adding a political reaction to the religious. The extreme rationalist
party had favoured the Revolution, and the school of Schleiermacher had
supported the schemes for constitutional government. In the suppression of
liberty which ensued for about ten years, the orthodox movement in
theology united itself with the reaction in political. Absolute government
was not merely a fact, but a doctrine. The theological reaction was no
longer the spiritual aspiration of Germany seeking repose after doubt, but
a political movement veiled under an ecclesiastical colour. The result has
been, the creation of a Lutheran party far more extreme in its opinions
than the one just described;—the political leader of which in the Prussian
parliament was the jurist Stahl;(856)—intolerant towards other churches,
suspicious of any independent associations for religious usefulness in its
own, disowning pietism because of its unchurchlike character, and in its
principles going back beyond the Reformation, discarding the subjective
inward principle, and reposing on the objective authority of the church.
Taking a political view of religion, it does not so much ask what is
truth, but what the church asserts to be true. Though not offending
popular prejudices by the introduction of Romish doctrines or rites, it
really reposes on the Romish principle of a visible authoritative church
with mystical powers, upholding a rigid sacramental theory and the
doctrine of consubstantiation. Extending the sacramental efficacy to the
ministerial office, and denying communion between God and the individual
soul independently of the church as the element of communication.(857) Yet
it contains many honoured names, and has produced many instructive works.
The movement in English theology, which originated a generation ago in the
panic caused by the liberal acts of the government which was introduced by
the reform act,(858) offers a parallel; with the exception that the
ecclesiastical principles then advocated had always had supporters in the
English church, whereas they were nearly new in the Lutheran. The Lutheran
movement too, only proposes to go back to the Reformation, the English
ecclesiastical movement professed to go back to the early fathers. (41)
While the church has thus attempted a renovation of itself in doctrine,
the value of which some will dispute, all will allow thankfully that there
has been a deep increase of spiritual life throughout the German churches.
Religion indeed had never died out; but in the retirement of country
districts(859) the flame of divine love still burned with unextinguished
glory. This spiritual fire has now spread, and expressed itself in acts of
earnest life. Foreign missions have been promoted;(860) an inner or home
mission established for schools, and other religious agency;(861) and an
annual ecclesiastical diet(862) constituted, for promoting co-operation
and ecclesiastical improvement.(863)
These three separate movements of the present age, even when incorrect,
have contributed something to form a perfect theology. In the orthodox
school we see the attempt to return to the Bible, as interpreted by the
Reformation; in the mediation school, as interpreted by the religious
consciousness; in the critical school, as interpreted by historic and
critical methods.
We have now completed the history of the great movement in German
theology, in its two elements, doctrinal and critical. Commencing in the
first period,—in doctrine, with the disbelief of positive religion,
replacing dogma by ethics; and in criticism, supplying a rationalistic
interpretation: in the second, it was improved on the doctrinal side by
the separation of religion and ethics; and on the critical by a spiritual
acknowledgment of the literary characteristics and psychological
peculiarities of revelation: in the third, by a total reconstruction of
both inquiries, in a more historic and orthodox spirit; and by the
creation of a traditionalist position in reference to each. The solution
of the problem how to reconcile faith and reason, was attempted in the
first by obliterating faith; in the second by uniting them; in the third
by separating them. The whole movement stands remarkable, not only as
being the most singular instance in history, where the action of free
thought can be watched in its intellectual stages, disconnected in a great
degree from emotional causes, and where the effort was exercised by the
friends of religion, not by foes; but also in the circumstance that though
referable to the influence of similar intellectual causes as former epochs
of free thought, it is characterised by wholly different forms of them.
We have found, on nearer inspection, as might be anticipated in any great
movement of mind, that instead of being without purpose, and a mere heap
of ruins, there was a plan and method in it. It is a history which offers
much cause for sorrow and much for joy. Though, as has been before
remarked, a period of harrowing doubt in the life of an individual or a
nation is a melancholy subject for consideration, yet when it is not
induced by immorality, but produced, as in this instance, by the operation
of regular causes, and is the result of the attractiveness of new modes of
inquiry which invited application to the criticism of old truths, to be
accepted or rejected after being fully tested; there is something to
relieve the dreariness of the prospect. And when we look to the result,
there is abundant cause for thankfulness. The agitation of free thought
has produced permanent contributions to theology. Extravagant and shocking
as some of the inquiries have been, and injurious in a pastoral point of
view, being the utterance of men who had made shipwreck of faith; yet in a
scientific, hardly one has been wholly lost, and few could be spared in
building up the temple of truth. In criticism, in exegesis, in doctrine,
in history alike, how much more is known than before the movement
commenced: and what light has been thrown on that which is the very
foundation problem, the just limits of inquiry in religion. Each earnest
writer has contributed some fragment of information. At each point error
was met by an apologetic literature, rivalling it in learning and depth;
reason was conquered by reason; and though we cannot help rejoicing that
we are able to reap the results of the experience, without undergoing the
peril of acquiring it, yet we must acknowledge that the free and full
discussion has in the end resulted in truth: the very error has stimulated
discovery. So far from being a warning against having confidence in the
exercise of inquiry, it is an unanswerable ground for reposing confidence
in it.
