Hi! f;

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THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY.

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VOL. XXL

3S.aWser'0 SCibeoIflgical fipncgclojistiia.

VOL. IL

EDINBUEGH:
T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET.
1885.

PRINTED 67 MOBBISON AND GIBB
FOR
T. & T. CLAEK, EDINBURGH.
LONDON, , . . . HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO.
DUBLIN, . • « GEOBGE HERBERT.
NEW YORK, .... SCRIBNER AND WELFORD,

ENCYCLOPJIDIA OF THEOLOGY.

BY

DR. J. F, RABIGER,
ORDINARY PROFESSOR OF EVANGELICAL THEOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BEESLAU.

SCranslatetr,
TOttlj atibtttons t0 tilt S^tBtors anb literature,
BY THE
EEV. JOHN MACPHEESON, M.A.,
FINDHORN.

VOL. II.

EDINBUEGH:
T. & T. CLAEK, 38 GEOEGE STEEET.
1885.

CONTENTS.

SECOND OR SPECIAL PART OF THEOLOGIC.
The Four Divisions of Thbology.

FIRST DIVISION — EXB8BTICAL THBOLOGY.
SEC. 23. Introduction to and Distribution of Exegetical Theology, .
24. Biblical Hermeneutics, . . . . .
25. Knowledge of the Biblical Languages (Linguistics), .
26. Biblical Criticism, ......
27. Jewish Archseology or Antiquities, ....
28. Jewish History, ......
29. Biblioal Isagogics or Introduction to the Old and New Testaments,
30. Exegesis, .......
31. Biblical Theology, ......
32. The Three Divisions of the Theological History of Religion,

PAGE 3
1326 40
52
587591
101
109

SECOND DIVISION — HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
33. Introduction to and Division of Historical Theology,
34. Church History, .....
35. Periods of Church History —
(a) Catholicism of Ancient Time, .
36. Continuation. (5) Roman Catholicism of Middle Ages,
37. Continuation, (c) Protestantism and Catholicism,
38. Subordinate Branches of Church History —
Missions, etc.,
¦ 39. Continuation. History of Doctrines, etc. , .

177183 189
207
231 257271

via

CONTENTS.

THIRD DIVISION — SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.
SEC.40. Introduction to and Distribution of Systematic Theology,
41. The Theory of Religion, ....
42. Dogmatics, ......
43. Ethics, ......

PACK 297 307330
362

FOURTH DIVISION — PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
44. Introduction to and Distribution of Practical Theology,
45. Theory of the Church Organization, .
46. Theory of Worship, .....
47. Science of Church Culture, ....
48. Ecclesiastical Didactics, ....

374390
400
410417

SECOND OE SPECIAL PAET OF THEOLOGIC.

THE FOUR DIVISIONS OF THEOLOGY.

VOL. II.

CONTENTS OF SPECIAL PART OF THEOLOGIC.
Secb.
23-32, . . . Exegetical Theology.
33-39, . . . Historical Theology.
40-43, . . . Systematic Theology.
44-48, . . . Practical Theology.

FIRST DIYISIOK
EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY.

§ 23. INTRODUCTION TO AND DISTRIBUTION OF EXEGETICAL
THEOLOGr.
I HE Christian religion, which forms the confession of,
the Church and the subject of theology, is given
to the Church and to theology in the revelation of
Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus appears in the midst of
His own people as the Sent of God, as the Messiah or Christ,
by whom a new religious life is to be founded among men.
As soon as He made known among those around by word and
deed the fulness of the divine life which dwelt within Him,
His personality began to exercise a mighty influence upon
those of His contemporaries who recognised in Him the Sent
of God, and who, believing in Him, and in the spirit which
they had received from Him, had become His followers. Like
every other founder of a religion, Christ is also the founder
of a Church. He Himself and His first disciples form the
primitive Christian Church. After the death of Jesus, com
missioned by their Master and urged on by their own zeal,
the first disciples, and soon also others as well, won to be
labourers together with Christ, spread the knowledge of Christ
among ever-widening circles. While Judea and the Jewish

4 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
race formed the cradle of the new life, it nevertheless spread
quickly far beyond these boundaries. The small circle of the
Palestinian disciples soon widened out into a multitude of
Jewish and Gentile Christian communities, which, in conse
quence of professing the self-same faith, were bound together
into one whole, as a community of the confessors of Christ.
In this perfectly free and spiritual manner, simply by means
of the living word, and by means of surrender to the Spirit
speaking in that word, the primitive Christian Church was
called into existence. In consequence, however, of its further
extension it very soon became necessary to commit to writing
the sayings and the doings of Jesus. Seeing that the apostles
could not possibly conduct their work personally by means of
the living word, they were obliged to spread the knowledge of
Christ by means of Scripture, and especially to maintain their
connection with the Churches which had been founded by
them through the writing of Epistles, so that by degrees those
writings came into existence which are now collected together
in the New Testament. These writings, therefore, had gone
forth from the already existing Church, and are not to be
regarded as the foundation of that Church. Eather the fact
of Christ Himself and the new life in God founded by Him
are the foundations upon which the Christian fellowship rests
and from which its historical development proceeds. ' To the
post-apostolic Churches, however, the apostolic writings must
fill the place of the first living word. Proceeding from those
who had direct intercourse with Christ, or at least with the
immediate circle of His disciples, they had for the Church of
following ages a peculiar value, as the original expression of
the first faith in Christ and of the spirit proceeding from Him,
and as also containing the record of the accepted apostolic
preaching, by means of which the revelation of Christ had
been communicated to them.
But the same God, who had last revealed Himself in His
Son Christ, in earlier ages had placed Himself in an altogether

rOEMATION OF A CANON OE SCEIPTUEE. 5
special relationship to that people among whom His Son was
boA. From among all peoples God chose the Jewish race for
His own peculiar possession, and concluded a covenant with
them, inasmuch as He revealed to them His will, and laid the
race under obligation to render obedience to His will. The
revelations, which from the beginning were granted to this
people by God, were also put on record in writing, and, as
holy writings given them by God, they were collected together
by the Jews for use in divine service in the Old Testament.
And inasmuch as the early Christian Churches had sprung out
of Judaism, they too at the first need the Old Testament for
their edification precisely as it had been used in the synagogue.
It was after the appearing of Christ that the Old Testament
was first understood by them in the true light of Christian
knowledge, as the great prophecy concerning Christ, as the
old covenant which was ended by the iutroduction of the new,
as the old law which was brought to a close in the new law
of Christ. As, however, the apostolic writings and the other
early Christian literature were getting into circulation, it
became necessary for various reasons to gather together, after
the example of the Jews, the apostolic writings into one
collection, like the Old Testament. After long hesitation as
to what writings, among the many that had come into use in
the Churches, were genuinely apostolic, and should, as such,
be received into the collection, it was decided finally in the
fourth century that the volume of the apostolic writings
should have a recognised place, and be bound up with the
Old Testament and the Jewish Apocrypha, which had been
added thereto from the Alexandrian translation. From this
canon the Christian apocryphal writings, which had been in
use as books of edification, were excluded. This deciision was
come to, in the Eastern Church, mainly by means of the
Synod of Laodicea in the year 363, and, in the "Western
Church, mainly by means of the influence of Augustine at the
Synod of Hippo in the year 393, and of Carthage in the year

6 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
397.'' The two Testaments are now recognised as the one
divine revelation, and as the sacred canon for the Christian
faith, and for the Christian life. This canon of the early
Church is, in its entire range, acknowledged by the Eoman
Catholic Church, and, confessionally at least, by the Greek
Church also ;^ while, on the other hand, it is accepted by the
Lutheran and Eeformed Churches, with the exception of the
Old Testament Apocrypha, to which there is attributed no
canonical rank, but only a certain value for private use.^ The
principal Christian Churches are agreed in this, that they look
upon Holy Scripture as the source of revelation, but they
differ from one another inasmuch as they entertain different
views as to its significance for the Church. According to the
Eoman Catholic and Orthodox Greek doctrine, the authority of
the Church is placed above the authority of Scripture, and
the use of Scripture is confined to the establishment of
doctrine. From this it follows, that the reading of Scripture
is forbidden to the laity, and its exposition is subjected to the
superintendence of the Church. On the other hand, according
to the Protestant doctrine, Holy Scripture, by reason of its
divine character, possesses the highest authority in the Church,
and has the vocation of contributing to the edification of the
whole Church by regularly promoting the knowledge of the
word of God. The exposition of Scripture, therefore, is not
dependent upon an ecclesiastical authority, but it expounds
itself to the believer who reads it and investigates it, because
1 Compare L. Diestel, Geschichte des Alten Testaments in der Christliohen
Kirche. Jena 1869, p. 16 ff. A. Hilgenfield, Einleitung in das Neue Testa
ment. Leipzig 1875, p. 29 ff. [Bleek's Introduction to the Old Testament.
London 1869, vol. ii. p. 315 ff. Kail's Introduction to the Old Testament.
Edinburgh 1870, vol. ii. p. 347 ff. Westcott's History of the Canon of the
New Testament. 5th edition. London 1881. Professor Charteris, Canonicity :
a Collection of Early Testimonies to the Canonical Books of the New Testament.
Edinburgh 1880.]
2 Compare W. Gass, Symbolik der grieohischen Kirche. Berlin 1872, p. 97 ff.
' Compare G. F. Oehler, Lehrbuch der Symbolik. Tiibingen 1876, p. 240 ff.
[Winer's Confessions of Christendom, Edin. 1873, pp. 37-62 ; compare especially
p. 60.]

SCEIPTUEE THE SUBJECT OF EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY. 7
the living Holy Spirit in the word certifies immediately its
contents to the spirit of the believer as divine saving truth.
Consequently it is also the only standard according to which
the public faith of the Church is to be established and to be
judged, and in virtue of this dogmatic use on the part of
Protestant orthodoxy it has been elevated, by means of the
dogma of revelation and inspiration, into an infallible and
absolutely distinct authority.'
These Old and New Testament writings form the principal
subject of exegetical theology. Usually exegetical theology
is made to embrace the sum-total of all that " which has
reference to the exposition and interpretation of the Holy
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments."^ In such a
definition, however, neither the task of exegetical theology
is rightly stated, nor even is a distinctive point of view gained,
from which the separate branches of exegetical theology m,ay
be determined and arranged. To expound and interpret
Scripture is certainly the chief business of exegetical theo
logy, but thia is nevertheless only a means to an end, which
it has as the first and fundamental division of theological
science, namely, to recognise and set forth Christianity, in its
historical originality upon the ground of the literary sources
which it has at its command.^ Its task, therefore, is a
purely historical one. It has to make, not a churchly, but a
historical, use of the biblical writings. Without calling in
question or disputing the significance which these writings
have for the Church, exegetical .theology must at first look
away altogether from their ecclesiastical importance as sources
of revelation, and from their use for edification and for
doctrine, and must regard them as the literary documents, by
the help of which it has to solve its historical problems.

1 Compare § 16 of the present work ; also Oehler, Symbolik, p. 246 ff.
^ Hagenbach, Encyclopsedie, § 35. [Translation by Crooks and Hurst, p. 146.]
Lange, Encyclopsedie, p. 91.
3 Compare § 20 of the present work.

8 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Exegetical theology, therefore, has to set the biblical writings,
as a historical product, under the point of view of a historical
occurrence and of a historical communication. , When in the
New Testament it meets with Christianity as an original
religious life, it nevertheless, at the same time, reduces this to
its historical elements. As a new religious consciousness,
which makes its appearance among a particular people, it is
connected with the whole development of this people, and can
be rightly understood only in connection with the history of
that development. From this historical point of view, the
Old Testament has to be joined in the closest manner with
the New, and has even to leave out of sight the distinction
which has been made by the doctrine of the Church between
the canonical and apocryphal writings of the Old and New
Testaments. Whether any value for practical use is to be
attributed to the Apocrypha may indeed from the standpoint
of the Church be questioned;' but that the apocryphal
writings are of the greatest historical importance for exegetical
theology, must be admitted as beyond all dispute. And
indeed this statement applies not only to the Apocrypha
appended to the Alexandrian translation of the Old Testament,
but also to the whole range of extra-canonical writings, which
took their rise under later Judaism and within the bosom of
the early Christian Church. These writings, on the one.
hand, prove themselves to be a valuable auxiliary in the way
of leading up to a better understanding of the canonical writ-
' Ph. F. Keerl, Das Wort Gottes und die Apocryphen des Alten Testaments.
Leipzig 1853. Fr. Bleek, Ueber die Stellung der Apocryphen des Alten Testa
ments im christliohen Kanon. Abhandlung in den Stud, und Krit. Jahrg.
1853. 2, p. 267 ff. [While Bleek took a moderate view, Keerl opposed vigorously
the practice of binding the Apocrypha with the Old Testament. Stier and
Hengstenberg, on the other hand, wrote treatises, both of them published in
1853, in favour of retaining the Apocrypha in the Bible. This subject was
thoroughly discussed in Scotland in the years 1828, 1829 ; Robert Haldane and
Dr. Andrew Thomson being the leaders of the opposition to the insertion of the
Apocrypha in the publications of the Bible Society. The best account of this
controversy is to be found in the Edinburgh Christian Instructor of that date,
of which Dr. Andrew Thomson was editor.]

