Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typ...os. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. PAGANISM REDIVIVUS. A UGUSTINE'S saying that Christianity is not a new-fangled thing but that it existed from the beginning of mankind, is not to be taken in a general sense but must be understood literally. It reads in its original as follows: "Res ipsa, quae nunc religio Christiana nuncupatur, erat apud antiques, nee defuit ab initio generis humani, quousque Christus veniret in carnem, unde vera religio, quas iam erat, ccepit appellari Christiana." We translate literally: "The very thing which now is called the Christian religion existed among the ancients, nor was it absent in the beginning of the human race before Christ came into the flesh, since when the true religion which already existed began to be called Christian." We must ask the question, What constitutes Christianity in the opinion of a man like St. Augustine? St. Augustine would presumably find no fault with the following answer: Christianity means the belief in Christ as the son of God, the god-man, the sinless man, the saviour, the mediator between God and men, the divine teacher, the king, the hero, the ideal man, the martyr of the great cause of salvation, he who struggles for mankind,yet succumbs to the intrigues of the enemies of justice. Christ dies on the cross and descends into hell, to the place of death and the powers of evil, but hell can not hold him. He breaks the gates of hell and thereby opens the way to life for his brother men. He is therefore regarded as the leader, the firstling,11 and he who clings to Christ in faith will follow him through death to life and will partake of his glorification and bliss. Christ is now enthroned at the right hand of God whence he will return to earth as a judge of mankind at the end of the world. What of all this is contain...Detailed info »« Brief info