A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

Preface. 5the ancient Church in the universally available theological andother encyclopædias which have very recently appeared or arein course of publication, and in the recent works on patristics.Possibly the time has come when, in place of duplicating bibliographies,reliance in such matters upon the work of others maynot be regarded as mortal sin against the ethics of scholarship.A list of works has been given in the General BibliographicalNote, which the student is expected to consult and to which theinstructor should encourage him to go for further informationand bibliographical material.The book presupposes the use of a text-book of Church history,such as those by Cheetham, Kurtz, Moeller, Funk, or Duchesne,and a history of doctrine, such as those of Seeberg, Bethune-Baker, Fisher, or Tixeront. Readings in more elaborate treatises,special monographs, and secular history may well be left to thedirection of the instructor.The translations, with a few exceptions which are noted, arereferred for the sake of convenience to the Patrology of Migneor Mansi's Concilia. Although use has been freely made ofthe aid offered by existing translations, especially those of theAnte-Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, yet all translations havebeen revised in accordance with the best critical texts available.The aim in the revision has been accuracy and closeness to theoriginal without too gross violation of the English idiom, andwith exactness in the rendering of ecclesiastical and theologicaltechnical terms. Originality is hardly to be expected in such awork as this.An author may not be conscious of any attempt to make hisselection of texts illustrate or support any particular phase ofChristian belief or ecclesiastical polity, and his one aim may beto treat the matter objectively and to render his book useful toall, yet he ought not to flatter himself that in either respect hehas been entirely successful. In ecclesiastical history, no morethan in any other branch of history, is it possible for an author[ix]