Three Introductory Lectures on the Study of Ecclesiastical History by Arthur Penrhyn Stanley

Author:Arthur Penrhyn Stanley [Stanley, Arthur Penrhyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781371932541
Google: _WZAvgAACAAJ
Publisher: Bibliolife DBA of Bibilio Bazaar II LLC
Published: 2016-08-28T01:02:18+00:00

THE ADVANTAGES

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OF

ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.

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* * *

In my first Lecture, when defining the province of Ecclesiastical History, I was led to describe it in its widest extent; in my second, when stating the method by which life could be given to the study, I was led to dwell upon its narrower limits. And we must endeavour, in our future course, never, whilst studying the parts, to forget the whole; nor ever so to lose ourselves in the whole, as to neglect the study of one or more of the parts. Breadth without accuracy, accuracy without breadth, are almost equal evils. How, and in what precise proportions, this general outline, and this representation of particular persons and events, are to be combined, time only can teach us. A month's experience will, in this respect, be better than a year's preparation. After we have broken ground, as I trust we may in the ensuing term, on the necessary approaches both to the ancient and the modern, the Jewish and the Christian period of Ecclesiastical History, we shall be in a better condition to draw out a plan for the whole campaign.

Meanwhile, there are some general considerations of the chief practical advantages of the study, with which I may for the present leave it in your hands.

I. Importance of facts in theological studyWhatever may be the uncertainties of History, whatever its antiquarian prejudices, whatever its imaginative temptations, there is at least one sobering and enlarging effect always to be expected from it—that it brings us down from speculations and fancies to what at least profess to be facts, and that those facts transport us some little distance from the interests and the illusions of the present. This is especially true of History in connexion with Theology. As it is one of the main characteristics of Christianity itself, that alone of all religions it claims to be founded on historical fact—that its doctrines and precepts, in great measure, have been conveyed to us in the form of history, and that this form has given them a substance, a vitality, a variety, which could, humanly speaking, have been attained in no other way; so we need not fear to confess that the same connexion has existed through all the subsequent stages of the propagation of the religion. "The disciple is not above his Master;" Theology is not above Christianity: the Christian Church is in many respects the best practical exposition of the Christian Religion. Facts are still the most powerful, the most solid, the most stubborn guides in the mazes of speculation and casuistry; they cut through difficulties which arguments cannot overturn; they overturn theories which will surrender to nothing else. Ecclesiastical History is thus, as it were, the backbone of Theology. It keeps the mind of the theological student in an upright state: often as facts are perverted, and twisted, and bent to meet a purpose, yet they offer a sterner resistance than anything else short of the primary instincts of humanity.

They

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