A History of Christian Thought

When Professor McNeill began his lectures last semester, I was in his first class for a few minutes and spoke about the relationship between Church history and thehistory of Christian thought. I said there that they cannot be separated from eachother, and that in the history of Christian thought the history of the Church mustalways be presupposed; and vice versa, that in the history of the Church the history of Christian thought is implied. This separation, therefore, into two semestersfollowing each other is artificial. Fortunately this is the last time that we have thisprocedure and that I give these lectures, and from now on there will be a moreintegrated form of teaching Church history, in one year and a half. You are now stillanticipating this period of glory in the Church History Department, and we muststill make the best of it! But don't forget that Christian thought is the expression of something which is more universal and more real than thought, namely theChristian life itself. Because of this, Christian thought has very often been neglectedand even despised But this is equally wrong, and I want therefore to make a fewremarks in the beginning about the necessary function of thought in every humanendeavor, and especially in the religious life.