Christianity is not a religion that need shrink from investigation.
Christians need not tremble at every onset. Our religion is vital, because
true; and we may place trust in the providence of God in history, which
overrules human errors and struggles for the permanent good of men; and,
extricating the human race from the follies of particular individuals,
makes the antagonism of free discussion the means to conserve or to
promote intellectual truth.
In concluding this sketch however it is proper to make a few remarks, as
hints to theological students, in reference to the study of works of
German theology. Many such works are translated, and many more exist in
the original, which are of the highest value,(864) and are likely to be
read, and indeed may justly be read, by all students of large cultivation.
The works of Schleiermacher or Dorner in doctrine, of De Wette or Ewald in
criticism, of Neander or Baur in history, are works of power as well as
erudition, and contain a treasure-house of information and suggestion for
those who know how to use them wisely, and separate the precious from the
untrue. While I have endeavoured to present a fair history of the whole
movement, I should feel inexpressible pain if these remarks were the means
of leading unwary students to plunge unguardedly into the study of many
parts of it. Its original connexion with the deist and ethical points of
view, and the constant sense of living in an atmosphere of controversy,
have impressed even some of the more orthodox writers with a few
peculiarities, of which a student ought to be made aware:—for example,
with a slight tendency to a kind of Christian pantheism; a disposition to
reduce miracle to a minimum; and in the department of Christian doctrine
to consider Christ’s life as more important than his death, and to regard
the atonement as an effect of the incarnation, instead of the incarnation
being the means to the atonement.
If then a young student would avoid a chaos of belief, and pursue a
healthy study of the German writers, there are two conditions which he
ought to observe. First, care should be taken to understand the precise
school of thought which his author represents, in order to be able to
allow for the possibility of prepossession in him;—a remark true in
reference to all literature, but especially important in that which marks
a particular phase of controversy. Secondly, a student’s duty to English
society, and to the church of which he is a member—as also, I humbly
venture to think, to his own soul—requires that he shall first listen
thoughtfully to the vernacular theology of England. Let him learn the
chief affirmative verities of the Christian faith before meddling with the
negative side. Let him master the grand thoughts or solid erudition of
Hooker and Pearson; of Bull, and Bingham, and Waterland; of Butler and
Paley;—the seven most valuable writers probably in the English church;—and
then reconsider his opinions by the light of foreign literature. Each one
of us is on his intellectual as well as moral trial. None whom duty calls
need be afraid to encounter it in God’s strength, and with prayer to
Christ for light and truth and love.
-------------------------------------
It remains to mark the influence produced by German theology on free
thought in other countries. (43)
In the remainder of this lecture we shall carry on the history of free
thought in France, from the point at which we left it(865) down to the
present time. We shall find that the open attacks on Christianity of
former times have ceased. There, as elsewhere, the present century has
been constructive of belief in spiritual realities, not destructive; but
the reconstruction has in some cases been so connected with an abnegation
of revelation, that it merits some notice in a history of free thought.
The speculative thought in France during the present century has
manifested itself chiefly under four forms:(866) (1) a sensational school,
called in the early part of the century Ideology, in the latter
Positivism: (2) a theological school, which has attempted to re-establish
a ground for reposing on dogmatic authority: (3) a social philosophy,
which has directed itself to the study of society and labour: and (4) the
eclectic philosophy, created by German thought, which has sought to
reconstruct truth on the basis of psychology. The chronological sequence
of these schools connects itself with the political sequence of events,
and has altered with their change. We must trace them briefly in
succession, in order to understand their religious influence and
tendencies. The first has tended directly to atheism, the second to
superstition, the two last indirectly to pantheism.
When treating of Volney in a former lecture, we noticed the philosophy
which took its rise amid the ruins caused by the revolution. Christianity
was replaced by materialism, theism by atheism, ethics by selfishness. The
philosophy of Cabanis, of Volney, and of De Tracy,(867) was founded so
entirely on a physical view of human nature, that it could hardly aid in
any way in instilling nobler conceptions. Society grew up without the
belief of God or immortality; but in this very poverty the system met its
downfall. The deep yearnings of the human heart craved satisfaction. The
inextinguishable poetry of the soul yearned for the spiritual; the
devotional instincts of human nature caught the first notes of that
heavenly melody to which they were naturally fitted to be attuned.
