Pivot #192: Early Christian Theology: What Augustine, Irenaeus, and Justin Martyr Still Teach the Church Today

In the latest Pivot podcast, Warren Smith, professor of historical theology at Duke Divinity School, joins Dwight and Terri to talk about his new book, Early Christian Theology: A History, and what the first several centuries of Christian thought have to say to church leaders today.

Warren Smith, professor of historical theology at Duke Divinity School, joins Dwight Zscheile and Terri Elton to talk about his new book, Early Christian Theology: A History, and what the first several centuries of Christian thought have to say to church leaders navigating a very different, but strangely familiar, moment. Warren walks through Justin Martyr’s arguments to a suspicious Roman government, Augustine’s account of pride and the desire for dominion, Irenaeus’s vision of a unified gospel, and Gregory of Nyssa’s reflections on the endless discovery of God.

The conversation turns practical near the end, as Warren offers church leaders a word of encouragement: the church’s survival has never rested on our shoulders, and the best thing a pastor or teacher can offer their people is genuine delight in scripture. That kind of enthusiasm, he says, tends to spread.