Chapter I: Preface

The fittest introduction to these Lectures will be a few words of explanation.

Before his death, Dr. Hatch had written out and sent to press the first eight Lectures. Of these he had corrected six, while the proofs of the seventh and eighth, with some corrections in his own hand, were found among his papers. As regards these two, the duties of the editor were simple: he had only to correct them for the press. But as regards the remaining four Lectures, the work was much more arduous and responsible. A continuous MS., or even a connected outline of any one of the Lectures, could not be said to exist. The Lectures had indeed been delivered a year and a half before, but the delivery had been as it were of selected passages, with the connections orally supplied, while the Lecturer did not always follow the order of his notes, or, as we know from the Lectures he himself prepared for the press, the one into which he meant to work his finished material. What came into the editor’s hands was a series of note-books, which seemed at first sight but an amorphous mass or collection of hurried and disconnected jottings, now in ink, now in pencil; with a multitude of cross references made by symbols and abbreviations whose very significance had to be laboriously learned; with abrupt beginnings and still more abrupt endings; with pages crowded with successive strata, as it were, of reflections and references, followed by pages almost or entirely blank, speaking of sections or fields meant to be further explored; with an equal multitude of erasures, now complete, now incomplete, now cancelled; with passages marked as transposed or as to be transposed, or with a sign of interrogation which indicated, now a suspicion as to the validity or accuracy of a statement, now a simple suspense of judgment, now a doubt as to position or relevance, now a simple query as of one asking, Have I not said this, or something like this, before? In a word, what we had were the note-books of the scholar and the literary workman, well ordered, perhaps, as a garden to him who made it and had the clue to it, but at once a wilderness and a labyrinth to him who had no hand in its making, and who had to discover the way through it and out of it by research and experiment. But patient, and, I will add, loving and sympathetic work, rewarded the editor and his kind helpers. The clue was found, the work proved more connected and continuous than under the conditions could have been thought to be possible, and the result is now presented to the world.

A considerable proportion of the material for the ninth Lecture had been carefully elaborated; but some of it, and the whole of the material for the other three, was in the state just described. This of course added even more to the responsibilities than to the labours of the editor. In the body of the Lectures most scrupulous care has been taken to preserve the author’s _ipsissima verba_, and, wherever possible, the structure and form of his sentences. But from the very necessities of the case, the hand had now and then to be allowed a little more freedom; connecting words, headings, and even here and there a transitional sentence or explanatory clause, had to be added; but in no single instance has a word, phrase or sentence been inserted in the text without warrant from some one part or another of these crowded note-books. With the foot-notes it has been different. One of our earliest and most serious difficulties was to find whence many of the quotations, especially in the ninth Lecture, came. The author’s name was given, but often no clue to the book or chapter. We have been, I think, in every case successful in tracing the quotation to its source. Another difficulty was to connect the various references with the paragraph, sentence or statement, each was meant to prove. This involved a new labour; the sources had to be consulted alike for the purposes of verification and determination of relevance and place. The references, too, in the note-books were often of the briefest, given, as it were, in algebraics, and they had frequently to be expanded and corrected; while the search into the originals led now to the making of excerpts, and now to the discovery of new authorities which it seemed a pity not to use. As a result, the notes to Lecture IX. are mainly the author’s, though all as verified by other hands; but the notes to Lecture X., and in part also XI., are largely the editor’s. This is stated in order that all responsibility for errors and inaccuracies may be laid at the proper door. It seemed to the editor that, while he could do little to make the text what the author would have made it if it had been by his own hand prepared for the press, he was bound, in the region where the state of the MSS. made a discreet use of freedom not only possible but compulsory, to make the book as little unworthy of the scholarship and scrupulous accuracy of the author as it was in his power to do.