USE OF EXTEA-CANONICAL WE [TINGS. 9
ings, and on the other hand, they fill important blanks in the
historical development, and frequently bring out historical
coincidences which could not have been found from the
canonical scriptures, or at least may contribute to the vindi
cation of the high value of those canonical writings. If
deprived of the use of these apocryphal writings, theology
would not be in a position to accomplish the purely historical
task, which has been assigned to it in its first division.
Thus a free and wide horizon opens up before exegetical theo
logy. The subject with which it has to occupy itself expands
into a national literature, which, originating in the earliest
periods among the Hebrew people, reached its conclusion in
the early Christian Church. Exegetical theology is the
philology of this literature. But as such, it has, by reason of
its relations to the other parts of theology, a limited task in
reference to its subject, inasmuch as it has to do only with
the literature of a people of the Semitic stem, and, in regard
even to this, has chiefly to ascertain only its religious con
tents. Since, however, this cannot be done successfully,
unless the whole historical life of this people is rightly under
stood, and that too in connection with the culture of the other
nations belonging to the Semitic stem, and unless its signi
ficance as a historicar religion is brought into connection with
the general development of historical religion, exegetical
theology has, as its presupposition, Semitic philology generally
and the general history of religion. The former, as an inde
pendent study, separate from theology, has for its subject the
ancient forms of culture, and the history of all the branches
of the Semitic race, with their different languages. In the
prosecution of its task, exegetical theology has to make use
of the linguistic, ethnographical, geographical, historical, and
culture-historical results, which Semitic philology brings to
light,' just as well as those which the general history of
^ Volck, Die Bedeutung der semitischen philologie fiir die alttestamentliche
Exegese. Dorpat 1874.

10 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
religion contributes to it ; and, in its own special department,
which it has thoroughly to investigate, it must proceed in
accordance with the same principles as those two sciences, if
it is not to be outflanked by them, or pushed quite over to
one side.
Because exegetical theology pursues its end according to
a strictly historical method, it stands, as the first division of
theological science, in a living connection with the Church.
The canonical writings, which form the principal constituents
of the literature with which exegetical theology is concerned,
have for the Church not only a historical, but also in the
highest degree a directly practical, value. While exegetical
theology must proceed with its task without the dogmatic
presuppositions, which within the Church entwine themselves
about Holy Scripture, it will nevertheless, through the whole
course of its activity, bear traces of that churchly estimation
of the canonical writings. Apart from the general service
which exegetical theology performs for the Church,' it will
protect the Church, specially in regard to Holy Scripture, just
by means of its historical investigation, against all manner
of superstitious over-estimation of these Scriptures. It will
also make it possible generally to mark the distinction, how
far Scripture is to be regarded as the source of revelation,
how far, too, it must form the foundation of Christian edifica
tion, of the spiritual life of the Church generally, and
therefore also of theology. But not only do these theo
retical questions, which are so extremely important for the
Church, find in part their solution by means of exegetical
theology ; the edification of the Christian community also is
advanced by means of the investigations of exegetical theology,
inasmuch as it gives for all times to the laity, who are not
acquainted with the original languages, access to the Holy
Scripture as a book for edification, by means of translations
and expositions, and equips the clergy with the proper means
' Compare § 21 of the present work.

DISTEIBUTION OP EXEGETICAL THEOLOGY. 1 1
for the understanding of Scripture, in order that they may
continually preach the word of God in its truth to their
congregations. The separate branches of exegetical theology are deduced
from its historical purpose. If exegetical theology has the
task of coming to an understanding of Christianity in its
historical originality, and if the biblical writings are the
principal document from which it has to acquire this under
standing, the simple historical understanding of these writings
is the one means through which it can attain unto the end which
it has in view. Accordingly exegetical theology is distributed
into a number of branches which are either only means to an
end, or secure the realization of the end itself.
Hermeneutics forms the foundation of exegetical theology.
It has to determine the principles in accordance with which
the exegete has to proceed in the interpretation of the
literature lying before him, if he is to reach an actual historical
understanding of that literature. For this purpose it is
desirable that he should be acquainted with the foreign
languages in which the biblical writings, and those writings
related to them, are contained. The second branch of
exegetical theology is the knowledge of the Biblical Languages.
Further, the exegete, in carrying out the work of exposition,
must be in possession of the original text of the writings
which he has to expound, and must know the time and the
place of their origin, as well as their author. The proper
method to be employed in reaching this knowledge, and in
securing the original text, is taught by the third branch of
exegetical theology. Biblical Criticism. The literature of a
people, however, whether as a whole or in its parts, can be
rightly understood only when the ancient manners or customs
of the people among whom it arose are known to the exegete,
as existing institutions and in their historical development.
The fourth and fifth branches of exegetical theology are
Jewish Archaeology and Jewish History. From this national

1 2 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
point of view the literature of the people is to be represented
as a historical whole, since the exegete must know its general
character as affected by national peculiarities, so that he may
accordingly set the several writings in their proper connection.
The sixth branch of exegetical theology is Isagogics, the
so-called Introduction to the Old and New Testaments.
All these branches form the necessary presupposition of
exegesis itself, that is, the exposition of Holy Scripture.
Exegetics, the theory of exegetical practice, forms the seventh
branch of exegetical theology. Exegesis, which is concerned
with the separate writings, and which must, indeed, always
keep their exposition in view as the main end of exegetical
theology, can yet only lead to a partial and disconnected
knowledge of Christianity in its original content. And hence,
again, it only prepares the materials for that branch, in which
exegetical theology first reaches its proper conclusion, namely,
the eighth branch, the so-called Biblical Theology. This
branch of exegetical theology has the task of presenting a
systematic view of primitive Christianity with its historical
presuppositions, and showing it to be the final end of the
whole historical development of religion in its original
significance.

BIBLICAL HEEMENEUTICS. 13

. § 24. BIBLICAL HERMENEUTICS.
The biblical literature, with the philological treatment of
which exegetical theology has to occupy itself, is the product
of a time long gone by, which has exercised upon succeeding
generations an influence such as no ancient literature ever
exercised. The whole history of the Church from the earliest
period down to the present is an evidence of this. Whether
the Church restricts or freely allows the use of Holy Scripture,
the fact remains that biblical expressions and doctrines have
passed over into the Christian consciousness and constitute the
element which permeates the whole development of life within
the Church. The inexhaustible wealth of the religious contents,
which are embraced in the Scriptures, corresponds to the most
varied needs and objects, as well of individual believers as
of Church guidance, and makes possible, for the exercise
of edification and doctrinal activity in the Church, a very
diversified use of Holy Scripture. Exegetical theology, on
the other hand, is carefully restricted to one particular use of '
Holy Scripture, that is, to its historical use. In the historical
investigation, of Scripture theology pursues a purely scientific^
and at the same time a churchly, interest. This double
theological interest is the presupposition of exegetical theology,
and it must accomplish its whole activity with the conscious
ness that it can satisfy this only by a strictly historical
treatment of Holy Scripture. Strictly limited to its task,
which does not admit of following any interpretation you
please to any end you please, it has therefore to overcome all
the difficulties which present themselves in every historical
inquiry. The principal difficulty for exegetical theology lies
in the distance of time at which it finds itself removed from
tlie origin of the writings which form the subject of its

14 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
investigation. Written in strange tongues, which are now
dead languages, and having their origin under the influence of
time-relations and national conditions which have now com
pletely disappeared, they present themselves before exegetical
theology as a literature hard to be understood. The task, then,
of exegetical theology is nothing less than the reproduction, in
its historical verisimilitude, of the world of thought which
underlies this literature, and the discovery, in its primitive
significance, of that spirit which was present under the strange
form in which it was originally manifested. If it is to reach
this end, it must then, first of all, be clear about the method
of its procedure, and for this purpose requires hermeneutics,
just like the philology of any particular literature.
Hermeneutics, derived from epfMtjveveip, to interpret, is a
general philological science, which rests upon general historico-
phUosophical principles.' According to its idea, it is the
scientific theory regarding the principles and rules according
to which we must proceed in order to find out from the words
of a writer the thoughts originally expressed by him. All the
propositions of hermeneutics are directed to make this purely
historical understanding of a writer possible. Since, however,
the linguistic expression of the thought, just as well as the
understanding of it, rests upon general logical laws, the
hermeneutical theory, according to its essential principles,
finds a similar application to the interpretation of all literatures.
Theology, therefore, in so far as it is to attain unto the
understanding of a historical literature, cannot dispense with
1 Compare Schleiermacher's Hermeneutik, die Einleitung. [Sohleiermacher's
definition is objected to by Dr. Briggs (Biblioal Study, Edin. 1884, p. 297 ff.)
as too narrow. He would define hermeneutics so as to embrace, not only tho
art of understanding an author, but also the art of exposition or explanation of
an author to others. It is much more scientific and exact to regard hermeneutics
as the science of the principles to be used and applied by the expositor. Dr.
Briggs treats it as an art ; Schleiermacher as a science in which the rules of art
find their ground. It is thus characterized as the theory of the art of exposition.
Only when defined as a science can hermeneutics rank with the other depart
ments of exegetical theology.]

FUNDAMENTAL PEINCIPLES OE HEEMENEUTICS. 15
hermeneutics, and its biblical hermeneutics does not require
to lay down essentially different principles of interpretation
from those of general hermeneutics. This demand remains
unaffected by doctrinal controversies, as to whether the biblical
writings are to be regarded as divine, or as human, and
whether, if divine, they require a special method of interpreta
tion. Although the biblical writings be treated as a historical
literature, there lies in the epithet " historical " no opposition
to that of " divine." The biblical exegete, who expounds
Scripture on the general grounds of his own theological
consciousness, may regularly proceed with his exegetical
labours, as indeed one of the latest writers on hermeneutics
requires,' upon the supposition that Holy Scripture contains
revelation ; only this supposition must not be allowed to
prejudice in any way the general hermeneutical principles of
the exposition. In so far as any modification is allowed in
biblical hermeneutics, it must be derived from this funda
mental principle of general hermeneutics, that the literature
of each separate people is to be dealt with according to its
own special characteristics. Thus, we must lay down special
hermeneutics for the interpretation of the Greek writings, for
example, or the Latin writings, etc. ; but these special
hermeneutics must, nevertheless, all of them rest upon the
same historico-philosophical principles, while as special sciences
they expressly recommend particular rules which are to be
followed in the exposition of this or that literature, if the
true historical understanding of it is actually to be reached.
So too, biblical hermeneutics must take for its standard the
fundamental principles of general hermeneutics, but, where it
has to do with a particular national literature, it will have to
lay down for its exposition certain special rules determined
by the special peculiarities of that literature. Now the
fundamental law, which general hermeneutics gives forth for
every sort of exposition, is this, that the expositor must
1 Immer, Hermeneutik, p. 13 f.

16 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
proceed in a purely objective manner, that is, that the aim of
the exposition must be to ascertain the meaning originally
intended by his words on the part of the author of a writing,
without deducting anything from it, or importing any other
meaning into it. Just this fundamental hermeneutical law
has to be enforced with the strongest emphasis in biblical
hermeneutics, because over this the most serious stumblings
on the part of exegetes of the biblical writings have occurred,
and even in the present do stUl occur. This phenomenon is
to be explained, partly from the dogmatic over-estimation of
the biblical writings, partly from the unhistorical under
estimation of them. It was thus, as the history of exegesis
shows, that the most diverse methods of interpretation came
into vogue, which certainly so far afford evidence of the high
regard which men entertained for the word of Scripture, but,
at the same time, lead to a more or less subjective treatment,
and just on account of this are untenable and objectionable
over against that fundamental law of hermeneutics.
Among those diverse methods of interpretation may be
mentioned first of all, the allegorical method, which, issuing
out of the conflict between Judaism and Hellenism, was
applied to the Old Testament especially by Philo, the Alex
andrian-Jewish philosopher (d. about 40 a.d.), and to the
New Testament in the early Church especially by Origen
(d. 254 A.D.). According to this method, we must start from
the position, that God in the word of Scripture has embedded far'
deeper thoughts than appears upon a merely superficial con
sideration, so that besides the simple literal sense, the hio-her
and deeper divine sense has to be searched out. In followino-
out this method the freest play was allowed to the expositor's
own understanding. All possible subjective notions or even
the most stately philosophical ideas were transferred into the
word of Scripture, — ideas which in themselves perhaps were
altogether proper and true, but which were not in place in an
exposition, unless it could be shown that they had been present

