THE ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT OF
CHRISTIAN DOGMA
AN ESSAY
IN THE SCIENCE OF HISTORY
BY
CHARLES A. H. TUTHILL
LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH & CO., 1, PATERNOSTER SQUARE
1888
(The rights of translation and of reproduction are reserved.)
CHAPTER | PAGE | |
Introduction | 1 | |
I. | The Foundation of Monotheism | 4 |
II. | The Messianic Foundation of Christianity | 33 |
III. | The Christianity of Christ | 65 |
IV. | Jewish Christianity | 93 |
V. | Pagan Christianity | 112 |
VI. | Catholic and Protestant Christianity | 142 |
VII. | The Permanence of Dogmatic Religion | 160 |
THE
ORIGIN AND DEVELOPMENT
OF
CHRISTIAN DOGMA.
If we compare Christianity with the other dogmaticreligions of the world, we are at once struckby a feature peculiar to it, namely, the complexityof its doctrinal system. A glance at the AthanasianCreed is sufficient to show that this peculiarityresults from the existence of fundamental inconsistenciesin the dogmas of Christianity. Suchinconsistencies are not found in other religions,whether, like Mohammedanism, they have at oncesprung into full maturity at the time of theircreation, or whether, like Judaism, they have passedthrough a long and slow process of development.The inconsistencies of Christian doctrine clearlycannot be ascribed to the necessary tendencies of2the evolution of dogmatic religion; they must bedue to special circumstances connected with thehistory of Christianity.
What these circumstances were there is nodifficulty in ascertaining. The fully developeddogmatic system of Christianity is the product ofthe union of two opposite streams of religioustendency. From the collision of the monotheismof Judaism with the polytheism of Paganism theinconsistencies of its doctrines have sprung. Inthe doctrine of the Trinity, which takes up somuch of the Athanasian Creed, we have the clearestevidence of this. But, in real