Christianity lays claim on the loyalties of men because it makes sense of both life and death. This important historical and theological work - beautifully and simply written - presents the message of the early church about life and death through the eyes of five church fathers: Tatian, Clement of Alexandria, Cyprian, Origen, and Irenaeus. Using geometric figures to symbolize each idea, Dr. Pelikan begins with the thought of Tatian - the arc of existence. Next comes the circle of immortality in Clement of Alexandria's conception of man's existence. The third idea is the triangle of mortality, Cyprian's effort to do justice both to the horizontal and vertical dimensions of death. The parabola of eternity is the symbol given to Origen's concept in which all shapes stand in perspective. The last shape is the spiral of history, which symbolizes the thought of Irenaeus. In his conclusion, Dr. Pelikan adds his own "shape of death."