The Stewardship of Faith, Our Heritage from Early Christianity; Our Heritage from Early Christianity (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1915. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER VIII CONCLUSION Christianity as Movement--Modern Requirements--Justice--The Atonement--Suffering--The Observation of Religious Facts--Its Effect--The Churches and Research in Theology--The Training of the Clergy--The Churches and Schism--The Theory of Ordination--The Social Revolution--The Need of a Higher Ethical Vision. IN the preceding chapters I have endeavoured to sketch the developments of the heritage handed down to us from the Early Church in the form of theology, ethics, and ministry. But far more important than to trace the process described in its details, many of which are certainly obscure and possibly capable of other interpretation in the light of increasing knowledge, is the recognition that progressive movement, and not the retention of a fixed position, has throughout been the condition of vigorous life. By fulfilling that condition the Early Church succeeded in giving to the world a theology which satisfied the necessity of speaking in a language intelligible to that generation. It was no more final than any attempt of the finite to explain the infinite can ever be. But it was an adequate representation of the reaction of the highest spiritual life upon the keenest intellects of their time. In the same way the Church produced a system of sacraments and a ministry to which we cannot refuse the praise of having built up the spiritual life of Western civilization, even though we may recognize that the theory based upon them was often erroneous, and that in the end the abuse of the system was often disastrous. Similarly also it provided a combination of world-renouncing and world-accepting ethics which for generations proved a satisfactory guide to the efforts of the best men to serve the society to which they belonged without forge...