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History of the Christian Church: Ante-Nicene Christianity A.D. 100-325

(History of the Christian Church)

Philip Schaff

4.43 · Rating details · 44 ratings · 6 reviews

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Hardcover, 892 pages

Published December 12th 1960 by William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company (first published 1910)

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Jul 08, 2020 Blake rated it liked it

This is volume two of Scaff's work which is made up of eight volumes on the history of the Christian Church. Written in the 1800's and first published in 1910, Scaff, in this volume, does extensive research on church history from the time of the last apostle (John), through the year 325. Much of Schaff's focus in on the literature of the early church, the heresies of the early church, and the rise of the church father's who addressed the many heresies that perpetually launched attacks upon apost This is volume two of Scaff's work which is made up of eight volumes on the history of the Christian Church. Written in the 1800's and first published in 1910, Scaff, in this volume, does extensive research on church history from the time of the last apostle (John), through the year 325. Much of Schaff's focus in on the literature of the early church, the heresies of the early church, and the rise of the church father's who addressed the many heresies that perpetually launched attacks upon apostolic doctrine. Schaff likewise, focuses sections on the persecution of the church, primarily from the Roman government, focusing on the role that the emperor's played in bringing about horrific persecution to those who refused to bow the knee to the Roman gods, to the Romans government, to the Roman way of life. Schaff also writes about the organization of the church as it spread across the globe, looking at the worship within the church, the role that art played in the church, and the church in the catacombs.

The author used a chapter to show the contrast between the Christian life and the pagan corruption that ran so rampant within the Roman kingdom. This was a fascinating section as Schaff focused on things such as Christian morality, the church and public amusements, secular callings and duties, the church and slavery, the Christian family (versus the pagan family), the issue of brotherly love and love for one's enemies, the role of prayer and fasting, and the treatment of the dead.

Schaff also presented histoical facts concerning things such as ascetism, Montanism, and the heresies of the Ante-Nichene age. Out of this grew the development of Catholic Theology, which Schaff writes extensively on, covering many of the main doctrines that were focused on in this time period. Within this section, Schaff shows his own theological hand, especially when he wrote the section on future events, especially in regards to the future millennial kingdom of Christ.

Scaff's work ends with looking at the ecclesiastical literature of the Ante-Nicene age and presents biographical sketches of the church fathers. This section was very interesting as he presented biographical elements on people who are unknowns (at least to those of us who don't specialize in church history) and people who are well-known (Ignatius, Polycarp, Origen, Tertullian, Clement, etc.

As a whole, this was a fairly good read and one that would be helpful for someone who wants to really get entrenched in understand a critical section of church history. Schaff does what Schaff does best, in that he provides an indepth study of, and presentation of this section of church history. It was informative and very helpful in understanding the many aspects of church history as the church left behind the apostles and carried the torch into the next couple of centuries. ...more

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Feb 07, 2019 Sean McGowan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: history

Truly my favorite church historian. This second volume of his massive church history is exhaustive of the time period. Highly recommended.

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Jun 20, 2009 Coyle rated it it was amazing

Excellent and readable history of Ante-Nicene Christianity. Schaff's main points (in addition to historical narrative and descriptions of the Ante-Nicene church fathers) are:
1) the practical nature of the early church. The church fathers were not generally great theologians (that had to wait until Augustine and the Reformers), but they were incredibly practical in their approach to the Christian life. The culmination of this was martyrdom.
2) the discontinuity between the early church and the lat Excellent and readable history of Ante-Nicene Christianity. Schaff's main points (in addition to historical narrative and descriptions of the Ante-Nicene church fathers) are:
1) the practical nature of the early church. The church fathers were not generally great theologians (that had to wait until Augustine and the Reformers), but they were incredibly practical in their approach to the Christian life. The culmination of this was martyrdom.
2) the discontinuity between the early church and the later church, whether that means Catholic or Protestant. Basically, no one gets to claim these guys. We all have our origins there, but none of us do church or theology in exactly the way they do.
3) heresy, and the response to it. It's interesting how much of Christian doctrine comes out of people going off in crazy directions with their beliefs, and how hard the church fathers had to work to respond to the heretical movements.
4) the variety of orthodoxy. Within the body of believers, it is amazing how broad and diverse the fathers were. Basically, everything went, from Tertullian (a Latin-speaking lawyer who joined what was essentially the early version of the Pentecostals), to Origen (who was a Greek-speaking philosopher who approached Scripture allegorically), anything went within the bounds of orthodoxy.

There are way too many good quotes to put here, but I especially liked the conversion narratives:
-"O blindness... only a short time ago I was worshipping images just taken from the forge, gods shaped upon the anvil and by the hammer... When I saw a stone made smooth and smeared with oil, I prayed to it and addressed it as if a living power dwelt in it, and implored blessings from the senselesss stock. And I offered grievious insult even to the gods, whom I took to be such, in that I considered them wood, stone, and bone, or fancied that they dwelt in the stuff of such things. Now that I have been lead by so great a teacher into the way of truth, I know what all that is, I think worthily of the Worthy, offer no insult to the Godhead, and give every one his due... Is Christ, then, not to be regarded as God? And is He who in other respects may be deemed the very greatest, not to be honored with divine worship, from whom, when the day comes, we expect greater gifts?" (Arnobius, 857)

-"While I languished in darkness and deep night, tossing upon the sea of a troubled world, ignorant of my destination, and far from truth and light, I thought it, according to my then habits, altogether a difficult and hard thing that a man could be born anew, and that, being quickened to new life by the bath of saving water, he might put off the past, and, while preserving the identity of the body, might transform the man in mind and heart... So soon as I drank the spirit from above and was transformed by a second birth into a new man, then the wavering mind become wonderfully firm; what had been closed opened; the dark became light; strength came for that which had seemed difficult; what I had thought impossible became practicable." (Cyprian, 844) ...more

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Feb 12, 2017 Jim rated it it was amazing

Also read years ago. Again, easy to stay with. Recommended!