Literature rather than religion was the source from which the mind of
France began to imbibe the deep and spiritual conceptions which
obliterated the materialism of the revolution. The spiritual tone of such
a writer as Chateaubriand,(868) similar to that of the Romantic literature
of Germany, awakened in France early in the century the conceptions of a
world of spirit, of chivalrous honour, of immortal hope, of divine
Providence; and led mankind to feel that there was something in them
nobler than mere material organism; even a spirit that yearned for the
world invisible. Chateaubriand showed,(869) in answer to the school of
Voltaire, that Christianity was not merely suited to a rude age, but was
the friend of art, of intellect, of improvement. The church as yet
possessed only little influence. Beginning to revive under the fostering
influence of Napoleon, who saw clearly the necessity of cultivating
religion, its moral usefulness was lessened by falling under the suspicion
of opposing the public liberty, when patronised by the government after
the re-establishment of the monarchy.
The nobler conceptions just described, whether they arose from literature
or from religion, gradually penetrated into the minds of thoughtful men;
and, the ground being thus prepared, several rival systems of thought
gradually sprang up in the fifteen years (1815-1830) of the restoration of
the Bourbon dynasty. Accordingly, when the revolution of 1830 gave freedom
to France, there was a universal activity of mind, and free thought
assumed a bolder attitude; sceptical, if compared with the Christian
standard, but embodying deep moral convictions, if compared with the
unbelief of the last century. Among the definite schemes of philosophy,
theoretical or practical, which were proposed for acceptance, the first
which we shall notice was Socialism.(870)
It originated with St. Simon.(871) The stirring events of the great
revolutionary era, together with the social philosophy of Rousseau which
preceded it, had directed attention to the philosophy of social life. St.
Simon had lived through this period, and early in the present century
devoted himself to the study of schemes of social reform; and shortly
before his death in 1825, announced his ideas as a new religion, a new
Christianity. In the ferment which followed the revolution of 1830, the
opinions of this dreamer became suddenly popular, and, enlisting around
them some distinguished minds, forced themselves on the attention of the
public during the two following years; and as the political schemes which
resulted from them have left their mark on the theological literature of
the time, they merit some attention.
St. Simonism offered itself as a system of religion, of philosophy, and of
government, which should be the perfect cure of all the evils which
existed. The source of these evils St. Simon conceived to be the want of
social unity; individualism, selfishness, to be the cause of virtual
anarchy. He considered that philosophy and religion had striven in vain to
remedy the evil, because they had not made the spiritual to bear upon the
material interests of mankind. This, which was the true remedy, he
proposed to discover historically.
Borrowing the thought of the German philosophers, he sought it in the
elements which are to operate on human nature in the progress of its
development. The mode of development by which society advances to
perfection he found in a supposed law, that society shows two great
epochs, which in long cycles alternate,—the organic and the critical; the
former, where the individual is obedient to the purpose of the society;
the second, where the individual rises against it. He found two instances
of them in the ancient and modern world respectively, viz. in the ancient
pagan period and its disruption; and again in the Catholic centralization
of the middle ages, and the disorganization which succeeded from the time
of the Reformation to the French revolution. He considered himself to be
raised up to announce the dawn of the third organic period, the world’s
millennium, a new epoch, and a new religion. It was to be the realisation
of the fraternity, which the great moral teachers of the world had
promised and prepared. This religion consisted in raising the industrial
classes, by a scheme which it is irrelevant to our purpose to explain.
Contemporaneously with this socialist system was that of Fourier,(872)
which, though presented more as a scheme of social amelioration, and less
as a religion, implied the same abnegation of Christianity. Starting from
an avowedly pantheistic view of philosophy, the author of it gradually
passed through the sciences, until he arrived at man, and reached the
study of human history and constitutions. Exaggerating the good elements
of human nature, and ignoring the necessity for any other than a social
power to amend the heart, he traced the source of evil to social
competition, and proposed to rearrange society on the principle of
substituting co-partnership for competition.(873) The two ideas
accordingly which these speculations introduced were;—first, that European
society was approaching a crisis, the peculiarity of which, as distinct
from former ones, would be, that it would be an industrial revolution; and
the industrial mind would obtain the mastery of the administration; and,
secondly, that the accompaniment would be a new organization of industry
on the principle of co-operation. We cannot track these schools into their
ramifications(874) and their indirect expression in lighter
literature,(875) nor notice the levelling system of communism or
co-operative socialism which completed the cycle;(876) but it will be
remembered, that when the revolution of 1848 ensued, the schemes for
organization of labour were one of its peculiarities; the social republic
of those who regarded the democracy as a means, mixed with the political
republicans, who thought it to be an end.
