Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Studies in Christianity
I AM often told by my friends that Christianity is nothing but a set of statements about supernatural history which no one now can honestly believe. When I deny this, they ask me what Christianity is and, if I try to tell them, they reply - That is not Christianity at all but certain beliefs which were held by men before Christ was born and may be held by them after his name has been forgotten. But, all the while, I am convinced that there is a body of belief, not concerned with supernatural history, which is Christian; that it began with the teaching of Christ, as Platonism began with the teaching of Plato, that it has been enlarged and enriched with the experience of nineteen centuries and yet has remained itself. I am not anxious to prove the originality of Christ in detail. It may be that he said no single thing which had not been said before him. 'the originality of a great teacher consists, not in particular sayings or doings, but(in his power of giving life to an idea) so that it continues to live in other men's minds and is enriched with other men's thought. The greatest ideas are not those which remain peculiar to their authors. Rather they are those which take on an independent life of a 2. 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.