The Protestant era was initiated in a revi sion of the principle of authority which had been transmitted in Latin Christianity; and a fundamental feature of the theological activity of that era has consisted in carrying out this revision to its logical results. Original Protes tantism accepted in common with the Latin communion the great outlines of doctrine con tained in the ancient creeds, especially the Nicene and the Chalcedonian. But it accepted them upon a revised basis. What was that basis? In the last analysis it must be defined as the principle of rational induction, in opposition to the principle of judicial determi nation by official authority. The primary appeal was indeed, to the scriptural content and to the doctrine of justification by faith. But since no infallible tribunal was set over the Scriptures, the appeal thereto amounted practically to a transference of the main emphasis to the free rational process. As respects the doctrine of justification by faith, it looked evidently in the same direction, since it profoundly qualified the necessity of priestly mediation or of depend ence upon the hierarchy. The assertion of this revised conception of authority, it is needless to say, was not designed to imply any challenge to the idea of supernatural revelation. Logic ally, too, the Protestant principle involves no necessity to challenge that idea. What it shuts out is official monopoly of revelation and au thoritative determination of its import by official prerogative. In place of this it installs, as the proper ground of theological convictions, free rational induction, an induction which, to be properly carried out, must take full account of the data of history, reason and experience. The advocates of the Protestant principle ad mit the great difficulty of the task of ideal theological construction on the basis of that principle; but it is their conviction that exemp tion from the labor of a thoroughgoing induc tion ought not to be sought in the religious sphere any more than in other spheres. The seeking of relief in the attachment of infallible authority to some perpetual office in the Church they regard as quite useless and mistaken, since it is less difficult to accredit, on the basis of history, reason and experience, any worthy element of belief, than it is to prove the con tinuous existence of an infallible tribunal.
In a closer review of the progress of the ology it would be necessary to notice a number of significant developments in each of the great epochs mentioned. Account would need to be taken of the peculiarities of the early Alex andrian, the Cappadocian the later Alexandrian and the Antiochian schoots in the Greek Church.
In relation to the Latin Church attention would need to be given to the long history of the antithesis between Augustinian and anti-Augustinian tendencies; to the struggle between Jalnsenism and Jesuitism; to the conflict between Gallicanism and Ultramontan ism. Within the Protestant domain there would be occasion to consider the early creative period of the Lutheran theology; the scholastic period in the 17th century; the Pietistic and Rational istic movements in Germany; the implication of Lutheran theology with successive philosophies since the dawn of the 18th century; the con troversies between Calvinism and Arminian ism; the contrasts between High Church, Low Church and Broad Church parties in the Angli can Establishment; the wide-reaching tenden cies born of the Wesleyan revival; the initiation in Germany of the great movement of biblical criticism and its extension to other countries; and the rise and influence of the Ritschlian theology.
Among theological writers eminent for their representative position, or breadth of influence, or both, we may in the Greek Church, Origen, Athanasius, Basil, Gregory Nazianzen, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyril of Alexandria, Theo doret and John of Damascus; in the Latin or Roman Church Augustine, Anselm, Peter Lom bard, Alexander Hales, Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, Bonaventura, Duns Scotus, Suarez, Bellarmin, Petavius and Perrone; in the Lutheran Church, Luther, Melanchthon, Chem nitz, Gerhard and Schleiermacher; in the Re formed Church on the Continent, Zwingli, Cal vin, Bullinger, Turretin, and Arminius; in Eng land and her dependencies, Hooker Chilling worth, Pearson, Bull, Baxter, Owen, Howe, Butler. Wesley and Edwards.