Ecclesiastical Christianity. The Catholic Church
A. The transformation of the Baptismal Confession into the Apostolic
Rule of Faith
Necessities for setting up the Apostolic Rule of Faith; The Rule of
Faith is the Baptismal Confession definitely interpreted; Estimate of
this transformation; Irenæus; Tertullian; Results of the transformation;
Slower development in Alexandria: Clement and Origen.
B. 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.
C. 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 "Elders"; By the Bishops of Apostolic
Churches (disciples of Apostles); By the Bishops as such, who have
received the Apostolic _Charisma veritatis_; Excursus on the conceptions
of the Alexandrians; The Bishops as successors of the Apostles; 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; Obscurities in the idea of the Church as held by
Irenæus and Tertullian; By Clement and Origen; Transition to the
Hierarchical idea of the Church; The Hierarchical idea of the Church:
Calixtus and Cyprian; Appendix I. Cyprian's idea of the Church and the
actual circumstances; Appendix II. Church and Heresy; Appendix III.
Uncertainties regarding the consequences of the new idea of the Church.