THE EVANGELICAL SCHOOL. ITS OPINIONS AND PRESENT PROSPECTS.
There is a group of theologians who deserve to stand side by side with
the immediate opponents of Strauss and his disciples. We mean the
Mediation or Evangelical School. They represent the advance of German
theology from Rationalism to positive orthodoxy. Beginning with able and
irrefutable arguments for the Evangelists, they have extended their
discussions to other important branches of Scriptural defence. As a
consequence, they have built up a valuable apologetic literature which
will occupy a prominent place in the theology of the church.
But, in order to portray the character of the Evangelical School, we
shall need to dwell upon certain members in particular.[69]
Not least in honor and achievement is the late Karl Ullmann. He
contributed to the _Studien und Kritiken_, a quarterly established by
himself and Umbreit, an article on the sinlessness of Christ, which he
subsequently elaborated into a volume. One of the most original of his
productions is his _Essence of Christianity_, which placed "him in the
centre of the Mediation theology." He holds with Schleiermacher, that
Christianity is not as much doctrine as vitality, and that it possesses
the creative and organizing power of religion. Christianity is both
divine and human; divine in its origin and essence, but human in its
development and fulfillment. Without the person of Christ to stand in
the very focus of Christianity, the latter becomes void and no more than
any moral religion. We can have no proper conception of Christianity
apart from its founder, for its whole essence exists in him.
Christianity is Christ developing himself in humanity. Christ is God-man
in so far as he represents in his own person the perfect unity and
interpenetration of the human and divine. Christianity is that religion
which neither deifies nor destroys nature. Without considering it
essential to prove the facts of Christ's life, Ullmann showed that
Christ, in the divine character which we attach to him, was necessary to
Christianity just as the pillars are to the superincumbent edifice. The
effect of this argument was most salutary, for it was so well timed that
it could not be otherwise. There were two things to be established
concerning Christ. One was the verity of the Gospel accounts of him; the
other was Christ as a necessity for man's faith, the world's progress,
and human salvation. The former having been treated by other hands,
Ullmann undertook the latter and triumphed. He is one of the most
pleasing of the German theologians. Partaking of the warm southern
temperament--for he was a Bavarian by birth--he wrote in that easy,
natural, and earnest style which renders him a popular writer not only
in his own language but when translated into foreign tongues.
We find in Dorner one of the most acute speculative theologians produced
by the later Protestant church. His style is as complex as Ullmann's is
simple. It is amusing that, in one place, he even enters into a
justification of his technical and abstruse writing. Applying himself to
dogmatic investigations, the fruit of his labor is his _Doctrine of the
Person of Christ_. Christianity was the world's great want, and all the
religions of the natural man could not supply its place. But
Christianity is vague unless the question be settled concerning the
person of Christ. Here is the battle-ground where Christianity and
reason must meet and decide the great issue. Hence Dorner passes by the
personal ministry and history of Christ on earth and attempts the proper
mode of construing his person. The Person of Christ is, in the trials
and triumphs of individuals and the church, the central point of the
Christian religion. He is the perfect Lawgiver, and also the Judge of
the world. He controls the universe. Here he communicates the
forgiveness of sins and the Holy Ghost, and in heaven, eternal felicity.
The happiness of heaven is formed by perfect fellowship with his person.
He has left his followers only in appearance, for, wherever two or three
are assembled in his name, there he is in the midst of them. He is with
his own always, even to the end of the world. To know Christ in his
nearness belongs to the Christian worship; and this institution is
appointed for the church as the highest means for the enjoyment of his
nearness.[70]
According to Dorner, heathendom longed for the apotheosis of human
nature. Judaism sought the fulfillment of the revelation not completed
by the law, and strained after the love of God as the consummation of
the holy law. All these wants are met in Christ. He is the innermost
revelation of the mystery, and the fullest condescension of God. For God
has in Christ become man. Here is the point of unity between God and the
world. But Christ did not appear in order to be the Son of God, as if
this were the ultimate end; but the ultimate end was the glorifying of
man, and therewith of God, in and through him. He is officially God's
son.[71]
Was Christ possessed of sinless perfection? In both a physical and
ethical point of view he was not absolutely complete from the first. He
learned obedience. He _grew_ in favor, not only with men but with God.
