A Necessary and Delightful Church History (Free Download)
As this week includes the 506th anniversary of Martin Luther nailing his 95 theses to the door of the All Saints church in Wittenberg, it’s worth considering the state of the church between the time of the apostles, and the Reformation of 1517 onwards. What happened across so many centuries, and how should we best understand those men who rose to prominence in the church those times?
When I began to understand Reformed theology, I turned to contemporary websites and authors, and quickly discovered hundreds of years of theology just a few clicks (and book orders) away from me. I began to pour over theologians of the past, discovering the treasure troves of the Puritans and the continental Reformers too. Certainly, there is great profit to be had from reading from our forefathers, but how may we do so without falling into confusion and error?
In recent years, it’s been impossible not to notice a trend in young theologians seeking to rediscover both the ante- and post-Nicene church fathers such as Jerome and Augustine, but also the medieval scholastics - with most attention to Thomas Aquinas. At this point, there are two possible ditches: either (a) reject everything we know before the Reformation as unworthy of our time, or (b) embrace these scholars over-eagerly as the theological equivalents to the magisterial Reformers. (A) is not an option because we know how the Reformers themselves were affectionately warm towards their predecessors, seeking to further their godly and pious attainments, and (B) is also impossible as we know how the Reformers’ affection for these men did not cause them to spare criticisms of Augustine and company where it was necessary. For example, Tossanus highlights how critical Theodore Beza was of Jerome’s negative views on marriage.
In this work we are making available for free, Tossanus gives a synopsis of the “most famous and ancient doctors of the church, as also of the Schoolman.” He continues further, explaining the point of his work: “wherein is clearly shewed [sic.] how much is to be attributed to them, in what several times they lived, with what caution they are to be read, and which were their perfections; which their errors.” Significantly for me, as still a relatively young man, Tossanus called this “a treatise most necessary and profitable for young divines, and delightful to all such whose studies in humanity take from them the leisure, though not the desiring of reading the fathers, whose curiosity this brief survey of antiquity will in part satisfy.”
Tossanus sets out 28 aphorisms on church history, teaching us that true antiquity is not to “understand [what] this, or that man did, or taught before us, but what he did who was before all, even Christ himself, who only is the way, the truth, and the life, from whose precepts we ought not to digress, as Cyprian says. So that all antiquity, and custom, not grounded on the truth, is to be accounted no other than an ancient error, as the same Saint Cyprian piously writes to Pomp. against the Epistle of Stephanus."
He then gives an overview of church canons, councils, the private writings of the ante- and post-Nicene fathers (ending with Bernard of Clairvaux), and finally, the Scholastics or “Schoolmen” themselves such as Peter Lombard, Duns Scotus, and Thomas Aquinas.
We at Berith Press are making this work - based on the English translation of Tossanus’ Synopsis, published in London in 1637 - available with modern English spelling and syntax, for the first time in 386 years or so. You can download it for free as an EPUB or a PDF. May the Lord bless you as you read this work, and may he use it in your life to further his kingdom, to his glory.
