Outlines of the History of Dogma
by Adolf Harnack
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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: part t. THE RISE OF ECCLESIASTICAL DOGMA. BOOK I. THE PREPARATION. CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL SURVEY. THE first century of the existence of Gentile- Christian communities is characterized, (1) by the rapid retirement of Jewish Christianity, (2) by religious enthusiasm and the strength of the future hope, (3) by a show more severe morality deduced from the Masters' teaching, (4) by the manifold form and freedom of expression of belief, on the basis of plain formulas and ever increasing tradition, (5) by the lack of a definite authority, in the transition to a recognized outward authority among the churches, (G) by the lack of a political connection among the various communities, and by an organization which was firm and yet permitted individual liberty, (7) by the development of a peculiar literary activity, claiming assent to its newly produced facts, (8) by the reproduction of detached phrases and individualinferences from the apostolical teaching, without a clear understanding of the same, (9) by the cropping out of those tendencies which served in every way to hasten the process already begun of fusing the Gospel with the spiritual and religious interests of the time, ?with Hellenism, ?as well as by numerous attempts to wrench the Gospel free from its native setting and to introduce elements foreign to it. And finally, above-all, it belonged to the (Hellenic) representation to consider knowledge, not as a (charismatic) supplement to faith, but as of like essence with it. CHAPTER II. GROUND COMMON TO CHRISTIANS AND ATTITUDE TAKEN TOWARD JUDAISM. Beliefs That the great majority of Christians had com- Common mon beliefs is indicated by this fact, among others, that gnosticism was gradually expelled from the churches. Assurance of the knowledge of the true God, con. show lessTags
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