Growth points backward to previous deficiency, or, what is the same
thing, forward to the absolute goal which the reality approaches only by
degrees. But deficiency in entire perfection is not sinfulness, for then
all real humanity and sinfulness would be identical. Christ's
temptations are explainable on this wise: he had a real moral task, not
only external to himself, but in himself, which could not be solved at
the beginning if he was to be like us. There was no disorder in him, but
there were disorder and sin without him, which occasioned him the
contests, temptations, and sufferings that filled his official life.
These later conflicts were only assigned him because he remained the
pure One, and had become morally harmonious in the midst of moral
anarchy. But they were still inward and personal struggles; for he was
to introduce the power of his harmony and of his sufferings, in order to
overcome the disharmony in the world. He, the righteous one, must, by
suffering, take upon himself disorder and disharmony, must live through
it and taste it, in order to establish a power which is not only
harmonious in itself, but so potent in harmony as to take the disharmony
into itself, master it, and transform it into harmony. Christ was
perfect man in growth and progress, in his temptations and conflicts,
but without any historical trace of a flaw or blemish in his life. He
was in all points made like us, without being necessitated to become
like us as sinners. For, sin is the negation of the truly human. He laid
claim to no exceptional law for himself as a privileged individual, but
subjected himself to the universal human moral law. With this he was
satisfied, and he fulfilled it in its purity, depth, and completeness.
He knew nothing of a super-moral religious genius, and would have
nothing to do with it. His religion is moral; his morality,
religion.[72]
The name with which we are most familiar is the devout and laborious
Tholuck. He generally takes higher ground than many of the
Mediation-theologians. But he is sometimes at variance with evangelical
sentiment. Inspiration, according to him, is not real and total, but
only partial, and is to be determined in reference to the truths
necessary to salvation. While there are many mistakes of memory, false
citations, errors in historical, chronological, geographical, and
astronomical detail, these need not depreciate our general estimate of
inspiration. The Scriptures have a kernel and a shell. Upon the former
there is the positive and direct impress of the Holy Spirit; but upon
the latter it is indirect and relative.
In merely stating Tholuck's definitions, however, we do not measure out
justice to him. He must not be tested by any special department of
labor, but by the spirit and totality of his service. In this light he
is a remarkable personage, and his work is entitled to our highest
eulogium. With him, Christ is not merely a person to be apprehended by
the mind, but a Saviour to be received into the heart and henceforth to
be a living power of the soul. He must be accepted by Christian faith,
and the heart must undergo the transforming power of his Spirit. Without
this preparation, all progress in science is but the worship of nature,
and man, at the close of life, looks back upon a path of error and forth
into a world of darkness.
"Tholuck has this characteristic," says one of his countrymen, "he
cannot be classified; he belongs to no particular theological direction,
because he belongs to all." This estimate is strictly true. He has
gained his greenest laurels in exegesis; and his commentaries on Psalms,
the Sermon on the Mount, Gospel of John, and Epistles to the Romans and
Hebrews, have already taken their places in the theological libraries of
English and American divines. But he has asked himself the question,
"What can I do to lessen the hold which Rationalism has upon my
country?" And he has given the answer by his life-career. All his
productions centre in that thought, and it is not the least of his
service that he has written sketches of the old Reformation theologians,
as an incentive to the restoration of their spirit. It is not easy to
estimate the benefit which his _Sin and Redemption_ has conferred upon
the young men of Germany. The Baron von Kottwitz is the real personage
represented by the patriarch. Let us hear this venerable saint as he
stands upon the border of the grave and anticipates a bright future for
his loved church and country. His words are the key to Tholuck's life,
and reveal the bright hope which burned within him ever since the day
when he was welcomed to Halle by the hisses and threats of the
Rationalists.
The aged man says: "The greater the crisis the more needful is it to
unite the wisdom of the serpent with the simplicity of the dove. I
therefore address you as such an one who, perhaps, will soon be engaged
at the university as one of the instruments employed by God in that
important period. The work of God's spirit is greater than either you or
the majority can estimate. A great resurrection morning has dawned.
Hundreds of youths on all sides have been awakened by the Spirit of God.
