History of Dogma, Volume 1 (of 7)
A >> Adolph Harnack >> History of Dogma, Volume 1 (of 7)Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38
THEOLOGICAL TRANSLATION LIBRARY
EDITED BY THE REV. T. K. CHEYNE MA DD, ORIET PROFESSOR OF INTERPRETATION
OXFORD AND THE REV. A. B. BRUCE, DD PROFESSOR OF APOLOGETICS AND NEW
TESTAMENT: EXEGESIS, FREE CHURCH COLLEGE GLASGOW
VOL II
HARNACKS HISTORY OF DOGMA. VOL. I
[Greek: To dogmatos onoma tes anthropines echetai boules te kai gnomes.
Hoti de touth' houtos echei, marturei men hikanos he dogmatike ton
iatron techne, martyrei de kai ta ton philosophon kaloumena dogmata.
Hoti de kai ta synkleto doxanta eti kai nun dogmata synkletou legetai,
oudena agnoein oimai.]
MARCELLUS OF ANCYRA.
Die Christliche Religion hat nichts in der Philosophie zu thun, Sie ist
ein machtiges Wesen fuer sich, woran die gesunkene und leidende
Menschheit von Zeit zu Zeit sich immer wieder emporgearbeitet hat, und
indem man ihr diese Wirkung zugesteht, ist sie ueber aller Philosophie
erhaben und bedarf von ihr keine Stuetze.
Gesprache mit GOETHE von ECKERMANN,
2 Th p 39.
HISTORY OF DOGMA
BY
DR. ADOLPH HARNACK
ORDINARY PROF. OF CHURCH HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY, AND FELLOW OF THE
ROYAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, BERLIN
_TRANSLATED FROM THE THIRD GERMAN EDITION_
BY
NEIL BUCHANAN
VOL. I.
BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1901
VORWORT ZUR ENGLISCHEN AUSGABE.
Ein theologisches Buch erhaelt erst dadurch einen Platz in der
Weltlitteratur, dass es Deutsch und Englisch gelesen werden kann. Diese
beiden Sprachen zusammen haben auf dem Gebiete der Wissenschaft vom
Christenthum das Lateinische abgeloest. Es ist mir daher eine grosse
Freude, dass mein Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte in das Englische
uebersetzt worden ist, und ich sage dem Uebersetzer sowie den Verlegern
meinen besten Dank.
Der schwierigste Theil der Dogmengeschichte ist ihr Anfang, nicht nur
weil in dem Anfang die Keime fuer alle spaeteren Entwickelungen liegen,
und daher ein Beobachtungsfehler beim Beginn die Richtigkeit der ganzen
folgenden Darstellung bedroht, sondern auch desshalb, weil die Auswahl
des wichtigsten Stoffs aus der Geschichte des Urchristenthums und der
biblischen Theologie ein schweres Problem ist. Der Eine wird finden,
dass ich zu viel in das Buch aufgenommen habe, und der Andere zu
wenig--vielleicht haben Beide recht; ich kann dagegen nur anfuehren, dass
sich mir die getroffene Auswahl nach wiederholtem Nachdenken und
Experimentiren auf's Neue erprobt hat.
Wer ein theologisches Buch aufschlaegt, fragt gewoehnlich zuerst nach dem
"Standpunkt" des Verfassers. Bei geschichtlichen Darstellungen sollte
man so nicht fragen. Hier handelt es sich darum, ob der Verfasser einen
Sinn hat fuer den Gegenstand den er darstellt, ob er Originales und
Abgeleitetes zu unterscheiden versteht, ob er seinen Stoff volkommen
kennt, ob er sich der Grenzen des geschichtlichen Wissens bewusst ist,
und ob er wahrhaftig ist. Diese Forderungen enthalten den kategorischen
Imperativ fuer den Historiker; aber nur indem man rastlos an sich selber
arbeitet, sind sie zu erfullen,--so ist jede geschichtliche Darstellung
eine ethische Aufgabe. Der Historiker soll in jedem Sinn _treu_ sein: ob
er das gewesen ist, darnach soll mann fragen.
