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kristidurbs's review
4.0
Dense, scholarly work covering all the ins and outs of the beginning history of the Christian church. Pelikan's work is fascinating, rich with incredible detail, and exhaustively annotated. This series best suited for the serious student.
scottacorbin's review against another edition
3.0
Certain sections very good; others more cumbersome. All in all, a very nice addition to Pelikan's 5 vol series.
ewp11577's review
3.0
This is one extraordinarily dry read. I will grant that Pelikan gives a ton of detail, but the presentation is quite boring; I say this even knowing that I was reading this as a part of a theological master's degree program. Still, there is quite a bit of useful information here, just don't expect to be entertained.
audra_spiven's review
3.0
This is a hard book to rate. Would I have picked it up if I hadn't been required to by my professor? Heck no. Did I HATE reading it? Nah. Was it hard to get through, dry, dense, and very slow-moving? Yesyesyes. Do I feel like I have a fuller understanding of church tradition after reading this? For the most part, yes.
The main thing this book is missing is MAPS and CHARTS. It is so hard to understand what parts of the world we're talking about without maps and modern-day names. Some visual guides would be helpful and appreciated.
Other than that . . . there was one early chapter I really liked--I think chapter 2--because it discussed the various heresies that were debated and eventually conquered, and some of those I found very interesting. May have to return to that chapter when it's time to decide what I'm writing my final paper on.
The main thing this book is missing is MAPS and CHARTS. It is so hard to understand what parts of the world we're talking about without maps and modern-day names. Some visual guides would be helpful and appreciated.
Other than that . . . there was one early chapter I really liked--I think chapter 2--because it discussed the various heresies that were debated and eventually conquered, and some of those I found very interesting. May have to return to that chapter when it's time to decide what I'm writing my final paper on.
audra_spiven's review against another edition
2.0
Woof. This series is getting worse, not better, as it goes on. Need caffeine injected directly into my veins to get through this.
therealesioan's review
2.0
The person who chose this for my book club should feel bad. Pelikan is clearly an erudite scholar but christ he is repetitive and rambling. Maybe if you're already very well-versed in the history of the theology of the early church you'll like this but I (along with the person who picked it out for the book club) have found it quite a poor introduction. Pelikan doesn't summarize his points clearly and seems to dwell on some extremely inane topics while jumping over others. This is made particularly clear in the ending where he essentially just trails off mid sente-
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