Everywhere true believers are coming into closer union. Science herself
is becoming again the handmaid and friend of the Crucified. Civil
governments, also, though in part still hostile to this great moral
revolution from a dread of its producing political commotions, are many
of them favorable; and where they are not, the conflicting energy of the
light is so much the stronger. Many enlightened preachers already
proclaim the gospel in its power; many who are still in obscurity will
come forward. I see the dawn; the day itself I shall behold not here,
but from a higher place. You will live to witness it below. Despise not
the words of a gray-headed old man, who would give you, with true
affection, a few hints relative to this great day.
"The more divine a power is, the more to be deprecated is its
perversion. When those last times are spoken of in Scripture, in which
the gospel shall be spread over the whole world, it is declared that the
truth will not only have to contend with the proportionably more violent
counterworking of the enemy, but also with a great measure of delusion
and error within the kingdom of light. Such is the course of things
that every truth has its shadow; and the greatest truth is attended by
the greatest shadow. Above all things take care that the tempter do not
introduce his craft into the congregation of the faithful. There will be
those for whom the simple gospel will not suffice. When a man has
experienced the forgiveness of his sins, and has for a little while
enjoyed the happiness of that mercy, it not unfrequently appears to his
evil and inconstant heart too humiliating a condition to be constantly
receiving grace for grace. There is no other radical cure for a proud,
self-willed heart than every day and every hour to repeat that act by
which we first came to Christ. Pray that you may have more of that
childlike spirit which regards the grace of your Lord as a perennial
fountain of life. Especially avoid the error of those who seek life for
the sake of light, who would make religion a mere stepping-stone to
intellectual superiority. Such persons will never attain to a vital
apprehension of divine things; for our God is a jealous God, and will be
loved by us for his own sake. The intellectual power, the mental
enlargement arising from converse with the great objects of faith is
always to be regarded as a secondary and supplementary benefit to that
which it is the immediate object of the gospel to bestow. Despise not
human greatness or talent or ability of any kind, but beware lest you
overvalue it. I see a time coming--indeed it is already at hand--in
which gifted men will lift up their voices for the truth; but woe to the
times in which admiration and applause of the speaker shall be
substituted for laying to heart the truth which he delivers! Perhaps in
the next generation there will be no one in some parts of Germany who
will not wish to be called a Christian. Learn to distinguish the
spirits. The sum of my exhortations is humility and love!"
The most poetical and not the least penetrating of the evangelical
school is Lange, once a farmer, but now a laborious professor at Bonn.
How deeply he has imbibed the spirit of the Scriptures may be seen in
the _Bible Work_, which Dr. Schaff is now editing for the use of the
American public. Religion, according to Lange, is subjectively a
life-emotion of the human nature, and objectively a revelation of God.
In the former case it may be termed natural, in the latter, revealed.
The world is not a mere world, but a self-revelation of God in its
fullest import. Creation is not simply creation, but a divine testimony.
Nature is not nature alone, but a seed of life proceeding from the
spirit and returning to the spirit. The proof of the true human
conception of God, as well as of man, is their harmonious union in the
conception of the God-man. This is the centre of all doctrine. The world
is a progressive succession, developing the divine germ. History unites
itself to revelation as a second creation, elevating man to continuous
growth. God's providential changes unite with the active faith of man,
and they do not constitute an isolated act of God, but a great
historical combination of revelations. They rise gradually and find
their completion in the God-man.
Miracles are the penetration of the absolute or new human-divine life
principle into the sphere of the old natural human life. The revelation
of the divine-human in Christ is the absolute miracle which manifests
itself in a succession of single miracles. A miracle is supernatural and
contrary to nature only in reference to the old life, and, in its
highest meaning, is in conformity to a higher law. Therefore, miracles
are the natural law of all natural laws taken together. Inspiration is
in consonance with miracle; and there is a dissimilarity of inspiration
observable in the Scriptures. The Old and New Testaments are very
different, so also are the canonical and hagiographical writings. The
word of God is contained in the Scriptures, and is there brought into
living unity and operation with the mind of man. This union does not
exclude human imperfections. But such imperfections are of a superficial
character, and in no wise affect the kernel and religious centre of the
Bible.[73]
The two most prominent divines in the department of dogmatical theology
are Nitzsch and Twesten. The latter was Schleiermacher's successor at
Berlin. Bright hopes were placed on him, but he has been a tardy author,
and does not possess the brilliant gifts of his great prototype. Yet he
is a clear and profound thinker, and, with a few points of exception,
thoroughly evangelical. He is an ardent admirer of the old Lutheran
theology, and, like his predecessor, places religion in feeling and
dependence instead of in knowledge.
