If at this stage tlie question, What is Christi- anity? were asked, a twofold answer would be returned. So far as its intellectual aspects are concerned, the substance of the Cliristian faith is sumiiied up in certain forms of words accepted and accounted orthodox by the Church. So far as external position and status are concerned, the test of a man's Cliristianity lies in his association with a definitely constituted community known as the Church, possessing an organization of its own, wliich, with every decade, becomes more fixed and formal, less elastic in its constitution, and more exacting in its demands ui)on those who claim to be regarded as true Christians.
Such changes as these are in tliemselves not to be regarded as marking either an essential advance or a necessary retrogression. All depends on the way in wliich "they are carried out. In liuman life, as we know it, they are inevitable. The mollusc must secrete its own shell if it is to live in the midst of a given environment. At the same time, in the history of a religion, such a process is critical in the extreme. The loss of enthusiasm and elas- ticity may be counterbalanced by increased con- solidation, by the gain of a greater power of resisting attacks and retaining adherents. If the complaint is made that the expression of belief has become stiff and formal, the rejily is obvious that genuine faitli cannot long remain vague and inde- terminati". Thc^ Christian iini^t kiiuw «h:it is inijilifd ill wmshipi.in^; Ch; i-t ,i- l.-iJ, mn-t learn the iiK-aiiin- ..f the biipti-iiial IoniM,l;i , .niil must
of self-preservation must impose conditions of membership and translate abstract principles into definite codes and prescriptions. If a community is to exist in the presence of a hostile world, or to do its own work well as its numbers multiply, it must organize ; and thus ecclesiastical orders, rules, and formulre inevitably arise.
But the motle in which such processes are carried out varies considerably. Tlie formulation and con- solidation may be inefficiently done, in wliicli case the young community is in danger of falling to pieces like a rope of sand. Ur tlie organization
may be excessive, in which case formalism and fossilization set in. One of the chief dangers arises from the influx of unworthy or half-hearted members, those with whom religion is a tradition, not a living personal energy. ' When those who liave laid hold upon the faith as great spoil are joined by cro\Vds of others who wrap it round them like an outer garment, a revolution always occurs.' And especially when at such an epoch it is sought to define the essentials of a religion, there is the utmost danger lest secondary elements should be confused with the primary, lest an orthodox creed should be substituted for a living faith, and out- ward conformity with human prescriptions take the place of personal allegiance to a Divine and living Lord.
Whatever be tliought of the way in which this all-important change was effected in the first instance, — that is to say, the transition from Christianity viewed as a life to Christianity viewed as a system of dogmatic belief and ecclesi- astical organization, — few will deny that before Ion" the alteration was so great that it may be said the religion itself was transformed. By the orthodox Koman Catholic this transformation is considered to be Divinely ordered ; the process is regarded as one of steady advance and improve- ment—as a perfect child might pass into an equally admirable youth and man. According to Newman's theory, the original germs of doctrine and worship were developed normally and legitimately as determined by the criteria lie specifies— Preserva- tion of type, Continuity of Principle, Power of assimilation. Logical sequence, and the rest. Loisy, who is severely critical of the documents of the NT, holds the same view of the development of an infallible Church. To the eyes of others the change ett'ccted between the 2nd and the 6th centuries appears to be one of gradual but steady degeneration. In their view a living religion has hardened into a technical theology, vital union with Christ has passed into submission to the ordinances of a fast deteriorating Church, and the happy fellowship of believers in a common salvation and the enjoyment of a new life has almost disappeared under the lieavy bondage of ceremonial observances and ecclesiastical absolut- ism.
The substitution of the worship of the Virgin Mary as an intercessor with her Divine Son for reverent intercourse with Christ Himself ; the offering of the sacrifice of the Mass by an offici- ating priest for the benefit of the living and the dead, instead of a simple observance of communion with Christ and fellow- disciples at the Lord's Table ; the obtaining of absolution only after private confession to a priest Divinely appointed to dispense it, in place of free and direct forgive- ness granted to the penitent believer in Christ, — changes like these made in a religion are not slight and superficial. To some they represent a transi- tion from crude infancy to vigorous maturity ; to others they indicate deep-seated degeneration and the utter perversion of a pure and spiritual re- ligious faitli. An or^'anism in process of growth depends upon its enviruiitnent without, as well as its own living energies within. The history of the Christian Church does not present a coniiilete parallel to this. No true Christian can believe either that it was left to a cliance current of events, or that it was simply determined from without by natural causes. But the external factors which largely influenced the development of Christianity — Jewish beliefs and precedents, (ireek philosophy and intellectual habitudes, Koman polity and law, the superstitious ideas and observances of paganism — must be taken into account by those vAio are studying the nature of