The Church and the Barbarians: Being an Outline of the History of the Church from A.D. 461 to A.D. 1003 - Couverture souple

Hutton, William

Couverture souple

ISBN 13 : 9798182726511

Editeur : Katrinabooks, 2026

Synopsis

THE CHURCH AND ITS PROSPECTS IN THE FIFTH

CENTURY

[S

idenote: The task of the Church]

The year 461 saw the great organisation which had ruled and united Europe

for so long trembling into decay. The history of the Empire in relation to

Christianity is indeed a remarkable one. The imperial religion had been the

necessary and deadly foe of the religion of Jesus Christ; it had fought and

had been conquered. Gradually the Empire itself with all its institutions

and laws had been transformed, at least outwardly, into a Christian power.

Questions of Christian theology had become questions of imperial politics.

A Roman of the second century would have wondered indeed at the trans-

formation which had come over the world he knew: it seemed as if the king-

doms of the earth had become the kingdoms of the Lord and of His Christ.

But also it seemed that the new wine had burst the old bottles. The bound-

aries of the Roman world had been outstepped: nations had come in from

the East and from the West. The {2} system which had been supreme was

not elastic: the new ideas, Christian and barbarian alike, pressed upon it till

3 WILLIAM HOLDEN HUTTON

it gave way and collapsed. And so it came about that if Christianity had con-

quered the old world, it had still to conquer the new.

[Sidenote: The decaying Empire.]

Now before the Church in the fifth century there were set several powers, in-

terests, duties, with which she was called upon to deal; and her dealing with

them was the work of the next five centuries. They were, -the Empire, Chris-

tian, but obsolescent; the new nations, still heathen, which were struggling

for territory within the bounds of the Empire, and for sway over the impe-

rial institutions; the distant tribes untouched by the message of Christ; and

the growth, within the Church itself, of new and great organisations, which

were destined in great measure to guide and direct her work. Politics, the-

ology, organisation, missions, had all their share in the work of the Church

from 461 to 1003. In each we shall find her influence: to harmonise them we

must find a principle which runs through her relation to them all.

[Sidenote: The need of unity.]

The central idea of the period with which we are to deal is unity. Up till

the fifth century, till the Council of Chalcedon (451) completed the primary

definition of the orthodox Christian faith in the person of the Lord Jesus

Christ, Christians were striving for conversion, organisation, definition. All

these aims still remained, but in less prominence. The Church's order was

completed, the Church's creed was practically fixed, and the dominant na-

tions in Europe had owned the name of Christ. There remained a new and

severe test. Would the {3} Church win the new barbarian conquerors as she

had won the old imperial power? There was to be a great epoch of mission-

ary energy. But of the firm solidity of the Church there could be no doubt.

Heresies had torn from her side tribes and even nations who had once be-

longed to her fold. But still unity was triumphant in idea; and it was into the

Catholic unity of the visible Church that the new nations were to be invited

to enter. S. Augustine's grand idea of the City of God had really triumphed,

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Katrinabooks
• Date d'édition: 2026
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 13: 9798182726511
• Reliure: Paperback
• Nombre de pages: 194
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible