Symbolism

by Johann Adam Möhler

37 chapters13h 31mEnglish1843

About this book

Johann Adam Möhler was professor theology at the Tübingen University where both Catholics and Protestants taught and studied. In 1832 he published Symbolism; a work that examined the doctrines of original sin, grace and free will as held by the different Christian confessions. It caused a storm of controversy in the Protestant nations of Europe. In it he turned the weapons furnished by Hegel, the “Protestant Aquinas”, against Protestantism. His method and style were supported by the use of facts, texts, and documents. By 1838 Symbolism had been translated to 8 languages and its author had died before he completed its 5th edition. In an age when the Catholic Church found itself divided into two camps, the “German” and the “Roman”, Döllinger, a former pupil of Möhler’s, when addressing a group of scholars at Munich in 1863 once famously quipped that the former were defending Catholicism with rifles while the latter were still using bows and arrows. The “Romans”, however, would succeed in silencing thier “German” brethren at the First Vatican Council and cut off a branch bearing good fruit. A rediscovery of the “German” school is long overdue and there is no better place to start than Möhler’s Symbolism. (Summary by Jeff Allen)

Chapters (37)

1Introductory Note by the Translator

479

2Author's Prefaces to the First through Fourth Editions, Editor's Preface to the Fifth Edition

1897

3Memoir of Dr. Moehler, Part 1

1817

4Memoir of Dr. Moehler, Part 2

2373

5Memoir of Dr. Moehler, Part 3

2114

6Memoir of Dr. Moehler, Part 4

2027

7Memoir of Dr. Moehler, Part 5

1728

8Memoir of Dr. Moehler, Part 6

1877

9Introduction, Part I- Nature, Extent and Sources of Symbolism.

1782

10Introduction, Part II - Symbolical Writings of Catholics and Protestants.

1686

11Book I, Part I, § I - Primitive State of Man According to the Catholic Doctrine.

966

12§ II Lutheran doctrine on man's original state. § III The Calvinistic doctrine on the primitive state of man.

791

13§ IV On the causes of moral evil.

881

14Chapter II § V The Catholic doctrine on original sin.

1425

15§ VI Doctrine of the Lutherans respecting original sin.

1400

16§ VII Considerations on Heathenism...

999

17§ VIII Doctrine of the Calvinists on original sin. § IX Zwingli's view of original sin.

1055

18Chapter III § X General statement of the mode in which... man becomes justified.

615

19§ XI Of the relation of the operation of God to that of man, in the work of regeneration...

1292

20§ XII Doctrine of the Calvinists on the relation of grace to freedom, and human cooperation.-Predestination

632

21§ XIII Of The Catholic notion of predestination.

1199

22§ XIV Doctrine of the Protestants on justification and sanctification.

1306

23§ XV Catholic View of this subject.

953

24§ XVI Lutheran And Calvinistic view of faith.

1045

25§ XVII Appreciation of the theoretic grounds.

1042

26§ XVIII Appreciation of the practical grounds.

1418

27§ XIX Survey of the differences & § XX Of the assurance of justification.

818

28§ XXI Doctrine of the Catholics respecting good works.& § XXII Doctrine of the Protestants respecting good works.

1464

29§ XXIII Purgatory in connection with Catholic justification.

812

30§ XXIV Opposition between the communions.

1283

31§ XXV The culminating point of inquiry. & § XXVI Analysis of truth and error in the Protestant doctrine of faith.

1669

32§ XXVII Affinity of Protestantism with Gnosticism and Pantheism.

1086

33§ XXVIII Catholics on the Sacraments. & § XXiX Lutherans on the Sacraments.

1486

34§ XXX Further consequences of the Lutheran view, XXXI Zwingli & Calvin on the Sacraments & XXXII Baptism and Penance

1170

35§ XXXIII Continuation of the doctrine of Penance.

1449

36§ XXXIV Catholics on the Sacrament of the Altar, and on the Mass.

1926

37§ XXXV Doctrine of the Lutherans, Zwinglians, and Calvinists, on the Eucharist.

713

Symbolism

About this book

Chapters (37)

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