ABSTRACT
The late Josef Ratzinger, as Pope Benedict XVI, divided the early years of Christianity into two periods: the beginnings of Christianity in the time of the Apostles and the beginnings of the Church during the time of the Apostolic Fathers. The fact that this collection is made up of first-century Christian writings clearly distinguishes it from all other early Christian writings commonly dated to the second century and, therefore, seen as belonging to patristic literature. In recent decades, however, there have been significant shifts in terms of the dating of the individual writings that make up the New Testament. Despite the contemporary existence of a separation between New Testament scholarship and Church history, it may come as a surprise to some readers that this split is a rather modern phenomenon. The split between New Testament scholarship and Church history is ultimately the result of a late nineteenth-century clash between Romanticism and Modernism.
