The Constitution And Law Of The Church In The First Two Centuries

From the author's Preface: ...The root of the organization of the Church is the proclamation of the Word of God. The Word of God took the form of a Gospel. In the Christian preaching at a very early period the Trinitarian Confession came to the front and gave the new religion its distinctive stamp. These were the strongest motive forces in the formative period of the Church. Yet we look in vain in theological literature for monographs in which their origin, their original meaning, and their development are made clear. This noticeable gap I have sought to fill, confining myself, as regards the Trinitarian Confession, to showing the motive which led at a very early period to a bipartite or tripartite formula. The result of the investigations into 'Gospel' will be to show that on this most important point also the Christian religion displayed from the beginning the wonderful many-sidedness, elasticity, and capacity for development which is the presupposition of its universality.

Excerpt from The Constitution Law of the Church in the First Two Centuries The volume from which this translation is made was published at Leipzig early in the present year, under the title Entstehung und Entwickelung der Kirchenverfassung und des Kirchenrechts in den zwei ersten Jahrhunderten, nebst einer Kritik der Abhandlung R. Sohm's: "Wesen und Ursprung des Katholizismus" und Untersuchungen uber "Evangelium," "Wort Gottes," und das trinitarische Bekenntnis, von Adolf Harnack (Leipzig, J. C. Hinrichs, 1910). This volume may be said to consist of five essays, all treating of subjects closely connected in primitive Christianity. The first essay, "The Origin and Development of the Constitution and Law of the Church in the First Two Centuries," constitutes the book proper; the second, third, and fourth essays, on "Primitive Christianity and Catholicism," "The Fundamental Confession of the Church," and "Gospel," form the appendices; while the fifth essay, on "Word of God," appears as a supplementary note. This translation differs in some details from the form of the original volume. 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."

The Constitution and Law of the Church in the First Two Centuries by Adolf von Harnack, first published in 1910, is a rare manuscript, the original residing in one of the great libraries of the world. This book is a reproduction of that original, which has been scanned and cleaned by state-of-the-art publishing tools for better readability and enhanced appreciation. Restoration Editors' mission is to bring long out of print manuscripts back to life. Some smudges, annotations or unclear text may still exist, due to permanent damage to the original work. We believe the literary significance of the text justifies offering this reproduction, allowing a new generation to appreciate it.

From the author's Preface: ...The root of the organization of the Church is the proclamation of the Word of God. The Word of God took the form of a Gospel. In the Christian preaching at a very early period the Trinitarian Confession came to the front and gave the new religion its distinctive stamp. These were the strongest motive forces in the formative period of the Church. Yet we look in vain in theological literature for monographs in which their origin, their original meaning, and their development are made clear. This noticeable gap I have sought to fill, confining myself, as regards the Trinitarian Confession, to showing the motive which led at a very early period to a bipartite or tripartite formula. The result of the investigations into 'Gospel' will be to show that on this most important point also the Christian religion displayed from the beginning the wonderful many-sidedness, elasticity, and capacity for development which is the presupposition of its universality.

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'Canon Law' explores the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church from a comparative perspective. The introduction to the book presents historical examples of antinomian and legalistic approaches to canon law.