A Handbook of Fundamental Theology, Volume I: A General Introduction to Fundamental Theology; Natural Religion
Fr. John Brunsmann, S.V.D. · 1928
Paid links: as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
You have probably heard the story in which religion begins in fear of thunder, climbs through the worship of spirits and ancestors, and reaches one God last. Fr. John Brunsmann, S.V.D., who taught fundamental theology at the seminary of St. Gabriel near Vienna, argues that the evidence runs the other way. The oldest names for God among the ancient nations, the Vedic Dyaus-pitar, the Greek Zeus, the Latin Jupiter, come from one root, and the great civilizations added gods as they grew. The simplest peoples on earth, the Pygmies of central Africa, the Andaman Islanders and the Yagans of Tierra del Fuego whom Darwin had described as having no religion at all, hold the plainest belief in one invisible being who made all things, sees everything and punishes wrong. His conclusion is that humanity began with one God and drifted from Him, and that paganism is the record of that drift.
More
That survey fills the second half. The first half says what fundamental theology is, traces it from Justin Martyr to the Tübingen school, sorts the modern methods, Blondel and the Modernists included, and argues that religion is a duty of human nature on which morality, the family and the state depend. Voltaire, Hume, Tylor, Spencer, Feuerbach and Schleiermacher are each answered.
Arthur Preuss, editor of the twelve-volume Pohle-Preuss dogmatics, adapted the book from the German as the first volume of a handbook of apologetics; the second volume takes up revelation. It is plainly written and closely argued, with a full subject index, and it serves private study as well as reference.
The first page of A General Introduction to Fundamental Theology
A General Introduction to Fundamental Theology
§ I. Definition and Object of Fundamental Theology
1. Definition.—Fundamental Theology, also called Apologetics, or General Dogmatic Theology, or Demonstratio Christiana et Catholica, is that branch of theological science which has for its object the demonstration and defense of the Catholic religion from the standpoint of reason and supernatural revelation.
Fundamental Theology is a science, i. e., a systematically arranged series of organically connected and objectively established theses. It became a science in this sense only in the seventeenth century. The efforts which were made before that time to demonstrate and defend the Christian religion, did not succeed in bringing into being a special science, either because they were conceived from a purely theological point of view and consequently had nothing to distinguish them from dogmatic treatises except their subject-matter, or because they neglected to deal with some of the questions which properly belong to our science.
Fundamental Theology as a science owes its existence, however, to the attacks that were made from the earliest times against the underlying foundations of Christianity (which are mainly three, to wit, natural religion, revelation, and the Church), and to the replies which these attacks evoked. It was from these “apologetics” that the science of Apologetics was later developed.
Related Books
Check your inbox
Confirm from the email we sent.
Edition and sources
Edition
- Editor
- Arthur Preuss
- Source edition
- A Handbook of Fundamental Theology, Volume I: A General Introduction to Fundamental Theology; Natural Religion, St. Louis and London, B. Herder Book Co., 1928
- This edition
- Manualist Press, September 2026
- Paperback
- 160 pages, 6 × 9 inches, ISBN 9798173435859
- Hardcover
- 160 pages, 6 × 9 inches, ISBN 9798173438706
- Kindle (Volumes I–II)
- ASIN B0HJHFGCRW
- Plate
- Albrecht Dürer, The Celestial Map: Northern Hemisphere, 1515. Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Set from the 1928 edition published by B. Herder Book Co., St. Louis.
The Kindle edition contains Volumes I and II together in one file; the paperback and hardcover editions are issued per volume.
Thank you.
Report a mistake
Manualist Press is a small family press. If these pages help you pray, you can support the work.