This is a great book on how the Christian gospel has been understood through Church History. It’s basically a must read for people buffeted by popular understandings of the gospel which sadly are unmoored from the voice of the Christian church through the ages.
- Link: Amazon
- Length: 216 pages
- Difficulty: Medium
- Topic: Theology, Historical
- Audience: Educated Christians
- Published: 2008
Among the varied Christian church, is there a common message or ‘gospel’ that has been received and proclaimed? What does the gospel mean in these varying Christian traditions. In Campbell’s own words;
The purpose of this book is to examine these questions by considering communal texts and practices that demonstrate how Christian traditions have understood and transmitted the gospel (“good news”), the most basic Christian message that Christian churches today have inherited from ancient Christian communities. (p1)
To show the grounds for this claim of continuity of the gospel message on the part of historic Christian churches is one of the objectives of this book. (p4)
This post is one of my book reviews.
Contents
- Introduction
- 1. The Gospel in Proto-Orthodox Christian Communities
- 2. The Gospel in Ancient Christian Churches
- 3. The Gospel in Protestant and Related Churches
- 4. The Gospel in Evangelical Communities
- 5. The Gospel and the Ecumenical Movement
- 6. The Mystery of the Gospel
- 7. A Methodological Afterword
- Bibliography
Main points
The early chapters are some of the best and most interesting in the book. Campbell begins his study on what Christians have believed the gospel with 1 Cor 15.1-5 focussing in particular on verses 3-4. Some of his discussion is devoted to describing the historical chronology from Jesus to the apostles preaching to the writing of their early epistles.
After discussing 1 Corinthians 15, Campbell looks into a sprinkling of statements from the early church fathers regarding the gospel. He shows a common thread of understanding linked back to 1 Cor 15.3-4. He then moves on to the Apostles and Nicene Creeds showing how they held in common the basic Christian kerygma.
This connection is incredibly important for understanding the foundational doctrinal beliefs for many Christian denominations, groups and movements. I’ve bolded the basic Christian kerygma in the table below.
| 1 Cor 15.1-9 | Apostles Creed (*) | Nicene Creed (*) |
| 15 Now I would remind you, brothers and sisters, of the good news that I proclaimed to you, which you in turn received, in which also you stand, 2 through which also you are being saved, if you hold firmly to the message that I proclaimed to you—unless you have come to believe in vain. 3 For I handed on to you as of first importance what I in turn had received: | I believe in God, the Father almighty, creator of heaven and earth. | We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. |
| I believe in Jesus Christ, God’s only Son, our Lord, who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, | We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one Being with the Father; through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven, was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary and became truly human. |
|
| that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures, 4 and that he was buried, and that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the scriptures, | suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried; he descended to the dead. On the third day he rose from the dead; | For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; he suffered death and was buried. On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures; |
| 5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve. 6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have died. 7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles. 8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me. | he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead. | he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. |
| 9 For I am the least of the apostles, unfit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. | I believe in the Holy Spirit, the holy catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen | We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen. |
Commenting on the core narrative Campbell writes;
The fact of this “central content” handed on from one generation in the church to another lies at the heart of this study of the gospel in Christian traditions. The gospel cannot be a vague expression in this regard.
It refers to the central teaching about Christ’s life, death, and resurrection that was at the heart of the earliest Christian message, transmitted from generation to generation, and proclaimed in the churches. (p23)
A fair chunk of the book then analyses the core beliefs of the Catholic and Orthodox churches, and then the Reformers. Campbell’s interest is quite irenic, intended to help these groups see they share a common gospel.
Some of his discussion concerned the Anglican Church doctrinal core. I was interested because of some of the happenings and debates I’d heard second hand in the Anglican Synod here in Adelaide regarding key elements of the gospel. So I looked at the Core Beliefs of Anglicans in Australia.
“The Anglican Church of Australia being a part of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ, holds the Christian Faith as professed by the Church of Christ from primitive times and in particular as set forth in the creeds known as the Nicene Creed and the Apostles’ Creed.” (#WhatWeBelieve, Anglican Church of Australia)
Some may not know it, but making the Nicene and Apostles creeds part of the Anglican core beliefs puts the historical understanding of the gospel right at the centre.
In one of the later chapters Campbell sums up by identifying three primary clusters of meanings associated with the gospel he has found in his research. He draws them back to 1 Cor 15.
- These are the simple narrative of Christ’s death, burial and resurrection,
- the fact that Christ died for our sins – the atoning significance of his death and
- the gospel is in accordance with the scriptures.
The precise meaning of these does vary across different Christian groups, however broadly speaking they are a shared common understanding of the gospel.
Recommendation
I found the book fairly easy to read. There isn’t much in the way of technical language. However except for the start and ending few chapters I found the content of the book a bit dry. I skimmed a bit. The book isn’t overly long, only about 200 pages long, consequently I finished it in about 4 days.
Sadly, I fear the gospel understood as a narrative is largely unrecognised in popular evangelical culture, so conditioned are they to understand it in terms of the human problem with sin, and God’s solution in Christ’s death format.
So systemic is this understanding in popular evangelicalism, that while the gospel may be encoded in formal doctrinal statements, it may not be recognised as the gospel. This a potential weakness of the book. While I agree this core narrative is the gospel, I wonder if it is recognised as such.
The book lacks a more detailed description of the relationship between the narrative and salvation. Nor does he focus on how the gospel message itself is framed. Both of these are addressed in Scot McKnight’s book, The King Jesus Gospel (review).
Many of Campbell’s treatments of statements from evangelical groups are dominated with atonement and salvation theology with little reference to Jesus and his story. Yet Campbell doesn’t seem to note the gospel story is largely ignored in these statements. I think in part this is because he is keen to focus on similarities in gospel faith, not the differences.
Overall I would recommend this book for Church history students. The book is excellent for people like me who want to show what they believe is the gospel has been held by Christians since the beginning. Certainly books like this should be mentioned in Bible Colleges interesting is showing how Christians have understood the gospel throughout the ages.
Copyright © Joshua Washington and thescripturesays, 2019. All Rights Reserved.
