RELIGIOUS BOOKS
Ancient and Modern
By THE ARCHBISHOP OF YORK IT is one of the characteristics of the Church of England that while it appeals to the supremacy of Holy Scripture, it views Holy Scrip- ture not in isolation but in the context of the ancient Church wherein Holy Scripture was formed into the Canon and had its first interpre- ters. The greatest of Anglican divines, from Hooker to Charles Gore, have been learned in the Fathers. If it be thought that the result of this appeal to antiquity is likely to be a spirit of intel- lectual archaism, many instances of a contrary kind can be given. It was the appeal to the Fathers which gave to Caroline divinity its comprehensive grasp of the doctrine of the Incarnation; and it was the same appeal which towards the end of the last century enabled the writers of Lux Alundi to use the conception of the divine Logos, present in all creation, as a means of reconciliation between the Christian faith and contemporary movements of thought. The study of ancient theology can give a fullness and balance which escape the lopsidedness of contemporary controversies, and a creativity which enables fresh ventures to be made.
The study of the Fathers can be pursued with
many different interests in view. There is the fascinating study of the relation between Christian teaching and the philosophies and religious move- ments of the Graeco-Roman world, with the con- trast between a Tertullian who treats pagan philosophy as an enemy and a Clement of Alexan- dria who welcomes it as the handmaid of Christian faith. There is the study of those writers whose value lies in their insight into the meaning of a particular doctrine : such as Athanasius on the Incarnation, Basil on the Holy Spirit, or Cyprian on the Church. There are those like Chrysostom, preachers and prophets, who expounded the faith with an eye to its demands upon personal and social conduct. And there is Augustine, a man of perennial interest for himself and for a recurring influence from which Christendom can never escape. Are any classics of religion more fresh and relevant than the account of God's dealings with the soul in the Confessions, and the study of civilisation under God's judgment in the City of God?
Throughout the age of the Fathers the main questions of Christian doctrine are present, and the issues of orthodoxy and heresy. What was happening to the Christian faith? From the begin- ning Jesus was worshipped as divine, and the Church's thinkers had to grapple with the implica- tions of this for the understanding of God, man and the world. There was the double task : of con- serving the original data of revelation to which the apostolic writings were to be the supreme witness, and of interpreting those data with the aid of such philosophical categories as lay to hand. It was in the performing of this task that the distinction between orthodoxy and heresy appeared. It was palpably heretical to deny part of the original data, such as the deity of Christ or the unity of God who created the world and God who redeemed it. But what if the orthodox themselves defined the data in formulations which were novel? Then difficult questions arise, both for the ancient believer and the modern student. To both of them it has been the claim of Orthodoxy that a formulation such as that of the Council of Nicxa on the person of Christ ('of one substance with the Father') does no more than affirm the original faith that Christ is as divine as the Father is divine.
The study of the Fathers has had a considerable revival in the present century. There have been several new series of English translations of patristic writings. Liturgical scholars have been serving an interest in the worship of the Church in the pre-Nicene period, and this tendency takes us behind mediteval and post-medieval liturgical concepts and will undoubtedly have influence upon the approach to the revision of liturgical forms. One of the great events in the Christian world of learning was the International Patristic Congress held in Oxford a few years ago under the imaginative leadership of Dr. F. L. Cross. Here scholars from every Christian tradition and frorn many parts of the world shared their learning in the Fathers.
The student, however, needs guidance through the doctrinal complexities of the patristic period if he is to avoid missing the wood for the trees. He needs help which is both learned and lucid. This, 1 believe, he will now get to his great satisfaction from the book which has prompted the writing of this article: Early Christian Doctrines.* Dr. KeIlY guides his readers through the background of thought, Jewish and Hellenistic, against which the work of Christian thinking was done; and he traces the schools of thought within the Church and their influence upon the formulation of doctrine. I ant specially grateful for the treatment of 'Scripture and Tradition' which is the clearest and best which I have anywhere come across, and for the treat- ment of the mystical aspect of Christian life and doctrine—which is not very common in doctrinal histories. My guess is that this book will quicklY become the student's indispensable guide in the study of early Christian doctrine. More than that, it will win the attention of many readers who, whatever their own field of study, are concerned with the important question : how far is the Christian faith today in essence 'the same thing that it was in the early centuries?
* EARLY CHRISTIAN DOC MINES. By J. N. D. KellY• (A. and C. Black, 30s.)
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