قراءة كتاب Landmarks in the History of Early Christianity
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LANDMARKS
IN THE HISTORY OF
EARLY CHRISTIANITY
BY
KIRSOPP LAKE, D.D.
WINN PROFESSOR OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY IN HARVARD UNIVERSITY
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1920
COPYRIGHT
TO
H. R.
PREFACE
The following chapters are the lectures given in the spring of 1919 on the Haskell Foundation of Oberlin College. They have been somewhat expanded in the course of preparation for the press, but have not been materially changed.
At the time of the delivery of these lectures I was busy with the chapter on "Primitive Christianity" in the Prolegomena to Acts, and was glad of the opportunity to re-state some of the conclusions reached in that book in a less technical form and with more attention to their bearing on some of the larger questions of religion and thought, such as the Teaching of Jesus, the Hope of Immortality, and the Development of Christology. I did not hesitate to make use of one or two paragraphs from the larger book, and I think that my friend, Mr. C. G. Montefiore, will forgive me for having borrowed two beautiful stories from his chapter in it.
I am greatly indebted to the Faculty of Oberlin College not only for the privilege of lecturing to them, but also for the hospitality extended to me during a very pleasant week and for the beginning of new and delightful friendships.
KIRSOPP LAKE.
CAMBRIDGE, MASS., April 1920.
CONTENTS
| CHAPTER I GALILEE |
|
| PAGE | |
| Introduction—The history of Christianity as a series of syntheses—The Jewish world—The Kingdom of God—Repentance—The teaching of Jesus as compared with his Jewish contemporaries | 1 |
CHAPTER II JERUSALEM |
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| The Synoptic Problem and Acts—Inspiration—Communism—Messianic doctrine—The Christ—The Son of Man—The Son of God | 36 |
CHAPTER III ANTIOCH |
|
| The spread of Christianity—Damascus—The Hellenist missionaries—Paul's visit to Jerusalem—The source-criticism of Acts—The traditions of Jerusalem and Antioch | 57 |
CHAPTER IV CORINTH |
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| Christianity as a Graeco-Oriental cult—Salvation—The reasons for the victory of Christianity—Jesus as an historic person—The personality of Jesus—The Fatherhood of God—Baptism—Immortality | 73 |
CHAPTER V ROME AND EPHESUS |
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| Paul's contribution—Adoptionism—Roman documents—Romans—Hebrews—1 Peter—1 Clement—Hermas—Baptism and repentance—Pre-existent Christology—The later Epistles—The Fourth Gospel—The doctrine of the Logos—Justin Martyr—Origen—Conclusion | 98 |
APPENDIX |
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| The Interpretation of The Shepherd of Hermas. By F. S. Mackenzie | 137 |
| ADDITIONAL NOTE | 141 |
| INDEX | 143 |
I
GALILEE
At first sight the historian of religions appears to be faced by a number of clearly distinguished entities, to each of which he feels justified in giving the name of a separate religion; but on further consideration it becomes obvious that each one of these entities has been in a condition of flux throughout its history. Each began as a combination or synthesis of older forms of thought with comparatively little new in its composition; each ended by disintegrating into many elements, of which the worst disappeared, while the best were taken up into new life in some new religion. The movement was more marked at some times than at others, and the differentiation of the various religions depends chiefly on the recognition of these moments of more rapid change. But the process never really stopped; from beginning to end new elements were constantly absorbed and old elements dropped. For religion lives through the death of religions.
Nothing illustrates this so well as the history of Christianity, for no religion is so well-known. The facts are plainly visible, and would be plainly seen by all, were it not for the general tendency of ecclesiastical scholarship to consult the records of the past only to find the reflection of its own features.
The general condition of religion in the Roman Empire at the beginning of the Christian era was one of far advanced disintegration and rapid synthesis. In every district there could be found the remains of old local religions, which retained the loyalty of the conservative, but no longer aroused any vital response in the emotions of the multitudes or in the interest of the educated. At that time, and for many generations afterward, the Roman landowners, to take one example, maintained the ceremonies and customs of an agricultural animism which for their ancestors had been a living religion, but for them had become aesthetic, conventional, and superstitious,—an appendage to life, not its driving force. Those who wish can read a description of it, written with a sympathy possible only for one who felt