Nitzsch is also a disciple of Schleiermacher, and his doctrinal system
bears distinct traces of the master's instructions. But it is a bold
work, and has inflicted great mischief upon the doctrinal claims of the
later Rationalists, who betook themselves to theory after their exegesis
and history had failed them. The scope of his system is broad and clear.
He commences by assigning Christian doctrine its proper place in
theological study, a definition of the general idea of Christianity, a
statement of the laws by which a knowledge of Christianity is acquired,
and a history of the Christian system and its exhibition in the purest
form. The three parts constituting the substance of Nitzsch's opinions,
are _The Good, the Bad, and Salvation_. Christianity is a determinate
mode of man's life, and is so determined by conscious dependence on God,
but in no wise by knowledge, conception, action, or the will. Religion
does not arise from experience and sensation, but from an original
self-consciousness. There is an intimate connection between doctrine and
practice, truth and holiness. Redemption is not merely a restoration,
nor a mere perfected creation, but one _through_ the other. It is
related to an original good, apart from which the bad itself would have
no place, opportunity for existence, or continuance; since redemption is
so closely connected with evil. Moreover, the good--in which evil has
found opportunities for manifestation--cannot be the same which caused
redemption. Hence, we safely presume the existence of an eternal God.
This being is the foundation of Christian faith and life. A belief in
the Redeemer cannot be separated from that in the Creator. But it is
through a knowledge of the Redeemer that the Creator, with all his work,
first becomes known in his perfect goodness and truth. The doctrine of
salvation is more closely related to the degenerated condition of the
world than to the original good, or to the right conduct of the creature
towards God. Evil became possible with the creation of personality,
though without being necessary. But it has become so very real that the
heavenly Adam must needs come into the world to destroy the works of the
devil,--which are sin and death,--and to renew the communion of the
creation with the Creator. The effectuating cause of man's permitting
himself to be seduced into sin, was not any fixed purpose or
predestination of God, but man's perfect moral freedom. He chose the
evil, and hence he inherits sin with all its dire results. Since then,
sin has become a bias and righteousness requires an effort for its
performance. But man is accessible to divine legislation by being the
subject of fear, shame, and punishment. The church is an abiding
testimony and a continued means for the redemptive ministry of Christ.
It is the congregation of the sanctified.[74]
From these two useful professors in Berlin we pass southward to
Heidelberg, and delay a moment with the celebrated Rothe. In his work on
the _Primitive Church_ he endeavors to explain the philosophy of the
whole ecclesiastical system. He views the elements of the church in
solution, and thence tries to deduce general principles. He advances the
view, with Coleridge and Arnold, that the church will not be complete
until absorbed in the state. Its present separate condition is
provisional, and can only last during the time that Christianity is
being developed. This period may be of long duration, but the
development of our race is ever progressing. The church must exist on
its own basis during the interval. Human deeds of righteousness tend
toward the perfection of the church. Then will religion permeate the
world. Yet it will not exist as something separate, but all-penetrative.
It will not be absolutely divine, but superlatively human. Thus will the
dualism of the human and divine, the religious and the moral, be
destroyed. When the day of ecclesiastical perfection--which is really
civil perfection--arrives, the state will perform the functions of the
church. It will exercise church discipline for the purpose of religious
and moral training. The divergence between religious and worldly science
will be abrogated, and there will be no longer any conflict between the
worship of God and nature. It is plain that these views are based upon
those of Hegel, who said of the state, that "it is the totality of moral
purposes."[75]
The ethical system of Rothe is one of the most original and profound
pieces of devout and reverent speculation in the entire range of
theological literature. It has been termed "a work of art as well as of
science; and the several stones of the ethical system are reared up here
into a magnificent gothic cathedral by the skill of a master architect."