_Berlin_, am 1. Mai, 1894.
ADOLF HARNACK.
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE ENGLISH EDITION.
No theological book can obtain a place in the literature of the world
unless it can be read both in German and in English. These two languages
combined have taken the place of Latin in the sphere of Christian
Science. I am therefore greatly pleased to learn that my "History of
Dogma" has been translated into English, and I offer my warmest thanks
both to the translator and to the publishers.
The most difficult part of the history of dogma is the beginning, not
only because it contains the germs of all later developments, and
therefore an error in observation here endangers the correctness of the
whole following account, but also because the selection of the most
important material from the history of primitive Christianity and
biblical theology is a hard problem. Some will think that I have
admitted too much into the book, others too little. Perhaps both are
right. I can only reply that after repeated consideration and experiment
I continue to be satisfied with my selection.
In taking up a theological book we are in the habit of enquiring first
of all as to the "stand-point" of the Author. In a historical work there
is no room for such enquiry. The question here is, whether the Author is
in sympathy with the subject about which he writes, whether he can
distinguish original elements from those that are derived, whether he
has a thorough acquaintance with his material, whether he is conscious
of the limits of historical knowledge, and whether he is truthful. These
requirements constitute the categorical imperative for the historian:
but they can only be fulfilled by an unwearied self-discipline. Hence
every historical study is an ethical task. The historian ought to be
faithful in every sense of the word; whether he has been so or not is
the question on which his readers have to decide.
_Berlin_, 1st May, 1894.
ADOLF HARNACK.
FROM THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE FIRST EDITION.
The task of describing the genesis of ecclesiastical dogma which I have
attempted to perform in the following pages, has hitherto been proposed
by very few scholars, and, properly speaking, undertaken by one only. I
must therefore crave the indulgence of those acquainted with the subject
for an attempt which no future historian of dogma can avoid.
At first I meant to confine myself to narrower limits, but I was unable
to carry out that intention, because the new arrangement of the material
required a more detailed justification. Yet no one will find in the
book, which presupposes the knowledge of Church history so far as it is
given in the ordinary manuals, any repertory of the theological thought
of Christian antiquity. The diversity of Christian ideas, or of ideas
closely related to Christianity, was very great in the first centuries.
For that very reason a selection was necessary; but it was required,
above all, by the aim of the work. The history of dogma has to give an
account, only of those doctrines of Christian writers which were
authoritative in wide circles, or which furthered the advance of the
development; otherwise it would become a collection of monographs, and
thereby lose its proper value. I have endeavoured to subordinate
everything to the aim of exhibiting the development which led to the
ecclesiastical dogmas, and therefore have neither, for example,
communicated the details of the gnostic systems, nor brought forward in
detail the theological ideas of Clemens Romanus, Ignatius, etc. Even a
history of Paulinism will be sought for in the book in vain. It is a
task by itself, to trace the aftereffects of the theology of Paul in the
post-Apostolic age. The History of Dogma can only furnish fragments
here; for it is not consistent with its task to give an accurate account
of the history of a theology the effects of which were at first very
limited. It is certainly no easy matter to determine what was
authoritative in wide circles at the time when dogma was first being
developed, and I may confess that I have found the working out of the
third chapter of the first book very difficult. But I hope that the
severe limitation in the material will be of service to the subject. If
the result of this limitation should be to lead students to read
connectedly the manual which has grown out of my lectures, my highest
wish will be gratified.
There can be no great objection to the appearance of a text-book on the
history of dogma at the present time. We now know in what direction we
have to work; but we still want a history of Christian theological ideas
in their relation to contemporary philosophy. Above all, we have not got
an exact knowledge of the Hellenistic philosophical terminologies in
their development up to the fourth century. I have keenly felt this
want, which can only be remedied by well-directed common labour. I have
made a plentiful use of the controversial treatise of Celsus against
Christianity, of which little use has hitherto been made for the history
of dogma. On the other hand, except in a few cases, I have deemed it
inadmissible to adduce parallel passages, easy to be got, from Philo,
Seneca, Plutarch, Epictetus, Marcus Aurelius, Porphyry, etc.; for only a
comparison strictly carried out would have been of value here. I have
been able neither to borrow such from others, nor to furnish it myself.