It will be noticed that the schemes of these socialist philosophers,
though analogous as political theories, in proposing organization of
labour and consequent monopoly, to the English socialism of Owen before
named, are unlike it in philosophical origin and religious tendency. In
philosophical origin his system rests on sensation, theirs on feeling; his
degrades human nature, theirs elevates it. His denounces priestcraft as
imposture, and religion as obsolete; theirs, though identifying religion
and industry, regards religion as the highest expression of humanity, the
great goal to which nature is developing: his leads to deism or atheism,
theirs to pantheism. Yet theirs is not less hurtful, for they reject with
contempt the dogmatic teaching of revelation, though they appropriate the
Christian virtues; like the German philosophy they resolve the Deity into
a law, according to which the universe evolves.
One of the minds however which was trained in the school of St. Simon,
viz. Comte,(877) has developed a system known by the name of Positivism,
which in its effects is not merely thus negative, but amounts to positive
and dogmatic unbelief. He showed traces of the school from which he
sprang, both in considering politics to be the highest science, in
regarding humanity as a progress, and in adducing individualism as the
sole cause of social evil and anarchy. He commenced similarly by taking an
estimate of the present state of knowledge, and seizing the law which
presides over the progress of knowledge.(878) This law he stated as
consisting of three stages, through which each science passes as it grows
to perfection; the first, the theological or imaginative stage, wherein
the mind inquires into final causes, and refers phenomena to special
providence; the second, the metaphysical, wherein the idea of supernatural
or personal causes being discarded, it seeks for abstract essences; the
third, the positive, wherein it rests content with generalized facts, and
does not ask for causes.(879) The first in its religious phase is
theistic; the second pantheistic; the third atheistic. The perfection of
science consists in reaching the third stage, wherein the knowledge is
strictly generalized from sensation. Having thus seized the law which
presides over intellectual development, and settled the limits of the
human reason to be confined to phenomena, agreeing in this respect with
the ideologists, and opposed to Cousin, he next offered a classification
of the sciences, commencing with the simplest, and showing that, as the
mind passes from the simple to the complex, the methods of investigation
multiply; accompanying his account by a delineation of the steps in each
case by which science attains perfection; and thus gradually ascending to
the science of man(880) and society, to which the preliminary
investigation had been the preface, designed to prepare the way for
showing how the science of society may be similarly brought into the
positive stage.
Such is the scheme of Comte. The very breadth of it possesses an
attraction; and if viewed merely as a logic of the sciences, it may justly
command attention. Many of the analyses which he supplies of the methods
and history of science are masterly; and his generalisations, even when
hasty, are fertile in suggestion. He was a most original and powerful
thinker; scientific rather than artistic. But his philosophy, viewed as a
whole, is a grand system of materialism which is silent about God, spirit,
personal immortality; diametrically opposed to Christianity, in that it
makes man’s social duty higher than his individual, science the only
revelation, demonstration the only authority, nature’s laws the only
providence, and obedience to them the only piety; and destroys
Christianity by destroying the possibility of its proof. In later life
this distinguished man, feeling the unutterable yearnings of the religious
sentiment, and the necessity that his philosophy should afford
satisfaction to them, invented the system of religion developed in his
catechism;(881) in which, in a manner analogous to that employed by
Feuerbach or St. Simon, he regarded the collective humanity as the true
God, the proper object of worship and reverence; and marked out a church
and a cult, the caricature of the Catholic church, in which the world’s
heroes should receive canonization. The probability of mental derangement
palliates the absurdity of this system in the originator, but throws the
burden of responsibility from the master upon those who are insane enough
to adopt it.
We have traced two of the schools which flourished in the second quarter
of this century. Another remains, which has incurred from opponents the
charge of pantheism, viz. the idealist school, commonly called the
Eclectic; (44) which was especially dominant in France, and in the
university of Paris, during the rule of the Orleans dynasty. Viewed as a
philosophy it is a very noble one. Implying, as its name denotes, an
attempt to reap the harvest of the industry of all preceding schools of
philosophy, it was the chief means of restoring intellectual and spiritual
belief to France, and of creating the great movement of historical study
which marks that period of French literature. Commencing with a reaction
against the materialist and sensationalist school, it sought, by imitating
the mode by which Reid had refuted the philosophical scepticism of Hume,
to find a method for restoring belief in spiritual realities; and
afterwards, when its chief leader Cousin(882) had been exiled to Germany,
he brought back an acquaintance with the successive speculative schools
which existed there.