Christianity and the Christian Church of the First Three Centuries

Christianity and the Christian Church of the First Three Centuries is the first volume in Baur's five-volume history of the Christian Church. It and the last volume, Church and Theology in the Nineteenth Century, are being published in new translations. This book, based on the second German edition of 1860, is the most influential and best known of Baur's many groundbreaking publications in New Testament, early Christianity, church history, and historical theology. It is divided into six main parts and discusses such matters as the entrance of Christianity into world history, the teaching and person of Jesus, the tension between Jewish Christian and Gentile Christian (Pauline) interpretations and their resolution in the idea of the Catholic Church, the opposition of gnosticism and Montanism to Catholicism, the development of dogma or doctrine in the first three centuries, Christianity's relation to the pagan world and the Roman state, and Christianity as a moral and religious principle.



Ferdinand Christian Baur (1792-1860) was Professor of Theology at the University of Tubingen. The Editor's Foreword introduces the work, and the translators have added critical footnotes.



Editor's Foreword Preface to the First Edition Preface to the Second Edition Part 1: The Entrance of Christianity into World History Primitive Christianity Part 2: Christianity as a Universal Principle of Salvation: The Antithesis of Paulinism and Judaism, and Its Equilibrium in the Idea of the Catholic Church Part 3: Christianity As Ideal World-Principle and as Real, Historically Conditioned Phenomenon, or Gnosis and Montanism, and the Catholic Church as the Antithesis to Each of Them Part 4: Christianity as the Highest Principle of Revelation, and as Dogma Part 5: Christianity as a Power Dominant in the World, in Its Relation to the Pagan World and to the Roman State Part 6: Christianity as a Moral and Religious Principle, in Its Universality and Its Limitations at This Time Index of Persons Index of Subjects