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History of Dogma, Volume 2 (of 7)

A >> Adolph Harnack >> History of Dogma, Volume 2 (of 7)



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. II.

BOSTON
LITTLE, BROWN, AND COMPANY
1901




CONTENTS


CHAPTER I.--Historical Survey

The Old and New Elements in the formation of the Catholic Church; The
fixing of that which is Apostolic (Rule of Faith, Collection of
Writings, Organization, Cultus); The Stages in the Genesis of the
Catholic Rule of Faith, the Apologists; Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus;
Clement and Origen; Obscurities in reference to the origin of the most
important Institutions; Difficulties in determining the importance of
individual Personalities; Differences of development in the Churches of
different countries.

I. FIXING AND GRADUAL SECULARISING OF CHRISTIANITY AS A CHURCH

CHAPTER II.--The setting up of the Apostolic Standards for
Ecclesiastical Christianity. The Catholic Church

A. The transformation of the Baptismal Confession into the Apostolic
Rule of Faith

Necessities for setting up the Apostolic Rule of Faith; The Rule of
Faith is the Baptismal Confession definitely interpreted; Estimate of
this transformation; Irenaeus; Tertullian; Results of the transformation;
Slower development in Alexandria: Clement and Origen.

B. The designation of selected writings read in the Churches as New
Testament Scriptures or, in other words, as a collection of Apostolic
Writings

Plausible arguments against the statement that up to the year 150 there
was no New Testament in the Church; Sudden emergence of the New
Testament in the Muratorian Fragment, in (Melito) Irenaeus and
Tertullian; Conditions under which the New Testament originated;
Relation of the New Testament to the earlier writings that were read in
the Churches; Causes and motives for the formation of the Canon, manner
of using and results of the New Testament; The Apostolic collection of
writings can be proved at first only in those Churches in which we find
the Apostolic Rule of Faith; probably there was no New Testament in
Antioch about the year 200, nor in Alexandria (Clement); Probable
history of the genesis of the New Testament in Alexandria up to the time
of Origen; ADDENDUM. The results which the creation of the New Testament
produced in the following period.

C. The transformation of the Episcopal Office in the Church into an
Apostolic Office. The History of the remodelling of the conception of
the Church

The legitimising of the Rule of Faith by the Communities which were
founded by the Apostles; By the "Elders"; By the Bishops of Apostolic
Churches (disciples of Apostles); By the Bishops as such, who have
received the Apostolic _Charisma veritatis_; Excursus on the conceptions
of the Alexandrians; The Bishops as successors of the Apostles; Original
idea of the Church as the Holy Community that comes from Heaven and is
destined for it; The Church as the empiric Catholic Communion resting on
the Law of Faith; Obscurities in the idea of the Church as held by
Irenaeus and Tertullian; By Clement and Origen; Transition to the
Hierarchical idea of the Church; The Hierarchical idea of the Church:
Calixtus and Cyprian; Appendix I. Cyprian's idea of the Church and the
actual circumstances; Appendix II. Church and Heresy; Appendix III.
Uncertainties regarding the consequences of the new idea of the Church.

CHAPTER III.--Continuation.--The Old Christianity and the New Church

Introduction; The Original Montanism; The later Montanism as the dregs
of the movement and as the product of a compromise; The opposition to
the demands of the Montanists by the Catholic Bishops: importance of the
victory for the Church; History of penance: the old practice; The laxer
practice in the days of Tertullian and Hippolytus; The abolition of the
old practice in the days of Cyprian; Significance of the new kind of
penance for the idea of the Church; the Church no longer a Communion of
Salvation and of Saints, but a condition of Salvation and a Holy
Institution and thereby a _corpus permixtum_; After effect of the old
idea of the Church in Cyprian; Origen's idea of the Church; Novatian's
idea of the Church and of penance, the Church of the Catharists;
Conclusion: the Catholic Church as capable of being a support to society
and the state; Addenda I. The Priesthood; Addenda II. Sacrifice; Addenda
III. Means of Grace. Baptism and the Eucharist; Excursus to Chapters II.
and III.--Catholic and Roman.