Yet I have ventured to submit my work, because, in my opinion, it is
possible to prove the dependence of dogma on the Greek spirit, without
being compelled to enter into a discussion of all the details.
The Publishers of the Encyclopaedia Britannica have allowed me to print
here, in a form but slightly altered, the articles on Neoplatonism and
Manichaeism which I wrote for their work, and for this I beg to thank
them.
It is now eighty-three years since my grandfather, Gustav Ewers, edited
in German the excellent manual on the earliest history of dogma by
Muenter, and thereby got his name associated with the history of the
founding of the new study. May the work of the grandson be found not
unworthy of the clear and disciplined mind which presided over the
beginnings of the young science.
_Giessen_, 1st August, 1885.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
In the two years that have passed since the appearance of the first
edition I have steadily kept in view the improvement of this work, and
have endeavoured to learn from the reviews of it that have appeared. I
owe most to the study of Weizsaecker's work, on the Apostolic Age, and
his notice of the first edition of this volume in the Goettinger gelehrte
Anzeigen, 1886, No. 21. The latter, in several decisive passages
concerning the general conception, drew my attention to the fact that I
had emphasised certain points too strongly, but had not given due
prominence to others of equal importance, while not entirely overlooking
them. I have convinced myself that these hints were, almost throughout,
well founded, and have taken pains to meet them in the new edition. I
have also learned from Heinrici's commentary on the Second Epistle to
the Corinthians, and from Bigg's "Lectures on the Christian Platonists
of Alexandria." Apart from these works there has appeared very little
that could be of significance for my historical account; but I have once
more independently considered the main problems, and in some cases,
after repeated reading of the sources, checked my statements, removed
mistakes and explained what had been too briefly stated. Thus, in
particular, Chapter II. Sec.Sec. 1-3 of the "Presuppositions", also the Third
Chapter of the First Book (especially Section 6), also in the Second
Book, Chapter I. and Chapter II. (under B), the Third Chapter
(Supplement 3 and excursus on "Catholic and Romish"), the Fifth Chapter
(under 1 and 3) and the Sixth Chapter (under 2) have been subjected to
changes and greater additions. Finally, a new excursus has been added on
the various modes of conceiving pre-existence, and in other respects
many things have been improved in detail. The size of the book has
thereby been increased by about fifty pages. As I have been
misrepresented by some as one who knew not how to appreciate the
uniqueness of the Gospel history and the evangelic faith, while others
have conversely reproached me with making the history of dogma proceed
from an "apostasy" from the Gospel to Hellenism, I have taken pains to
state my opinions on both these points as clearly as possible. In doing
so I have only wrought out the hints which were given in the first
edition, and which, as I supposed, were sufficient for readers. But it
is surely a reasonable desire when I request the critics in reading the
paragraphs which treat of the "Presuppositions", not to forget how
difficult the questions there dealt with are, both in themselves and
from the nature of the sources, and how exposed to criticism the
historian is who attempts to unfold his position towards them in a few
pages. As is self-evident, the centre of gravity of the book lies in
that which forms its subject proper, in the account of the origin of
dogma within the Graeco-Roman empire. But one should not on that account,
as many have done, pass over the beginning which lies before the
beginning, or arbitrarily adopt a starting-point of his own; for
everything here depends on where and how one begins. I have not
therefore been able to follow the well-meant counsel to simply strike
out the "Presuppositions."
I would gladly have responded to another advice to work up the notes
into the text; but I would then have been compelled to double the size
of some chapters. The form of this book, in many respects awkward, may
continue as it is so long as it represents the difficulties by which the
subject is still pressed. When they have been removed--and the smallest
number of them lie in the subject matter--I will gladly break up this
form of the book and try to give it another shape. For the friendly
reception given to it I have to offer my heartiest thanks. But against
those who, believing themselves in possession of a richer view of the
history here related, have called my conception meagre, I appeal to the
beautiful words of Tertullian; "Malumus in scripturis minus, si forte,
sapere quam contra."
