ABSTRACT

This article offers a florilegium of patristic items presented in the third edition of the Realencyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche. Prominent Protestant theologians and patristic scholars like Adolf von Harnack, Friedrich Loofs, Erwin Preuschen, Gustav Krüger and Theodor von Zahn published many articles in this encyclopedia, and the variety of themes and the predominant role of patristics during those times can be detected here. The author deals with the self-definition of patristics as history of Christian literature by Gustav Krüger and with the scope of Dogmengeschichte in the article by Friedrich Loofs. Several other items are picked up like Gnosis, the Apostles' Creed, Monarchianism and Origen. The RE³ is evaluated as still worth reading especially because of the detailed presentation of the relevant primary sources and the often unadorned presentation of the authors' own (Protestant) position.