The Influence of Greek Ideas and Usages upon the Christian Church

By Edwin Hatch

Book Overview

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1015992196
• ISBN13: 9781015992191
• Release Date: October 2022
• Publisher: Legare Street Press
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.18 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Illuminating study of Greek influence on Christianity

This book consists of the Hibbart Lectures of 1888 that were published following the death of Edwim Hatch, a devout Christian scholar. His thesis is clearly stated: "It is impossible for any one, whether he be a student of history or no, to fail to notice a difference of both form and content between the Sermon on the Mount and the Nicene Creed... The one belongs to a world of Syrian peasants, the other to a would of Greek philosophers. The contrast is patent.... The presumption is that [the change] was the result of Greek influence. It will appear from the Lectures that this presumption is true. Their general subject is, consequently, The Influence of Greece upon Christianity." Anyone who has wrestled with the contrasting images of the teaching of Jesus in the New Testament and the propositional creeds of later Christianity, and who has wondered how "belief" as trust and confidence in a person became transmuted into "belief" meaning assent to a series of metaphysical propositions will find Hatch's work very illuminating, in spite of its age and somewhat stilted (by today's standards) language. Highly recommended, and worth seeking out.