RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Emser Encyclopedia
Hippolytus (Philosophumena, viii. 20) says expressly that the views of Encratites about God and Christ accorded with those of the Church. Clement of Alexandria states that Julius Cassianus, whom he calls the founder of the heresy of the Docetai (see Docetism) wrote " about continence or about eunuchism " and quotes three passages from this work of Encratitic content (Strom., hi. 13). Encratitic tendencies were no doubt shown also by the Gospel according to the Egyptians (see Apocrypha, B, I., 8). Epiphanius devoted an entire section of his history of heresies (xlvii.) to the Encratites; he speaks of their dualism, says that they reckon the Acts of Andrew, John, Thomas, and other apocrypha among their Scriptures, and that they use water instead of wine at the Lord's Supper (like the Aquarii and Hydroparastata?, qq.v.). Encratism is not confined to Christianity; Clement (Strom., i. 15) compares them with the Indian gymnosophists, and Hippolytus (Philosophumena, viii. 20) with the Cynics. The Nazirite's vow and the usages of the Essenes may also be brought into comparison, although no genetic connection can be shown. G. Kruger.
Bibliography: A. Hilgenfeld, Ketzergeschichte des Urchristentums, Leipsic, 1884; Neander, Christian Church, i. 456-458, 505; Schaff, Christian Church, ii. 495; DCB, ii. 118-120; and the literature under Tertullian.
ENCYCLICAL LETTERS: Circular letters, which in the ancient Church were often sent by a church or council to the churches of a certain district. The name is now applied to letters of the pope, relating to the entire Church, sent to all his subordinate bishops.
ENCYCLOPEDIA, THEOLOGICAL.
Conception and Purpose (§1).
Theological Science in the Primitive Church (§ 2).
In the Byzantine and Middle Ages (§ 3).
In Humanism and the Reformation (§ 4).
Pietism and Rationalism Influential (§5).
Schleiermacher and his Influence (§ 6).
Modern Problems (§ 7).
Development Outside Germany (§ 8).
In the Roman Catholic Church (§ 9).
Theological Encyclopedia is the branch of learning which sets forth the order and contents of theological science. The word encyclopedia, in its technical sense, is derived from the philosophic realm of Alexandrine study, and back of that from Greek antiquity. Since the time of Aristotle enkyklios paideia meant the circle of education which, according to Quintilian (Institutiones, I.,x. 101), included grammar, rhetoric, music, geometry, and astronomy. The idea which philosophy took up was appropriated by theology. The compounded expression as a single word occurs first in a discourse by the Jesuit Tarquin Gallucci (b. 1574) entitled De encyclopaedia comparanda (J. Lami, De eruditione apostolorum, Florence, 1738, p. 215) and next in J. H. Alstedt's Cursus philosophici encyclopedia (Herborn, 1620), in which
i. Concep- Alstedt refers to the Encyclopaedia of
tion and Matthias Martin (1649) as his source.
Purpose. The meaning of " Encyclopedia " in
these cases is an orderly exposition
of knowledge. The works just named were the
forerunners of the great encyclopedic collec-
tions which have set forth either the material of science as a whole or that of individual sciences. So that the word encyclopedia has become fully naturalized. It was first applied to theology by S. Mursinna in Primw lineos encyclopaedias theological (Halle, 1764-94). The idea of a formal encyclopedia of sciences was first put forward by Hegel (Encyklopddie der philosophischen Wissenschaften, Heidelberg, 1827, § 16), who limited it to the setting forth of the beginnings and the fundamental conceptions of special sciences. So theological encyclopedia sets forth the fundamental conceptions and methods of theological science. In doing this it takes cognizance of the genius of the Christian religion, of the causes which have built up a theology, of the historical and systematic relationship of the parts to the whole, and, above all, of the relationship of the science to life and of theology as the science of religion to the Church which is held together by this religion. Inasmuch as this science is always in a state of flux — new materials always being added, new questions arising — the best that can be done is to describe it historically and in relation to the present. The history of theological encyclopedia is not to be separated from the history of teaching and of the science. Christian theology grew out of the proclamation of the Gospel according to the command of Jesus (Matt, xxviii. 19-20). The communities of believers, instead of at- 2. Theolog- tempting to satisfy their religious ical Science needs with cultic organizations or in the wasting their energies in social per- Primitive formances, sought through instruc- Church. tion an assured and unified conviction of the grounds of their faith as members of the body of Jesus Christ. And just as in the religion of the Old Testament priesthood and prophecy strove together, and in Greco- Roman culture religion and philosophy, so in Christianity revelation and philosophy were the two factors out of which a developing theology drew its materials. There was an inherent tendency to a unification of all the elements which could serve the nourishment of the soul and the support of Christian activities. Catechetics, systematic introduction into the Christian rites, were the motives for the collection of the reports about the work of Jesus and his relation to salvation (Luke i. 4; I Cor. xiv. 19; Gal. vi. 6; Heb. vs. 1-2). Thus with the development of the organization of the Church grew up a literature of instruction. While direct testimony to the existence of such a body of material in the early Church is not immediately attainable, it can not be doubted that in such centers of Christianity as Alexandria, Antioch, and Constantinople during the second century such technical material existed. Indirect testimony to this is found in the technical terms existing in patristic works which have their roots and their analogies in the terminology of rhetoric, philology, and philosophy. Instruction in the form of question and answer is suggested by the Instituta regularia divinaz legis of Junilius at Antioch, the Sacra parallela of John of Damascus, the Quaestiones Amphilochice of Photius, and the Hupomnestikon
Encyclopedia