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c y^ A ,^ -^-'^ libraW UNIVERSITY W^l CALIFORI«»A SAN DIEGO X (^ix^'^' Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2007 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/courseofcliristiaOOmcgliala THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY NXW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO - DALLAS ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO MACMILLAN & CO., Limited LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA MELBOURNE THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Lm TOXOMTO THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY BY W. J. TMcGLOTHLIN, Ph.D., D.D. Professor of Church History in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary Beto gork THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 1918 AU riffhU rewrvti OOPTBIGHT. 1918 bt the macmillan company 8«t up and electrotyped. Published, August, 1918 PREFACE Christianity is now nearly nineteen centuries old. Dur- ing this long period it has steadily increased in power, de- termining the beliefs and hopes and ideals of individuals and more and more of whole nations. Judged from any standpoint it must be recognized as one of the master forces of mediaeval and modern history and of the present day. Intelligent men ought, it would seem, to be acquainted with the course of its history, at least in outline, through these centuries. And yet this history has been comparatively little studied, and when studied emphasis has been laid upon the darker phases of the history, its polemical and political sides. It would seem that the time has come for an effort to secure a wider and more sympathetic knowledge of what Chris- tianity as a whole has done in the midst of the weakness and wickedness of mankind. In a Christian land should not Christian history be regularly and sympathetically taught in all institutions of higher learning? Should not laymen as well as ministers be acquainted in some degree at least with the history of the mightiest single force operative in the life of our day and nation? As the study of history, turning away from the exclusive consideration of politics and government, penetrates more and more into the social and moral life of the people whence the great national char- acteristics and motives spring, Christianity must become a subject of more intense and sympathetic study. It is the hope of the author that this little volume may con- tribute something in this direction. Church history has not been written for college students. It will be years before the many excellent college text-books on general history can THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY INTRODUCTION THE PROPER CONCEPTION OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY The history of Christianity is the story of the origin, prog- ress and development of the Christian religion, and of its influence upon the world. Almost nineteen centuries have passed since Jesus Christ began his public ministry for the establishment of the religion which bears his name. Dur- ing this long period Christianity has been more and more dominating the lives of men, illuminating their minds, strengthening them in their moral struggles, irradiating their hopes, making earth more tolerable and heaven more inviting and certain. The story of this growing and spread- ing influence is the external history of Christianity. But as Christianity has expanded there has come con- stant inner change. From the unity and simplicity of orig- inal Christianity have developed the multiplicity of Chris- tian sects with their varied forms of organization and wor- ship, their divergent views of theology and the ordinances, their various types of Christian thought and life, as we see them to-day. The story of these changes is the inner his- tory of Christianity. There has been no break in this history. The stream has broadened and often grown muddy, but it has never ceased to flow. To-day it is the mightiest force operative in the human race. In its singular growth and life-giving 2 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY power it has been like the stream in Ezekiel's vision (Ch. 47) or Hke the stone cut out without hands in the vision of Daniel (2 : 31-5). It has ever flowed on and brought bless- ing, ever increased in might, until to-day it is mightier than all kingdoms. THE WORLD INTO WHICH JESUS CAME When Jesus came into it the world was already old. Around the Mediterranean Sea civilizations had risen, flourished, decayed and fallen. Egypt, Babylonia, Assyria and Persia had played their parts on the world's stage and passed on. Greece and Rome were the great world powers at the beginning of our religion. All the civilized peoples of southern Europe, western Asia and northern Africa were under the political sway of Rome who was then the mistress of the western half of the civilized world. Outside the Roman empire there were various barbarous and savage peoples who were to play a large part in the future history of civilization, but who at that time were negligible. India, China and Japan, lying far to the east, and little known in the West, constituted the eastern half of the civilized world. Christianity was born near the heart of the Roman Empire and remained within its boundaries for some five centuries. This empire contained from fifty to seventy-five millions of people of various nationalities, speaking differ- ent languages and possessing unequal degrees of culture. The ruling race was the Roman. Their home was in Italy, but they had conquered all the lands around the Mediter- ranean Sea and throughout the whole of this vast territory they were the civil and military officials. Their language, the Latin, was the language of Italy, north Africa, Spain and Gaul. They established peace and order throughout the empire, built good roads, fostered trade and travel, made intercourse easy and safe, often protected the missionaries INTRODUCTION 3 from the fury of mobs. Beyond doubt the empire was a providential preparation for the spread of the gospel in the early centuries ; Latins furnished the missionaries who car- ried the gospel to the western half of the empire, the Latin language became the vehicle of theology and worship for this half of the world and ultimately for the whole Roman Catholic church ; the empire furnished the molds into which Christianity was poured to form the Roman Catholic church which in its government is but a reproduction of the im- perial government. The Greeks had their home In Greece and the Islands of the 2Egean Sea, but they had spread through trade, con- quest and colonization over Asia Minor, Syria, northern Palestine, lower Egypt, southern Italy, Sicily and some were found in southern Gaul. They were the most cultivated people of the time. Their beautiful and flexible language, rich in literature and the power of expression, was so widely distributed as to form a sort of universal language in the eastern part of the empire. Apparently all the apostles and early missionaries spoke this language and the New Testa- ment was written in Greek. For two and a half centuries all the important Christian literature was produced in this language. The earliest Christian scholars and schools were Greek and the Greek genius gave tone to Christianity in the East for many centuries. Early theology was all written in Greek. The Jews were the third important race of the Roman empire. They had their home in Palestine, but had been dispersed through trade and captivity until they constituted an important element in all the principal cities of the empire. They were preeminently a city folk, devoted to trade and banking. They lived apart from Gentile society, feared and despised by their neighbors, haughtily preserving their social and religious exclusiveness. The synagogue was the center of worship and instruction, where the Old Testament Scriptures were read every Sabbath and a pure religious and moral life was set forth and emphasized. Living among 4 THE COURSE OF CHRISTIAN HISTORY polytheists and idolaters they held forth a pure monotheism — belief in a righteous and almighty God who made and rules the world and demands holiness in men. The majority of them expected a Messiah who would reign at Jerusalem and would usher in the Messianic age of peace and happi- ness, power and glory, for the Jewish people. Many of the heathen had been deeply affected by their synagogue wor- ship and some had become converts to the Jewish religion. They were known as " proselytes " or " devout men " and furnished many converts to early Christianity. Paul and probably other missionaries first went to the synagogue on beginning work in a new city, and turned to the Gentiles only when hostility developed so as to make further work among the Jews difficult or impossible. § 3 ECONOMIC AND CULTURAL CONDITIONS The masses of the people throughout the empire were distressingly poor ; beggars were everywhere. On the other hand, many of the Romans were enormously wealthy, made so by conquest, graft and extortion. Slaves were very nu- merous, constituting the chief element of productive labor among the Romans. They were white captives, taken in war, and their descendants, and were often highly cultivated people. Not infrequently they were used as tutors and teachers by their masters. This slave population furnished a large element of the early Christians, not seldom officers of the church. The golden age of Greek literature was past. Homer, Sophocles, Euripides, Plato, Aristotle, Demosthenes were long since dead. Their works were eagerly studied, but no other writers of equal ability appeared. The Jews pro- duced but one or two writers of any note after the birth of Christ. The Latins, on the other hand, were still in their productive period. Caesar, Cicero and Virgil had been dead INTRODUCTION 5 but a few years and important writers of the Latin lan- guage were yet to arise.

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