Its Various Forms.—The theological con troversies of the early Christian centuries, to gether with the political rivalries of Rome and Constantinople, finally rent the Church into two divisions, the Western or Latin, with the bishop of Rbine as its head, and the Eastern, in which the patriarch of Constantinople was the chief dignitary. Out of the same controversies also grew a number of sects and national churches which still survive, such as the Coptic, Ethiopic and Armenian. Down to the Protestant Ref ormation in the 16th century the two chief forms of. Christianity were the Oriental, now represented by the Greek and Russian Churches, the Roman Catholic. In the West the claims of the papacy were gradually increased until the Pope rivaled in political power the greatest European emperors. There was no corresponding development in the East, where the Church became more and more dependent upon and subservient to the states with which it was allied. The Eastern Church was dif ferenced from the Western by a more specula tive and less' practical tendency, tht favorite themes in the theology of the former centring in the doctrine of the Trinity, those of the latter having more largely to do with sin and salvation. Both developed an elaborate cere monial of which the mass is the central feature.
At the Reformation, or in consequence of its influence, the various divisions of Protestant ism arose. Some of these, for example, the English Church, continued in alliance with the state; others repudiated any such connection. The Church of England retained the Episcopal system and laid increasing stress upon its con tinuity in organization with the Church of apostolic days. Most Protestant communions rejected this order along with other features of the Roman organization, and attached no im portance to the question of so-called tactual succession. Among these the greatest variety of belief and practice prevails.
It is quite impossible adequately to charac terize in'a brief statement the various forms of belief and life which the Churches and creeds of Christendom illustrate. In general, it may be said that the Roman type represents a highly elaborated, authoritative system. The decrees Of popes and councils are binding, and, Weed, within certain limits, infallible. There is a highly developed and minutely defined system of dogma and an elaborate ritual. Great stress is laid upon the prescribed rites of the Church and upon priestly mediation. Salvation is mediated through the sacraments, which are seven in number. In the English Church we see an intermediate form. Its head is not the Pope, but the king. In general, it highly esteems the decrees of the early councils and lays great stress upon the (two) sacraments, but, in practice, does not compel the unquestioning ac ceptance of the former, nor regard the latter as essential to salvation. Most other Protestant
bodies, such as Baptists, Congregationalists, Methodists and Presbyterians, permit and ex ercise a larger liberty regarding traditional be liefs and rites, some of them, as the two former, having no general authoritative creed, others, as the two latter, allowing considerable liberty in the interpretation of their official articles of belief. In general, it may be said that in Protestantism the prevailing tendency of thought is to regard Christianity as not being a system which can be embodied in rules and enforced by laws, but as a religion whose nature it is to attest itself to reason and con science by its moral appeal to. the human mind and heart.
The Essential and the Transient in Chris facts and truths constitute the essence, the permanent substance of Christian ity? That is a difficult question and one which Christian thinkers would answer in the most various ways. Certain it is that in its long history Christianity has undergone many trans formations, (been influenced by a great variety of foreign forces and taken up into itself many incongruous elements. In its Roman Catholic form it blended with the Roman Imperial idea. In its most elaborate developments of dogma it wrought in close alliance with Greek philosophy. Some of its doctrines have been examples of a christianized Platonism. Arc these features of historical Christianity essential to it? The same question meets us if we go back to the Church of the first age. The common view has been that every idea which is found in the New Testament is of the essence of Chris tianity; but this supposition is 1 a without its difficulties, and was probably in ? , r consistently carried out in practice. Were the apocalyptic expectations of the first Christian century valid and essential – the universal belief in Christ's siawly personal return to earth to judge the waikthe confident zinticipation of Rome s early destru4Ipn and the like ? IA LI.Jse study of early Christian history reveals the fact that the admixture foreign elements with primitive Christian teaehing was not limited to the later ages of the Church. Christian doctrine had al ready undergone a considerable development within the New Testament period. Greek ideas and, especially, late Jewish theories and specula tions, must be taken into account in interpreting and estimating apostolic and post-apostOlic teaching and tradition.