Paulinism Volume 2; The History of Paulinism in the Primitive Church (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER X. PAULINISM IN ITS TRANSITION TO CATHOLICISM. (THE FIRST EPISTLE OF CLEMENT TO THE CORINTHIANS, THE FIRST EPISTLE OF PETER, THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS) Paulintsm having now, through its connection with the Alexandrine philosophy, lost its original peculiarity, to assume a form more agreeable to the common consciousness of the Church, the further development of the Church itself gradually entered on an entirely new course. When that opposition which gives the whole system of Paul its antithetical character, passed away, his fundamental conceptions could no longer be rightly understood, and consequently an alien meaning was all unconsciously imported into them, even on his own ground, among the Gentile Christian communities. The need of antithetically setting the Christian principles in distinct opposition to Judaism, and to a Jewish Christianity which had grown up with it, diminished in proportion as the Gentile Christian communities acquired a feeling of security in their peculiar life and independent position, and were no longer seriously disturbed by Judaistic pretensions. . At the same time, however, another need made itself felt more and more, namely, the need of establishing new rules for the guidance of moral life, and especially for that of theChristian community which was becoming more complicated and active, and to clothe these rules with some kind of authority. Now the Epistles of Paul themselves contain but little material to support this side of Christian life, while, on the other hand, a natural model for the ordering of the Christian community appeared to be given in the theocratic ordinances of the Israel- itish nation. What was more natural than that they should lay hold of those Old Testament types ? In so doing there was no thought of a rest...