II. FIXING AND GRADUAL HELLENISING OF CHRISTIANITY AS A SYSTEM OF
DOCTRINE

CHAPTER IV.--Ecclesiastical Christianity and Philosophy; The Apologists

1. Introduction

The historical position of the Apologists; Apologists and Gnostics;
Nature and importance of the Apologists' theology.

2. Christianity as Philosophy and as Revelation

Aristides; Justin; Athenagoras; Miltiades, Melito; Tatian;
Pseudo-Justin, Orat. ad Gr.; Theophilus; Pseudo-Justin, de Resurr.;
Tertullian and Minucius; Pseudo-Justin, de Monarch.; Results.

3. The doctrines of Christianity as the revealed and rational religion

Arrangement; The Monotheistic Cosmology; Theology; Doctrine of the
Logos; Doctrine of the World and of Man; Doctrine of Freedom and
Morality; Doctrine of Revelation (Proofs from Prophecy); Significance of
the History of Jesus; Christology of Justin; Interpretation and
Criticism, especially of Justin's doctrines.

CHAPTER V.--The Beginnings of an Ecclesiastico-theological
interpretation and revision of the Rule of Faith in opposition to
Gnosticism, on the basis of the New Testament and the Christian
Philosophy of the Apologists, Melito, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Hippolytus,
Novatian

1. The theological position of Irenaeus and of the later contemporary
Church teachers

Characteristics of the theology of the Old Catholic Fathers, their
wavering between Reason and Tradition; Loose structure of their Dogmas;
Irenaeus' attempt to construct a systematic theology and his fundamental
theological convictions; Gnostic and anti-Gnostic features of his
theology; Christianity conceived as a real redemption by Christ
(recapitulatio); His conception of a history of salvation; His
historical significance: conserving of tradition and gradual hellenising
of the Rule of Faith.

2. The Old Catholic Fathers' doctrine of the Church

The Antithesis to Gnosticism; The "Scripture theology" as a sign of the
dependence on "Gnosticism" and as a means of conserving tradition; The
Doctrine of God; The Logos Doctrine of Tertullian and Hippolytus;
(Conceptions regarding the Holy Spirit); Irenaeus' doctrine of the Logos;
(Conceptions regarding the Holy Spirit); The views of Irenaeus regarding
the destination of man, the original state, the fall and the doom of
death (the disparate series of ideas in Irenaeus; rudiments of the
doctrine of original sin in Tertullian); The doctrine of Jesus Christ as
the incarnate son of God; Assertion of the complete mixture and unity of
the divine and human elements; Significance of Mary; Tertullian's
doctrine of the two natures and its origin; Rudiments of this doctrine
in Irenaeus; The Gnostic character of this doctrine; Christology of
Hippolytus; Views as to Christ's work; Redemption, Perfection;
Reconciliation; Categories for the fruit of Christ's work; Things
peculiar to Tertullian; Satisfacere Deo; The Soul as the Bride of
Christ; The Eschatology; Its archaic nature, its incompatibility with
speculation and the advantage of connection with that; Conflict with
Chiliasm in the East; The doctrine of the two Testaments; The influence
of Gnosticism on the estimate of the two Testaments, the _complexus
oppositorum_; the Old Testament a uniform Christian Book as in the
Apologists; The Old Testament a preliminary stage of the New Testament
and a compound Book; The stages in the history of salvation; The law of
freedom the climax of the revelation in Christ.

