A comprehensive study of the rise, development and use of credal formulaines in the creative centuries of the Church's history.

A comprehensive study of the rise, development and use of credal formulaines in the creative centuries of the Church's history.

A history of doctrines of the Early Church, written and arranged with exceptional clarity by a leading patristic scholar. Canon Kelly describes the development of the principal Christian doctrines from the close of the first century to the middle of the fifth, and from the end of the apostolic age to the council of Chalcedon.

This fascinating dictionary gives concise accounts of every officially recognized pope in history, from St Peter to Pope Benedict XVI, as well as all of their irregularly elected rivals, the so-called antipopes. Each pope and antipope's entry covers his family and social background and pre-papal career as well as his activities in office. Also, an appendix provides a detailed discussion and analysis of many topics including the theory that there has been a female pope. This new edition reflects the very latest in papal research and contains additional information in the further reading sections of each entry, making the book an even more useful starting place for research into specific pontiffs. Moreover, the entries are arranged chronologically, creating a continuous history of the papacy over almost 2,000 years. It reveals how, for much of that history, spiritual and temporal power has been inextricably mingled in the person of the pope. A fascinating read for students of theology and history, as well as the general reader with an interest in Christian history.

John Chrysostom, or "Golden Mouth", was a famous ascetic and preacher of the fourth/fifth century, a controversial bishop of Constantinople, and a brilliant orator - hence the epithet. This is the first comprehensive study of him in the English language in over a century. In the early chapters John Kelly highlights Chrysostom's youthful experiments with asceticism at Antioch in Syria, his six years as a monk and then a recluse in the nearby mountains, and his influential role as Antioch's leading preacher. The central section of the book shows him as a fearlessly outspoken populist bishop of the capital. Kelly focuses on his authoritarian style, his interventions in political crises, and his clashes with the Empress Eudoxia, as well as his efforts to promote the primacy of the see of Constantinople in the east. The final chapters reconstruct the plots that led to Chrysostom's downfall, the drama of his trial, and his exile and death. Golden Mouth also provides fresh analyses of Chrysostom's principal treatises and public addresses, and discussions of his views on monasticism, sexuality and marriage, education, and suffering.

This is part of a series of modern commentaries based on new English translations made by their respective editors.
While adhering strictly to sound scholarship and doctrine, they intend, above all, to bring out the theological and religious message of the New Testament to the contemporary Church.

This is a comprehensive study of the well known and the not so well known creeds. Dr Kelly's famous book - a study of the rise, development and use of formularies in the creative centuries of the Church's history - was immediately acclaimed in Europe and America as the standard work on the subject. The book opens with an examination of creedal elements in the New Testament and continues with an enquiry into the relation of creeds to the rite of Baptism. The chapters that follow are devoted to a study of the evidence for 'the rule of faith' in the second century; a long discussion of the old Roman Creed; and a consideration of the creeds of the Eastern Church and their relation to Western creeds and to those propounded by the fourth-century councils. Particular attention is given to the Council of Nicea and the Nicene Creed. In addition, there is a lengthy and largely original reconstruction of the expansion of the Roman Creed and its acceptance throughout Europe as the present Apostle's Creed. Two valuable features of the book are the emphasis it lays on the liturgical setting of ancient creeds, and the attempt it makes to elucidate their theology as it was understood by those who framed them.

John Chrysostom, or "Golden Mouth", was a famous ascetic and preacher of the fourth/fifth century, a controversial bishop of Constantinople, and a brilliant orator - hence the epithet. This is the first comprehensive study of him in the English language in over a century. In the early chapters John Kelly highlights Chrysostom's youthful experiments with asceticism at Antioch in Syria, his six years as a monk and then a recluse in the nearby mountains, and his influential role as Antioch's leading preacher. The central section of the book shows him as a fearlessly outspoken populist bishop of the capital. Kelly focuses on his authoritarian style, his interventions in political crises, and his clashes with the Empress Eudoxia, as well as his efforts to promote the primacy of the see of Constantinople in the east. The final chapters reconstruct the plots that led to Chrysostom's downfall, the drama of his trial, and his exile and death. Golden Mouth also provides fresh analyses of Chrysostom's principal treatises and public addresses, and discussions of his views on monasticism, sexuality and marriage, education, and suffering.