MYSTICAL SENSE OF SCEIPTUEE. 17
to the minds of the biblical writers when they chose their
words. This also applies to the mystical interpretation of
Scripture, which prevailed in the Eoman Catholic Church
during the Middle Ages, and introduced a sort of allegorical
method, that is, raised into a standard the arbitrariness of
that method. In accordance with the example of Augustine
(d. 43 0 A.D.), a fourfold sense of Scripture was distinguished :
the simple literal sense; the allegorical, which determines
dogma; the tropological or moral, which determines moral
action ; and the anagogical, which brings the word of Scripture
generally into connection with heavenly things. The method
was characterized in a summary way in the following distich : —
" Litera gesta docet, quid credas, allegoria,
Moralis quid agas, quid speres, anagogia."
In modern times Olshausen has endeavoured to vindicate the
right of the allegorical and mystical interpretation in reference
to the deeper sense of Scripture. He has certainly avoided
many of the defects of that system of interpretation, but is
not free from the chief fault thereof, subjectivity, which makes
its appearance still in his exposition.'
Equally subjective is the traditional dogmatic method of
interpretation, which is even yet required by the Eoman
Catholic and Orthodox Greek Church, because the exegetical
tradition, which defines itself as consensus pafrum, and the
Church doctrine, are laid down as the standard for the exposi- .
tion of Scripture, so that already, before the exposition is given,
it is determined by means of these what the exegete must
evolve from the word of Scripture. The dogmatic method of
interpretation has long been employed even in the Protestant
' H. Olshausen, Ein Wort ueber tiefern Schriftsinn. Konigsberg 1824. Also
by the same author, Die biblische Schriftauslegung, nooh ein Wort ueber tiefern
Schriftsinn. Hamburg 1825. [Compare also, Doedes, Manual of Hermeneutics,
Edinburgh 1867, pp. 30, 31. Conybeare, Bampton Lecture for 1824. Au
Attempt to trace the History and to ascertain the Limits of the Secondary and
Spiritual Interpretation of Scripture. Oxford 1824. Maitland, Mystical Inter-
pretation of Scripture. London 1852.]
VOL. IL B

18 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Church, especially through the domination of the orthodox
theology, because the doctrine laid down in the ecclesiastical
symbols had been adopted as the standard of exposition, and
this exposition was employed by modern orthodox theology
in the interests of this doctrine.' Among modern exegetes of
this tendency, the following are speciaUy prominent : Hengs
tenberg, Hofmann, Delitzsch, Havernick, Keil, Kurtz.
If, according to the methods of interpretation above referred
to, the exegete is led to import into the word of Scripture
more than really is contained in it, then, from other stand
points, and indeed for the most part from subjective interests, the
content of Holy Scripture is greatly circumscribed. This takes
place in the so-called rational exposition, as proceeding from
theological rationalism, which indeed admits Holy Scripture as
the standard, but, at the same time, also maintains its dicta of
reason, so that Scripture must submit to be so expounded, that
it does not get into contradiction with the positions of reason.
Closely related to this is also the moral or practical method
of interpretation which was recommended by Kant, and prac
tised by his school. In pursuing this method, the interpreter
consciously abandons the objective sense of Scripture, and is
determined by the tendency to expound revelation in a sense
which corresponds with the ethical requirements of a religion
of pure reason. The procedure is the same, when Holy Scrip
ture is expounded in the interests of a philosophical system,
and a so-called philosophical exposition is adopted. Although
speculative philosophy, because it generally prepares the way
for an objective historical treatment, leads also on to sound
principles of interpretation, still its representatives and sup
porters are brought first of all into antagonism with Scripture
from the tendency to understand the word of Scripture in accord
ance with the ideas of their system, in order to establish in an
exegetical way a harmony between revelation and philosophy.
' Hupfeld, Die heutige Theosophische und Mythologische Theologie und
Schrifterklarung. Ein Beitrag zur Kritik derselben. Berlin 1861.

HISTOEICAL PEINCIPLE IN HERMENEUTICS. 19
From the tendencies of the Hegelian school, which have been
previously described, there sprang up the mythical interpreta
tion of David Strauss, and the idealistic method of Bruno
Bauer, — methods of interpretation which, as methods, are
wrecked upon the historical reality of their object, and can
have for exegetes only a secondary importance.
All the methods of interpretation which have been enume
rated offend against the hermeneutical fundamental law of
objectivity, and greatly as they differ among themselves, they
are all alike in failing to reach any actually historical under
standing of Holy Scripture. So long as exegesis was conducted
according to those methods, theology stood under the domina
tion of subjective arbitrariness, and reached neither to an un
fettered conception of history, nor to the scientific end which
it must set for itself in exegetical theology. From the wrong
paths, into which exegesis has been led by those methods,
theology can extricate itself only when it enters upon the,
historical path, which, while it is the straight path, is here
also the best. To that fundamental law of hermeneutics only_^
the grammatico-historical method of interpretation corresponds,
which is demanded by hermeneutics for every department of
literature, and therefore also must be applied to biblical
literature. This style of exposition was introduced into the
early Church by the theologians of the Antiochian school, was
practised in the Middle Ages by' the Eabbinical interpreters,
and before the Eeformation in the Eoman Catholic Church by
Laurentius VaUa, Faber Stapulensis, and Erasmus ; but it was
pre-eminently the Eeformation which made the grammatical
exposition of Scripture be regarded as a necessity Since it
grounded the proof of its own historical right wholly upon the
word of Scripture, it needed to insist that this should not be
arbitrarily understood, and in opposition to the fourfold sense
of Eoman Catholic exegesis it was obliged to maintain the
fundamental position, that every Scripture passage can only
have one, and that the grammatical sense. Nevertheless,

20 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
although the Eeformation did indeed decidedly declare in
favour of the simple literal meaning of Scripture, it was not
able in its own time to raise itself to an actually historical
treatment of Holy Scripture. This also has to be said in
regard to the supernaturalistic and the rationalistic theology.
Although both demand a grammatical exposition, they were
yet restrained by reason of the peculiarity of their principles
from the historical investigation of Scripture, since both had
to fear the objective sense of Scripture for their doctrinal
presuppositions. First in the most recent times, was theology,
by means of the general philosophical, philological, and histori
cal studies, which proved serviceable to it, placed in a position
for giving effect in its fuU scientific extent to the grammaticq-
historical method of Scripture exposition. If this mode of
exposition has been most vehemently contested from the side of
modern orthodox theologians, the arts of allegorical and mysti
cal interpretation, to which they again applied themselves,^
simply furnish the proof, that care for their dogma, and not
any scientific principle, formed the motive by which their
polemic was determined. If, on the contrary, an objection is
raised from another side against the grammatico-historical
exposition, that by its merely literal and verbal procedure it
leads only to a jejune, lexicographical exposition and a merely
external and material explanation of the text,^ the objection
can apply only to an inadequate working out of the method, or
to exegetes who treat it in an improper manner, but not to the
grammatico-historical method of interpretation conducted on
scientific principles. Biblical hermeneutics has for its principal
task the explanation of the essential nature of this method.
First of all it has to be made prominent that the predicates
grammatical and historical, by means of which the method is
characterized, are to be understood in the widest acceptation
of the terms, and that all the elements, which may possibly
> Compare the work of Hupfeld before referred to,
''¦ Rosenkranz, Encyclopsedie, p. 137.

GEAMMATICO-HISTOEICAL INTEEPEETATION. 2 1
be contained therein, are to be placed in connection with the
literary works to be expounded. The predicate " grammatical "
concerns generally the form of the writing; the predicate
" historical " concerns rather its contents. In respect of form
the first and most important point is the word, as the expres
sion of the thought. Hermeneutics has to make a twofold
demand of the exegete in respect of this, namely, that, on the
one hand, he should know the words according to the signifi
cation in which they have been employed by his author, and
that, on the other hand, he should know the words according
to the original form in which they passed from his pen. The
exegete must, therefore, possess the most perfect knowledge
possible of the languages in which the writings to be expounded
by him were written, according to their formal and material,
their grammatical and lexical, construction, a demand which
biblical hermeneutics pre-eminently has to make on account
of the difficulty and peculiarity of the languages in which
biblical literature is composed. On the other hand, the
exegete must acquire, by all means at his command, the
certainty that he is in possession of the original text, and
must with his verbal exposition combine, at the same time,
the critical examination of the text, a demand which biblical
hermeneutics has to insist upon in an altogether special manner,
because of the peculiar fortunes of the biblical writings. The
second point which has to be considered in reference to the
form, is the rhetorical aspect of the writing or the form of
the composition in which the writer has given expression to
his thoughts, so that the question arises, whether the style is
exact or inexact, whether it is to be understood literally or
figuratively and pictorially, really or symbolically, — a point to
which biblical hermeneutics has to pay very special attention,
partly because the biblical writers were not rhetorically
accomplished authors, and so did not always make the design
of their writing evident at the first glance, partly because the
Church style was modelled upon that of Holy Scripture.

22 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Finally, the third point calls attention to the species of litera
ture to which a writing belongs, whether it belongs to the
historical, poetical, or didactic order. In the biblical literature
these had not reached a formal classification, as, for example,
among the Greeks ; each writing rather presented itself as a
mixture more or less of the different elements, so that it is
also here of importance for the exegetical understanding, as
well as for the practical use of Scripture in the Church, to
inquire whether a passage is to be understood as historico-
poetic, or poetico-historical, or didactico-poetical. From this
it follows that in biblical literature a species of writing comes
into prominence, which never previously found a place in any-
national literature, namely, the prophetical, the understanding
of which is encompassed by the most serious difficulties, so
that biblical hermeneutics is obliged to lay down for it special
principles and rules of interpretation.
The predicate " historical " has reference generally to the
contents of Scripture. (1) The contents of Scripture are
historical, as conditioned by the personal characteristics of the
author. For the understanding of particular passages, as well
as of the general contents and the general tendency of a
writing, it is desirable to know the author of it according to
his intellectual individuality. Everything which can contribute
to an insight into this, is to be taken into consideration here ;
the birthplace of the author, the rank and character of his
parents, the family-life in which as a child he grew up, his
education, the general course of his training, the incidents of
his career, his character. Since the writings, for the exposi
tion of which biblical hermeneutics gives its rules, are essen
tially religious in their contents, it is the part of the exegete
here to shed light upon the innermost life of the biblical
writers, and, so far as possible, to show psychologically how
their religious consciousness gave a characteristic bent to their
mode of thought. (2) The contents of Scripture are historical,
as conditioned by the life of the people amongst whom the

GEAMMATICO-HISTOEICAL INTEEPEETATION. 23
writer composed his work. The natural surroundings and
field upon which the writer as an individual belonging to a
particular race grew up, the social customs of the people, their
civic institutions and arrangements, their political and ecclesi
astical ordinances, the general character of the race, — all this
must be taken into consideration, in order to understand aright
the contents of any particular writing which proceeds from
that people. Now the Hebrew race, which regarded itself as
the people of God, chosen out from among all the nations, was
in point of character essentially religious. As it placed its
entire national life under the religious point of view, its
writers, also, as representatives of the highest intellectual
activity of the nation, have in their writings chiefly given
expression to the national religious consciousness, and have
impressed upon the whole national literature a religious
character. (3) The contents of Scripture are historical, as
conditioned by the circumstances of the age under which any
writing originated. Biblical literature, like every other national
literature, stands under the influence of the people's history ;
and as the life of a people never remains historically isolated,
so also the conditions of Jewish life cannot be viewed apart.
Neighbouring races in many ways influenced the forms of
Jewish life, and towards the close this was pre-eminently true
of the Greeks. The individual writer too is amenable to those
influences, often without being hinlself fully conscious of the
fact ; many of his expressions, not unfrequently his whole
tendency, will first become clear to the expositor when he
looks at the particular writing from this general standpoint.
In this way the grammatico-historical method of interpre
tation has been characterized in accordance with its funda
mental principles. In it are embraced the two elements,
according to which Schleiermacher represented it in his
Hermeneutics, the grammatical and the psychological, and
also, in so far as they generally fall within the range of
exegesis, the various elements, which Germar demands for his

24 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
panharmonic interpretation,' and Pelt, in his Encyclopaedia,
for exposition, the grammatical, psychological, historical, and
religious.^ In it the branches of exegetical theology which
immediately follow find their foundation. If this conception
of the science be adopted, then it also follows that the biblical
hermeneutics, which concerns itself generally with biblical
literature, in conseqiience of the change which passed over the
Jewish national consciousness by means of Christianity, can
be divided into an Old and a New Testament hermeneutics,
and with reference to the differences of the various kinds of
writing, and the individuality of the particular writers, into
systems of special hermeneutics, as had been first suggested
by Schleiermacher.^ Only to the exegete, who proceeds
strictly in accordance with the fundamental principles of
grammatico-historical interpretation, is it possible, at least
theoretically, to reach the end at which he aims, the under
standing and setting forth of the meaning of Scripture in its
objectivity. The distinction between exposition and interpre
tation has been made without ground. The exegete when he
has expounded a writing in accordance with the spirit of its
author and its age, has thereby also given its right interpreta
tion. In comparison with the other methods of exposition, the
grammatico-historical, which has at last found a distinguished
supporter in Immer, is alone capable of being vindicated as
scientific. Schleiermacher, indeed, gave expression to this
with all precision.* All the other methods can claim a right
of existence only in so far as they contribute to the residts
reached by this method. Only upon the scientific way,
which it marks out, can through time an agreement be
' F. A. Germar, Die panharmonische Interpretation der heiligen Sohrift.
Schleswig 1821. [Compare Doedes, Hermeneutics, p. 49. Briggs' Biblical
Study, p. 348.]
" Pelt, Encyclopsedie, p. 175.
' Compare Darstellung des theologischen Studiums, § 136-138. [English
translation. Edin. 1850.]
* Compare Hermeneutik, § 13.

