INTRODUCTION.
§ 69. Historical Theology, (comp. § 26), viewed as to its contents, forms a part of the science of Modern History; and when it is thus regarded, all the natural divisions of the latter science are co-ordinate with it.
It belongs especially to the inner side of the science of History, the History of Modern Civilization and Morals; in which Christianity has manifestly introduced a developement of its own. For, to represent Christianity as having been merely and purely a source of perversions and retrograde movements, is to take a view of the subject which has grown quite out of date.
§ 70. Regarded as a theological discipline, the historical knowledge of Christianity is, in its more immediate character, the indispensable condition of all intelligent inoperation upon the further developement of Christianity; and in this connexion, the other parts of the science of History are merely subordinated to its service.
From this it is seen at once, what a different turn the study and mode of treatment of the same mass of facts will respectively take, when these facts have their place in the theological discipline of which we are treating, and when they come before us in the general science of History; while, nevertheless, the principles of historical investigation do not cease to be the same for both departments.
§ 71. Whatever makes its appearance in any department of History as an individual Momentum, is capable of being viewed either as a sudden origination, or as a gradual developement and further progress.
In the department of individual life, every beginning is a sudden origination; but, from that point forward, all the rest is mere developement. In the proper department of History, however,—the department of social life,—the two are not strictly opposed to each other; and only on account of a preponderance of either is one momentum viewed in the one way, another in the opposite.
§ 72. The total career of every historical Whole, consists of a manifold alternation of momenta of both kinds.
Not as though it were in and of itself impossible that an entire career of this kind should be viewed as a continuous developement from a single point of commencement. But nothing more is requisite than that it shall be possible for us to look at the energy itself [which is the subject of developement], as being also a something manifold, the elements of which do not all become apparent at the same time,—or to trace, in the developement itself, the differences of a quicker and a slower progress,—(and it will hardly be the case that both these conditions will fail),—and we are then at once constrained to assume the existence of intervals of an opposite character.
§ 73. A series of Momenta in which quiet progress uninterruptedly predominates, exhibits a state of order, and constitutes a historical Period; a series of those in which sudden origination predominates, exhibits a destructive revolution in the relations of things, and forms a historical Epoch.
The longer the continuance of the latter state of things, the less possible would it be for the identity of the object to be maintained; because, in such a case, all contrast between the enduring and the changing comes to an end. The longer, therefore, the object maintains its position as one and the same, the greater preponderance is there of such states as belong to the former class.
§ 74. Every historical Whole is capable of being viewed, not only as a unity, but also as a something composite, the different elements of which, (although only in a subordinate sense, and with a constant relation to one another), have each of them a career of its own.
Such distinctions present themselves, in some form or other, on every hand; and there is the greater reason for directing a special attention to them, in proportion as the one part seems to be at rest while the other is in motion, and the two, consequently, appear relatively independent of each other.
§ 75. There are, therefore, two modes of proceeding, in order to combine the infinity of material presented by a historical career, in such a manner that it shall be possible to take a proper survey of the whole. Either, the whole career is divided into several periods, according to the revolutionary intervals which present themselves, and each of these periods is made to comprehend all that has happened within its own limits, in relation to the object treated of; or, the object itself is divided vertically, so that several parallel series are made to present themselves, and the course of each series in particular is followed throughout the whole length of time [to which the history extends].