The pleasant duty remains of thanking two friends who have greatly lightened my labours. The first is Vernon Bartlet, M.A.; the second, Professor Sanday. Mr. Bartlet’s part has been the heaviest; without him the work could never have been done. He laboured at the MSS. till the broken sentences became whole, and the disconnected paragraphs wove themselves together; and then he transcribed the black and bewildering pages into clear and legible copy for the printer. He had heard the Lectures, and had happily taken a few notes, which, supplemented from other sources, proved most helpful, especially in the way of determining the order to be followed. He has indeed been in every way a most unwearied and diligent co-worker. To him we also owe the Synopsis of Contents and the Index. Professor Sanday has kindly read over all the Lectures that have passed under the hands of the editor, and has furnished him with most helpful criticisms, suggestions, and emendations.

The work is sent out with a sad gratitude. I am grateful that it has been possible so far to fulfil the author’s design, but sad because he no longer lives to serve the cause he loved so well. This is not the place to say a word either in criticism or in praise of him or his work. Those of us who knew him know how little a book like this expresses his whole mind, or represents all that in this field he had it in him to do.

The book is an admirable illustration of his method; in order to be judged aright, it ought to be judged within the limits he himself has drawn. It is a study in historical development, an analysis of some of the formal factors that conditioned a given process and determined a given result; but it deals throughout solely with these formal factors and the historical conditions under which they operated. He never intended to discover or discuss the transcendental causes of the process on the one hand, or to pronounce on the value or validity of the result on the other. His purpose, like his method, was scientific; and as an attempt at the scientific treatment of the growth and formulation of ideas, of the evolution and establishment of usages within the Christian Church, it ought to be studied and criticised. Behind and beneath his analytical method was a constructive intellect, and beyond his conclusions was a positive and co-ordinating conception of the largest and noblest order. To his mind every species of mechanical Deism was alien; and if his method bears hardly upon the traditions and assumptions by which such a Deism still lives in the region of early ecclesiastical history, it was only that he might prepare the way for the coming of a faith and a society that should be worthier of the Master he loved and the Church he served.

A. M. FAIRBAIRN.

OXFORD, _July, 1890_.

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS.

PAGE
LECTURE I.

INTRODUCTORY.

The Problem:

How the Church passed from the Sermon on the Mount to the Nicene
Creed; the change in spirit coincident with a change in soil 1, 2

The need of caution: two preliminary considerations 2

1. A religion relative to the whole mental attitude of an age:
hence need to estimate the general attitude of the Greek
mind during the first three centuries A.D. 3, 4

2. Every permanent change in religious belief and usage rooted
in historical conditions: roots of the Gospel in Judaism,
but of fourth century Christianity—the key to historical—in
Hellenism 4, 5

The Method:

Evidence as to _process_ of change scanty, but ample and
representative as to ante-Nicene Greek thought and
post-Nicene Christian thought. Respects in which evidence
defective 5-10

Two resulting tendencies:

1. To overrate the value of the surviving evidence.

2. To under-estimate opinions no longer accessible or known
only through opponents 10

Hence method, the correlation of antecedents and consequents 11-13

Antecedents: sketch of the phenomena of Hellenism 13, 14

Consequents: changes in original Christian ideas and usages 14

Attitude of mind required 15

1. Demand upon attention and imagination 15, 16

2. Personal prepossessions to be allowed for 17, 18

3. Need to observe under-currents, e.g.

(_a_) The dualistic hypothesis, its bearing on baptism and
exorcism 19, 20

(_b_) The nature of religion, e.g. its relation to conscience 21

History as a scientific study: the true apologia in religion 21-24

LECTURE II.

GREEK EDUCATION.

The first step a study of environment, particularly as literary.
The contemporary Greek world an educated world in a special
literary sense 25-27

I. Its _forms_ varied, but all literary:

Grammar 28-30

Rhetoric 30-32

A “lecture-room” Philosophy 32-35

II. Its _influence_ shown by:

1. Direct literary evidence 35-37

2. Recognized and lucrative position of the teaching
profession 37-40

3. Social position of its professors 40-42

4. Its persistent survival up to to-day in general education,
in special terms and usages 42-48

Into such an artificial habit of mind Christianity came 48, 49

LECTURE III.

GREEK AND CHRISTIAN EXEGESIS.