LITERATURE OF HEEMENEUTICS. 25
reached in regard to the understanding of Scripture, and
consequently also, an agreement in regard to the most
important theological questions.
The most important hermeneutical works of recent times
are these: — Fr. Liicke, Grundriss der Neutestamentlichen
Hermeneutik und ihrer Geschichte. Gottingen 1817.
H. N. Clausen, Hermeneutik des Neuen Testaments. From
the Danish. Leipzig 1841. Fr. Schleiermacher, Her
meneutik und Kritik mit besonderer Beziehung auf das Neue
Testament. Herausgegeben von Fr. Liicke. Berlin 1838.
Werke. Zur Theologie. Bd. 2. J. M. A, Lohnis (Catholic),
Grundztige der' Biblischen Hermeneutik und Kritik. Giessen
1839. C. G. Wilke, Die Hermeneutik des Neuen Testa
ments Systematisch DargesteUt. Bd. 1, 2. Leipzig 1843-
1844. J. L. Lutz, Biblische Hermeneutik. Pforzheim
1849. 2 Ausgabe, 1861. A. Immer, Hermeneutik des
Neuen Testaments. Wittenberg 1873. [Immer, Her
meneutics of the New Testament. English translation.
Andover 1877. Fairbairn, Hermeneutical Manual. Edin.
1858. Doedes, Manual of Hermeneutics for the Writings
of the New Testament. From the Dutch. Edin. 1867.
Pareau, Principles of Interpretation of the Old Testament.
2 vols. Edin. 1835. Ernesti, Principles of Political Inter
pretation (New Testament). 2 vols. Edin. 1832. Planck,
Introduction to Sacred Philology and Interpretation. Edin.
1834. Jo wett. On the Interpretation of Scripture (in Essays
and Eeviews), London 1861; and reply, under same title,
by Bishop Wordsworth, London 1862.]

26 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

§ 25. KNOWLEDGE OF THE BIBLICAL LANGUAGES
(LINGUISTICS).
The languages in which the biblical literature was originally
written have, in the course of history, undergone such changes
that the study of the sacred tongues embraces research upon a
singular variety of subjects. The Hebrews belonged to the
Semitic stem, and their speech to that class of languages which
now, at least for the most part, is designated Semitic. Pre
eminently by means of the language peculiar to them, the
Semites showed themselves to be a race distinct and sepa
rate from others. The Semitic nations which had spread
over the whole of Western Asia, and part of Africa, have,
as a result of the differences characterizing the countries
in which they dwelt, and in consequence of diversities in the
degrees of culture and historical development to which they
had attained, modified in various particulars the Semitic lan
guage ; but, at the same time, amid all these modifications, so
great a similarity prevails, that they may be all regarded as
forming one family of languages bound together by the bonds
of affinity. A peculiar modification of the Semitic language
prevailed among the Semites throughout the wide district to
the north-east of Palestine in Aram, that is, in Syria, Meso
potamia, Babylon, and Assyria. It appears in its oldest form
in the Assyrian and Old Babylonian, which has become
known in the most recent times by means of the deciphering
of the inscriptions.' In its literary form we come to know
1 That the Assyrian-Babylonian belongs to the Semitic family of languages has
been finally proved by E. Schrader in his treatise, Die Assyrisch-Babylonischen
Keilinschriften. Kritische Untersuchung der Grundlagen ihrer Entziffemng,
published in the Zeitschrift der D. M. G. Bd. 26. Schrader distinguishes
three groups of Semitic languages — (1) The Eastern Semitic (Assyrian-

DIVISION OF SEMITIC LANGUAGES. 27
Aramaic first from the Jewish post-exUian writings, and it is
to this language that the name "Aramaic" is given in the
Old Testament : 2 Kings xviii. 2 6 ; Isa. xxxvi. 1 1 ; Dan. ii. I ;
Ezra iv. 7.' The distinction commonly made between two
distinct dialects of Aramaic, the Eastern Aramaic or Chal-
deean, and the Western Aramaic or Syriac, is without suffi
cient foundation. The name " Chaldsean " is only a more
recent designation for Aramaic, derived from Dan. i. 4. But
the Syriac, which became known to us first in a later period
from the Syrian translation of the Holy Scriptures, and from
a rich ecclesiastical and theological literature springing up
during the second Christian century, shows such characteristic
departures from that formerly known as .Aramaic, that it may
be regarded as a peculiar dialect of Aramaic developed in
Western Aram. The name Syriac may have been given
regularly by the Aramaic-speaking Jews to the language of
the Aramaic-speaking Gentiles.^ Next to the Aramaic, the
Canaanitish, and also the Phoenician (Punic), which, in conse
quence of the commercial enterprise of the Phoenicians, was
spread far into the West, are to be ranked as dialects closely
related to the Semitic.
In the countries south of Palestine, the various Arab tribes
had a language of their own broken up into many dialects.
The two principal ancient dialects were the Himyaritic in the
south, and the Koreishitic of Mecca in the north-west of
Arabia. The latter, which even before Mohammed's time
was the literary language, became, by means of the victories
Babylonian) ; (2) The Northern Semitic (Hebrew and Aramaic) ; and (3) The
Southern Semitic (Arabic and Ethiopic). [Semitic is not exactly descriptive of
this class of languages, which embraces some Hamitic, and excludes some
Semitic languages. But as a convenient term it will hold its place. Compare
Bleek, Introd. to Old Testament, vol. i. pp. 39-40. Keil, Introd. to Old Testa
ment, vol. i. p. 28. Ewald, History of Israel, vol. i. p. 277. Compare also,
Fr; Delitzsch, Hebrew Language in light of Assyrian Research. London 1884.]
' In the English version the word used in each of these passages is Syriac,
but the original word in each is Aramaic. — Ed.
" As Nbldecke, writing in Schenkel's Bibel Lexicon upon the word Aram,
assumes.

28 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
of Mohammed, the prevalent speech, and was spread far and
wide. It is known to us now as the Arabic language, in
which the whole of the Arabian literature has been composed,
and which about the fifteenth century had developed into the
common Arabic of to-day. The Ethiopic is a branch of the
Himyaritic dialect, which as a written language is called
Geez. In it we possess a translation of the Bible, and an
ecclesiastical literature. More recently it has been modified
into the Amharic dialect, which at present is the common
speech of Abyssinia.
The Semitic language from which we get possession of the
oldest literature of all the Semitic languages, is the Hebrew.
The name " Hebrew language " does not occur in the Old
Testament. In Isa. xix. 18 it is called the language of
Canaan, and in the kingdom of Judah it is also called the
Jews' language; Isa. xxxvi. 11, 13; 2 Kings xviii. 26.
First in the prologue to Jesus Sirach is the expression i^paia-Tl
found, and then in Josephus we have the name yX&TTa t&v
'E^palcov. In this later period, as the old literature had by
that time come to be regarded as a sacred literature, the old
language, in which it was composed, was also called the sacred
language. The Hebrew, with which the Samaritan is joined,
as a mixture of different elements from the Aramaic and
Hebrew languages, must originally be derived from the
Aramaic-Canaanitic, and must have retained those strongly
marked peculiarities, which with us have come to be histori
cally associated with the name, in consequence of that mental
tendency peculiar to the Hebrews, and the literary activity
entered upon by them. As the Hebrew language was spoken
in a country lying between the districts in which Aramaic and
Arabic were spoken, so, in respect of its formal and material
construction, it occupies a position midway between the two.
The Aramaic, both in respect of grammar and in respect of
vocabulary, is poorer and less developed than Hebrew. On
the other hand, the Arabic, both in grammatical development,

CHAEACTEEISTICS OF HEBEEW. 29
and especially in the richness of its vocabulary, stands far
above the Hebrew. And further, since the time of Mohammed,
the Arabians have made intellectual progress in the most
varied directions, and created a rich poetic and scientific
literature, so that, by means of this many-sided intellectual
and literary activity, the very language has of necessity
experienced a further development. The Hebrew language
is characterized by a great simplicity in the construction of
noun and verb, inasmuch as it does not designate the different
grammatical modifications of a word by means of new forms
of the word, and inasmuch as the grammatical treatment gives
no definite expression to distinctions of tense. The two prin
cipal forms of the verb, the Perfect and the Imperfect, are not
so much distinctions of tense as of mood, by means of which
the completed and the actually existing, on the one hand,
are distinguished from the incomplete and contemplated, on
the other hand ; so that the two forms of the verb are in this
respect applicable to the most diverse relations of time. In
the Syntax, again, the simplicity shows itself in the mode of
joining words, inasmuch as the thoughts are usually bound
together in the slightest manner by means of the copula, not
according to an artistic method by the use of accessory and
subordinate propositions linked together by conjunctions. If
ever the language of a people is to be regarded as the most
direct expression of its intellectual life, then it must be
acknowledged that the Hebrew language, by means of the
religious bent of the Hebrew mind, has in a pre-eminent
manner retained its own proper characteristics. As religion
is the simple relationship of man to God apart from any
reflective refinements, in such a form must the religious
characteristic of the life of a people reflect itself in the con
struction of their language. In its simplicity, which results
from this religious bent, this language approved itself to the
people as the most fitting organ for relating in plain terms the
divine leading in the fortunes of the individual, so as to have

30 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
them regarded as the mighty acts of God toward His people, for
giving the truest expression to the most varied emotions and
experiences of religious feeling, and for representing the highest
ideal of the nation, and its most profound religious thoughts, in-
a style of narrative the most beautiful. The canonical writings
of the Old Testament, with only a few exceptions, are composed
in the classical form of the language. In those writings we
get a survey of a long period extending through centuries.
But when we compare the literature of the time of Moses
with that of the exilian period, there confronts us what, in
comparison with other languages, is quite an abnormal pheno
menon. During this period of a thousand years the Hebrew
language did not experience any essential change in its con
struction. This fact, too, which is to be understood only
partially from the historical conditions of that early period,
which did not forcibly drag the people out of their own
sphere, and drew them into intercourse with other peoples, is
pre-eminently to be explained by the fixity of the religious
character of the people, which moulded their theory of life
and conduct according to a uniform standard, and maintained
a spirit of national exclusiveness toward all foreigners. So
long as the Hebrews remained in the enjoyment of political
independence, they preserved their own language in an
unaltered form. In the post-exilian period, on the contrary,
political events exercised a most prejudicial influence upon
the language of the people, and led to its gradual extinction as
a spoken language of the nation. Even so early as the times
of the Assyrian invasion, and still more widely during that of
the Chaldaeans, the Hebrew language had been altered by the
introduction of Aramaic elements. But it was probably during
the time of the actual exile that the bulk of the people began
familiarly to use the Aramaic language ; which is the more
readily to be explained, when we remember that originally the
Hebrew was nearly related to the Aramaic. Of the Jews
who returned from the exile, the younger generation, which

HEBEEW AND AEAMAIO. 31
had grown up during the exile, had for the most part been
accustomed to speak Aramaic, and the continuance of the
foreign dominion must also have fostered the general preval
ence of the foreign dialect. Even if, from the passage occur
ring in Neh. viii. 8, it does not follow that, so early as the
time of Ezra, the bulk of the people could not understand the
reading of the law in the old language, this fact nevertheless
shows that gradually the Hebrew language ceased to be the
language of the people, and that the Aramaic was taking its
place. This is also proved from the fact that soon the needs
of the religious community required that translations of the
Old Testament Scriptures for the people should be made into
Aramaic, the so-called Targums, and that, also, in the Jewish
literature of this period, the Aramaic language makes its
appearance. Jer. x. 11 ; Ezra iv. 8-vi. 18, vii. 12-26 ; Dan.
ii. and iv.-vii. Hence, in the New Testament, the phrases
e^paiari, John v. 2, xix. 13, and k^paU BidXeKTo^, Acts
xxi. 40, xxii. 2, xxvi. 14, do not refer to the old Hebrew
language, but, in opposition to the Greek, indicate the common
Aramaic dialect used in Palestine at that time. It was only
as the language of literature that Hebrew held its place down
to the second century, that is, to the time of the Maccabees.
Afterwards it became the subject of study in rabbinical
schools, and the knowledge of it was communicated by
rabbinical tradition. Later Judaism did not produce any
independent literary work in the Aramaic language. Inter
spersed with Hebraisms, the Aramaic became the language of
the Talmudic commentaries upon the ancient literature.
While the Palestinian Jews lost their ancient mother
tongue, this changing of their language was carried out yet
further by the Jews living outside of Palestine. From the
time when the Grseco-Macedonian dominion began, the Jews
of the dispersion with the Greek culture adopted also the
Greek language, yet without becoming unfaithful to the
ancient religion of their fathers. This was especially the case