It is based on the unity and identity of religion and morality. Here, as
in the theory of the relations of church and state, the Hegelian
philosophy is very perceptible. God's love is manifested in creation,
and there existed the necessity of his creative activity in order to
communicate himself to others. Hence, God's love is not a mere
attribute, but one of the necessary conditions of his being. Creation is
a necessary act of God. God is as truly creator as he is benevolent.
There is, therefore, a correlation of God and the world. There is no God
without also the world. God's creative activity is still continued by
his providential movements, and these are the steps of man's
development. Man's complete character is in some measure dependent on
his discipline, and sin is the necessary ordeal or process through which
he must pass in order to arrive at the highest development.[76]
Rothe has very recently published a volume of his essays, entitled _A
Contribution to Dogmatic Theology_. It is occupied mostly with the
consideration of the Scriptures. The author thus states his opinion:
"The matters I handle in this volume inevitably place me in a most
unfavorable position. The question is one in which I find myself in
direct conflict with both the leading parties in the theology of the
present day. My mode of regarding Holy Scripture runs directly counter
to modern orthodoxy. My supernaturalism and firm belief in revelation
are no less opposed to theological liberalism. This very antagonism
encourages me to hope that I may be found to have spoken a word in
season. On the one hand, it is my belief that the consciousness of the
age will never thoroughly reässimilate Christianity till it can take
courage to believe again in miracle and supernatural influence. I am no
less firmly convinced, on the other hand, that miracle and supernatural
influence will never find their way into the conscious belief of
Christians in the form in which church-theology has allowed those ideas
to be inoculated into it. That which is passed can never be recalled to
life after history has once buried it. But there are not a few persons
who long for the reconciliation of the old and the new. These are the
persons to whom I would gladly be useful according to my small
measure."[77]
Rothe regards the supernatural interference of the Deity in the stream
of human history as a part of that history. It is not enough that the
divine interposition has incorporated itself with the traditions of the
race; it must be fixed in a written narrative. Not only must there be a
book or writing, but that book must be of a historical character. As the
revelation did not consist in doctrines, so the doctrine we require is
not a creed or compend of doctrines. Besides vouching the facts, the
doctrines must represent them in a vivid manner; that is, the writing
must be such as can stand for long posterior generations in the place of
the original revelation, and place us in the immediate personal
experience of revelation. It is part of the extraordinary operation of
the Deity to provide such a writing. The document itself, as well as the
facts it relates, are supernaturally produced. What the divine
influences in the world are to its moral and human laws, the record of
those influences is to ordinary narrative. The Bible is therefore what
the old Protestant theology styled it, "The Word of God": but in a very
different sense. It was meant by that phrase that the books, as we have
them, were dictated by God in such a way that the sacred penmen
contributed nothing but the letter-marks upon the paper. The dogma of
inspiration current in the sixteenth century is not accepted. The
inspiration which Rothe attributes to the Bible is the same by which he
explains that peculiar impression received by the pious soul from its
study of the book. It is the constant experience of the evangelical
Christian, that, in his Bible, he possesses a direct means of grace.
Scripture is to him an active medium of the saving work of God in his
soul, and supernatural forces move within it. The Bible stands alone in
all literature as this incarnation of a fresh, full, life-giving
religious spirit. But the peculiar influence which it exercises upon
minds indicates not merely a divine element in its pages, but a whole,
complex, and sound human spirit side by side with that divine element;
the two not crossing or interfering with each other, but forming
together a unity of living truth. The books of the Bible must be
regarded as the general product of the minds of their human authors.
These authors have had their moments of inspiration, to which they owe
much of the religious experience they have embalmed in their writings.
But inspiration was not the normal condition of their minds, nor were
their books written during the moments of such inspiration. Again, not
every part of the Bible is an equally full and intense expression of
this spiritual mind of the writer. We must assume degrees of inspiration
according with the nature of the contents, and with their nearer or
remoter bearing on the proper matter of the prophetical utterances.[78]
Passing over the names of Julius Müller, Ebrard, Hävernick, Hundeshagen,
Umbreit, Gieseler, Olshausen, Hagenbach, and Jacobi, we pause at
Schenkel and Hengstenberg.