3. Results to Ecclesiastical Christianity, chiefly in the West,
(Cyprian, Novation)

CHAPTER VI.--The Transformation of the Ecclesiastical Tradition into a
Philosophy of Religion, or the Origin of the Scientific Theology and
Dogmatic of the Church: Clement and Origen

(1) The Alexandrian Catechetical School and Clement of Alexandria

Schools and Teachers in the Church at the end of the second and the
beginning of the third century; scientific efforts (Alogi in Asia Minor,
Cappadocian Scholars, Bardesanes of Edessa, Julius Africanus, Scholars
in Palestine, Rome and Carthage); The Alexandrian Catechetical School.
Clement; The temper of Clement and his importance in the History of
Dogma; his relation to Irenaeus, to the Gnostics and to primitive
Christianity; his philosophy of Religion; Clement and Origen

(2) The system of Origen

Introductory: The personality and importance of Origen; The Elements of
Origen's theology; its Gnostic features; The relative view of Origen;
His temper and final aim: relation to Greek Philosophy; Theology as a
Philosophy of Revelation, and a cosmological speculation; Porphyry on
Origen; The neutralising of History, esoteric and exoteric Christianity;
Fundamental ideas and arrangement of his system; Sources of truth,
doctrine of Scripture.

I. The Doctrine of God and its unfolding

Doctrine of God; Doctrine of the Logos; Clement's doctrine of the Logos;
Doctrine of the Holy Spirit; Doctrine of Spirits.

II. Doctrine of the Fall and its consequences

Doctrine of Man

III. Doctrine of Redemption and Restoration

The notions necessary to the Psychical; The Christology; The
Appropriation of Salvation; The Eschatology; Concluding Remarks: The
importance of this system to the following period.




DIVISION I

BOOK II.

THE LAYING OF THE FOUNDATIONS.




CHAPTER I.

HISTORICAL SURVEY.


The second century of the existence of Gentile-Christian communities was
characterised by the victorious conflict with Gnosticism and the
Marcionite Church, by the gradual development of an ecclesiastical
doctrine, and by the decay of the early Christian enthusiasm. The
general result was the establishment of a great ecclesiastical
association, which, forming at one and the same time a political
commonwealth, school and union for worship, was based on the firm
foundation of an "apostolic" law of faith, a collection of "apostolic"
writings, and finally, an "apostolic" organisation. This institution was
_the Catholic Church_.[1] In opposition to Gnosticism and Marcionitism,
the main articles forming the estate and possession of orthodox
Christianity were raised to the rank of apostolic regulations and laws,
and thereby placed beyond all discussion and assault. At first the
innovations introduced by this were not of a material, but of a formal,
character. Hence they were not noticed by any of those who had never, or
only in a vague fashion, been elevated to the feeling and idea of
freedom and independence in religion. How great the innovations actually
were, however, may be measured by the fact that they signified a
scholastic tutelage of the faith of the individual Christian, and
restricted the immediateness of religious feelings and ideas to the
narrowest limits. But the conflict with the so-called Montanism showed
that there were still a considerable number of Christians who valued
that immediateness and freedom; these were, however, defeated. The
fixing of the tradition under the title of apostolic necessarily led to
the assumption that whoever held the apostolic doctrine was also
essentially a Christian in the apostolic sense. This assumption, quite
apart from the innovations which were legitimised by tracing them to the
Apostles, meant the separation of doctrine and conduct, the preference
of the former to the latter, and the transformation of a fellowship of
faith, hope, and discipline into a communion "eiusdem sacramenti," that
is, into a union which, like the philosophical schools, rested on a
doctrinal law, and which was subject to a legal code of divine
institution.[2]

The movement which resulted in the Catholic Church owes its right to a
place in the history of Christianity to the victory over Gnosticism and
to the preservation of an important part of early Christian tradition.
If Gnosticism in all its phases was the violent attempt to drag
Christianity down to the level of the Greek world, and to rob it of its
dearest possession, belief in the Almighty God of creation and
redemption, then Catholicism, inasmuch as it secured this belief for the
Greeks, preserved the Old Testament, and supplemented it with early
Christian writings, thereby saving--as far as documents, at least, were
concerned--and proclaiming the authority of an important part of
primitive Christianity, must in one respect be acknowledged as a
conservative force born from the vigour of Christianity. If we put aside
abstract considerations and merely look at the facts of the given
situation, we cannot but admire a creation which first broke up the
various outside forces assailing Christianity, and in which the highest
blessings of this faith have always continued to be accessible. If the
founder of the Christian religion had deemed belief in the Gospel and a
life in accordance with it to be compatible with membership of the
Synagogue and observance of the Jewish law, there could at least be no
impossibility of adhering to the Gospel within the Catholic Church.

