Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 45:177 (Jan 1888)
Article: Two Histories Of Christian Doctrine
Author: Frank Hugh Foster

BSac 45:177 (Jan 1888) p. 163

Two Histories Of Christian Doctrine

Rev. Frank H. Foster

The appearance within the last two years of a new History of Christian Doctrine,1 and the re-issue from the press in an improved edition of another, which had already made for itself a place and name as one of the greatest works in this department of history,2 suggest the propriety of a review, by means of these representatives, of a department in which but little work has been done in our own country, but whose importance will not be denied by any one to whom the study of history seems to have any especial value for the theologian.

The History of Christian Doctrine was founded, as a distinct discipline, by Semler. It was undoubtedly his purpose in tracing the origin of the Christian doctrines, to show that they were all the product of mistake, or party zeal, or other unworthy influences, and so without objective value, or authoritative power in the church. But the efforts that he made, and the sound arguments which he mingled with his fallacies, exhibited the propriety and necessity of such a discipline among theological studies, and thus caused it to be cultivated by others, who did not share his theological point of view. In the last one hundred years, numerous works upon the subject have appeared in Germany, the home of the science, and also a few original productions in this country, as well as translations of one or more German works. Among original American histories, that of Dr. Shedd is best known. Recently there has appeared a history by Professor Sheldon, of Boston University. With the revival of orthodoxy in Germany in the first half of the present century, several histories of doctrine were put forth, the polemical object of which was to show that the Christian doctrines were the product of the divine agency moving in the church, and that they thus possessed an argument in their favor of no mean value, derived from the consent of successive ages under the guidance of one Spirit. Among these, the work

BSac 45:177 (Jan 1888) p. 164

of Thomasius has been confessedly preeminent. It here appears in its second edition, which adds nothing to the excellencies of the work considered as an exemplification of its author’s view of the historical development, though containing many things which bring it more into accord with the demands of the present status of historical study. It remains in general the same that it was in its first edition, and we shall not find it necessary to note especially what another hand has added to the work of the master who produced it.

Thomasius occupied, as already indicated, the position of a believer in the divin...