32 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA
with the Jews in Egypt, Alexandria was the place where
now a thoroughly characteristic Jewish literature in the Greek
language sprang up. Among the Greek-speaking Jews, both
in Palestine and outside of Palestine, the religious interest led
to translations of the Holy Scriptures into Greek. Chief
among these translations is the Alexandrian version, by the
use of which the Jews maintained indeed continuously con
nection with their national religion, but, at the same time,
were also made always the more dependent upon the foreign
Greek language. Almost the whole of the extra-canonical
literature of later Judaism was composed in the Greek
language, and so also were the New Testament and the rest of
the literature of the earliest Christian Churches composed in
this same form of Greek spoken by the Grecianized Jews.
While in Palestine the Aramaic became the language of the
narrowest national literature, Christianity springing out of
Judaisfn met with a truly oecumenical language in the Greek,
in which the knowledge of Christ could at once be spread
among the Jews and among all other peoples throughout the
great Eoman Empire.'
, The Hebrew and Greek are thus the two principal lan
guages of which knowledge is indispensable to the biblical
exegete. The phUologically exact knowledge of the Hebrew
language can be attained only by means of a comparative
study of the whole group of the Semitic languages. Such
a comprehensive study, however, is not necessary for the pur
pose of exegetical theology, nor indeed, by reason of the
accumulation of details in this study made in recent times,
' On the history of the Semitic, and especially the Hebrew language, compare
Gesenius, Geschichte der hebraischen Sprache und Schrift. Leipzig 1815.
Ewald, Ausfiihrliches Lehrbuch der hebraischen Sprache des A. B., § 1 ff. Also
by the same author, Abhandlung ueber die geschichtliche Folge der semitischen
Sprachen. Gottingen 1871. (Extracts from the fifteenth volume of the Trans
actions of the Royal Society of the Sciences at Gottingen. ) Fr. Bleek, Einleitung
in das Alte Testament. Vorbemerkungen C. [English translation, Introd. to
the 0. T., vol. i. pp. 38-170.] Keil, Einleitung in das Alte Testament, p. 1.3 ff.
[English translation, Introd. to the 0. T., vol. i. pp. 26-70.]

PHILOLOGY OF THE SEMITIC LANGUAGES. 33
would it be quite practicable for theologians in future. Here
first of aU Semitic philology comes to the help of the biblical
exegete. It is its part in accordance with the demands of
comparative philology to set forth the Semitic languages in
their dialectic connection with one another ; and it is enough
for the theologian that, upon the foundation of this strictly
philological investigation, he should acquire above all a know
ledge of the Hebrew of the most thorough kind possible. He
will thus be able, by means of his special Old Testament
studies, as a counterpart of the work of the philologist, to
supply, from the department of the Hebrew language, material
which will prove serviceable for the general investigation of the
Semitic languages. The theologian, however, must devote
himself to the careful study of the Hebrew, not only for the
sake of the Old Testament exegesis, but also, in order that he
may understand the Greek of the later Jewish literature and
the New Testament, he must render himself familiar with the
peculiarities of the Semitic grammatical idiom. It should not
be left unnoticed that the Old and New Testament writings
have their origin in the one soil and in the same nationality.
Hence, although the New Testament was composed in the
Greek language, its authors were for the most part Jews, who
wrote a Greek dialect which, in consequence of national Jewish
culture and ways of viewing things, had gained an altogether
characteristic impress, and had a configuration given to it by
them in the same way. A Semitic undertone is heard
throughout, as well in the Greek of the later Jewish literature,
as also always through the New Testament Greek, even in the
case of New Testament writers, who write the Greek compara
tively speaking in its present form. Many grammatical
forms, modes of speech, and expressions of the New Testament
are capable of being understood only by one who is acquainted
with the peculiarities of the Semitic languages. Thus, for
instance, it happens that in the New Testament copious
quotations from the Old Testament are found, for the explana-
VOL. IL c

34 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA,
tion of which the exegete must necessarily fall back upon the
original Old Testament text. Many a thing, too, is related in
the New Testament which was originally spoken in Aramaic,
and was only afterwards by the New Testament writer trans
lated into Greek, and which can be rightly understood only
when it is translated back from the Greek into Aramaic.
The biblical exegete requires to appropriate from the other
Semitic languages only so much as he has use for in his
exegetical task. Here only the Aramaic (Chaldee), Syriac, and
Arabic come under consideration. The first of these deserves
attention, because certain sections of the Old Testament were
composed in the Aramaic language, and old Aramaic transla
tions of many of the Old Testament books, the Targums, are
extant. Not only the comparison of these translations with
the original text is of importance for the understanding of
that original, but also peculiar religious theories are found in
the Targums, which are not without significance for the know
ledge of later Judaism. The Syriac also has to be embraced
by the biblical exegete in the circle of his studies, because we
possess an old Syriac translation of the Holy Scriptures made
from the original biblical text, the so-caUed Peschito, which
is almost indispensable to the exegete for the explanation of
the biblical text. The Arabic, however, is specially service
able to the exegete for explaining, out of the remarkably rich
Arabic vocabulary, Hebrew words occurring only once, or
seldom in the Old Testament, or otherwise doubtful as to their
root meaning.
The science of the Scripture languages has to include in its
department only so much from the Semitic languages, and has
therefore the general Semitic philology as its presupposition.
If the biblical exegete goes beyond this line in his studies,
and applies himself to the comparative study of the whole of
the Semitic languages, he oversteps the strictly theological
boundaries, and enters upon those of philology. Many of
the earlier theologians rendered great service in this depart-

LITEEATUEE OF HEBEEW PHILOLOGY. 35
ment of so-called Oriental philology, and even still among
modern theologians two stand forth pre-eminent as Oriental
philologists, Gesenius and Ewald, whose works before all others
are to be recommended for the study of the Hebrew
language. W. Gesenius, Hebraische Grammatik. Halle 1813. 21
Aufl. Leipzig 1872. (Since the 14th edition of the year
1845, it has been edited by E. Eoediger.) [22nd edition by
Kautsch. Leipzig 1878. English translations in many
editions by Davies, London, and Conant, New York : latest
German edition translated by Mitchell. Andover 1880.]
Also by Gesenius, Ausfiihrliches grammatisch-kritisches Lehr-
gebaude der hebraischen Sprache mit Vergleichung der
verwandten Dialekte. Leipzig 1817. 2 Bde. Also,
Hebraisches und Chaldaisches Handworterbuch ueber das
Alte Testament. Leipzig 1815. 6th and 7th ed. 1863 and
1868, edited by F. E. Ch. Dietrich. 8th ed. newly arranged
and worked up by F. Miihlau and W. Volck. Leipzig 1877.
[English translation by S. P. Tregelles. London 1846.]
Lexicon Manuale hebr. et chald. in V. T. libros. Lips. 1833.
Edit. alt. ab A. Th. Hoffmanno recogn. 1847. Thesaurus
philologico-criticus linguae hebr. et chald. V. T. 3 Tomi.
Lips. 1829-1858. H. Ewald, Kritische Grammatik der
hebraischen Sprache, ausfiihrlich bearbeitet. Leipzig 1827.
By the same author, Grammatik der hebraischen Sprache des
Alten Testaments in volstandiger Kiirze neu bearbeitet.
Leipzig 1828. Editions 5th to 8th, 1844, 1855, 1863,
1870, under the title : Ausfiihrliches Lehrbuch der hebraischen
Sprache des alten Bundes. [Ewald's Introductory Hebrew
Grammar. London 1870. Syntax of the Hebrew Language
of the Old Testament, from 8th German ed. Edin. 1879.]
J. B. Winer, Simonis lexicon manuale hebr. et chald. post
Eichhornii curas denuo castigavit, etc. Lips. 1828. [FiirsL
Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the Old Testament; transl. by;
Davidson. London 1867.] D. G. W. Freitag, Kurzgefasstg

36 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Grammatik der hebraischen Sprache fiir den Schul- und
Universitiitsgebrauch. Halle 1835. A. W. J. Thiersch,
Hebraische Grammatik fiir Anfanger. 2 Ausg. Erlangen
1858. [Davidson, Introductory Hebrew Grammar. Edin.
1874.] J. Olshausen, Lehrbuch der hebraischen Sprache.
Braunschweig 1861. Fr. Bottcher, Ausfiihrliches Lehrbuch
der hebraischen Sprache. Edited after the death of the author
by F. Miihlau. 2 Bde. Leipzig 1867, 1868. [Tregelles,
Heads of Hebrew Grammar, London 1852, is a useful book
for beginners. A thorough and philosophical treatment of the
subject will be found in Nordheimer, Critical Grammar of the
Hebrew Language. 2 vols. New York 1842.]
The other language, which the science of the biblical
languages has for its subject, the Greek language, in which a
great part of the Jewish and Christian apocryphal and pseudepi-
graphical writings and all of the New Testament books were
written, has a thoroughly distinctive character of its own,
which can be rightly understood only when the historical
circumstances are taken into consideration, under which this
language was developed. If one abandons this historical
ground, he will certainly form altogether false opinions
regarding that language, which must then also exercise an
injurious influence upon exegesis. This makes itself seen
most significantly in the dispute which, during the seventeenth
century, and the first half of the eighteenth century, was
carried on between the Purists and the Hebraists. The
Purists, who were carried away by the inspiration dogma,
and regarded not only the thoughts, but also the words, as
given by the Holy Spirit, were accordingly obliged to assume
that the Holy Spirit would have spoken in the best Greek,
and that therefore the New Testament Greek is the purely
classical Greek language. Here, too, dogmatic prejudice led
into error in regard to the historical facts. In accordance
with an unprejudiced philological investigation, the result is
rather this, that the language of the New Testament, in

OEIGIN OF THE NEW TESTAMENT GEEEK. 37
respect of grammar and vocabulary, is a very different form
of Greek from the classical. It is that form of Greek which
was spoken by the Jews scattered among the Greeks, and
which, to distinguish it from the classical, has been called
Hellenistic Greek. In characterizing this Greek, this fact
first of .all claims consideration, that the Greek language
^hich the later Jews employed was no longer the old classical
form. From the time when the Grseco-Macedonian dominion
began, the old Greek language was changed, by means of a
mixture of the different Greek dialects, into the so-called Koi^vrj
StaXe/CTo?, that is, into the common Greek cf Scripture and
popular literature. But during the same period, during the
Alexandrine period, the nearer contact of Judaism with Greek
influences took place, and the Jews who lived in countries
that were under the Greek dominion adopted the Greek
language in the form of that dialect which had come into
general use. The Grecianizing of Judaism, however, would
evidently be completed only by a gradual process. Conse
quently it could not fail that the Jews, while they were
exchanging the mother tongue for a foreign language, could
transfer elements of their former speech into the new, and
also clothe old Hebrew modes of thought, yea, the whole
circle of their religious conceptions, in the outward dress of
their new language. Thus arose that form of Greek, inter
spersed with Aramaisms and Hebraisms, which, by means of
the Alexandrine translation of the Old Testament, was spread
far and wide among the Jews, and was always being the
more firmly established in its idiomatic forms. This Judaized
Greek was come upon by the New Testament writers ready
to their hand, and now, since they wrote therein, they them
selves added to it certain characteristics, special Christian
elements, by means of which the New Testament language is
characterized. If the new Christian thoughts were to have
expression given them, they might indeed have been laid
down in the transmitted form, but by means of the new con-i

38 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
tents the form itself became something different. Especially
in respect of vocabulary is this worthy of attention. Originally
Hebrew words, which were simply translated from Hebrew into
Greek, and purely Greek words, like ^av, Odvara, aireoXeia,
crajTrjpia, Bucatocrvvrj, TrtffTt?, dydTrr], cXtt/?, /Jiierdvoia, '^apK,
k6<t/io<;, by means of the Christian spirit which found
expression in them, came to have a much deeper and more
comprehensive signification, and one richer in contents, than
these words had in the old Hebrew or in the ordinary Greek.
These three elements, the Greek, the Hebrew- Aramaic, and
the Christian, constitute the peculiar mixture of which the
language of the New Testament writers is composed. Indi
vidual writers are distinguished from one another only in
this, that one of the three elements is more or less prominent
in the writing of one, and another in the writing of another.'
It was after the Eeformation that the peculiarities of the
New Testament Greek were for the first time carefully in
vestigated and exactly defined. After the investigations,
during the seventeenth century, of Solomon Glass (philologia
sacra), Caspar Wyss (dialectologia sacra), George Pasor,
(Lexicon and Grammar of the New Testament Language),
especially Winer has in modern times treated successfully the
New Testament language according to a strictly philological
method. G. B. Winer, Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Sprach-
idioms ais sichere Grundlage der neutestamentlichen Exegese.
Leipzig 1822. In the 7th ed. revised by G. Liinemann,
Leipzig 1867. [Winer's Grammar of the New Testament
Diction, from the 6th German ed. 2 vols. Edin. 1859. Also,
A Treatise on the Grammar of the New Testament, ed. by Dr.
1 On the character of the New Testament language, compare Schleiermacher,
Hermeneutik, p. 54 ff., and p. 138 ff. Winer, Grammatik des neutestamentlichen
Sprachidioms, p. 12 ff. [English translation, T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh.]
Immer, Hermeneutik, p. 12 ff. [Compare also, Briggs, Biblical Study. Edin.
1884, pp. 63-74.]