Still, that is only one side of the case. The older Catholicism never
clearly put the question, "What is Christian?" Instead of answering that
question it rather laid down rules, the recognition of which was to be
the guarantee of Christianism. This solution of the problem seems to be
on the one hand too narrow and on the other too broad. Too narrow,
because it bound Christianity to rules under which it necessarily
languished; too broad, because it did not in any way exclude the
introduction of new and foreign conceptions. In throwing a protective
covering round the Gospel, Catholicism also obscured it. It preserved
Christianity from being hellenised to the most extreme extent, but, as
time went on, it was forced to admit into this religion an ever greater
measure of secularisation. In the interests of its world-wide mission it
did not indeed directly disguise the terrible seriousness of religion,
but, by tolerating a less strict ideal of life, it made it possible for
those less in earnest to be considered Christians, and to regard
themselves as such. It permitted the genesis of a Church, which was no
longer a communion of faith, hope, and discipline, but a political
commonwealth in which the Gospel merely had a place beside other
things.[3] In ever increasing measure it invested all the forms which
this secular commonwealth required with apostolic, that is, indirectly,
with divine authority. This course disfigured Christianity and made a
knowledge of what is Christian an obscure and difficult matter. But, in
Catholicism, religion for the first time obtained a formal dogmatic
system. Catholic Christianity discovered the formula which reconciled
faith and knowledge. This formula satisfied humanity for centuries, and
the blessed effects which it accomplished continued to operate even
after it had itself already become a fetter.

Catholic Christianity grew out of two converging series of developments.
In the one were set up fixed outer standards for determining what is
Christian, and these standards were proclaimed to be apostolic
institutions. The baptismal confession was exalted to an apostolic rule
of faith, that is, to an apostolic law of faith. A collection of
apostolic writings was formed from those read in the Churches, and this
compilation was placed on an equal footing with the Old Testament. The
episcopal and monarchical constitution was declared to be apostolic, and
the attribute of successor of the Apostles was conferred on the bishop.
Finally, the religious ceremonial developed into a celebration of
mysteries, which was in like manner traced back to the Apostles. The
result of these institutions was a strictly exclusive Church in the form
of a communion of doctrine, ceremonial, and law, a confederation which
more and more gathered the various communities within its pale, and
brought about the decline of all nonconforming sects. The confederation
was primarily based on a common confession, which, however, was not only
conceived as "law," but was also very soon supplemented by new
standards. One of the most important problems to be investigated in the
history of dogma, and one which unfortunately cannot be completely
solved, is to show what necessities led to the setting up of a new canon
of Scripture, what circumstances required the appearance of living
authorities in the communities, and what relation was established
between the apostolic rule of faith, the apostolic canon of Scripture,
and the apostolic office. The development ended with the formation of a
clerical class, at whose head stood the bishop, who united in himself
all conceivable powers, as teacher, priest, and judge. He disposed of
the powers of Christianity, guaranteed its purity, and therefore in
every respect held the Christian laity in tutelage.

But even apart from the content which Christianity here received, this
process in itself represents a progressive secularising of the Church,
This would be self-evident enough, even if it were not confirmed by
noting the fact that the process had already been to some extent
anticipated in the so-called Gnosticism (See vol. I. p. 253 and
Tertullian, de praescr. 35). But the element which the latter lacked,
namely, a firmly welded, suitably regulated constitution, must by no
means be regarded as one originally belonging and essential to
Christianity. The depotentiation to which Christianity was here
subjected appears still more plainly in the facts, that the Christian
hopes were deadened, that the secularising of the Christian life was
tolerated and even legitimised, and that the manifestations of an
unconditional devotion to the heavenly excited suspicion or were
compelled to confine themselves to very narrow limits.