Schenkel has been, until lately, a recognized evangelical theologian.
The author of the _Essence of Protestantism_, he took his stand as an
able defender of orthodoxy; and there was every reason to hope that he
would be one of the chief agents in the final overthrow of Rationalism.
As a proof of the high estimate placed upon his opinions, when the Baden
government and church consistory were calling their strongest orthodox
theologians into the various posts of prominence, after the Revolution
of 1848, Schenkel was declared counselor, and director of the
theological seminary of Heidelberg. From that time almost to the present
his evangelical sentiments had not been questioned. But, when his
_Picture of the Character of Jesus_ appeared, the surprise was great
throughout Germany. It seemed incredible that he could write a work in
such direct antagonism to all his previous views. People were unwilling
to censure it at first; the Rationalists rejoicing at the great
accession, and the orthodox retaining too much respect for the author's
past services to bestow harsh criticism upon him. But a book of
importance need not wait long in Germany upon the publisher's shelf
before it is weighed and assigned its proper position in literature. In
due time the critics came forward, sifted its contents, and decided it
to be skeptical. The theological periodicals abounded in lengthy reviews
of it. Schenkel seemed as much astounded as any one else at the public
judgment. He answered the charges against his orthodoxy by stoutly
denying that he had turned Rationalist. He held that his critics were so
obtuse that they could not understand him; and that if he were accused
of heterodoxy it was their blunder and not his guilt. But it is needless
to say that Schenkel makes a poor case for himself. His book stands
against him. The miracles of Christ receive his severe comment. They
are, in his opinion, the dark shade which has been cast upon the bright
splendor of the public activity of Jesus. It was a matter of course that
the idea of a life like that of the Redeemer should, soon after his
death, be veiled by a multitude of tales. His disciples endeavored to
represent his internal wonderful power of personal glory and greatness
by the external miraculous occurrences which they ascribed to him. Their
deeply excited imagination magnified the great hero whom they had loved
and admired. Their enthusiastic religious fancy did him homage by
ascribing to him the performance of miracles. The gift of working
miracles was merely the endowment of nature. For Jesus was favored with
the highest ability and rarest moral power, by which he worked
beneficially upon sufferers and took them by surprise. Schenkel further
rejects and denies the faith in Christ's personal and bodily
resurrection from the dead, and his continuation of life in the glory of
the Father. But he holds that Christ lives in his community, in which
are his home and temple. The living Christ is the spirit of his
community.
After the position of Schenkel's work had been fairly decided, numerous
remonstrances appeared against it from the orthodox theologians. One
hundred and eighteen clergymen sent in a formal protest to the
consistory for his removal from his important office as director of the
seminary. But the ecclesiastical council decided in favor of his
continuance in discharge of his functions. They extenuated themselves by
saying that the free examination of the Scriptures is the privilege of
Protestant Christians. The Rationalists claim the result as one of the
most signal of their recent victories.
Hengstenberg, the strongest and most heroic of the later opponents of
Rationalism, commenced very early in life as both author and professor.
It is now more than thirty years since he was elected professor of Old
Testament exegesis at Berlin. He was chosen to that important position
with a view to counteract the prevailing Rationalism, and, if possible,
to raise up a new school of earnest evangelical men. He has not been
without success. Having never swerved from his first avowed position,
his antipathy to all kinds of skepticism is so sincere and active that
he combats it without any regard to moderation or consequences.
Of all the members of the Evangelical school he takes the highest rank
as controversialist, and defender of the Old Testament. He saw that it
was the Old Testament which the Rationalists had assailed most
vigorously, and that unless they were met upon their own ground they
would claim the mastery of the field. Hence, he made the Pentateuch,
Daniel, and the second part of the prophecy of Isaiah the theme of his
defence[79]--for it was these that the Rationalists had long claimed as
their collateral evidence. At that very time there was almost no
orthodox theologian in Germany who had confidence enough to contend for
them. But the greatest apologetic achievement of Hengstenberg was his
christological work.[80] Here he develops his theory that the Messianic
prophecies extend through the entire Old Testament; that they can be
traced in Genesis; that they increase in clearness as the scriptural
history advances; that they become perfectly lucid in the later
prophets; and that they are finally fulfilled in the Messiah himself.
