8/12/19
Schaff, Philip. History of the Christian Church (The Complete Eight Volumes in One). Amazon Kindle Edition, 2014.
Volume 2, Ante-Nicene Christianity A.D. 100-325, “Chapter 12. The Development of Catholic Theology in Conflict with Heresy” Sections 137-158, Loc. 18758-20235.
§ 144. Christ and the Incarnation.
After a lightly annotated bibliography about ante-Nicene understandings of the Trinity, Schaff observes that the earliest Christians clearly took Jesus’ divinity as absolutely essential to Christian teaching. “The denial of the mystery of the incarnation is the mark of antichristian heresy (Schaff 2014, Loc. 19341). Christ received the kind of “prayer, praise, and adoration which is due only to an infinite, uncreated, divine being” (Schaff 2014, Loc. 19348). Schaff finds evidence from the New Testament, early liturgies, writings of the Fathers, and from unbelievers who reported the actions of Christians. The divinity of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit can be found from the beginning of Christianity (Schaff 2014, Loc. 19360). Schaff does, however, admit that the theological articulations are not entirely clear from the start, probably because of the logical challenges in the description.