In the words of Mary Poppins “a cover is not the book”. In this case the title - The Story of Creeds and Confessions – could be a construed as a little misleading.

In its broadest sense, this book is a story. It is a thoroughly researched, well argued, elegantly written history of the development of creeds and confessions in the Christian Church. But perhaps naively, I was expecting a real story. A story with developed characters, and tension, and plot twists. Perhaps a less ambiguous title would be “The History of Creeds and Confessions.” Setting the title aside, this is an interesting book carefully tracing the evolution of the creeds and confessions we know them today. It is a useful framework on which to peg the history of the Christian Church and a thorough introduction to an interesting topic.

Could I just ask that either the publishers or the authors consider a companion non-academic book for us simple folk? It could be a book that contains all the great yarns and stories which the history of the creeds and confessions holds, told in a narrative style with characters and dialogue. Perhaps a book titled “The Stories of the Creeds and Confessions (as they might have happened.)” And please, I beg you, include the one about Santa Claus stalking across the room at Nicea to slap Arius in the face.