But it was not by theological lectures or books that Hengstenberg
achieved his greatest triumphs over Rationalism and Pantheism. Clearly
perceiving the power of the periodical press, he commenced the
publication of the _Evangelical Church Gazette_, which by its fearless
spirit and marked talent, soon became the chief theological journal of
Germany. Its aim was not only to overthrow skepticism but everything
which ministered to its support. Its contributors have been among the
leading men of the country, among whom we find such names as Otto von
Gerlach, Professors Leo and Huber, and Doctors Göschel, Vilmar, Stahl,
Tholuck and Lange. The _Gazette_ has changed its tone according to the
new demands of the times, but it has never abated its deadly antagonism
to Rationalism. It has betrayed an increasing High Church tendency,
especially since 1840. The editor, true to his earnest nature, believed
that no moderate and conciliatory spirit was capable of successfully
resisting the great enemies of the church. The relief which he relied
upon was in fighting them with the heroic ardor of a crusader. Hence he
claimed that an elevation of ecclesiastical power was necessary to meet
the demand; and therefore he stands to-day as the High Church champion
of Protestant Germany. For this course he has received quite as many
maledictions as have been visited upon Pusey of England, but he is one
of those men who care as little for the curses of foes as for the
adulations of friends.
There have been other theological journals which have contributed
greatly to the spread of vital Christianity in Germany.[81] They do not
possess, on the one hand, the popular character of many of our religious
papers, nor, on the other, do they deal so much in abstruse theological
questions as to preclude them from large circles of readers. They
possess popular adaptation without yielding to the demand for light
religious reading. Many of their contributions having been written by
far-sighted laymen, they have gained access to minds usually occupied in
the absorbing interests of commercial and political life. The whole
Protestant church owes a debt of profound gratitude to the men who
commenced these enterprises and have zealously sustained them through
the social changes which have convulsed Germany.
But in our estimate of renewed religious life we must not overlook the
improved condition of the instruction now imparted in the gymnasia and
universities.[82] Besides the names we have already mentioned there are
professors and instructors of all grades who have drunk deeply of the
spirit of the Gospel, and, having been taught and encouraged by such
men as Hengstenberg and Tholuck, are now strengthening themselves for
future victory. Young men have passed through their student life in
Halle, Heidelberg, and Berlin, and are now scattered throughout the
land, sowing the seeds of truth, and urging the people to espouse the
good cause. Others are preparing to take their places when these are no
more. The spirit of theological instruction has undergone such a
thorough transformation that the old Rationalism which had so long
prevailed is now taught by only a few gray-haired veterans, who, many
years ago, listened to the lectures of Wegscheider and Gesenius. They
are now bringing their days to a close in the midst of a narrow circle
of auditors who hear from curiosity or indolence, and never expect to
use their information to any future advantage. Devotional services are
becoming more common among the students. The Scriptures are studied with
a feeling of devout reverence, and are no longer subjected to that
profane ridicule which has given an unenviable fame to many of the
Rationalists.
Much of this improved evangelical spirit observable in the students of
all the Protestant Universities,--for even Tübingen has been obliged to
yield,--is due to the kindly intercourse between the professors and the
students. In no country is education so much a matter of friendship as
in Germany. The professors cultivate social and even intimate relations
with the undergraduates, nor do they consider it beneath their dignity
to invite them frequently to their homes, draw out their minds by
discussing some important point, loan them books or periodicals, suggest
subjects for essays or books, employ their service as amanuenses, and
recommend them in due time for proper vacancies. Who would suspect that
half-bent, sallow little man, wrapped up in his blue coat, and walking
briskly a mile or two from Halle through the wintry storm, of being the
patient and devout Tholuck? But he is not alone. Beside him is a
youthful stripling who opens his heart to the professor, catches every
word of response as if it were a priceless diamond, and treasures each
utterance for future use. To-morrow, the same kindly teacher will be
attended by one or two other young men, whom he is desirous to
encourage, direct, and instruct.
