System of Christian Ethics (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from System of Christian Ethics

And this anxiety is of a twofold kind. In the first place, it refers to the plan of the whole treatise. In science generally, but in theology from quite peculiar grounds, it appears to me a matter of doubtful propriety when a department of knowledge which is a common possession has not also a certain common form of treat ment, so that one immediately perceives from the style of discussion whether what is new is meant merely to attempt a better establish ment of an old knowledge of the truth. Where this mode of treatment is unnecessarily departed from, there arises not only the danger of ministering, even if involuntarily, to that craving after novelty which loves not what is true, but only what is new; but one also cuts asunder deliberately the threads of connection which bind to one another the different stages of culture and of knowledge.

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This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from System of Christian Ethics

And of what importance the latter circumstance is, one might readily become aware, if the misfortune should go on increasing in growing measure, that in matters of universal Christian knowledge every theologian should speak his own peculiar language. It must therefore in my case awaken suspicion, whether I am in the right in deviating in essential points from the mode of treatment which has become predominant in Protestant theology. It will thus perhaps surprise many to find, in a system of Christian Ethics, no trace at all of a so-called doctrine of duties (Pflichtenlehre). It ought, nevertheless, to be a matter of satisfaction to me, if I were conscious in all my alterations of being as much in the right as in this. Only I must be allowed, for the right of alteration in these and other cases, to point to the development of the book itself, instead of an explanation of this right in the Preface.

But for the clear and sufficient understanding of the nature and the design of a treatise, in which it is wished that these should be drawn from the treatise itself, a sketch which is to serve for lectures presents difficulties hard to be overcome. Much must be left over for oral explanation, if the book is not to take the place of the lectures themselves: the reader of the book, however, will then in many places feel the need of learning more than is to be found in the book itself. True, indeed, to meet the necessities of the reader, I have attempted to give the notes on the paragraphs more copiously than was my original design, and as much as possible in continuous connected development. It is, however, possible, that one may think too much has been given, another too little; or that, to express it more accurately, the corresponding proportion of explanation has not really been hit upon. In reference to these explanations, I must only make this additional remark, that the historical development of Ethics - the literature and all connected with it - has not been considered for this reason, because I intend, if God will, afterwards to give in a second volume a history of the development of Christian Ethics.

About the Publisher

Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com

This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.