To the Greek the mystery of writing, the reverence for antiquity,
the belief in inspiration, gave the ancient poets a unique
value 50, 51

Homer, his place in moral education; used by the Sophists in
ethics, physics, metaphysics, &c. 52-57

Apologies for this use culminate in allegory, especially among
the Stoics 57-64

The Allegoric temper widespread, particularly in things religious.

Adopted by Hellenistic Jews, especially at Alexandria; Philo 65-69

Continued by early Christian exegesis in varied schools,
chiefly as regards the Prophets, in harmony with Greek
thought, and as a main line of apologetic 69-74

Application to the New Testament writings by the Gnostics and
the Alexandrines 75, 76

Its aid as solution of the Old Testament problem, especially in
Origen 77-79

Reactions both Hellenic and Christian: viz. in

1. The Apologists’ polemic against Greek mythology 79, 80

2. The Philosophers’ polemic against Christianity 80

3. Certain Christian Schools, especially the Antiochene 81, 82

Here hampered by dogmatic complications 82

Use and abuse of allegory—the poetry of life 82, 83

Alien to certain drifts of the modern spirit, viz.

1. Historic handling of literature 84

2. Recognition of the living voice of God 84, 85

LECTURE IV.

GREEK AND CHRISTIAN RHETORIC.

The period one of widely diffused literary culture.

The Rhetorical Schools, old and new 86-88

Sophistic largely pursued the old lines of Rhetoric, but also
philosophized and preached professionally 88-94

Its manner of discourse; its rewards 94-99

Objections of earnest men; reaction led by Stoics like Epictetus 99-105

Significance for Christianity 105

Primitive Christian “prophesying” _v._ later “preaching.”

Preaching of composite origin: its essence and form, e.g.
in fourth century, A.D.: preachers sometimes itinerant 105-113

Summary and conclusions 113-115

LECTURE V.

CHRISTIANITY AND GREEK PHILOSOPHY.

Abstract ideas among the Greeks, who were hardly aware of the
different degrees of precision possible in mathematics and
philosophy 116-118

Tendency to define strong with them, apart from any criterion;
hence _dogmas_ 118-120

Dogmatism, amid decay of originality: reaction towards doubt;
yet Dogmatism regnant 120-123

“Palestinian Philosophy,” a complete contrast 123, 124

Fusion of these in the Old Catholic Church achieved through
an underlying kinship of ideas 125, 126

Explanations of this from both sides 126-128

Philosophical Judaism as a bridge, e.g., in allegorism and
cosmology 128, 129

Christian philosophy partly apologetic, partly speculative.

Alarm of Conservatives: the second century one of transition
and conflict 130-133

The issue, compromise, and a certain habit of mind 133, 134

Summary answer to the main question 134

The Greek mind seen in:

1. The tendency to define 135

2. The tendency to speculate 136

3. The point of emphasis, i.e. Orthodoxy 137

Further development in the West. But Greece the source of the
true _damnosa hereditas_ 137, 138

LECTURE VI.

GREEK AND CHRISTIAN ETHICS.

The average morality of the age: its moral philosophy 139, 140

An age of moral reformation 140-142

1. Relation of ethics to philosophy and life 142

Revived practical bent of Stoicism; Epictetus 143-147

A moral gymnastic cultivated 147

(1) _Askesis_ (ἄσκησις): Philo, Epictetus, Dio
Chrysostom 148-150

(2) The “philosopher” or moral reformer 150-152

2. The contents of ethical teaching, marked by a religious
reference. Epictetus’ two maxims, “Follow Nature,”
“Follow God” 152-155

Christian ethics show agreement amid difference; based upon
the Divine command; idea of sin: agreement most emphasized
at first, i.e. the importance of conduct 158, 159

1. Tone of earliest Christian writings: the “Two Ways:”
Apostolical Constitutions, Bk. i. 159-162

2. Place of discipline in Christian life: Puritan ideal
_v._ later _corpus permixtum_ 162-164

Further developments due to Greece:

1. A Church within the Church: _askesis_, Monasticism 164-168

2. Resulting deterioration of average ethics: Ambrose of
Milan 168, 169

Complete victory of Greek ethics seen in the basis of modern
society 169, 170

LECTURE VII.

GREEK AND CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY.