Pelikan's "Ambitious Lifework": A High Point of Twentieth-Century ScholarshipThe Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine. Jaroslav Pelikan

Abstract

With the appearance of volume 5, Christian Doctrine and Modern Culture (since 1700), Jaroslav Pelikan brings to a close his extraordinary scholarly achievement, The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine. Even apart from magnificent series, Pelikan's many other firstrate publications have assured him a leading place among the historical theologians of century. But The Christian Tradition is clearly the magnum opus he began planning and outlining ... in the 1940s, with first sketches and drafts dating from the 1950s (5:vii, ix). In the final paragraph of the preface to the fifth volume, Pelikan expresses his bittersweet feelings on completing the task that had preoccupied him for nearly half a century by citing Edward Gibbon's recollections of his mood as he finished his own multivolume work, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: will not dissemble the first emotions ofjoy on recovery of my freedom, but my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind by the idea that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion. Pelikan adds, however: For me, the joy and melancholy are more than matched by the gratitude I sense to all those who have made it possible for me to take on, and now to complete, ambitious lifework (5:ix). It is my assignment to offer a relatively brief critical appraisal of the contribution this ambitious lifework makes to the study of Christianity. I intend to take into account the entire series, but with greater attention to the fifth volume. The limited space allotted overview precludes mention, not to say discussion, of the detailed points and questions that occupy the margins of my review copies.