LITEEATUEE OF NEW TESTAMENT PHILOLOGY. 39
W. J. Moulton. Edin., T. & T. Clark, 1877.] After Winer
may be named : — J. C. W. Alt, Grammatica linguae graecEe,
quaN. T. scriptores usi sunt. Halae 1829. J. Th. Beelen,
Grammatica grsecitatis n. t., quam ad G. Wineri ejusdem
argumenti librum, germanico idiomate conscriptum, in usum
suorum auditorum composuit, etc. Lovanii 1857. A. Butt-
maun, Grammatik des neutestamentlichen Sprachgebrauchs.
Berlin 1859. [Buttmann's Grammar of New Testament
Greek, translated by Prof. Thayer. Andover 1873.] Among
Dictionaries for the New Testament, besides the older works
of Schoettgen and Schleusner, the following may be mentioned, :
— Ch. A. Wahl, Clavis N. T. philologica. Lips. 1822, 1843,
2 voU. C. G. Bretschneider, Lexicon manuale graeco-latinum
in libros N. T. Lips. 1824, 3 ed. 1840. Ch. G. Wilke,
Lexicon grseco-latinum in libros N. T. Dresdse 1839, 1840,
ed. 2, 1850. Nova editio, ed. C. L. W. Grimm. Lips.
1862-1868. S. Ch. Schirlitz, Griechisch-deutsches Worter-
buch zum Neuen Testament. Giessen 1851. 3 Aufl. 1868.
E. F. Dalmer, Lexicon breve grseco-latinum ad voces et
vocabula librorum N. T. explicande concinnatum. Gothse
1859. H. Cremer, Biblisch-theologisches Worterbuch der
neutestamentlichen Gracitat. Gotha 1866. 2 Aufl. 1872.
[Cremer, BibUco-theological Lexicon of New Testament Greek,
translated from the 2nd German ed. Edinburgh, T. & T.
Clark, 1878. 3rd English edition 1880. Eobinson, Greek
and English Lexicon of the New Testament, 1st ed. 1836, in
a great number of editions. See important preface on the
peculiarities of the New Testament Greek.]

40 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

§ 26. BIBLICAL CRITICISM.
The exegete must not only be acquainted with the language
in which the writings which he has to expound were written;
he must also have a knowledge of their authors, and of the
period in which they had their origin, and he must be in
possession of their original text. Historical investigation in
regard to literary sources generally can be prosecuted with
success only when the investigator is perfectly certain as to
the condition of his sources. Out of this general historical
interest criticism had its origin, which as a science has to
lay down the principles and rules according to which one
must proceed, in order to come to a knowledge of the sources
in their very origination in respect of author, time, and text.
As the so-called philologicsil criticism, it is the necessary pre
supposition of historical criticism. WhUe this historical
criticism has the task of ascertaining from its sources the
fact of its historical truth, philological criticism has to render
the sources serviceable to the historian for his scientific
purposes. Between the time when the sources had their
origin, and the time when they are actually called into
requisition by the historian as means of historical proof, there
lies possibly a very long interval. In the course of time, the
text of the writings may have been in many ways corrupted ;
doubts, too, may have possibly arisen regarding the time
when they were written, and regarding their authors. Hence,
it is the task of criticism to determine how we shall proceed
in order to remove these doubts and restore the text of the
writings to its original purity. Now what has been said
applies in a pre-eminent degree to the biblical writings, which
are given to the exegete for his historical investigation, and
therefore, also, the general philological criticism must be

THE HISTOEICAL METHOD. 41
applied to them. As biblical criticism it does not need to
follow any principles essentially different from those required
in any other department of historical inquiry, and is modified
only by the characteristic peculiarities of biblical literature,
and the special circumstances of its history. The relations
of biblical criticism to general philological criticism are pre
cisely similar to the relations of biblical hermeneutics to
general philological hermeneutics. Only when biblical criti
cism asserts its strictly historical character is it in a position
to rid itself of those very diverse influences lying outside of
it, and to maintain that unrestrainedness and freedom, which
it must secure to itself, if it is to pursue its work with suc
cess. The criticism practised by the supernaturalistic (ortho
dox) theology, as well as that practised by the rationalistic
theology, leads to confusion or bondage. Supernaturalism
generally will admit the application of criticism to the
biblical writings only to a very limited extent. It also
distinguishes here between sacred and profane writings. The
former are inspired, and are to be treated by the Church as
canonical. Hence criticism may deal freely with profane
literature ; but in reference to the inspired writings of the
Old and New Testament, only verbal criticism can be allowed,
and to go farther than this, and to adjudge a canonical
writing to a period and to an author which wUl place it
beyond the time at which the canon was closed, this is to cut
off an integral part of divine revelation, and to remove a
support of the Church. In opposition to this, the criticism of
rationalism recklessly makes an inroad upon the very circle
of the biblical writings ; but its criticism is likewise domi
nated by the dogma of its system. Thus rationalism is
inclined, in accordance with its subjective tendency, to cast
out from the canon, as unauthentic, not only particular words,
but also particular writings, which contradict its system.
From all such one-sided theological interests biblical criticism
must keep itself altogether free. As exegetical theology,

42 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
according to its task and main end, has an essentially
historical character, so must also criticism, as a branch of
exegetical theology, be placed unreservedly at the service of
its historical activity. Neither in the matter of verbal criti
cism, nor in the matter of critical research regarding the time
and author of a writing, should criticism by any means be
determined, or allow itself to be led, in accordance with dog
matic, ecclesiastical, and subjective views and motives, but
simply and only by the objective motive, to ascertain what,
in its own department of investigation, is historical fact. In
this, its purely historical attitude, the real strength of biblical
criticism lies. Not revelation and the Church, but only
certain theories in regard to these, have anything to fear from
criticism. It should rather be said, that just the ascertain
ment and acknowledgment of historical truth won in the
department of biblical inquiry will prove more favourable to
the interests of the Church, than the artificial cloaking and
covering of things, which lie clearly in view of the non-
theological investigator. It comes to this, that if, through
the demonstration of criticism, a writing is found not to
belong to that writer and to that time, to which it was
assigned in the canon, its importance for the Church is not on
this account destroyed. Its canonicity was not really
dependent upon those historical contingencies, but only upon
its contents. If the writing has actually had its origin in
the theocratic spirit, or in the spirit of primitive Christianity,
it will assert its right to be recognised by the Church as
canonical after, as well as before, the critical result had been
reached. Biblical criticism is philological criticism applied to biblical
literature. As a theory it has to lay down the principles and
rules in accordance with which criticism must proceed. In
performing its task, criticism directs its attention, on the one
side, to the separate words, sentences, and paragraphs of the
writings to be expounded, and, on the other side, to the

TEXTUAL CEITICISM. 43

authors, and the dates of those writings. The former division
of critical science has for its object the establishment of the
integrity of a writing, that is, the restoration of the work to
its, textual purity, as it came at first from the hand of its
author. The second division of critical science has for its
object the establishment of the authenticity of a writing, that
is, the determining of the question as to who was the author,
and what was the original date of the writing. In accordance
with this twofold function, biblical criticism has had its two
divisions distinguished under the designations, the lower and
the higher criticism. This distinction, however, is unwarrant
able, inasmuch as in both of its functions biblical criticism
is indispensable for exegesis, and so is in both equally capable
of vindication. The distinction sought to be made between
textual criticism and historical criticism' is the, result of a
misunderstanding, and is not to be justified. Nor is it any
more proper, in consequence of a difference in procedure
and result, to distinguish between external and internal,
negative and positive criticism,^ since these expressions
indicate rather the elements which are present in every
critical process.
The first division of biblical criticism, in which the text of
the biblical writings, in the form in which it originally pro
ceeded from the author, is to be ascertained, has a very
difficult and complicated task. We do not any longer possess
the author's original manuscript of any one of the biblical
books, but only copies of the original writing. These copies
are the manuscripts, the codici manuscripti, which form the
chief basis for the critical restoration of the text. With these,
therefore, criticism has to do in an altogether special manner.
In reference to the Old Testament the task is less difficult.
For it we have a fixed text, the so-called Massoretic, for which
1 Pelt, Encyclopsedie, p. 152 ff.
' Hagenbach, Encyclopsedie, § 49. [English translation by Crooks and Hurst,
Ji. 208.]

44 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
we have to thank rabbinical scholarship. The Eabbinists
devoted themselves with a marvellous diligence to the study
of their sacred writings. To this same text they gave its
definite form even in its minutest particulars, and at the same
time they also endeavoured to secure it against every kind of
arbitrary alteration, and put on record the slightest difference
in reading which in the course of time had been introduced.
This work, which likewise embraces a full commentary on the
Old Testament rising out of the long labour of centuries, reached
its highest point in the production of the tradition (Massora),
which, in a pre-eminent degree, resulted from the labours of
the Jewish school at Tiberias between the sixth and eighth
century after Chiiat. All the extant manuscripts, as well as
all the printed editions, of the Old Testament represent this
Massoretic text, which had been raised by the Eabbinists into
a standard. That, besides this text, there was also another in
existence in the earliest times, which contained important
variations, is proved by the Alexandrian-Greek translation of
the LXX. The Alexandrian text, however, has not come down
to us in its original form ; and so, a judgment upon its
character can be reached only by comparing the translation
with the Massoretic text. It is not to be denied that, in
particular passages and books, it deserves to be preferred to the
Massoretic, but, in general, tradition leads to the conclusion
that the Massoretic text comes nearest to the original.
Of the New Testament, on the other hand, we possess a
great number of manuscripts, which date from very different
periods, are of very different kinds, and are in very different
states of preservation. The greater the age of these manu
scripts, the greater value have they for the critical construction
of the New Testament text. It is therefore the business of
criticism to determine the paleographical marks by which the
age of manuscripts may be proved, and to arrange them
accordingly in their historical order. Further, the manuscripts
are to be compared with one another, in order that those which

EXAMINATION OF MANUSCEIPTS. 45
have a common text may be grouped together.' Those manu
scripts, which have had their origin in the same region or the
same place, for the most part, yield also a similar text. There
may thus be distinguished separate family groups among the
biblical texts, a general division being made into Oriental
and Occidental, and the former, again, being divided into
Alexandrian, Asiatic (Minor Asia), and Constantinopolitan.
Besides the manuscripts, the quotations from Holy Scripture,
which occur in the writings of the Church Fathers, are of the
greatest importance for the critical restoration of th^ biblical
text. Frequently, in poiat of age, those quotations rank above
the manuscripts, and, when compared with these, lead the
critic to the original reading. The old translations of Holy
Scripture are of even greater importance, inasmuch as they
too in point of antiquity precede the manuscripts. Among
these translations are the Septuagint, the old Latin version,
commonly called the Itala, the version of Jerome, the Vulgate,
and the old Syriac, the so-called Peschito. When departures
are found in them from the reading of extant manuscripts, or
from the now received text, the so-called textus receptus, it
becomes possible for the critic, by means of these variations,
to guess at what may have been the reading of the original.
Upon the basis of these helps toward reaching the original,
the critic must proceed with his work. He must compare the
manuscripts with one another. Then, in regard to passages
that have been quoted by the Church Fathers, he must com
pare the quotations with the corresponding passages in the
manuscripts. The quotations of the same passages made by
different Church Fathers must be compared with one another.
And finally, the different translations must be compared, both
with the manuscripts and with the patristic quotations of
Scripture. By means of this comprehensive comparison, a
1 This is done with special care and elaborateness by Westcott and Hort (The
New Testament in the Original Greek. 2 vols. Cambridge 1881), vol. ii. p.
39 ff.— Ed.

