The Christian Tradition 1 by Jaroslav Pelikan

Without the resurrection, death ultimately has the final say, and nothing in this temporal world has any truly enduring significance. On the other hand, if Christ has not been raised, then there is no hope in facing death. In other words, everything pales in importance to the truth of death’s conquest.

I think what Pelikan means is, given that human beings are destined to die, if Christ has defeated death in his resurrection then there is no more important truth for all human beings to hear and embrace. This aphorism appears to reflect Pelikan’s thinking about the centrality of Jesus’s bodily resurrection from the dead. And if Christ is not-nothing else matters.” 1 “If Christ is risen, nothing else matters. A prolific author, he wrote more than thirty books. He held many prestigious intellectual appointments in his career such as president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and editor of the religion section of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. He served as a professor of church history at Yale University for more than forty years. (1923–2006) was an American theologian and church historian, first in the Lutheran tradition and then in the Eastern Orthodox tradition later in his life. I’ve shared these nuggets of wisdom on social media, and will now briefly explain them for your encouragement. I hope Pelikan’s insights do the same for you as you consider four of his provocative quotes on theology. Pelikan’s five-volume series The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrinestrongly influenced my thinking about Christian history and historical theology.

One historical theologian I quote often is Jaroslav Pelikan. On my Facebook and Twitter pages I have a weekly segment called Thursday Theology, where I provide quotes from important theological thinkers past and present.

The Christian Tradition 1 by Jaroslav Pelikan