Monday 26 June 2006

Your favourite patristic theologian

Well, after 288 votes, it’s clear that your favourite patristic theologian is the great Bishop of Hippo, who received 33% of the votes. Next were Athanasius with 28% and Irenaeus with 23%, followed by Gregory of Nazianzus (9%) and Origen (7%).

I must admit, my own vote also went to Augustine, so I was happy to see that he was the winner. I once spent six months reading virtually nothing else except Augustine, and it did me a world of good. He is an astonishingly vigorous and uniquely beautiful thinker; sometimes I even wonder whether his Confessions might be the best theological book ever written.

Anyway, the next poll will be the Grand Final, where you can choose your favourite theologian from the winners of the last five polls: Hans Urs von Balthasar, Karl Barth, N. T. Wright, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Augustine.

5 Comments:

Anonymous said...

I must say that I'd be quite upset if Augustine doesn't get at least 51%...

Anonymous said...

If N.T. Wright gets even one vote, it will be a tragedy!

Anonymous said...

Wright must think he's dead and gone to heaven. Either that or it's the first sentence of a Kafka story.

Ben Myers said...

Yes, I think I'll have to resign in protest if Wright and Bonhoeffer get more than three votes between them....

Anonymous said...

I'll have to agree with the sentiments of all--that Wright is simply not a theologian--except Ben. Bonhoeffer's entire life is a theological work, consisting of fragments of writings and episodes, and the only reason he doesn't get the consideration from "the Academy" is because he did not write "academic theology."

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