A Book Review from Books At a Glance
by Thomas Haviland-Pabst
The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church was first published in 1957, edited by F. L. Cross and E.A. Livingstone. Andrew Louth, professor emeritus of the University of Durham and archpriest in the Russian Orthodox Church, has taken over the editorial helm with this fourth edition of this handbook. For those unfamiliar with this Dictionary, Cross, in the preface to the first edition, writes, “The present Dictionary has been compiled in order to bring together in a concise and handy form, as large a body of information as possible directly bearing on the Christian Church” (ix). Now, with the fourth edition, Louth notes a number of changes that have been made in contrast to earlier editions: (1) expansive treatment of Christianity in “Africa, Asia, and Latin America” (Louth, vi); (2) deletion of biblical entries as well as those focusing on world religions since there are a number of resources that can be consulted for such topics; (3) a diminishment of the Anglican church which characterized earlier editions; and (4) the addition of entries focusing on Eastern Europe, liturgy, and “moral, pastoral, and political theology” (vi).
In order for the reader to gain a sense of what this new edition of this long-standing Dictionary has to offer, we will compare it with the third edition, printed by Oxford University Press in 1997. To begin with, while the third edition was one volume consisting of 1,785 pages, the fourth edition is two volumes consisting of 2,143, which is roughly a two-hundred-and-fifty-page increase in size. Clearly, then, the deletions noted above have not subtracted substantially from the quantity of entries in this Dictionary.
Comparing entries under the letter ‘A’ in the third and fourth editions, we see various deletions, insertions, and some modifications. Revisions or modifications take a variety of forms. First, as per the editor’s explicit intention, biblical entries have, in the main, been deleted. These include (among others): ‘Ain Karim’ (a village near Jerusalem), ‘Aleph’ (the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet), ‘The Book of Amos,’ ‘Ananias and Sapphira,’ and ‘Annas’ (the Jewish High Priest from AD 6-15). However, discussion of these entries can be found in really any biblical encyclopedia or dictionary that one would care to consult so the omission of these with this Dictionary which already covers a wide expanse of topics is not problematic. Interestingly, not all biblical entries have been deleted but the ones that remain have been significantly modified to reflect the intention of this Dictionary. For example, the entry on Abraham has been revised to focus more on the reception of Abraham by the church and less biblical data points one would expect to find in a Bible dictionary. The entry on Adam has been largely untouched but this appears to be the case because the author’s entry in the third edition chose to discuss the reception history of this biblical figure.
Second, some entries have been reduced in size while others have been expanded. However, this is to be expected as the intentions and aims of the Dictionary shift. Moreover, the inclusion of new entries warranted the reduction of others as with the entry on ‘adiaphorists’ which was reduced because the newly inserted entry on ‘adiaphora’ covers much of the ground the earlier entry covered in the third edition. Overall, though, expansion of previous entries is the norm, which adds to rather than detracts from the usefulness of this edition.
Two very helpful things that the editor of this edition does to establish its usefulness. First, when the title ‘saint’ is applied to person (e.g., ‘St. Aelfred,’ 23), unlike the third edition, he does not therefore relegate the person with this title to the entries under the letter S. Second, he carefully and wisely creates two or more entries where there was one in order to facilitate ease of reference. For example, unlike the one entry for ‘Agnus Dei’ in the third edition, the reader is provided two entries, one on ‘Agnus Dei’ as a liturgical text and the other ‘Agnus Dei’ as a wax medallion (34).
Beyond these features, there are a number of additions as well as deletions. We hasten to add that the deletions, much like the biblical entries noted above, are not deletions of grave significance and they are relatively uncommon. Generally speaking, said deletions consist of relatively obscure historical figures (e.g., the English canonist John Ayton) or those not germane to the overall aim of this Dictionary (e.g., Ezra Abbot, a biblical scholar).
Now, the inclusion of new entries is really what sets this edition apart from the rest. Already, we’ve mentioned the inclusion of an entry on ‘adiaphora’ (how they missed this until now is a mystery), but others include ‘aesthetics,’ ‘aggadah’ (a word denoting non-legal material in classical rabbinism), ‘alchemy,’ the ‘Alpha Course,’ ‘adoption’ (i.e., adopting children), and three entries on ‘apparitions of Mary’ (in order, Coptic, Orthodox, and Catholic). In addition, entries have been added that give the reader the sense of the Christian church as a whole such as the new entries on ‘the Orthodox Church in America,’ ‘Anglican-Methodist Covenant,’ ‘Anglican Papalism’ (to be distinguished from Anglo-Catholicism), and ‘Anglican Church in North America’ (to be distinguished from Anglican Communion) as well as various figures in the non-Western churches such as ‘Simon Duraiswami Amalorpavadass,’ “a priest in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Pondicherry and Cuddalore in 1959” and “a theologian [who] played a key role in the renewal of the life and mission of the Indian church” (58).
When a new edition of any book is published, it’s important to ask whether the updated edition is something one needs to purchase. It’s clear that this Dictionary has had staying power given its over sixty years in existence. But has this fourth edition added anything new, anything substantially different from its predecessors? If our comparison of the third and fourth edition isn’t enough to answer this question for the reader of this review, then we’ll make plain the answer here—yes. At first glance, the reader familiar with the third edition will recognize many of the same entries he or she has come to expect to find, but upon closer examination, it becomes clear that both the editorial hand of Louth and the inclusion of such significant entries as ACNA or adiaphora that this is truly an advance beyond its predecessors.
Would the earlier versions) suffice still for many purposes? Yes, of course. But if one wants a dictionary on something as broad as the Christian Church, then the upgrade to the fourth edition is worth the purchase as it has without question superseded earlier iterations. As such, we would offer our highest recommendation of this resource.
Thomas Haviland-Pabst
Buy the books
THE OXFORD DICTIONARY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, 4TH EDITION, edited by Andrew Louth