But these considerations are scarcely needed as soon as we turn our
attention to the second series of developments that make up the history
of this period. The Church did not merely set up dykes and walls against
Gnosticism in order to ward it off externally, nor was she satisfied
with defending against it the facts which were the objects of her belief
and hope; but, taking the creed for granted, she began to follow this
heresy into its own special territory and to combat it with a scientific
theology. That was a necessity which did not first spring from
Christianity's own internal struggles. It was already involved in the
fact that the Christian Church had been joined by cultured Greeks, who
felt the need of justifying their Christianity to themselves and the
world, and of presenting it as the desired and certain answer to all the
pressing questions which then occupied men's minds.

The beginning of a development which a century later reached its
provisional completion in the theology of Origen, that is, in the
transformation of the Gospel into a scientific system of ecclesiastical
doctrine, appears in the Christian Apologetic, as we already find it
before the middle of the second century. As regards its content, this
system of doctrine meant the legitimising of Greek philosophy within the
sphere of the rule of faith. The theology of Origen bears the same
relation to the New Testament as that of Philo does to the Old. What is
here presented as Christianity is in fact the idealistic religious
philosophy of the age, attested by divine revelation, made accessible to
all by the incarnation of the Logos, and purified from any connection
with Greek mythology and gross polytheism.[4] A motley multitude of
primitive Christian ideas and hopes, derived from both Testaments, and
too brittle to be completely recast, as yet enclosed the kernel. But the
majority of these were successfully manipulated by theological art, and
the traditional rule of faith was transformed into a system of doctrine,
in which, to some extent, the old articles found only a nominal
place.[5]

This hellenising of ecclesiastical Christianity, by which we do not mean
the Gospel, was not a gradual process; for the truth rather is that it
was already accomplished the moment that the reflective Greek confronted
the new religion which he had accepted. The Christianity of men like
Justin, Athenagoras, and Minucius is not a whit less Hellenistic than
that of Origen. But yet an important distinction obtains here. It is
twofold. In the first place, those Apologists did not yet find
themselves face to face with a fixed collection of writings having a
title to be reverenced as Christian; they have to do with the Old
Testament and the "Teachings of Christ" ([Greek: didagmata Christou]).
In the second place, they do not yet regard the scientific presentation
of Christianity as the main task and as one which this religion itself
demands. As they really never enquired what was meant by "Christian," or
at least never put the question clearly to themselves, they never
claimed that their scientific presentation of Christianity was the first
proper expression of it that had been given. Justin and his
contemporaries make it perfectly clear that they consider the
traditional faith existing in the churches to be complete and pure and
in itself requiring no scientific revision. In a word, the gulf which
existed between the religious thought of philosophers and the sum of
Christian tradition is still altogether unperceived, because that
tradition was not yet fixed in rigid forms, because no religious
utterance testifying to monotheism, virtue, and reward was as yet
threatened by any control, and finally, because the speech of philosophy
was only understood by a small minority in the Church, though its
interests and aims were not unknown to most. Christian thinkers were
therefore still free to divest of their direct religious value all
realistic and historical elements of the tradition, while still
retaining them as parts of a huge apparatus of proof, which accomplished
what was really the only thing that many sought in Christianity, viz.,
the assurance that the theory of the world obtained from other sources
was the truth. The danger which here threatened Christianity as a
religion was scarcely less serious than that which had been caused to it
by the Gnostics. These remodelled tradition, the Apologists made it to
some extent inoperative without attacking it. The latter were not
disowned, but rather laid the foundation of Church theology, and
determined the circle of interests within which it was to move in the
future.[6]

