This collection is going for a fairly high price for CP so I was trying to see examples on the website. Unfortunately the sample pages are too small to see anything. Am I missing something? Is this worth the price? https://www.logos.com/product/25401/john-laurence-von-mosheim-collection
Thoughts?
I was thinking the same thing. I ended up placing a bid and will do research later. Looks interesting.
Mosheim, Johann Lorenz von (1694–1755), ecclesiastical historian and divine. Educated at the University of Kiel, in 1723 he became professor of theology at Helmstedt and in 1747 at Göttingen, in the founding of which university he himself had taken an important part. His historical work was marked by a hitherto unprecedented objectivity and penetration and he may be considered the first of modern ecclesiastical historians. His Institutiones historiae ecclesiasticae (1726; Eng. tr. by J. Murdock, 1841) went through many editions and revisions. He was also an excellent preacher. His numerous writings include Sittenlehre der heiligen Schrift (5 vols., 1735–53), a Ketzer-Geschichte (2 vols., 1746–8), and De rebus Christianorum ante Constantinum Magnum Commentarii (1753).
K. Heussi, Die Kirchengeschichtsschreibung J. L. von Mosheims (1904); id., J. L. Mosheim (1906). M. Mulsow and others (eds.), Johann Lorenz Mosheim (1693–1735): Theologie im Spannungsfeld von Philosophie, Philologie und Geschichte (Wolfenbütteler Forschungen, 77; Weisbaden, 1997). B. Moeller, ‘Johann Lorenz von Mosheim und die Gründung der Göttinger Universität’, in id. (ed.), Theologie in Göttingen (Göttingen [1987]), pp. 9–40. J. S. Oyer in TRE 23 (1994). pp. 365–7, with bibl.
Cross, F. L., & Livingstone, E. A. (2005). In The Oxford dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press.
The beginning of the Enlightenment, concurrent with the development of Pietism, had a profound impact on historical studies. The Enlightenment brought both a more tolerant atmosphere and a more empirical approach to the source materials. The genuine objectivity that was lacking in Arnold and Milner was fully developed in the work of Johann Lorenz von Mosheim (1694–1755), for much of his career chancellor of the University of Göttingen. On the grounds of his exceptionally erudite, detailed, and balanced four-volume Institutes of Ecclesiastical History, Mosheim is often called “the Father of church history.” Mosheim’s work was the preeminent text for more than a century and, in its English translation, was used in most American seminaries throughout much of the nineteenth century.Although the critical, objective use of documents was not new in Mosheim’s work, his Institutes made this critical objectivity a central methodological concern. “My principal care,” he wrote, “has been to relate events with fidelity and authority. For this purpose I have gone to the very sources of information, the best writers, that is, of all ages, and such as lived in, or near, the times which they treat of.” Mosheim looked critically at the approach of many of his predecessors who had simply rested their work on the chronicles of earlier writers. Such a practice, he continued, “is attended with this evil, that it perpetuates the mistakes, which are apt to abound in very large and voluminous works, by causing them to pass from a single book into numerous others.” Mosheim not only went to the original documents for information, he was also very careful to cite his sources in order to aid his readers in evaluating his work. Mosheim’s attempt to attain methodological objectivity, in contrast to that of virtually all of his predecessors, including Arnold and Milner, is most evident in his comments on the treatment of heresies:
The history of these commotions or heresies, should be full and precise. This labour, if wisely expended, and with impartiality, will well repay the toil: but it is arduous and difficult. For the leaders of these parties have been treated with much injustice; and their doctrines are misrepresented: nor is it easy to come at the truth, in the midst of so much darkness; since most of the writings of those called heretics are now lost. Those, therefore, who approach this part of church history, should exclude every thing invidious from the name, heretic: and consider it as used only in a more general sense for a man, who, by his own, or by another’s fault, has given occasion for wars and disagreements among Christians.
Mosheim’s approach to the materials of history also went considerably beyond the mere narrative or chronicle to attempt historical explanation. The historian, he argues, “must not only tell what was done, but also why this or that thing happened, that is, events are to be joined with their causes.”As far as Mosheim was concerned, “naked facts” only served to amuse readers, while the explanation of the “reasons” behind the facts, with due care not to “fabricate causes,” serves the reader by “sharpening discriminating powers, and rendering [him or her] wise.” Even so, Mosheim was acutely aware of characteristic dangers that face the historian, such as anachronism, undue reverence for authority, and bias:
The times in which we live often have such ascendancy over us, that we measure past ages by them, thinking that formerly either to have been done, or to be impossible, which now is either done, or is impossible. Then persons, whose testimony one must use, especially those of them who have long been famed for holiness and virtue, often lead us into error by their authority. Lastly, the love of opinions and doctrines, which have our own affections, often so constrains our minds, that even unconsciously we may give erroneous views of facts. This triple servitude must, therefore, to our utmost power, be driven from the mind.
The Enlightenment thus contributed a critical, analytical approach to historical study. In their enthusiasm for their own enlightenment, however, many of Mosheim’s contemporaries and successors evince a certain contempt for the past; or, alternatively, were tempted to view all history progressing toward the goal of enlightenment.
Bradley, J. E., & Muller, R. A. (1995). Church history: an introduction to research, reference works, and methods (pp. 14–16). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.
I placed a bid for $50, for me thats as much im willing to bid for something I dont know anything about. Same here, sample page seemed extra small.
Considering we can't even see the sample pages I'd like to request that Logos waits one more week before closing this resource. In that time they could reload readable samples of pages.
$80 for publication before 1900s is A LOT of money.
should've been around $40 or less
I guess my request to delay this was too late. I just received this email...
Your community pricing bid for John Laurence von Mosheim Collection (7 vols.) was not successful. The final community price for this product is $80.00.
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