46 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
great variety of readings, especially in the New Testament
text, have been brought to light. These different readings are
usually called variations, and it is one of the most important
parts of the work of the critic to make so complete a collec
tion of these, that the exegete will be able to take notice
of the diversity of reading in regard to any particular passage.
An ap'paratus criticus has, with great diligence, been prepared
for the Old Testament, and, with yet greater completeness, for
the New Testament. This labour has been performed, for the
Old Testament, by Kennicott and de Eossi ; for the New
Testament, by MiU, Bengel, Wetstein, Griesbach, D. Schultz,
Scholz, Lachmann, Tischendorf, [Alford, Tregelles, Scrivener,
Westcott and Hort]. Biblical criticism has in the most
recent times been extraordinarily advanced, especially by the
unwearied labours of Tischendorf. At the same time, the
very massiveness of the critical material collected by him has
brought the New Testament text into a condition of un
certainty and confusion, which can be overcome only by the
most unremitting critical labour.
The further task of the critic is, from among the various
readings that have been collected, to distinguish the erroneous
from the true, that is, to find out which are the original. For
the successful accomplishment of this work it is necessary
that the critic be acquainted with the origin of the variations.
They have originated, either unintentionally in a purely
mechanical way, in which case they are called corruptions of
the text, or they have been intentionally introduced, in which
case they are called interpolations of the text. In regard to
the former, there is room for a multitude of contingencies
and possibilities. The condition of the original manuscript,
from which the transcription was made, and the indivi
duality of the person, to whom it was dictated, or by
whom the writing was read, come into consideration. In
this way the indistinctness of the original manuscript, an
imperfect acquaintance with the language, defects of si"ht

VALUING THE VARIOUS EEADINGS. 47
or hearing, erroneous interpretations of abbreviations, the
incorporating of glosses into the text, etc., might give
occasion to a manifold corruption of the text. And indeed,
we may apply all this to the original manuscript itself,
inasmuch as even in it, errors, arising from misunderstanding
and from defects of hearing, may have found an entrance, for
the authors often did not write themselves, but dictated to
amanuenses. Interpolations of the text, on the other hand,
might be brought about by the introduction of supposed
corrections, which would be either of a grammatical or of a
lexical kind, where an easier reading is introduced in a
difficult passage ; or the text might be altered in the interests
of a doctrine, in order to gain a scriptural foundation for
some doctrinal opinion, and thus to secure for it a wider
currency. It is at this point the business of the critic to
estimate the various readings in view of all these possible
occasions of textual corruption, in order to find out those
which have had their origin in corruption or interpolation,
and, in accordance with the value which the documentary
means of proof, the manuscripts, the quotations, and the trans
lations have for him, to arrive at the original reading.
Nevertheless these merely external means are not sufficient.
In order to reach the original reading, the critic must, at the
same time, inquire about the general connection in which
the passage under critical investigation stands, and must
take into consideration the characteristics of the writer in
respect of language and style, as weU as in respect of his
general point of view and doctrinal system. The internal
grounds thus resulting from the writing itself, upon which
a particular reading may be recommended, may possibly
prevail against all other external grounds, and a reading
that has less support from external grounds may come to
be regarded as the original reading.
For the whole course of this so-called combinatory pro
cedure of the critic, theory has laid down certain rules.

48 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
These, however, have never come to be regarded as fixed laws,
but simply as rules, to which there are exceptions. Thus,
for example, — Those among the various readings are to be
chosen from which most easily the origin of the others may
be explained, since it has evidently in itself the appearance of
originality. And again, — From among the various readings
those which are most difficult are to be chosen, because
generally the difficulty of a reading would lead to the intro
duction of variations. But if, from the whole of the critical
apparatus which we have at our command, it is impossible to
gain one reading of the text which recommends itself as the
original, and in which both sense and the connection of the
passage are fitly represented ; then, but only then, the
so-called divinatory procedure of the critic may be called
into requisition, that is, the critic has to take refuge in a
conjecture, and to guess what reading may probably have
been the original. In every case, exact and thorough in
vestigation of the critical apparatus, and careful inquiry into
the sense and connection of a passage, ought to precede a
conjecture ; and at the same time, a perfect understanding of
the language in which the author wrote, and a perfect
acquaintance with the peculiarities of the author in respect of
style, mode of representation, and general point of view. The
personal and characteristic talents of the critic are not in this
way excluded, only they must subordinate themselves to the
conditions prescribed by the theory.
The second operation of criticism directs its attention to
the authenticity of the writing. A literary work is claimed
either by its own statement or by tradition, as the -work of a
particular author, or it is without the signature of the author,
anonymous, and is only described as belonging to a particular
age. In the former case, the question is asked, whether it
actually belongs to the author to whom it has been ascribed,
or whether it is not rather pseudonymous, only assuming the
author's name, and to be regarded, therefore, as a false writino'

EXTEENAL AND INTEENAL EVIDENCES. 49
forged, and unauthentic (Spurius, voOoi). In the second case,
the question is asked, whether the writing belongs to the age
to which it has been ascribed, or whether it has been trans
ferred from a later to an earlier age, or from an earUer to a
later. In both cases possibly the criticism may first of aU be
negative, that is, it simply decides that a writing does not
belong to the author and to the age to which it had been
ascribed. But it does not require to remain at this merely
negative position ; it must at the same time be ever striving
to reach a positive conclusion. It is not enough that it be
proved regarding a writing that it is pseudonymous, but the
critic has the further task of ascertaining who the actual
author was, if he whose name is given was not really the
author. In the same way, it is not enough, in regard to an
anonymous writing, to show that it does not belong to the
age to which it assigns itself, but over and above this, the
age in which it actuaUy had its origin must be determined,
and, where that is possible, it should be rescued from its
anonymity, and have the name of its author ascertained.
The procedure of the critic in this department also is an
extremely difficult one, and in certain circumstances may be a
very complicated one. The negative criticism, and also the
positive criticism as well, must be guided to their conclusions
by external and internal evidence. The external grounds of
proof for or against the authenticity are obtained by criticism
from the extant historical witnesses regarding the writing.
These witnesses, again, have to be examined by the critic in
regard to their trustworthiness. They may not agree together ;
some may be in favour of, and others against, the authenticity.
It becomes necessary, therefore, to weigh the value of their
testimony, the one against the other. Besides these external
^rounds of proof, however, the internal evidences must be
taken into consideration, that is, the proofs which are derived
from the writing itself which is the subject of critical investi
gation. In that very writing there may lie certain indications
VOL. IL °

50 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
which declare against the pretended author, and cause the
writing to be suspected as a forgery. There may be also
other writings of the pretended author extant. The writing
that is being critically dealt with, therefore, must be com
pared with the other writings of the same author in respect
of language and style, in regard to its general point of view
and its whole circle of thought. The internal evidences thus
won are to be used in combination with the external ; they
are to be compared the one with the other ; and it is then to
be inquired, whether by means of this combinatory procedure
a definite result can be reached in regard to the authenticity
of the writing. Sometimes in this way only a negative
result can be reached, and then, by means of a divinatory
procedure, we must have recourse to hypothesis, and from the
exact knowledge of the writing, as well as of the literature
to which it belongs, and of the general historical relations
under which it was developed, we must determine, either the
author who wrote it, or the age in which it was written. To
a hypothesis no more than a probability can be ascribed,; but
the higher or lower degree of probability, which it attains
unto, determines the value of the hypothesis.
In recent times this critical process has been applied to
determine the authenticity of the biblical writings, especially
of the Pentateuch, the Prophets, the Psalms, the Gospels, the
Pauline Epistles, and the Apocalypse. In the Old Testament
department special service has been rendered by the critical
investigations of de Wette, Ewald, Hitzig, Bleek, Hupfeld,
Knobel ; in the New Testament department, by the labours
of Schleiermacher, Credner, Baur, Eeuss, Hilgenfeld.
For the study of biblical criticism, the works on biblical
hermeneutics already referred to in § 24 ihay be used, as
they for the most part treat also of criticism. Of special
importance are the Prolegomena to the critical editions of the
New Testament by Griesbach, Lachmann, and Tischendorf,

LITEEATUEE OF BIBLICAL CEITICISM. 51
ed. vii. and vui., [Alford, Tregelles, and Westcott and Hort].
Compare also, Einleitung in das alte Testament von de Wette,
§ 102 ff. [English translation by Theodore Parker, 2 vols.
Boston 1843.] Einleitung in das alte Testament von Bleek,
p. 717 ff. [English translation: Introd. to Old Testament.
2 vols. London 1875. Vol. ii. pp. 358-475.] Einleitung
in das neue Testament von de Wette, § 27 ff. [EngUsh
translation by Frothingham. Boston 1858.] Einleitung in
das N. T. von Bleek, p. 679 ff. [English translation:
Introduction to New Testament. 2 vols. Edin. 1869,
1870.] Geschichte der heiligen Schriften neuen Testaments
von Eeuss. Braunschweig 1874, § 351 ff. [English trans
lation, pp. 367-525.] Historisch-kritische Einleitung in
das neue Testament von Hilgenfeld. Leipzig 1875, § 164 ff.
[The most convenient and comprehensive handbook on the
textual criticism of the New Testament is Scrivener's Intro
duction to the Criticism of the New Testament, for the use
of Biblical Students. Cambridge. 1st ed. 1861, 2nd ed.
1874, 3rd ed. 1883. An admirable popular sketch of the
whole field of biblical criticism is given in Briggs' Biblical
Study (Edin. 1884). chap. vi. The Text of the Bible
(pp. 139-163). chap. vU. The Higher Criticism (pp.
164-213).]

52 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

§ 27. JEWISH ARCHEOLOGY OR ANTIQUITIES.
Every writer is, as such, placed under the influence of the
customs of that nation to which he belongs by birth, and of
that society amid which he has been reared, has had his
education and general intellectual development. His writings
may, indeed, be ever so general, in respect of their contents,
still they are never altogether dissociated from the natural and
national field upon which they have had their origin, but
more or less, the natural, social and civil relationship, in the
midst of which the author lived, are reflected in them.
Hermeneutics must therefore demand that the bibUcal exegete
should also take these relations into careful consideration, if
he wishes, in the right way, to estimate and understand his
literature as a whole, and in its several parts, in respect of its
form and contents. ' The science of Jewish antiquities is that
branch of exegetical theology which enables the exegete to
make response to that hermeneutical demand. The source
from which it has to be drawn, is chiefly the Holy Scripture
itself. In Scripture, however, its materials are always to be
met with only in union with other things, and it is pre
eminently the task of this science to gather the scattered
materials, and arrange them in systematic order. It ought
not, therefore,, to consist in a mere dry collection of archaeo
logical notices, but an endeavour must be made to give
shape to its material drawn not only from written documents
but also from actual life. Just for the reason that it presents
the material in a connected form, and lays out to view before
the exegete a clear picture of the life and manners of the
Hebrew people, it will serve him as an auxUiary to Scripture
exposition. The science of antiquities must be conceived of
in a strictly scientific manner, as the history of the culture of

DIVISION QF JEWISH AECHEOLOGY. 53
tiie Hebrew nation. For this, however, the extant sources
would scarcely be sufficient. It wiU be obliged to satisfy itself
with proceeding statistically, and describing the established,
and even crystaUised, conditions under which the Hebrew
people lived. In doing so it should not be overlooked, that
both the origin of the race, so far as it can be ascertained, and
the changes through which, in the course of history, it has
passed, and the foreign influences by which it has been
affected, should be taken into consideration and made pro
minent. In a special way, archaeology undertakes to turn to
account for its own purposes the geographical and ethno
graphical results of general Semitic philology, and in the
interests of later, especiaUy New Testament, times, to call in
the aids of the science of Greek and Eoman antiquities.
The following threefold division of archaeology wUl afford
the most practical distribution of its copious and varied
materials. 1. It represents the Hebrew race in respect of its
natural surroundings — (1) In reference to its dependence on
nature by reason of the description of the land in which
the people dwells, and the products of the land, — biblical
geography,' and bibUcal natural history ; ^ (2) In reference
1 C. F. Kloden, Landeskunde von Palastina. Berlin 1817. J. F. Rohr,
Historisch-geographische Besohreibung des jiidisohen Landes. Zeits 1816. 8
^ Auflage 1845. [English translation : Eohr's Historico-Geographical Account of
Palestine. Edin. ; T. & T. Clark.] Karl von Raumer, Palastina. Leipzig
1835. 4 Aufl. 1860. Ed. Eobinson, Palastina und die siidlich angrenzenden
Lander. A. d. Engl. 3 Bde. Halle 1841, 1842. Derselbe, neuere biblische
suchungen iu Palastina und den angrenzenden Landern. Berlin 1857. [The
English originals : Robinson's Biblical Researches in Palestine, Mount Sinai,
and Arabia Petrsea : a Journal of Travels in 1838. London 1841. 3 vols. By
the same writer : Later Researches in Palestine and the adjacent Regions : a
Journal of Travels in 1852. London 1856. Rosenmiiller, Biblical Geography
of Central Asia. 2 vols. Edin. 1836, 1837. By the same author : Biblical
Geography of Asia Minor, Phoenicia, and Arabia. Edin. 1841. Carl Ritter,
Comparative Geography of Palestine and the Sinaitic Peninsula. 4 vols.
Edin. 1866. Stanley, Sinai and Palestine in connection with their History.
Various editions : 1st in 1856 ; last in 1881. Conder, Tent Work in Palestine ;
published by Palestine Exploration Fund Committee. London 1878. Tristram,
Topography ofthe Holy Land. London 1876.]
" Scheuchzer, Physica sacra oder heilige Naturwissenschaft der in der heiligen
Schrift vorkommenden Sachen. Augsburg 1731-1735. 5 Bde. foi. Trij-

