This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ... Ill THE BEGINNINGS OF A COLLECTION Ill EARLY Christian literature is on the one hand the product of the Christian life, and on the other the product of the Christian Church. The study of that literature in all its phases is inseparable from the study of the gradual development of the Christian life ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908 edition. Excerpt: ... Ill THE BEGINNINGS OF A COLLECTION Ill EARLY Christian literature is on the one hand the product of the Christian life, and on the other the product of the Christian Church. The study of that literature in all its phases is inseparable from the study of the gradual development of the Christian life and of those ecclesiastical institutions in which it found expression. The investigation of the Canon in particular must be regarded as part and parcel of the history of the Catholic Church, which was developed in the second century. And, in examining the literature of the second century, as has already been hinted, it is important that we do not expect too much. It was not an age of great literary activity among Christians, but of missionary effort. Of the extent and fruitfulness of that missionary activity, Harnack has lately furnished impressive evidence.1 Men were too much occupied with the oral proclamation of the gospel at first to give much attention to the 1 Dit Mus1on und Ausbreitung des ChristentHums in den ersten irti Jahrhunderten, Leipzig, 1902; English translation in two volumes, London, 1904, entitled "The Expansion of Christianity." composition of homiletic writings, and the time for doctrinal treatises had not yet come. What Papias tells us of his preference for oral tradition over the written word was doubtless characteristic of the age.1 And we can easily understand how men should have preferred listening to those who had been actual companions and disciples of the apostles to reading about the same things in books. Besides, the books were at first few and not accessible to all. Many lamentations have been uttered over the lost treasures of the Christian literature of this period. For example: "It may have contained many...
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