective. * Written by leading authorities from around the world. The writings of Bishop Augustine, a man predestinate, as his first biographer put it, and the most influential Christian theologian after St. Paul, mark the transition from the ancient world to the Latin Middle Ages, and set the Western theological tone for more than a thousand years.