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Christian religion, and this first, as opposed to heathen philosophers and Gnostic errorists, under the apologetic and polemic form. Theology is the higher self-consiousness of the church, and theologians are its leading intelligences, the eyes and ears, so to speak, of Christ's body. We find that in the most active and fruitful periods precisely, divinity shows the greatest life, as in the time of the Fathers, in the best period of the Middle Ages, and in the age of the Reformation; while along with the decline of theology in common, ignorance also, superstition, and general religious decay, sooner or later make themselves felt.

The most important part of the history of theology, is dogmatic history, having for its object the doctrines of Christianity.1 This forms the most spiritual, and in many respects the most weighty branch, of church history in general, and has been in modern times accordingly honored in Germany with a number of separate works by Muenscher, Engelhardt, Baumgarten-Crusius, Hagenbach, Baur, and others. Besides this, German scholars have devoted to the history of the more weighty dogmas special extended monographies, some of which are of great value. So Baur and Meier have treated the doctrine of the Trinity and the incarnation, Baur also the doctrine of the atonement, Dorner the doctrine of Christ's person, Ebrard the doctrine of the Lord's supper, etc.2 The New Testament, which is the living germ of all theology, contains also all the doctrines of salvation, not however in a scientific, but in their original, living, popular, and practical form. Only Paul, who had a learned education and whose mind was of the most dialectic cast, approaches in his epistles, and particularly in his epistle to the Romans, the logical and systematic mode of instruction. By dogma now, we understand simply the Biblical doctrine, mastered by reflection, reduced to a scientific expression and laid away as a fixed article of religion. It becomes symbolic, when it is adopted by the general church, or by a part of the church, as expressing its sense of what the Scriptures teach, so as to be invested thus with general authority as a doctrinal rule. Dogmas and dogmatic theology then, in the strict sense, begin only with the time when the church woke to scientific self-consciousness, a result due, in no small part to heresies and the perversions of the Christian doctrine. The dogma

We have no fully suitable name for it in English. Dogmatic History, as it is generally called, should signify rather a history of dogmatic theology, or of the systematic treatment of doctrines, and refers more to the form than the contents. The nearest approach to it is the title History of Christian Doctrines.

2 There is also an extended, philosophically digested, instructive and stirring "Introduction to Dogmatic History" by Theodore Kliefoth, 1839.

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of course has also its own development, and is subjected to the moving flow of the world's general life and culture, whilst the Biblical truth remains in its own nature always the same. Each period of church history is called to unfold and bring into clear view some special side of the dogma, over against corresponding errors, until at last the whole circle of the Christian system of truth shall be brought out in natural order. So the Nicene period was called to assert particularly the dogma of the divinity of Christ and of the Holy Ghost, the dogma thus of the Holy Trinity, against the Arians and Semiarians; the Augustinian period, the dogma of man's sin and God's grace against the Pelagians. The work of the Reformation, in a dogmatic respect, was soteriological, that is, it brought out the doctrine of the subjective side of salvation, in particular of justification by faith, in opposition to the Romish idea of righteousness by works. In our own time, the dogma of the church appears to be challenging continually more and more the attention of theologians. Eschatology, or the doctrine of the Last Things, will finally have its turn. Since however the Christian doctrines form a connected whole, no one of them of course can be handled, without some reference at the same time, to all the rest.

As theology in general comes into contact with the profane sciences, exegesis with oriental and classic philology, church history with world history, Christian morality with philosophical ethics, homiletics with rhetoric, etc., so dogmatic history stands in specially intimate connection with the history of philosophy, and is always more or less under its influence. Thus with the Greek fathers we find the dogmatic consciousness swayed by Platonism and New-Platonism; in the case of the mediaeval schoolmen, by the logic and dialectics of Aristotle ; since the Reformation, by the systems of Descartes, Spinoza, Bacon, Locke, Leibnitz, Kant, Fries, Fichte, Schelling, and Hegel. The history of philosophy and dogmatic history are two parallel processes, which repel and attract one another at different times, till finally the world-consciousness shall be brought to harmony and reconciliation with the consciousness of God, natural reason into unison with the truth of revelation.

9. History of Morality, Government, and Worship.

4. The next branch of our science, is the history of Christian practice or of morality. This very important part, which is most adapted for practical ends, has been alas thus far but too much neglected. Neander, who throws it into one section with worship, has given more

attention to it than usual; and it is this which imparts to his cele brated work its peculiar charm in the way of religious edification. The doctrine of Christianity requires a corresponding holy walk, faith must work by love. Since the Christian religion is throughout of a moral nature, that is, aims always at the glory of God and the full sanctification of man, all church history is indeed, in a broad sense, a history of morality. The dogma, theology, church constitution, worship, are all moral acts. We take the word here, however, in the narrower sense of what is immediately practical. To this part then belongs the description of the peculiar virtues and vices, the good and bad deeds, the characteristic manners and customs, of leading ecclesiastical individuals, as well as of whole nations and times. Here it falls, to describe the influence of Christianity upon marriage, the family, the female sex, on the abolition of slavery and various social evils. A large space is required, in this view, for the history of the monastic institute, particularly during the Middle Ages, when it split into a great many orders, each of which again forms a more or less peculiar type of morality, having however also its corresponding dangers and temptations.

