Includes bibliographical references (p. [215]-235) and index.

Introduction -- The dialogue with modernity : Troeltsch as historian and theorist of Christianity -- Sources for constructing Troeltsch's theory of Christianity -- The essence of Christianity and modern historical thinking -- The background and argument of Troeltsch's essay -- Heinrich Rickert and the study of history -- Troeltsch's reception and critique of Rickert's historical method -- What does "essence of Christianity" mean for Troeltsch? -- The nature of "purely historical" inquiry -- Locating the essence : origins or development? -- A new view of authority : affirming Christianity in the modern world -- Conclusion : the essence of Christianity and Troeltsch's emerging theory of Christianity -- Christian origins and the identity of Christianity -- The relation of earliest Christianity to its historical context : Christian origins as "purely religious" -- Troeltsch's language of "purely religious" (rein religiös) -- "Purely religious" or "purely social"? : Troeltsch's dispute with marxist historians -- "Purely religious" as a specific kind of social community -- "Purely religious" as lacking a social philosophy -- "Purely religious" : concluding reflections on its meanings -- The origins as the site and source of lasting elements of Christianity -- Status and normative significance of Christian origins -- Conclusion -- Charting continuity and change : Troeltsch's conception of historical development in the Social teachings -- Pluralistic causality -- Continuity : seeds of possibility and development -- The interaction (Wechselwirkung) of religious and social phenomena -- The boundaries of Christian social philosophy -- The compatibility of stoicism and early Christianity -- Foreshadowing the dialogue with modernity : latent tensions between stoicism and Christianity -- The gradual split of stoic "rationalism" and Christian social philosophy -- Troeltsch's ambivalence about modernity -- Conclusion -- Assessing the social possibilities of Christianity : Troeltsch's use of the ideal types -- The typology of church, sect, and mysticism -- Troeltsch's adoption of the types : historical background -- The types and the larger project of the Social teachings -- Five uses of the types -- The types as heuristic devices for historical analysis -- The types as weapons against reductionism -- The types as examples of the connection between the religious and the social -- The types as indications of Christianity's pluralistic composition -- The types as tools for normative evaluation -- Equality and inequality in Christian social organization -- Early Christianity and the construction of Christian patriarchalism -- Patriarchalism and the church type -- The sects and mysticism : partriarchalism modified? -- The types and the challenges of Christianity in the modern world -- A spiritual and sociological "church" -- Conclusion -- From essence to synthesis -- The development of Troeltsch's view of historical phenomena -- Troeltsch's late conception of the historical object : the category of the individual totality -- The individual totality as complex and fluid -- The continuity (development) and value (individuality) of the individual totality -- Troeltsch's move from essence to cultural synthesis -- Troeltsch's gradual dissatisfaction with the concept of an essence -- The limitation of the essence in the historicism volume -- The place of the essence in Troeltsch's logic of history -- The cultural synthesis -- Connecting past and present, actual and ideal -- The content and validity of the cultural synthesis -- The cultural synthesis and the essence -- Conclusion.