Systematic Theology (Volume 1 of 3)Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Religion
Systematic Theology (Volume 1 of 3)
Strong, Augustus Hopkins
Baptists -- Doctrines; Theology, Doctrinal
apperception with will, and regards it as the unitary principle.
Külpe and Titchener find no self, or will, or soul, but treat
these as inferences little warranted. Their psychology is
psychology without a soul. The old psychology was exclusively
_static_, while the new emphasizes the genetic point of view.
Growth and development are the leading ideas of Herbert Spencer,
Preyer, Tracy and Stanley Hall. William James is explanatory,
while George T. Ladd is descriptive. Cattell, Scripture, and
Münsterberg apply the methods of Fechner, and the Psychological
Review is their organ. Their error is in their negative attitude.
The old psychology is needed to supplement the new. It has greater
scope and more practical significance.” On the relation of
theology to philosophy and to science, see Luthardt, Compend. der
Dogmatik, 4; Hagenbach, Encyclopädie, 109.
III. History of Systematic Theology.
1. _In the Eastern Church_, Systematic Theology may be said to have had
its beginning and end in John of Damascus (700-760).
Ignatius († 115—Ad Trall., c. 9) gives us “the first distinct
statement of the faith drawn up in a series of propositions. This
systematizing formed the basis of all later efforts” (Prof. A. H.
Newman). Origen of Alexandria (186-254) wrote his Περὶ Ἀρχῶν;
Athanasius of Alexandria (300-373) his Treatises on the Trinity
and the Deity of Christ; and Gregory of Nyssa in Cappadocia
(332-398) his Λόγος κατηχητικὸς ὁ μέγας. Hatch, Hibbert Lectures,
323, regards the “De Principiis” of Origen as the “first complete
system of dogma,” and speaks of Origen as “the disciple of Clement
of Alexandria, the first great teacher of philosophical
Christianity.” But while the Fathers just mentioned seem to have
conceived the plan of expounding the doctrines in order and of
showing their relation to one another, it was John of Damascus
(700-760) who first actually carried out such a plan. His Ἔκδοσις
ἀκριβὴς τῆς ὀρθοδόξου Πίστεως, or Summary of the Orthodox Faith,
may be considered the earliest work of Systematic Theology.
Neander calls it “the most important doctrinal text-book of the
Greek Church.” John, like the Greek Church in general, was
speculative, theological, semi-pelagian, sacramentarian. The
Apostles’ Creed, so called, is, in its present form, not earlier
than the fifth century; see Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, 1:19.
Mr. Gladstone suggested that the Apostles’ Creed was a development
of the baptismal formula. McGiffert, Apostles’ Creed, assigns to
the meagre original form a date of the third quarter of the second
century, and regards the Roman origin of the symbol as proved. It
was framed as a baptismal formula, but specifically in opposition
to the teachings of Marcion, which were at that time causing much
trouble at Rome. Harnack however dates the original Apostles’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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