_Marburg_, 24th December, 1887.
AUTHOR'S PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.
In the six years that have passed since the appearance of the second
edition I have continued to work at the book, and have made use of the
new sources and investigations that have appeared during this period, as
well as corrected and extended my account in many passages. Yet I have
not found it necessary to make many changes in the second half of the
work. The increase of about sixty pages is almost entirely in the first
half.
_Berlin_, 31st December, 1893
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTORY DIVISION.
CHAPTER I.--PROLEGOMENA TO THE STUDY OF THE HISTORY OF DOGMA
Sec. 1. The Idea and Task of the History of Dogma
Definition
Limits and Divisions
Dogma and Theology
Factors in the formation of Dogma
Explanation as to the conception and task of the History of Dogma
Sec. 2. History of the History of Dogma
The Early, the Mediaeval, and the Roman Catholic Church
The Reformers and the 17th Century
Mosheim, Walch, Ernesti
Lessing, Semler, Lange, Muenscher, Baumgarten-Crusius, Meier Baur,
Neander, Kliefoth, Thomasius,
Nitzsch, Ritschl, Renan, Loofs
CHAPTER II.--THE PRESUPPOSITIONS OF THE HISTORY OF DOGMA
Sec. 1. Introductory
The Gospel and the Old Testament
The Detachment of the Christians from the Jewish Church
The Church and the Graeco-Roman World
The Greek spirit an element of the Ecclesiastical Doctrine of Faith
The Elements connecting Primitive Christianity and the growing Catholic
Church
The Presuppositions of the origin of the Apostolic Catholic Doctrine of
Faith
Sec. 2. The Gospel of Jesus Christ according to His own Testimony
concerning Himself
Fundamental Features
Details
Supplements
Literature
Sec. 3. The Common Preaching concerning Jesus Christ in the first
generation of believers.
General Outline
The faith of the first Disciples
The beginnings of Christology
Conceptions of the Work of Jesus
Belief in the Resurrection
Righteousness and the Law
Paul
The Self-consciousness of being the Church of God
Supplement 1. Universalism
Supplement 2. Questions as to the value of the Law; the four main
tendencies at the close of the Apostolic Age
Supplement 3. The Pauline Theology.
Supplement 4. The Johannine Writings
Supplement 5. The Authorities in the Church
Sec. 4. The current Exposition of the Old Testament and the Jewish hopes of
the future in their significance for the Earliest types of Christian
preaching
The Rabbinical and Exegetical Methods
The Jewish Apocalyptic literature
Mythologies and poetical ideas, notions of pre-existence and their
application to Messiah
The limits of the explicable Literature
Sec. 5. The Religious Conceptions and the Religious Philosophy of the
Hellenistic Jews in their significance for the later formulation of the
Gospel
Spiritualising and Moralising of the Jewish Religion
Philo
The Hermeneutic principles of Philo
Sec. 6. The religious dispositions of the Greeks and Romans in the first
two centuries, and the current Graeco-Roman philosophy of religion
The new religious needs and the old worship (Excursus on [Greek: theos])
The System of associations, and the Empire
Philosophy and its acquisitions
Platonic and Stoic Elements in the philosophy of religion
Greek culture and Roman ideas in the Church
The Empire and philosophic schools (the Cynics)
Literature
SUPPLEMENTARY.
(1) The twofold conception of the blessing of Salvation in its
significance for the following period
(2) Obscurity in the origin of the most important Christian ideas and
Ecclesiastical forms
(3) Significance of the Pauline theology for the legitimising and
reformation of the doctrine of the Church in the following period
DIVISION I.--THE GENESIS OF ECCLESIASTICAL DOGMA, OR THE GENESIS OF THE
CATHOLIC APOSTOLIC DOGMATIC THEOLOGY, AND THE FIRST SCIENTIFIC
ECCLESIASTICAL SYSTEM OF DOCTRINE.
BOOK I.
THE PREPARATION.
CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL SURVEY
CHAPTER II.--THE ELEMENT COMMON TO ALL CHRISTIANS AND THE BREACH WITH
JUDAISM
CHAPTER III. THE COMMON FAITH AND THE BEGINNINGS OF KNOWLEDGE IN GENTILE
CHRISTIANITY AS IT WAS BEING DEVELOPED INTO CATHOLICISM
(1) The Communities and the Church
(2) The Foundations of the Faith; the Old Testament, and the traditions
about Jesus (sayings of Jesus, the _Kerygma_ about Jesus), the
significance of the "Apostolic"
(3) The main articles of Christianity and the conceptions of salvation.
The new law. Eschatology.
(4) The Old Testament as source of the knowledge of faith
(5) The knowledge of God and of the world, estimate of the world
(Demons)
(6) Faith in Jesus Christ
Jesus the Lord.
Jesus the Christ
Jesus the Son of God, the _Theologia Christi_
The Adoptian and the Pneumatic Christology
Ideas of Christ's work
(7) The Worship, the sacred actions, and the organisation of the
Churches
The Worship and Sacrifice
Baptism and the Lord's Supper
The organisation
SUPPLEMENTARY.
The premises of Catholicism
Doctrinal diversities of the Apostolical Fathers
CHAPTER IV.--THE ATTEMPTS OF THE GNOSTICS TO CREATE AN APOSTOLIC
DOGMATIC, AND A CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY; OR THE ACUTE SECULARISING OF
CHRISTIANITY
(1) The conditions for the rise of Gnosticism.
(2) The nature of Gnosticism
(3) History of Gnosticism and the forms in which it appeared
(4) The most important Gnostic doctrines
CHAPTER V.--THE ATTEMPT OF MARCION TO SET ASIDE THE OLD TESTAMENT
FOUNDATION OF CHRISTIANITY, TO PURIFY THE TRADITION AND REFORM
CHRISTENDOM ON THE BASIS OF THE PAULINE GOSPEL
Characterisation of Marcion's attempt
(1) His estimate of the Old Testament and the god of the Jews
(2) The God of the Gospel
(3) The relation of the two Gods according to Marcion. The Gnostic woof
in Marcion's Christianity
(4) The Christology
(5) Eschatology and Ethics
(6) Criticism of the Christian tradition, the Marcionite Church
Remarks
CHAPTER VI.--THE CHRISTIANITY OF JEWISH CHRISTIANS, DEFINITION OF THE
NOTION JEWISH CHRISTIANITY
(1) General conditions for the development of Jewish Christianity
(2) Jewish Christianity and the Catholic Church, insignificance of
Jewish Christianity, "Judaising" in Catholicism
Alleged documents of Jewish Christianity (Apocalypse of John, Acts of
the Apostles, Epistle to the Hebrews, Hegesippus)
History of Jewish Christianity
The witness of Justin
The witness of Celsus
The witness of Irenaeus and Origen
The witness of Eusebius and Jerome
The Gnostic Jewish Christianity
The Elkesaites and Ebionites of Epiphanius
Estimate of the Pseudo-Clementine Recognitions and Homilies, their want
of significance for the question as to the genesis of Catholicism and
its doctrine
APPENDICES.
I. On the different notions of Pre-existence.
II. On Liturgies and the genesis of Dogma.
III. On Neoplatonism Literature
I
PROLEGOMENA TO THE DISCIPLINE OF THE HISTORY OF DOGMA.
II
THE PRESUPPOSITIONS OF THE HISTORY OF DOGMA.
CHAPTER I
PROLEGOMENA TO THE DISCIPLINE OF THE HISTORY OF DOGMA.
Sec. 1. _The Idea and Task of the History of Dogma_.
