THE APOSTOLIC AGE

OF THE

CHRISTIAN CHURCH.

BY
CARL VON WEIZSÄCKER
PROFESSOR OF CHURCH HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF TÜBINGEN
TRANSLATED FROM THE SECOND AND REVISED EDITION
BY
JAMES MILLAR, B.D.

THIRD EDITION

LONDON
WILLIAMS AND NORGATE
14 HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN
New York : G. P. PUTNAM’S SONS
1907

PREFACE BY THE EDITOR

The new series of translations by Messrs. Williams and Norgate auspiciously begins with Weizsacker’s great work on the Apostolic Age, of which the first volume now appears. This work is confessedly of exceptional value, exhibiting as it does not merely the learning we expect in a first-class German author, but a moderation and soundness of judgment which are by no means common either in Germany or anywhere else. It has the merit of being not only able and masterly, but extremely interesting, discussing a multitude of questions relating to the origin of the Christian Church in a manner fitted to engage the attention of general readers not less than of professional theologians. The style is luminous and easy, and the pages are not encumbered with learned foot-notes. On some subjects, as, e.g., the Resurrection of Christ and the historical value of the Book of Acts, readers may meet with views from which they earnestly dissent. But even there it will be found that the author’s treatment is scientific in spirit and reverent in tone. In the preface of his work on God and the Bible, the late Mr. Arnold pronounces Ferdinand Christian Baur an unsafe guide because of the ‘vigour and rigour’ characteristic of most German Biblical critics. Weizsacker compares very favourably with Baur in this respect. There is plenty of vigour in his book, but not nearly so much of the rigour of which Mr. Arnold complains.

Much pains have been taken to make the translation at once faithful to the author’s meaning and readable English.

A second volume, to appear in due course, will complete the work.

A. B. BRUCE.

Glasgow, December 1893.