But the problem which the Apologists solved almost offhand, namely, the
task of showing that Christianity was the perfect and certain
philosophy, because it rested on revelation, and that it was the highest
scientific knowledge of God and the world, was to be rendered more
difficult. To these difficulties all that primitive Christianity has up
to the present transmitted to the Church of succeeding times contributes
its share. The conflict with Gnosticism made it necessary to find some
sort of solution to the question, "What is Christian?" and to fix this
answer. But indeed the Fathers were not able to answer the question
confidently and definitely. They therefore made a selection from
tradition and contented themselves with making it binding on Christians.
Whatever was to lay claim to authority in the Church had henceforth to
be in harmony with the rule of faith and the canon of New Testament
Scriptures. That created an entirely new situation for Christian
thinkers, that is, for those trying to solve the problem of
subordinating Christianity to the Hellenic spirit. That spirit never
became quite master of the situation; it was obliged to accommodate
itself to it.[7] The work first began with the scientific treatment of
individual articles contained in the rule of faith, partly with the view
of disproving Gnostic conceptions, partly for the purpose of satisfying
the Church's own needs. The framework in which these articles were
placed virtually continued to be the apologetic theology, for this
maintained a doctrine of God and the world, which seemed to correspond
to the earliest tradition as much as it ran counter to the Gnostic
theses. (Melito), Irenaeus, Tertullian and Hippolytus, aided more or less
by tradition on the one hand and by philosophy on the other, opposed to
the Gnostic dogmas about Christianity the articles of the baptismal
confession interpreted as a rule of faith, these articles being
developed into doctrines. Here they undoubtedly learned very much from
the Gnostics and Marcion. If we define ecclesiastical dogmas as
propositions handed down in the creed of the Church, shown to exist in
the Holy Scriptures of both Testaments, and rationally reproduced and
formulated, then the men we have just mentioned were the first to set up
dogmas[8]--dogmas but no system of dogmatics. As yet the difficulty of
the problem was by no means perceived by these men either. Their
peculiar capacity for sympathising with and understanding the
traditional and the old still left them in a happy blindness. So far as
they had a theology they supposed it to be nothing more than the
explanation of the faith of the Christian multitude (yet Tertullian
already noted the difference in one point, certainly a very
characteristic one, viz., the Logos doctrine). They still lived in the
belief that the Christianity which filled their minds required no
scientific remodelling in order to be an expression of the highest
knowledge, and that it was in all respects identical with the
Christianity which even the most uncultivated could grasp. That this was
an illusion is proved by many considerations, but most convincingly by
the fact that Tertullian and Hippolytus had the main share in
introducing into the doctrine of faith a philosophically formulated
dogma, viz., that the Son of God is the Logos, and in having it made the
_articulus constitutivus ecclesiae_. The effects of this undertaking can
never be too highly estimated, for the Logos doctrine is Greek
philosophy _in nuce_, though primitive Christian views may have been
subsequently incorporated with it. Its introduction into the creed of
Christendom, which was, strictly speaking, the setting up _of the first
dogma in the Church_, meant the future conversion of the rule of faith
into a philosophic system. But in yet another respect Irenaeus and
Hippolytus denote an immense advance beyond the Apologists, which,
paradoxically enough, results both from the progress of Christian
Hellenism and from a deeper study of the Pauline theology, that is,
emanates from the controversy with Gnosticism. In them a religious and
realistic idea takes the place of the moralism of the Apologists,
namely, the deifying of the human race through the incarnation of the
Son of God. The apotheosis of mortal man through his acquisition of
immortality (divine life) is the idea of salvation which was taught in
the ancient mysteries. It is here adopted as a Christian one, supported
by the Pauline theology (especially as contained in the Epistle to the
Ephesians), and brought into the closest connection with the historical
Christ, the Son of God and Son of man (filius dei et filius hominis).
What the heathen faintly hoped for as a possibility was here announced
as certain, and indeed as having already taken place. What a message!
This conception was to become the central Christian idea of the future.
A long time, however, elapsed before it made its way into the dogmatic
system of the Church.[9]

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