Greek Thought And The Rise Of Christianity

Author : Albert Kalthoff
Publisher : Createspace Independent Publishing Platform
ISBN 13 : 9781976412226
Total Pages : 206 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (122 download)

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Download or read book The Rise of Christianity written by Albert Kalthoff and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2017-09-14 with total page 206 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To the second edition-which will certainly be called for-of his translation of Kalthoff's "Rise of Christianity," Mr. McCabe should add a page of introduction. Here and there the author appears to assume that his readers are acquainted with certain communistic ideas which he has expressed in previous works ; and as one of the leading ideas of the present work is that the Christian Church is and has always been in principle a communistic body, a hint or two as to the author's special standpoint, as disclosed in his previous works, would be welcome to the average English reader. The author approaches his subject from the sociological point of view, and consequently sees no need for a personal founder of Christianity. Such a founder "ceases to be necessary for understanding Christianity in proportion as we recognise in it a great historical development of the whole spiritual life-the social and economic, religious and moral, artistic and scientific life-of the race." The single individual as founder comes under consideration only "in so far as the active forces of his age are embodied in him," and historical science still has "the task of gathering the ideas of the master from the context of his age." In three interesting chapters, the author studies the preparation for Christianity in the Roman Empire, in Greek philosophy, and in Judaism. He finds much of the social and political atmosphere of the Synoptical Gospels rather in Rome than in Jerusalem-for example, the tax-gatherers, the debtor who lies in jail until he pays the last farthing, the higher slave set over others by his master, etc. As to Greek philosophy, it was this that developed the theological and ethical consequences of monotheism, and thus "led directly to the dogmatic and ethic of the Church." "The platonic duplication of the World makes it needful to find some mediator between the supramundane God and the material world." Moreover, the Stoic philosophy re-appears in the Christian system. Zeno contemplated a great social world-state, "in which all men are united in an ideal community by the natural law of reason." Judaism supplied the Messianic doctrine. "Messiahism is the very soul of the religious history of Israel. Its roots go back into prehistoric times," etc. It culminates in the Jewish apocalyptic literature. "The connecting link between this apocalyptic other-worldliness, and reality, is communism, which forms the economic background of the Apocalypse." Perhaps the most interesting chapter in the book is that on "The Communistic Clubs," in which the religious associations that formed so important a feature in Greek and Roman life are regarded as the origines of the Christian communities. We have not space to follow our author through his chapters on the Christian Community, the Christian Church, and the Future of Christianity, except to note that the conclusion he arrives at is, that "the future of Christianity depends on whether the way is left open for its natural development, for its Christ to grow with our ever-deepening and broadening life." --The Westminster Review, Volume 168