History of the Christian Church Volume I

History of the Christian Church Volume I: Apostolic Christianity. A.D. 1-100. Philip Schaff PREFACE TO THE REVISED EDITION As I appear before the public with a new edition of my Church History I feel more than ever the difficulty and responsibility of a task which is well worthy to occupy the whole time and strength of a long life and which carries in it its own rich reward. The true historian of Christianity is yet to come. But short as I have fallen of my own ideal I have done my best and shall rejoice if my efforts stimulate others to better and more enduring work. History should be written from the original sources of friend and foe in the spirit of truth and love sine ira et studio with malice towards none and charity for all in clear fresh vigorous style under the guidance of the twin parables of the mustard seed and leaven as a book of life for instruction correction encouragement as the best exposition and vindication of Christianity. The great and good Neander the father of Church Historyfirst an Israelite without guile hoping for the Messiah then a Platonist longing for the realization of his ideal of righteousness last a Christian in head and heartmade such a history his life-work but before reaching the Reformation he was interrupted by sickness and said to his faithful sister: Hannchen I am weary; let us go home; good night! And thus he fell gently asleep like a child to awake in the land where all problems of history are solved. When after a long interruption caused by a change of professional duties and literary labors I returned to the favorite studies of my youth I felt the necessity before continuing the History to more recent times of subjecting the first volume to a thorough revision in order to bring it up to the present state of investigation. We live in a restless and stirring age of discovery criticism and reconstruction. During the thirty years which have elapsed since the publication of my separate History of the Apostolic Church there has been an incessant activity in this field not only in Germany the great workshop of critical research but in all other Protestant countries. Almost every inch of ground has been disputed and defended with a degree of learning acumen and skill such as were never spent before on the solution of historical problems. In this process of reconstruction the first volume has been more than doubled in size and grown into two volumes. The first embraces Apostolic the second post-Apostolic or ante-Nicene Christianity. The first volume is larger than my separate History of the Apostolic Church but differs from it in that it is chiefly devoted to the theology and literature the other to the mission work and spiritual life of that period.