Powel Mills Dawley (1907–1985)

Dawley takes us through Church history in five sections. First is the formation of Christian institutions during the Roman period. He addresses threats posed by Gnostics and Arians and the 4th century edicts and councils resulting in the doctrine of the Trinity. In the second section he gives credit to these institutions and eminent thinkers, such as St. Thomas Aquinas, for preserving Christianity during Medieval times. He attributes to St. Anselm the axiom credo ut intelligam meaning “believing precedes understanding”. (Abelard reversed this phrase and insisted that a person should understand in order to believe).
In the third section the author traces the course of Christianity in the British Isles from Roman times to the Reformation. Man’s true relationship to God works itself out through the Pelagian controversy on to the struggle between Iona and Rome and not ending with the martyrdom of Becket during the reign of Henry II. Over a four-hundred year span the issues become clarified by leaders including Thomas More and Wycliffe
The remaining two sections describe the Crisis of the Reformation and Christianity in the Modern World.
All in all, this is an excellent primer for the intelligent layperson, in spite of now anachronistic references to the enemies of the church in the middle ages as savages and heathen. This volume takes its place as the second of six works on the Church’s Teachings. It was published in 1950 and contains an index and annotated bibliography.
RMB, CSBS… (mer)