1. The History of Dogma is a discipline of general Church History, which
has for its object the dogmas of the Church. These dogmas are the
doctrines of the Christian faith logically formulated and expressed for
scientific and apologetic purposes, the contents of which are a
knowledge of God, of the world, and of the provisions made by God for
man's salvation. The Christian Churches teach them as the truths
revealed in Holy Scripture, the acknowledgment of which is the condition
of the salvation which religion promises. But as the adherents of the
Christian religion had not these dogmas from the beginning, so far, at
least, as they form a connected system, the business of the history of
dogma is, in the first place, to ascertain the origin of Dogmas (of
Dogma), and then secondly, to describe their development (their
variations).
2. We cannot draw any hard and fast line between the time of the origin
and that of the development of dogma; they rather shade off into one
another. But we shall have to look for the final point of division at
the time when an article of faith logically formulated and
scientifically expressed, was first raised to the _articulus
constitutivus ecclesiae_, and as such was universally enforced by the
Church. Now that first happened when the doctrine of Christ, as the
pre-existent and personal Logos of God, had obtained acceptance
everywhere in the confederated Churches as the revealed and fundamental
doctrine of faith, that is, about the end of the third century or the
beginning of the fourth. We must therefore, in our account, take this as
the final point of division.[1] As to the development of dogma, it seems
to have closed in the Eastern Church with the seventh Oecumenical
Council (787). After that time no further dogmas were set up in the East
as revealed truths. As to the Western Catholic, that is, the Romish
Church, a new dogma was promulgated as late as the year 1870, which
claims to be, and in point of form really is, equal in dignity to the
old dogmas. Here, therefore, the History of Dogma must extend to the
present time. Finally, as regards the Protestant Churches, they are a
subject of special difficulty in the sphere of the history of dogma; for
at the present moment there is no agreement within these Churches as to
whether, and in what sense, dogmas (as the word was used in the ancient
Church) are valid. But even if we leave the present out of account and
fix our attention on the Protestant Churches of the 16th century, the
decision is difficult. For, on the one hand, the Protestant faith, the
Lutheran as well as the Reformed (and that of Luther no less), presents
itself as a doctrine of faith which, resting on the Catholic canon of
scripture, is, in point of form, quite analogous to the Catholic
doctrine of faith, has a series of dogmas in common with it, and only
differs in a few. On the other hand, Protestantism has taken its stand
in principle on the Gospel exclusively, and declared its readiness at
all times to test all doctrines afresh by a true understanding of the
Gospel. The Reformers, however, in addition to this, began to unfold a
conception of Christianity which might be described, in contrast with
the Catholic type of religion, as a new conception, and which indeed
draws support from the old dogmas, but changes their original
significance materially and formally. What this conception was may still
be ascertained from those writings received by the Church, the
Protestant symbols of the 16th century, in which the larger part of the
traditionary dogmas are recognised as the appropriate expression of the
Christian religion, nay, as the Christian religion itself.[2]
Accordingly, it can neither be maintained that the expression of the
Christian faith in the form of dogmas is abolished in the Protestant
Churches--the very acceptance of the Catholic canon as the revealed
record of faith is opposed to that view--nor that its meaning has
remained absolutely unchanged.[3] The history of dogma has simply to
recognise this state of things, and to represent it exactly as it lies
before us in the documents.
But the point to which the historian should advance here still remains
an open question. If we adhere strictly to the definition of the idea of
dogma given above, this much is certain, that dogmas were no longer set
up after the Formula of Concord, or in the case of the Reformed Church,
after the decrees of the Synod of Dort. It cannot, however, be
maintained that they have been set aside in the centuries that have
passed since then; for apart from some Protestant National and
independent Churches, which are too insignificant and whose future is
too uncertain to be taken into account here, the ecclesiastical
tradition of the 16th century, and along with it the tradition of the
early Church, have not been abrogated in authoritative form. Of course,
changes of the greatest importance with regard to doctrine have appeared
everywhere in Protestantism from the 17th century to the present day.
But these changes cannot in any sense be taken into account in a history
of dogma, because they have not as yet attained a form valid for the
Church. However we may judge of these changes, whether we regard them as
corruptions or improvements, or explain the want of fixity in which the
Protestant Churches find themselves, as a situation that is forced on
them, or the situation that is agreeable to them and for which they are
adapted, in no sense is there here a development which could be
described as history of dogma.