lOMoARcPSD|22015503
Christendom at the Crossroads
Survey of History of Christianity (Liberty
University)
lOMoARcPSD|22015503
1
Christendom at the Crossroads: The Medieval Era. By James A. Sheppard. Louisville:
Westminster John Knox Press, 2005, 2653pp. Kindle, $9.99.
Christendom at the Crossroads: The Medieval Era was written by Dr. James A. Sheppard
to guide readers through “one thousand years of stormy politics, passionate personalities, and
meticulous theology all tangled together” (41, Kindle). The purpose is to bridge the gap, which
he describes as the “crossroad” (43, Kindle), between the early church and the Protestant
Reformation by using the guide of the Apostles Creed to help give readers a glimpse at the way
of life during that time period to help understand the Christian thought during the Middle Ages
(45, Kindle). The purpose of this book review is to summarize the findings of Dr. Sheppard and
to give a more extensive critique of the strengths and weakness of the book.
Dr. Sheppard introduced the book by explaining how the Apostles’ Creed gives readers
the “perfect structure for unpacking the history of medieval theology” (49, Kindle). He gives a
brief glimpse of each chapter in the book, so the reader can have a basic road map, so they can
have a greater understanding of the time line of both critical leaders and the events as well as
how they correspond with each other.
The first chapter of the book jumps right into the basic developments that characterized
the Middle Ages. Dr. Shephard encourages the study of the monks and friars as they “stand at
the crossroads between the early church and the Reformation period…. were largely responsible
for both creating and preserving the history of the Christian Church between the years 312 and
about 1530” (125, Kindle). He explains that although it is important to study the monks and
friars, it is also just as important to understand the political rulers and church leaders and as they
serve an “important role in shaping the Middle Ages, especially in the sense that they often drove
the action that either required theological justification or elicited a theological response” (217,
lOMoARcPSD|22015503
2
Kindle). Dr. Shephard explains that understanding the two key concepts of medieval politics
“the two swards and feudalism, are important frameworks within which most medieval theology
was constructed” (247, Kindle) plays an important part of helping understand the mindset of the
concepts behind the theological thinking. He explains that the variety of ideas and opinions
among the various medieval theologians is impossible to put them into one group of thought, but
they do have “their quest to find clarity in their Christian faith” (443, Kindle) in common. They
all hoped “to gain insight into the mysteries of faith,” “sought deeper meaning in the Holy
Scripture” and “struggled to understand what it meant to be created in the image of God” (443,
Kindle).
The book is arranged to follow the template of the Apostle’s Creed as Dr. Shephard had
shared in the introduction which explains the historical events as well as the theological
developments of the church during the medieval time. The second chapter “I Believe”
explained that theology really declined during the sixteenth century until the Reformers
“declared sola scriptura (by Scripture alone)” which became the “battle cry for the protest the
Roman Catholic Church” (447, Kindle). The third chapter “In God the Father” starts by
explaining that “medieval philosophical theology is difficult because theologians engaged in
wildly speculative discussion about the nature of God” (701, Kindle). He goes into why they
argued for the existence of God and used the arguments to help guide the church. He looks at the
proofs for God’s existence and how they fall into two categories “an interior awareness of the
divine” and an understanding “based on our knowledge of the world” (889, Kindle). The fourth
chapter “And in Jesus Christ” tackles the idea of why theologians believe Jesus came into the
world through humanity. It is determined that “the incarnate Christ was the occasion for
demonstrating the depth of the divine love for creation” (1285, Kindle). The fifth chapter “Born
lOMoARcPSD|22015503
3
of the Virgin Mary” (1288, Kindle). It focused on Jesus’ mother Mary, discussing her sinful
nature and the fact that she had to be a virgin. He explains that “that Mary suffered under the
original sin and was redeemed by Christ just like any other human” (1339, Kindle). The sixth
chapter, “To Judge the Living and the Dead” (1480. Kindle) is attacking the idea of the problem
of evil. He discusses humans free will and “how do we decide to pick anything when
confronted with a choice?” (1498, Kindle). The Seventh Chapter examines the churches view on
the power of the Holy Spirit and who He is, “In the Holy Spirit” (1758, Kindle). He discusses
the councils, the beliefs and what cased the rift between the East and West church split. Dr.
Shephard ended the book with “The Road to Reformation” (2073, Kindle). He explains that the
“shift in the theological method that made the latter Middle Ages an unhappy time” (2079,
Kindle). He concludes the book with stating “‘Reformation,’ because the church has been in the
perpetual state of reform since it started” (2385, Kindle) and that the medieval church “is also the
ideological crossroads for Christianity. It is the point at which the early church and the early
modern church converge in the ongoing, yet difficult, journey to be a faithful witness to the
Word of God” (2387, Kindle). This gives the reader an idea of what the medieval time church
produced and influenced the modern church.
Shephard did an excellent job in organizing the book using the Apostle’s Creed to help
the reader understand what the Apostle’s Creed says. It also acts as contextual guide throughout
the book and starting and ending with the idea that this period of time was a crossroad in
Christianity as well as with the church. He combines historical evidence with a background of
theology which allows him to show how the ancient affected the modern.
Shephard in his writing allowed the reader to experience the events and desperation that
was going on during that time to see why the theologians were so hungry for answers. He
lOMoARcPSD|22015503
4
brought in the ideas of Anselm, Aquinas, Bonaventure and Scotus to bring both logical and
theological arguments and teachings to develop the “Proofs for God” (889, Kindle) which have
carried through to the apologetics studied today.
One of the weaknesses in Shephard’s book, is although it was organized well at times
some of the transitioning found in the chapters were not as smooth as they could have been.
They seemed to jump from one person to another with no real transition to allow the reader
to catch up. The first chapter is one of the main areas that a reader could become aware of
this which would require a second or third reading to understand what the point was that he
was making.
A second weakness of the book would be the lack of clarity. At times there seemed to be
a lot of missing information that might have been presented to help the reader understand the
Medieval era. A thousand years of information is a lot of information to cover and so it would
seem this was the case in Shephard’s book. The title of the book suggests that the focus of the
book should have been on the specific time period of this particular era, however it seemed more
about certain people and their beliefs rather than on the period as a whole. The thought being the
people are the ones who shaped Christendom rather than a time period and maybe a better title
would have been to include something like “Influencers of the Medieval Era” thus preparing the
reader for more personal information about people rather than expecting more physical history
regarding the era.
Sheppard’s book was an excellent read. It set out to show the crossroads between the
early church and the modern church by using the Apostle’s Creed as the guide. The discussion
questions at the end of each chapter can stir the longing for more information and the desire to do
a more in-depth study. He highlights the issues that were so important to the Christians of that
lOMoARcPSD|22015503
5
time and the desperation of the leaders to get the answers. This book is a great place to start and
if done correctly can encourage someone to dig deeper and go farther with the ideas presented.
Anissa Chambers
Liberty University, Lynchburg VA