Such intimacy does not lead to any disrespect toward the professors, but
rather increases the reverence for their age and talents. The hours of
profitable communion naturally become a fund of pleasant memories to the
student in his subsequent life. Knowledge thus imparted is deeper-rooted
than that conveyed in the lecture-room, and hence, in the literary and
theological history of Protestant Germany, we find many illustrations of
the consistent and steady prosecution, by a disciple, of a tendency or
system which the master commenced but died too soon to finish. One of
the prime agents in the rise of Pietism was Spener's child-like intimacy
with young men. They imbibed his spirit and knowledge, and the fire
burned after his departure.
As to the future, there is no room for discouragement. The leaven of
faith has been penetrating the entire mass of German theology, and the
prospect is to-day brighter than ever before. The bold and continued
defense of Christianity, in all its vital relations, has accomplished
great good during the entire interval between Schleiermacher's period of
activity and the present time. The recuperation of German Protestantism
from the polar frigidity of skepticism to the faith and spirit of the
Gospel, is one of the most beautiful and forcible of all the
illustrations of the indestructible and regenerating power of
Christianity. The instruction imparted in the high-schools has long
since lost its Rationalistic puerilities. The candidates for the
pastoral office are not asked such questions as were propounded to their
fathers and predecessors. Church history, written in clear and natural
style, is no longer a collection of pointless anecdotes. Exegesis has
ceased to be a word-play, and the companion of classical annotations.
The sermons of the present ministry partake of Reinhard's earnestness
and faith. Gallicisms and technical terminology are no longer proclaimed
to the peasants, while the artisan is no more entertained with
grandiloquent descriptions of the last night of Socrates, or with
Ciceronian laudations of the Schoolmen.[83] The popular attendance at
the public services is greatly on the increase, and the congregations
are expressing in no doubtful terms their desire for the restoration of
the thrilling evangelical hymns of other days.[84]
The masses, having tasted the word of God in its simplicity, will not be
satisfied without deep draughts for many future years. The Protestant
Church will yet be "fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as
an army with banners." Then will Germany be what she was in the heroic
age of the Reformation,--the instructor of the ignorant, the friend of
the helpless, the dread of Romanism, and the mother of giants. The evil
days are nearly numbered. "Good Friday is the precursor of a joyous
Easter Morning."
FOOTNOTES:
[69] For accounts of the later theologians of Germany, consult Schaff,
_Germany: Its Universities, Theology and Religion_. Phila., 1857. Also,
Schwarz, _Geschichte der Neuesten Theologie_, _Leipzig_, _Dritte
Ausgabe_, 1864.
[70] _Doctrine of Person of Christ_ (Clark's Foreign Theological
Library, VI-VIII).
[71] _Doctrine of Person of Christ_, Vol. I, pp 80-81.
[72] _American Presb. and Theolog. Review_, January, 1863.
[73] _Dogmatik_, 1849.
[74] _System of Christian Doctrine._ Translated by Montgomery and
Hennen. Clark's Library, Edinburgh, 1849.
[75] _Die Anfänge der Christlichen Kirche und ihrer Verfassung_, 1837.
[76] _Ethik_--1845-1848.
[77] _Ethik_, _Preface_, p. 6.
[78] _Westminster Review_, July, 1863.
[79] _Beiträge zur Einleitung in das alte Testamente._ Drei Bände,
1831-39.
[80] _Christologie._ Drei Bände, 1829-35.
[81] Besides the _Evangelical Church Gazette_, semi-weekly, by
Hengstenberg, established 1827, are the _Studien und Kritiken_, by
Ullmann and Umbreit, 1828; the _Deutsche Zeitschrift für christliche
Wissenschaft_, &c., by Neander, Nitzsch, and Müller, 1850; and the
_Jahrbücher für Deutsche Theologie_, by Liebner, Dorner, and others,
1856.
[82] An invaluable account of the common and higher Schools of Germany
is furnished in Horace Mann's _Seventh Annual Report_, published in the
_Common School Journal of Boston_, under the title of _Education in
Europe_, 1844.
[83] Hagenbach, _Kirchengeschichte d. 18 und 19 Jahrhunderts_, Vol. II.,
pp. 384-388.
[84] An instance of the new tendency is seen in the recent action of the
Heilbronn Clergy, supported by the Stuttgart Consistory. For account of
which, see _Christian Work_, Sept. 1863.