5. The church must have further a form of government, and exercise discipline on her refractory members. This gives us the history of church polity and church discipline; which are usually comprised under one section, but may just as well be treated apart also, especially where the last has reached a high degree of cultivation. The constitution of the church, like the Christian doctrine, includes an unchangeable substance and a changeable form. The first is the spiritual office ordained by Christ himself, to which belongs the power of binding and loosing in the name of the Lord. This is different, according to the necessities of the time and its particular relations. In the beginning, we find the Apostolic constitution, where the apostles are the infallible teachers and leaders of the church. In the second century, the Episcopal system comes forward, which advances with natural growth into the Metropolitan and Patriarchal systems. The Oriental churches stop with the last, while the Latin church, in the Middle Ages, concentrate all the power of the patriarchs in the bishop of Rome, and form thus the Papal system, which in the end degenerates into an insupportable despotism over the conscience. With the Reformation. then arise new church constitutions, more suitable to the free genius of Protestantism; so, in particular, the government by Presbyteries and Synods.

Discipline is at one time strict, at another lax, according to the reigning spirit of the church, and the measure of her freedom or vassalage, as related to the civil power.

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It is in this sphere particularly that the church comes into corre spondence with the State, and this relation also has its own history, as subject to a great variety of forms. Either the State takes the attitude of hostility to the church, in the character of a persecuting heathen power, as in the first three centuries before the conversion of the emperor Constantine; or the church rules the State and becomes hierarchical, as in the case of Western Christendom in the Middle Ages, and as the case is still where the papacy is in full power; or the Christian State governs the church, and is Caesaro-papistic, on the principle cujus regio ejus religio; so in the case even of the Byzantine emperors, who had a great deal to do with the outward, and also with the inward, affairs of the Greek church, and then more fully in the case of a number of Protestant countries since the sixteenth century. Or finally, State and church are independent of one another and each is left to its own free course; the order which prevails in the United States, and that seems latterly to be making way for itself also in Europe.

6. Lastly, we have still to notice the history of divine service or worship. The essential elements of it, appointed by Christ himself, are the preaching of God's word and the administration of the holy sacraments. But the way and manner of preaching, of religious instruction, of administering the sacraments, has again its history. In addition to this, the church appoints sacred places and sacred times, produces prayers, liturgies, hymns, chorals, and all sorts of significant symbolic forms and actions, enters into alliance with the fine arts, especially architecture, painting, music, and poetry, and makes them tributary to the purposes of worship. Often the service is rich, overladen indeed, as in the Roman church, which seeks to work upon the mind by imposing symbols, by outward show and pomp, particularly in the mass. Or it is simple and sober, as for instance in the Puritan churches. Again, each single branch of worship has its separate history. There is a history thus of the pulpit, of catechetical instruction, of liturgies, of church building, of religious sculpture and painting, of sacred poesy and music, etc. Here also much still remains to be done, especially in the department of Christian art. Hase is the only one properly among general church historians, who has brought it into the range of his description; and he too is confined, by the narrow size of his manual, to short though spirited sketches. Often the history of church government and worship is thrown together, under the name of Christian archaeology, which is then usually limited to the first six centuries, as the period of the origin and settlement of church forms and laws. The most important works here are Bingham's Antiquities

of the Christian Church, which have been translated also into Latin, and the later Archaeologies of Augusti (full in 12 volumes, abridged in 3), Rheinwald, Böhmer and Siegel. From all this, we may see easily the rich and manifold nature of church history, as well as the difficulty of properly mastering its immense material.

As regards now however the treatment in detail, it will not do to carry out rigidly everywhere this six-fold division, unless we choose to become pedantic and interrupt the natural order of things. In the age of the Reformation, for instance, the different spheres, particularly the outward course of events and the development of doctrine, run so actively into one another, that a strict distribution of the matter under different heads, would do violence to the history, and hinder more than promote a clear view of it. Nor will it answer to follow always the same order, but in each period, that interest should be placed foremost which in reality is found to take the lead. Thus, for instance, the development of doctrine stands, in the seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries, almost entirely still, and must take, in this period, accordingly, only a very subordinate rank. At the same time, however, the division and treatment of the matter, in the different periods, will depend very much of course on the disposition of the historian and the end he has particularly in view.

$10. Sources of Church History.

Whatever may serve to furnish information, more or less accurate, on the external and internal acts and fortunes of the church, is to be reckoned among the sources of its history. The degree of its credibility and trustworthiness, criticism must determine on outward and inward grounds. We may distinguish in general between immediate and mediate sources.

A. The IMMEDIAte or direct souRCES, as being the pure original utterance of history itself, are the most important, and fall again into: a. Written. Here belong,

1. Official reports and documents. Of special weight among these are the acts of councils; then the official letters of bishops, particularly the bulls of the popes.2 These decrees and bulls refer to all

Of these we have several collections; the best, by Mansi: Sacrorum conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio. Florent. et Venet. 1759 sqq. in 31 folio volumes. (For the history of our American churches, also, synodical transactions are, in like manner, the most authentic immediate source.)

Of these, too, there are various collections; one of particular note by Cocqualinus: Bullarum amplissima collectio. Rom. 1739. 28 t. fol., and Magni bullarii continuatio (1758-1830), collegit Andr. Advocatus Barbieri. Rom. 1835 sq.

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