The fixing of that which is Apostolic (Rule of Faith, Collection of Writings, Organization, Cultus)

The Stages in the Genesis of the Catholic Rule of Faith, the Apologists

Obscurities in reference to the origin of the most important Institutions

Fixing and Gradual Secularising of Christianity as a Church

CHAPTER II. — The setting up of the Apostolic Standards for Ecclesiastical Christianity. The Catholic Church

The designation of selected writings read in the Churches as New Testament Scriptures or, in other words, as a collection of Apostolic Writings

Plausible arguments against the statement that up to the year 150 there was no New Testament in the Church.

Sudden emergence of the New Testament in the Muratorian Fragment, in (Melito) Irenæus and Tertullian.

Conditions under which the New Testament originated.

Relation of the New Testament to the earlier writings that were read in the Churches

Causes and motives for the formation of the Canon, manner of using and results of the New Testament

The Apostolic collection of writings can be proved at first only in those Churches in which we find the Apostolic Rule of Faith; probably there was no New Testament in Antioch about the year 200, nor in Alexandria (Clement)

Probable history of the genesis of the New Testament in Alexandria up to the time of Origen

ADDENDUM. The results which the creation of the New Testament produced in the following period

The transformation of the Episcopal Office in the Church into an Apostolic Office. The History of the remodelling of the conception of the Church

The legitimising of the Rule of Faith by the Communities which were founded by the Apostles

By the Bishops as such, who have received the Apostolic Charisma veritatis

Original idea of the Church as the Holy Community that comes from Heaven and is destined for it

The Church as the empiric Catholic Communion resting on the Law of Faith

ixObscurities in the idea of the Church as held by Irenmus and Tertullian

Appendix III. Uncertainties regarding the consequences of the new idea of the Church

The later Montanism as the dregs of the movement and as the product of a compromise

The opposition to the demands of the Montanists by the Catholic Bishops: importance of the victory for the Church

Significance of the new kind of penance for the idea of the Church; the Church no longer a Communion of Salvation and of Saints, but a condition of Salvation and a Holy Institution and thereby a corpus permixtum

Conclusion: the Catholic Church as capable of being a support to society and the state

II. Fixing and Gradual Hellenising of Christianity as a System of Doctrine.

CHAPTER V. — The Beginnings of an Ecclesiastico-theological interpretation and revision of the Rule of Faith in opposition to Gnosticism, on the basis of the New Testament and the Christian Philosophy of the Apologists; Melito, Irenæus, Tertullian, Hippolytus, Novatian

xiThe theological position of Irenæus and of the later contemporary Church teachers

Characteristics of the theology of the Old Catholic Fathers, their wavering between Reason and Tradition

Irenæus’ attempt to construct a systematic theology and his fundamental theological convictions

His historical significance: conserving of tradition and gradual hellenising of the Rule of Faith

The “Scripture theology” as a sign of the dependence on “Gnosticism” and as a means of conserving tradition

The views of Irenæus regarding the destination of man, the original state, the fall and the doom of death (the disparate series of ideas in Irenæus; rudiments of the doctrine of original sin in Tertullian)

Assertion of the complete mixture and unity of the divine and human elements

xii Things peculiar to Tertullian

Its archaic nature, its incompatibility with speculation and the advantage of connection with that

The influence of Gnosticism on the estimate of the two Testaments, the complexus oppositorum; the Old Testament a uniform Christian Book as in the Apologists

The Old Testament a preliminary stage of the New Testament and a compound Book

Results to Ecclesiastical Christianity, chiefly in the West, (Cyprian, Novatian)

CHAPTER VI. — The Transformation of the Ecclesiastical Tradition into a Philosophy of Religion, or the Origin of the Scientific Theology and Dogmatic of the Church: Clement and Origen

Schools and Teachers in the Church at the end of the second and the beginning of the third century; scientific efforts (Alogi in Asia Minor, Cappadocian Scholars, Bardesanes of Edessa, Julius Africanus, Scholars in Palestine, Rome and Carthage)

The temper of Clement and his importance in the History of Dogma; his relation to Irenus, to the Gnostics and to primitive Christianity; his philosophyof Religion

xiiiTheology as a Philosophy of Revelation, and a cosmological speculation

Concluding Remarks: The importance of this system to the following period