Christian Theology: An Introduction

An unparalleled introduction to the concepts and key developments of 2,000 years of Christian thought, updated with significant additions and developments throughout

Over the past three decades, Christian Theology: An Introduction has established itself as one of the most respected and widely used theological textbooks. Specifically designed for students with no prior knowledge of Christian theology, this classic volume presents the primary themes and debates of Christian thought with clarity and historical context. Renowned theologian Alister E. McGrath offers a lively, concise, and easily accessible narrative that helps readers discover the intellectual and spiritual riches of Christian theology and understand how Christianity's core themes have been developed and debated over the centuries.

With a descriptive, analytic, and theologically neutral approach, Christian Theology includes discussion of various theological positions and traditions: Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and evangelical perspectives and insights are fairly represented and explored throughout. Student-friendly chapters provide an overview of historical theology, explain key aspects of philosophical theology, describe debates over Christian theological method, and explore the leading themes of systematic theology.

In this revised seventh edition, Alister McGrath is joined by Matthew J. Thomas, a theological educationalist and scholar, to ensure that Christian Theology connects with contemporary teaching contexts for theology across a variety of denominational institutions. Reviewed and improved content, based on feedback from students and instructors, is complemented by a companion website with full bibliographies for each chapter, links to theological resources, video and audio presentations, and an entirely new series of twelve lectures on Christian theology written and presented by Professor McGrath.

Exploring and explaining the great themes and debates in the field, Christian Theology: An Introduction:

• Engages with the core themes of Christian thought that are common to all Christian denominations and groups
• Designed to be used as a stand-alone volume or alongside the Christian Theology Reader, Sixth Edition
• Contains a wealth of quotations from original works of Christian theologians, internal cross-references, mini-biographies of key figures, end-of-chapter questions, and high-quality maps, illustrations, and images
• Allows flexible presentation of topics via self-contained chapters and easily expanded examples, quotations, topics, and debates
• Supported by a full-featured companion website with detailed bibliographies, quizzes and multiple-choice questions with answers, chapter-by-chapter PowerPoint slides, multimedia resources, and additional teaching tools

Christian Theology: An Introduction, Seventh Edition, remains the ideal introduction to the beliefs and interpretation of Christianity for college and university courses in Christian theology, seminary courses across a wide range of denominations, church discussion groups and adult Sunday schools, and general readers looking for an accessible and reliable guide to the study of Christian thought.