THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
though this both agrees with and diverges from Paul's view. Paul's presentation of the kingdom of God as a gift corresponds with that of Jesus. Jesus distinctly emphasizes the mutual relations between the religious and the ethical aspect of sonship. On the ethical side as a condition of entering that kingdom there is repentance. Faith is conceived as the right relation to Christ — trust not merely in his wonderful power to help, but in his person. Faith affirms that in him the kingdom of God has come and that he is the Messiah. Jesus complains of lack of faith, prays for increase of his disciples' faith, and he designates those as his followers who have faith in him. Of this the Pauline teaching is only a continuation.
The self-witness of Jesus, according to John, stands in close relation to the Pauline circle of thought, yet with its own characteristic features. Paul's secret of religion recalls John's living communion with God. The Synoptics
3. Johan- designate this as divine sonship, which nean in John is mediated through Jesus.
Doctrine. Here both the person of Jesus and faith in him are far more strongly accentuated; also the saving significance of his death. The central good is the " life," which includes the forgiveness of sins — a present salvation and a future perfection. In sonship the ethical and religious elements are inseparable and conditioned through faith in Jesus and a new birth, wherein one discerns a leaning toward the Pauline view of the new birth as mediated by faith. In faith the aspect of trust is not lacking, but the intellectual element is conspicuous. There is an approach to Paul's idea of faith — the mystic fellowship with Christ. Nor is the ethical element wanting: " he that is born of God doeth no sin" is an ideal judgment and is to be understood empirically, as is Paul's statement that the Christian is dead to sin. More strongly than Paul, John affirms that the Christian is deceived who declares that he does not sin. Divine sonship is traced wholly to God's love, and the Christian is led to ground his salvation not on his love to God but on God's love to him, guaranteed in the sending of his Son and the atonement for sin.
In the rest of the New-Testament writings, James' Epistle mainly demands attention. The author's interest is wholly practical. The Christian community is presupposed, but the content of faith is never developed and no warning to the Christian community rests on it. Owing to un-
4. Other certainty in the date of this epistle, New-Testa- no intentional polemic against Paul
ment can be affirmed. One must, however, Writers, reckon with the possibility that James' presentation was directed against a practical abuse of Pauline preaching. James holds that a separation of faith and works is impossible; rather does faith prove itself alive through works. With reference to other passages in the New Testament: at Pentecost, salvation is connected with the person of the crucified and risen Christ, and forgiveness of sins with faith in him. With this agrees I Peter, where, however, faith appears rather as trust in the redemptive activity of Jesus, and the ethical element and fear before God are strongly accentu-
ated. The Epistle to the Hebrews accords with Paul's view in emphasizing perfection (vii. 11) in Christ's work, and forgiveness of sins in baptism as well as the enduring high priesthood of Christ.
II. History of the Doctrine: Outside of the canonical Scriptures one seeks in vain for a full conception of the Pauline doctrine of justification Christianity is imperfectly understood. Men were aware of something completely new in Christianity, but could not specifically distinguish this from the law; thus Christianity was in
1. Patristic danger of becoming a new law, and Doctrine faith an obedient acceptance of retill vealed doctrine, to be completed by
Augustine, works. Of the Apostolic Fathers, Clement did not gain complete understanding of the Pauline faith. For salvation faith and works are combined, and even forgiveness of sins is mediated through love. Ethical action is based on the command of God. For Barnabas the content of the Gospel was the forgiveness of sins, yet he teaches that the way of light is the fulfilling of the law. In the Ignatian Epistles the thought not of faith but of the indwelling of God and Christ is prominent. Ignatius relates faith to the historical person of Christ and especially to his death — a trust which rescues from death. From him comes the formula, " first faith, then love." The Shepherd of Hermas and the second Clementine Epistle are the classic representatives of a Christianity which is profoundly convinced of the essential significance of faith as the foundation and power of the entire Christian position, but for the practise of the Christian life lays all weight on obedience to the divine requirements. Faith and works are the saving formula, and the doctrine of merit is adumbrated : fasting is better than prayer, alms better than both. In Hermas appears the thought of a supererogatory action which may hope for recompense from God. By Tertullian and Cyprian the notion of merit was made at home in the Church. Tertullian also marked out the path by which the Roman Church has sought to adjust merit to the religious character of Christianity. He knows of a supernatural endowment by which one is qualified for meritorious action. On tinother hand, he does not know of a grace through which one becomes pleasing to God. Thus the entire Christian life is under the stamp of fear. The understanding prepares for a distinction between natura and gratia, but uses it only to obliterate the opposition of gratia and merit. It was more fatal still that the doctrine of Tertullian was made effective by the authority of Cyprian. Almsgiving is paralleled with the forgiveness of sins through baptism. No longer is justification by faith held in the Pauline sense; faith is acknowledgment of the truth; it is trust only as an expectation that God will not withhold reward for meritorious deeds. Yet one must not conclude that for actual piety the Evangelical thoughts of the Scriptures had wholly disappeared. These were still influential for personal piety. Augustine reminds those who cavil at his notion of grace of the prayers and institutions of the Church. Even the Didache had required confession of sins before the sacrifice of
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