Jaroslav Pelikan

For information about the history of the church, I can't think of a better author. My first experience with his books was when I purchased Jesus Through the Centuries from a used bookstore. This was probably my earliest step towards post-modernism. It was after reading this book, that I began to realize that my interpretation of the life of Jesus was not the same as somebody who lived 300, 500, or 1500 years ago. Each generation has interpreted the incarnation in a way that spoke best for that generation.

My next encounter with Dr. Pelikan occurred during my time as a student missionary in Russia. As a side job, I agreed to help Michael Kulikov (Junior not Senior) put together the end notes a Russian translation of volume four of The Christian Tradition: a History of the Development of Doctrine.

Finally this summer, I purchased his book Whose Bible is It? It was a good book. I didn't enjoy it as much as some of his other works, but I highly recommend it. In it, you will learn how the Bible came to be the document we know today. You will learn the importance of the Bible to the printing press and the importance of the printing press to the Bible. I think the highlight of the book was his observation that during the time when critics were dissecting the human elements of the text and minimizing its significance (its only a myth), the Bible was inspiring more of humanity than ever before with its wisdom.

Unfortunately, Dr. Pelikan passed away this past May. To learn more about him, you can check out what Wikipedia has to say.