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Aug 09, 2011 Damion rated it it was ok

Shelves: protestant

I respect Schaff for his candor and knowledge of history. What I don't care for is his opinions. Many times he gives an opinion without any basis in written historical fact. It is clear in some of his arguments that another agenda is at stake. I wouldn't mind this so much if he didn't begin book 1 with a statement that he would keep all parties neutral in his arguments. He does not, and for this I have a difficult time taking his opinions seriously, especially when you read the writings of the e ...more

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Jul 02, 2016 Nelson Banuchi rated it liked it

Shelves: church-history

Although, probably much outdated, it is a good read. The "History" starts from the death of the last apostle, John (c.100), to the beginning of Constantine's rise as the Roam emperor. However, the discussion is not on Constantine but briefly on Eusebius and two other of his contemporaries during Constantin'e reign. ...more

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About Philip Schaff

Philip Schaff

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Philip Schaff was educated at the gymnasium of Stuttgart, and at the universities of Tübingen, Halle and Berlin, where he was successively influenced by Baur and Schmid, by Tholuck and Julius Müller, by David Strauss and, above all, Neander. At Berlin, in 1841, he took the degree of B.D., and passed examinations for a professorship. He then traveled through Italy and Sicily as tutor to Baron Krisc Philip Schaff was educated at the gymnasium of Stuttgart, and at the universities of Tübingen, Halle and Berlin, where he was successively influenced by Baur and Schmid, by Tholuck and Julius Müller, by David Strauss and, above all, Neander. At Berlin, in 1841, he took the degree of B.D., and passed examinations for a professorship. He then traveled through Italy and Sicily as tutor to Baron Krischer. In 1842 he was Privatdozent in the University of Berlin, where he lectured on exegesis and church history. In 1843 he was called to become professor of church history and Biblical literature in the German Reformed Theological Seminary of Mercersburg, Pennsylvania, then the only seminary of that church in America.
On his journey he stayed in England and met Edward Pusey and other Tractarians. His inaugural address on The Principle of Protestantism, delivered in German at Reading, Pennsylvania, in 1844, and published in German with an English version by John Williamson Nevin was a pioneer work in English in the field of symbolics (that is, the authoritative ecclesiastical formulations of religious doctrines in creeds or confessions). This address and the "Mercersburg Theology" which he taught seemed too pro-Catholic to some, and he was charged with heresy. But, at the synod at York in 1845, he was unanimously acquitted.
Schaff's broad views strongly influenced the German Reformed Church, through his teaching at Mercersburg, through his championship of English in German Reformed churches and schools in America, through his hymnal (1859), through his labours as chairman of the committee which prepared a new liturgy, and by his edition (1863) of the Heidelberg Catechism. His History of the Apostolic Church (in German, 1851; in English, 1853) and his History of the Christian Church (7 vols., 1858-1890), opened a new period in American study of ecclesiastical history.
In 1854, he visited Europe, representing the American German churches at the ecclesiastical diet at Frankfort and at the Swiss pastoral conference at Basel. He lectured in Germany on America, and received the degree of D.D. from Berlin.
In consequence of the ravages of the American Civil War the theological seminary at Mercersburg was closed for a while and so in 1863 Dr. Schaff became secretary of the Sabbath Committee (which fought the “continental Sunday”) in New York City, and held the position till 1870. In 1865 he founded the first German Sunday School in Stuttgart. In 1862-1867 he lectured on church history at Andover.

Schaff was a member of the Leipzig Historical Society, the Netherland Historical Society, and other historical and literary societies in Europe and America. He was one of the founders, and honorary secretary, of the American branch of the Evangelical Alliance, and was sent to Europe in 1869, 1872, and 1873 to arrange for the general conference of the Alliance, which, after two postponements on account of the Franco-Prussian War, was held in New York in October 1873. Schaff was also, in 1871, one of the Alliance delegates to the emperor of Russia to plead for the religious liberty of his subjects in the Baltic provinces.

He became a professor at Union Theological Seminary, New York City in 1870 holding first the chair of theological encyclopedia and Christian symbolism till 1873, of Hebrew and the cognate languages till 1874, of sacred literature till 1887, and finally of church history, till his death. He also served as president of the committee that translated the American Standard Version of the Bible, though he died before it was published in 1901.
His History of the Christian Church resembled Neander's work, though less biographical, and was pictorial rather than philosophical. He also wrote biographies, catechisms and hymnals for children, manuals of religious verse, lectures and essays on Dante, etc. He translated Johann Jakob Herzog's Real-Encyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche into English.
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