An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine

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Cosimo, Inc., Jun 1, 2007 - Religion - 468 pages

Still considered essential reading for serious thinkers on religion more than a century and a half after it was written, this seminal work of modern theology, first published in 1845, presents a history of Catholic doctrine from the days of the Apostles to the time of its writing, and follows with specific examples of how the doctrine has not only survived corruption but grown stronger through defending itself against it, and is, therefore, the true religion. This classic of Christian apologetics, considered a foundational work of 19th-century intellectualism on par with Darwin's Origin of Species, is must reading not only for the faithful but also for anyone who wishes to be well educated in the fundamentals of modern thought.

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Contents

INTRODUCTION
3
CHAPTER I
33
CHAPTER II
55
CHAPTER III
99
PAGE
122
Conservative Action on its Past
123
PART II
167
33
177
75
265
The Historical Argument in behalf of the existing Developments
313
CHAPTER VII
323
Scripture and its Mystical Interpretation
338
Additional Remarks
353
CHAPTER IX
383
CHAPTER X
400
CHAPTER XII
437

CHAPTER VI
207
55
235
CONCLUSION
445
Copyright

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Page 74 - So is the kingdom of God, as if a man should cast seed into the ground; and should sleep, and rise night and day, and the seed should spring and grow up, he knoweth not how.
Page 369 - And we know that the Son of God is come, and hath given us an understanding, that we may know him that is true ; and we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ. This is the true God, and eternal life.
Page 358 - My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee, so that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding; yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding ; if thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures ; then shalt thou understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.
Page 422 - Whereunto then shall I liken the men of this generation? and to what are they like ? They are like unto children sitting in the market-place, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and ye have not danced : we have mourned unto you, and ye have not wept.
Page 370 - And God wrought special miracles by the hands of Paul; So that from his body were brought unto the sick, handkerchiefs or aprons, and the diseases departed from them, and the evil spirits went out of them.
Page 30 - JVlohler : viz., that the increase and expansion of the Christian Creed and Ritual, and the variations which have attended the process in the case of individual writers and churches, are the necessary attendants on any philosophy or polity which takes possession of the intellect and heart, and has had any wide or extended dominion ; that, from the nature of the human mind, time is necessary for the full comprehension and perfection of great ideas...
Page 328 - I think there is one unerring mark of it, viz. the not entertaining any proposition with greater assurance, than the proofs it is built upon will warrant. Whoever goes beyond this measure of assent, it is plain, receives not truth in the love of it; loves not truth for truth's sake, but for some other by-end.
Page 425 - Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt...
Page 70 - And Moses said, We will go with our young and with our old, with our sons and with our daughters, with our flocks and with our herds will we go; for we must hold, a feast unto the LORD.

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