It would be ditlicult to overestimate the value of the existence of this Ijxed traditional standard of teaching at so earlv a date. It was the rallying and steadying centre of Catholic Chrfstianity, which kept it straight in the midst of Gnostic extravagances and among the perils of philosophical speculation. Our so-called Nicene Creed is onlv the Apostles' Creed in one of its more florid Oriental forms, with clauses engrafted Into it to meet the lislne heresies of Arius and Macedi>nius ; while the Chalcedonian for- mula and the i^uicumtjue take further account of the contro- versies connected with the names of ApoUinaris, Nestorius, and Kutyches.
The decisions in question were thus the outcome of a long evolution, every step in which was keenly debated by minds of in-eat acumen and power, really far better equipped for such discussions than the average Anglo-American mind of to-day. If we can see that their premises were often erroneous (especially in such matters as the exegesis of the (_)T). we can also see that they possessed extra- ordinary fertility and subtlety in the handling of metaphysical problems. The disparaging estimates of the Fathers, which are often heard and seen in print, are very largely based upon the most super- ficial acquaintance with their writings. There are many things in these which may provoke a smile, but as a whole they certainly will not do so in any really open mind. There exists at the present time in Germany a movement, which bears the name of its author Albrecht Kitschl (1822-1889). directed against metaphysics in theology generally. No doubt Ritschl also was a thinker and writer of great ability ; and the stress that he lays upon religious experience is by no means without justi- fication. But it has not yet been proved that the negative side of his argument is equally valid, ot that metaphysics can be wholly dispensed with. And so long as this is the case we certainly cannot afford to ignore these ancient decisions. Ever)' word in them represents a battle, or suc- cession of battles, in which the combatants were, many of them, giants.
LiTERATTRE.— The subject of this section brings np the whole history of '(.'hristology,* which may be studied in well-known works of Baur. Dorner. and Thomasius, or in JIarnack's JfiMtory of Dogma. There Is an excellent survey by Loofs in PliE^ iv. 16 tf.. art. 'Christolofrle. Kirchenlehre.' marked by much inde- pendent judgment and research. In EngUsh may be mentioned <Jore, Bamptou Lectures (ISitl); Fatrbairn, Christ in Modern Theology ^i^^Z)\ K. L. Ottley, Doctrine of the Incarnation
JKSUS ClIKLST
•lE.'SL'.S CHKISI
c.-.\
'I'll.' luUT |.hJ^^^'•^ of Ihf critical (iiscil^sltuis on tlit- cri-nls ftro set turtti ill Kattenbiisch. Oan Ajtofl. .Si/;/f/y«/ (Leipztir, l'^'J4. l-^y^. iinliiiistiod); lliirnack's nrt. * Ai)Ost. Svmb.' in I'RK^ i. 741 ir. (tills ts the uiitlior's most complete iiTi<i latest ntleraiice ; the Kiitf. reaiier may consult Hint, nf Dogniu, i. IRT II'.), aud an Iniportjitit art. Iiy Loofs in <ifit(. i/tl, Anzeigen, l!jUr>.
For HItHclirs attitude it may lie enout,'li to refer to his tract. TlintloQie H. Mrttijtfti/hik, Btiiin, 1>>1. We had an Kuu'lish version of tlie opposition to meluphvsics In the writings of .Matthew Arnolil.
iv. Tlif Christ of Personal Experience. — In the case of Kitschl the relifjioiis experience of the individual or of coinniuiiitie.s i.s diitrtly pitted aiiainst inetapliysics a.s the criterion of tlieolojjical trutli. But apart from pliilos(>|)liical theory it i.s the criterion winch i.s practically applied by hundreds of thousands of plain men — we will not say in search of a crecil, Inil in support of the creed which they have found <n' inherited. And there is an iminen.se volume of evidence derived from this source in cormboralion of the truth of Chris- tianity, or of what amounts to the same tanis, the Christian estimate of the Person of Christ. The sinf;ular attraction of this IVrson, the sen.se of what Christ has done, not only for mankind at lars^e but lor the individual believer, the sense of the love of God manifested in Mini, have been .so overpowering as to sweep away all need for other kinds of evidence. They create a passionate conviction that the religion which has had these effects cannot be wrong in its fundamental doctrine, the pivot of the whole.
Tliis pereonal experience operates in two ways. It makes the individual believer cling to his belief in spite of all the objection.s that can be brought against it. lUtt it also possesses a formative power which so fashions men in the likeness of IMirist, that they in turn become a standing witness to those who have not come under the same mtlnence. St. Paul exi)re.sses this by a forcible metaphor when he speaks of himself as in travail fur his lialatian converts 'until Christ be formed' in them, as the embryo is fornu-d iu the womb ((Jal 4''). The image thus formeil shines through the man, like a light through gla.ss, and so He who came to be the Light of the world has llis radiance transmitted downwards through the centuries and outwards to the remotest corners of the earth.
This that we siieak of is, of course, matter of common knowledge and of everyday experience. The note of the true Christian cannot help being seen wherever there is genuine Christianity. It is, however, an inestimable advantage that the iirocess should have found expression in such classics of llteialure as the Confessinns of St. Aiiijustine and the JJi' Jinildtioni'. In these it can not only be seen but studied.