F. WALCH: Grundsätze der zur K. Gesch. nöthigen Vorbereitungslehren u. Bücherkenntnisse. 3d
ed. Giessen, 1793.
Flügge: Einleitung in das Studium u. die Liter. der K.G. Gött. 1801.
John G. Dowling: An Introduction to the Critical Study of Ecclesiastical History, attempted in an
account of the progress, and a short notice of the sources of the history of the Church.London,
1838.
Möhler (R. C.): Einleitung in die K. G. 1839 ("Verm. Schriften," ed. Döllinger, II. 261 sqq.).
Kliefoth: Einleitung in die Dogmengeschichte. Parchim & Ludwigslust, 1839.
Philip Schaff: What is Church History? A Vindication of the Idea of Historical Development. Philad.
1846.
H B. Smith: Nature and Worth of the Science of Church History. Andover, 1851.
E. P. Humphrey: lnaugural Address, delivered at the Danville Theol. Seminary. Cincinnati, 1854.
R. Turnbull: Christ in History; or, the Central Power among Men. Bost. 1854, 2d ed. 1860.
W. G. T. Shedd: Lectures on the Philosophy of History. Andover, Mass., 1856.
R. D. Hitchcock: The True Idea and Uses of Church History. N. York, 1856.
C. Bunsen: Gott in der Geschichte oder der Fortschritt des Glaubens an eine sittliche Weltordnung.
Bd. I. Leipz. 1857. (Erstes Buch. Allg. Einleit. p. 1–134.) Engl. Transl.: God in History. By S.
Winkworth. Lond. 1868. 3 vols.
A. P. Stanley: Three Introductory Lectures on the Study of Eccles. History Lond. 1857. (Also
incorporated in his History of the Eastern Church 1861.)
Goldwin Smith: Lectures on the Study of History, delivered in Oxford, 1859–’61. Oxf. and Lond.
(republished in N. York) 1866.
J. Gust. Droysen: Grundriss der Historik. Leipz. 1868; new ed. 1882.
C. de Smedt (R. C.): Introductio generalis ad historiam ecclesiasticam critice tractandam. Gandavi
(Ghent), 1876 (533 pp.).
E. A. Freeman: The Methods of Historical Study. Lond 1886.
O. Lorenz: Geschichtswissenschaft. Berlin, 1886.
Jos. Nirschl (R. C.): Propädeutik der Kirchengeschichte. Mainz, 1888 (352 pp.).
On the philosophy of history in general, see the works of Herder (Ideen zur Philosophie der Gesch.
der Menschheit), Fred. Schlegel, Hegel(1840, transl. by Sibree, 1870),Hermann(1870),Rocholl
(1878),Flint (The Philosophy of History in Europe. Edinb., 1874, etc.), Lotze(Mikrokosmus,
bk. viith; 4th ed. 1884; Eng. transl. by Elizabeth Hamilton and E. E. C. Jones, 1885, 3d ed.
1888 ). A philosophy of church history is a desideratum. Herder and Lotze come nearest to it
A fuller introduction, see in Schaff: History of the Apostolic Church; with a General Introduction
to Ch. H. (N. York, 1853), pp. 1–134.§ 1. Nature of Church History.
History has two sides, a divine and a human. On the part of God, it is his revelation in the order
of time (as the creation is his revelation in the order of space), and the successive unfolding of a
plan of infinite wisdom, justice, and mercy, looking to his glory and the eternal happiness of
mankind. On the part of man, history is the biography of the human race, and the gradual
development, both normal and abnormal, of all its physical, intellectual, and moral forces to theA.D. 1-100.