Institutes of Ecclesiastical History

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Is anyone acquainted with Institutes of Ecclesiastical History, Ancient and Modern by Johann Lorenz von Mosheim, translated by James Murdock, edited by Henry Soames (4 vol., 1841)?

 

[ChristopherPaul]

Not many people are viewing this thread, so perhaps it is not well known.

It sounds like something I would be very interested in studying.

 

[VirginiaHuguenot]

Here is a little bit of info about the author and his work:

Johann Lorenz von Mosheim (1694"“1755) was a professor of theology at Göttingen and his Institutiones historiae ecclesiasticae "was marked by hitherto unprecedented objectivity and penetration, and he may be considered the first of modern ecclesiastical historians" (Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church). First published in 1726, this work was originally composed in Latin; Archibald Maclaine made this first of two translations into English in 1764.

Johann Lorenz von Mosheim (1694-1755) published his widely-influential work Four Books of Institutes of Church History in installments, the last of which appeared the year of his death. Unlike Arnold the Pietist, Mosheim wrote more within the stream of Enlightenment thinking in the sense of striving for less partisanship in his reporting (and consequently, more critique of those who were openly partisan). He had no sympathy for the common historiographical approach of both Catholics and Protestants that automatically identified "œtruth" (according to the particular historian) with what "œthe primitive Christians believed." Like all Enlightenment thinkers he had strict standards of what counted as "œrational," and did not hesitate to lambaste views which fell short of those standards as "œfoolish," "œabsurd," "œridiculous," "œsuperstitious," and "œfanatical" (pg. 150).

Unlike previous Protestant writers he did not organize Church history according to an apocalyptic eschatological theme. Because of his practice of sociological analysis of human behavior in the religious sphere, he is sometimes called "œthe Father of modern Church history." True to the form we have seen time and again, "œhe believed that pure monotheistic religions tended to suffer contamination from the surrounding environment" (pg. 150). So just as Judaism was contaminated by Cabbalistic philosophy, Christianity was contaminated by Platonism and pagan superstition. Also in keeping with the simplicity theme, he believed that God had providentially caused the first Apostles to be uneducated so that their wisdom could not be attributed to human causes. Mosheim was sharply critical of both saints and heretics, sparing neither the early ascetics who endured "œthe useless hardships of hunger, thirst, and inclement seasons," nor the later Medieval sectarians "œwhose pestilential fanaticism was a public nuisance to many countries in Europe during the space of 400 years" (pg. 151). He tended toward skepticism of "œpretended prodigies" in ancient records, but he nevertheless retained his Christian belief in the miraculous.

Johann Lorenz von Mosheim (1694-1755) was a professor of theology at Helmstedt and later at the University of Gottingen, which he helped establish. His most important work was in the field of Church history, where he was one of the first to apply modern historiographical methods, and his Institutiones historiae ecclesiasticae (Helmstedt, 1755) was often reproduced and widely used as a textbook.

J. L. von Mosheim (Chancellor of the University at Göttingen, d. 1755), a moderate and impartial Lutheran, is the father of church historiography as an art, unless we prefer to concede this merit to Bossuet. In skilful construction, clear, though mechanical and monotonous arrangement, critical sagacity, pragmatic combination, freedom from passion, almost bordering on cool indifferentism, and in easy elegance of Latin style, he surpasses all his predecessors. His well-known Institutiones Historiae Ecclesiasticae antiquae et recentioris (Helmstädt, 1755) follows the centurial plan of Flacius, but in simpler form, and, as translated and supplemented by Maclaine, and Murdock, is still used extensively as a text-book in England and America.