Author: Otto Pfleiderer

Publisher: Forgotten Books

Published: 2015-07-07

Total Pages: 488

ISBN-13: 9781330930717

Excerpt from Primitive Christianity Its Writings and Teachings in Their Historical Connections, Vol. 1 Ence, the reproach of paganising. That, however, has never made me waver in my conviction, which has remained unshaken ever since I studied under my revered teacher, Ferdinand Christian Baur, that Christianity as a historical phenomenon is to be investigated by the same methods as all other history, and that, in particular, its origin is to be understood by being studied as the normal' outcome Of the manifold factors in the religious and ethical life of the time. Even though the way in which Baur conceived this development was not, as we all know now, quite accurate in detail, yet the principle of development, which he introduced into the his torical study of theology, retains its position by an incontestable right - a position which the temporary reactionary tendency of traditionalism and dogmatic positivism will not ultimately affect in the slightest degree. I believe, moreover, that this tendency is already on the wane, and that the time is not far distant when the application to Biblical Theology of the historical and comparative methods of the Science of Religion will be generally welcomed. When that takes place, people will be able to convince themselves that this scientific investigation of its history in no way endangers the stability of the Christian religion. Quite the contrary. So long as Christianity is conceived of as a miracle, whether unique or repeated, its truth is, for the men of our critical age, always more or less problematical. 'but when it is recognised as the necessary outcome of the development of the religious spirit of our race, towards the production of which the whole history of the ancient world was moving onward, in' the. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.