54 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
to its dominion over nature in respect of its relations to
the land (agriculture, cattie-rearing, hunting, fishing), and in
respect of the products of the land by means of the use made
of it for the benefit of human needs (dwellings, clothing,
ornaments,' food, implements, trades, shipbuUding, navigation,
commerce). 2. It also considers the people in their relation
to the state — (1) In the religious relations to divine service
in offerings, vows, and fasts, holy places, persons, and times,
as well as lapses into idolatry ; * (2) In their political rela
tions to the constitution and law of the state ; ^ (3) In their
private relationships of rhaterial, personal, and criminal law,
judicial procedure or police ; * (4) In reference to their inter
national relations in war and peace. 3. It further considers
the people as a society — (l)In reference to its family life with
its customs ; (2) In reference to its social life with its customs,
sociability, hospitality, slavery; and (3) Popular education,
science and art.
Archaeology has to fiU up the details of the plan here
sketched, and to give a description of the ancient manner of
life of the Hebrew people, in respect of its development upon
every side, in order that the exegete may be able to appreciate
tram, The Land of Israel : a Journal of Travels in Palestine undertaken
with special reference to its Physical Character. London 1865. S. Bochart,
Hierozoicon. London 1663-1690. Olaf Celsius, Hierobotanicon sive de plantis
scripturse sacrse. Upsal. 1750. [Duns, Biblical Natural Science. 2 vols.
London 1864. Tristram, Natural History of the Bible. London 1867.]
' A. Th. Hartmann, Die Hebraerinam PutztischeundalsBraut. Amsterdam
1809, 1810. 3 Bde.
^ G. L. Bauer, Besohreibung der gottesdienstlichen Verfassung der alten
Hebriier. Leipzig 1805, 1806. i2 Bde. [English translation : Theology of the
Old Testament, or a Biblical Sketch of the Religious Opinions of the Ancient
Hebrews. London 1838.] K. Ch. W. F. Bahr, Symbolik des mosaischen
Cultus. Heidelberg 1837-1839. 2 Bde. 2 Auflage, 1874. J. F. L. George, Die
altern jiidischen Feste, mit einer Kritik der Gesetzgebung des Pentateuch.
Berlin 1835.
3 K. D. Hullmann, Staatsverfassung der Israeliten. Leipzig 1834.
* J. D. Michaelis, Griindliche Erklarung des mosaischen Rechts. Frankfurt
1770-1776. 6 Bde. [English translation : Commentaries on the Laws of Moses.
4 vols. London 1814.] J. L. Saalschiitz, Das mosaisohe Recht. 2 Bde.
Beriin 1846-1848. 2 Auflage, 1853.

JEWISH NATIONAL CHAEACTEEISTICS. 55
and estimate the biblical literature generally, and each parti
cular writing belonging to it, in connection with the national
life out of which it arose. The value which archaeology has
for the exegete Ues primarily in the evidence to be obtained
from it of the intimate connection of the life of the people as
a whole with the national reUgion. The country which the
people inhabited, was the narrow strip of land along the
Mediterranean Sea, bounded on the north by Lebanon, on the
east by the Jordan, on the south by the Arabian desert.
From this centre the little Semitic race, the Hebrews, had to
carry out their historical mission, and raise themselves to a
position of world-wide significance. The more insignificant
the external and human means, which were at the disposal of
the nation, the greater, and more deeply effective, must the reli
gious power have been by which it was dominated and directed.
The nation regarded its whole state and its whole being from
a high divine point of view ; all national affairs and social
relationships were determined by religious notions and
interests. The people had been chosen out from among all
other peoples by God, and distinguished as His own people.
The country in which they dwelt was given them by God as
a possession, as a holy land. AU its products are a gift of
God to His people, for which they are under obligation to
render unceasing thanks. The civil enactments and regula
tions rest on divine appointment. The families with their
possessions exist unalterably according to divine right. The
laws under which the people in their everyday life are
bound, are the direct expression of the divine will, and have
not only civil, but divine, sanction. The worship, with its
feasts, is ordained of God, as a centre of unity for all the
members and individuals of the nation. The priests are the
regular intercessors for the people before God ; the kings are
the earthly representatives of the heavenly King ; the poets,
prophets, and wise men of the people are the conductors of
the hio-hest form of popular education in the fear and in the

56 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
spirit of God. AU these lead the congregation of the chosen
on to its ideal destiny, and foreteU the divine blessings which
are to be given it in the future.
By means of these results, which are arrived at by archae
ology, the proper national illustration for the biblical Uterature
is put within reach of the exegete ; and, at the same time,
light is shed upon the reUgion of the Bible itself, the know
ledge of which, in its historical peculiarity, is the highest task
of the exegete.
The following are the principal archaeological works : —
J. J. BeUermann, Handbuch der bibUschen Literatur, [com
prising Biblical Archaeology, Chronology, Genealogy, History,
Natural Philosophy, Natural History, Mythology and History
of Idolatries, Antiquities, History of Art, and Sketches of the
Scriptural Writers]. Erfurt 1787-1799. 4 Bde. J. Jahn,
Biblische Archseologie. Wien 1796-1805. 2 Auflage. Bd.
1, 2, 1818-1825. [English translation: Jahn's BibUcal
Antiquities. Various editions.] G. L. Bauer, Kurzes Lehrbuch
der hebraischen Alterthiimer des Alten und Neuen Testa
ments. Leipzig 1797. W. M. L. de Wette, Lehrbuch der
hebraisch-jiidischen Archseologie nebst einem Grundrisse der
hebraisch-jtidischen Geschichte. Leipzig 1814. 4 Auflage,
bearbeitet von J. F. Eabiger, 1864. E. F. K. EosenmilUer,
Handbuch der biblischen Alterthumskunde. Leipzig 1823-
1831. 4 Bde. G. B. Winer, Biblisches Eealworterbuch.
Leipzig 1820. 3 Aufl. 1847-1848. 2 Bde. Heinrich
Ewald, Die Alterthumer des Volkes Israel". Gottingen 1884.
3 Aufl. 1866. Anhang zum 2 und 3 Bd. der Geschichte des
Volkes Israel. [English translation : Antiquities of Israel
by Heinrich Ewald : from the 3rd German edition. London
1876.] J. L. Saalschiitz, Archseologie der Hebraer. Th. 1, 2.
Konigsberg 1855, 1866. K. F. KeU, Handbuch der
biblischen Archseologie. 1, 2 Halfte. Frankfurt am Main
1858, 1859. 2 Ausgabe 1875. Bibellexikon. Heraus-

LITEEATUEE OF JEWISH AECHEOLOGY. 57
gegeben von D. Schenkel. 4 Bde. Leipzig 1869-1872.
Handworterbuch des biblischen Alterthums. Herausgegeben
von E. C. A. Eiehm. Bielefeld und Leipzig 1875 ff. [Dr.
Wm. Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. 3 vols. London 1860-
1863. Christian Antiquities, edited by W. Smith and S.
Cheetham. 2 vols. London 1879, 1880. Christian Bio
graphy, Literature, Sects, and Doctrines, from Time of Apostles
to the Age of Charlemagne, edited by W. Smith and H. Wace.
3 vols. London 1877-1882. Work not yet completed.
Imperial Bible Dictionary, ed. by Dr. Patrick Fairbairn.
2 vols. London 1866. Kitto, Biblical Cyclopaedia, edited by
Dr. W. Lindsay Alexander. 3 vols. Edin. 1862.]

58 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

28. THE JEWISH HISTORY.
The Jewish history, like the Jewish archaeology, answers
to a claim made by hermeneutics. Each different national
literature has not only some general national characteristic,
but, it bears, at the same time, the impress of the age to
which it belongs. As the history of a people cannot be
understood apart from its literature, so also the literature of a
people cannot be understood, apart from its history. And just
because the Jewish history describes the different periods of
the Jewish national life, it enables the exegete to comprehend
the biblical literature in its dependence upon the national
development generally, and the several writings according to
the general character of the periods to which they belong.
And further, inasmuch as it has to consider the Jewish history,
not only in its isolation, but also in light of the relations in
which from time to time it stood to other nations, it leads the
exegete at the same time to take into consideration, what must
always be insisted upon by hermeneutics, the foreign in
fluences which have wrought in the construction of the biblical
Uterature. The Jewish history, however, is of importance, not
only for the exegetical treatment of Holy Scripture, but also
for the realizing of the general purpose of exegetical theology.
Inasmuch as it depicts the operation of the conditions of the
age upon the development of religion, and especially, so far as
it is possible, makes Christianity to be recognised as the
historical product of the national course of development, it
obtains for itself, just as archaeology does, the general
significance of contributing generally to a right appreciation
and estimate of biblical religion. Its sources are, partly non-
Jewish, partly Jewish. Among the former njay be mentioned,
the writings of Greek authors, — Herodotus, Ctesias, Polybius,

SOUECES OF JEWISH HISTOEY. 59
Diodorus Siculus, Strabo, Plutarch, Arrian, Appian, and the
writings of Eoman authors, — Livy, Tacitus, Justin, and those
of the Egyptian writer, Manetho (about 280 before Christ).
But the principal sources are Jewish, and among these
especially the biblical historical books, besides which the
prophetical, poetical, and didactic writings must also be used,
in order graphically to describe the character of an age. For
the post-exilian and Eoman period, the writings of Flavins
Josephus, the son of a Jewish priest, born about the year 37
after Christ, are most profitable. Highly accomplished in all
departments of Jewish and Greek learning, Josephus joined
the party of the Pharisees, took an active share in the fortunes
of his nation, and fought as general in Galilee in the Jewish
war against the Eomans in the year 6 7 after Christ. After
he had saved his life at the cost of his Pharisaical orthodoxy,
and had won the highest favour at court, he died at Eome
during the reign of the Emperor Trajan. We have from him
a writing in seven books, entitled, Ilepl rod 'lovBa'iKov iroXifiov,
a History of the Jewish War, in which he himself had
personally taken part. We have also, by the same author,
a 'lovBalKf] dp'^awXojla, Antiquitates Judaiece, in twenty
books, the History of the Jews from the Creation of the
World down to the year 66 after Christ; and another
treatise, Hepl dpxatoTrjTo^ 'lovBaloav Kara 'Air'mvo'i, and an
Autobiography.-' The difficulties with which the exposition of the Jewish
history has to contend, lie for the most part in the peculiar
condition of its principal sources, the biblical historical books.
These difficulties can be overcome only when, just in this very
department, the laws which have their application in aU other
1 The best editions of Josephus' works are those of S. Havercamp, Amsterdam
1726, 2 voll. foi. ; of Fr. Oberthur, Lipsia 1782-1785, 3 voll. 8vo ; of Wm.
Dindorf, Paris 1845-1847, 2 voll. 8vo ; and of J. Bekker, Lipsia 1855, 1856,
6 voll. 8vo. [English translation of all the Works of Josephus by Wm. Whiston,
Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge, published in London 1737 : often
reprinted. ]

60 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
departments of historical investigation, are obeyed with the
greatest strictness. Here, too, philological and historical criti
cism stand in the most intimate connection with one another.
After the exegete, by means of literary historical criticism,
has made himself familiar with the age and authorship
of the biblical historical books, he must subject their contents
to historical criticism, in order to ascertain from them what is
historically true. Above all, therefore, he has to take into
consideration the character of the Hebrew style of writing
history, in which his sources have come down to him. The
biblical writers of history have written the history not after
the model of objective historical investigation, but under the
influence of subjective interests, so that they considered and
represented the historical reality in accordance with religious
theories and motives. It is, therefore, pre-eminently the duty
of the exegete as historian to bring himself thoroughly into
sympathy with those ways of thinking, and to distinguish
the historical fact from the religious elements with which
it is mixed up, or to dismiss, as altogether worthless for
historical representation, the narratives, which give them
selves out for history, but are rather ideas dressed up in
the form of history. This critical operation was long
rendered difficult to the exegete, because doctrinal interests
were mixed up with the historical inquiry. Theological
supernaturalism refused altogether to have anything to do
with that critical sifting. Upon the ground of its doctrine
of inspiration, it accepted every narrative in the Bible as
actual history, and so came into contradiction with all the
laws of historical writings elsewhere applicable. This con
flict can be avoided only where dogma and history are
strictly kept separate from one another. After long struggles
the historical principle has been established in theology,
that dogmatic presuppositions must be set aside even in
biblical historical researches, and in respect, of the sources
which are at the command of theology, as well as in

PEEIODS OF JEWISH EELIGIOUS HISTOEY. 61
respect of those of profane history, legends and myths, and
besides these, free poetic treatment, must be admitted. The
theological conflict has itself led to a more exact determina
tion of this idea.^ Generally by legends are understood
history altered by the infusion of ideas, by myth is under
stood the setting forth of ideas by means of history. From
both of these we have to distinguish that free poetic treat
ment which, besides the unpremeditated figure which prevails
in the legend and myth, with a definite tendency makes
history a contributor to its ideal purposes. The religious
spirit which prevailed among the people of God, treated
history with the greatest freedom, and the exegete, who
employs the biblical historical works for historical purposes, is
obliged to be careful, lest he should take poetry for history,
and mere poetic forms of expression for plain matters of fact.
The less the value which such poetic compositions and stories
of a legendary and mythical character have for the political
history, the more valuable will they be for the history of the
religion of the people.
The Hebrew nation occupies the most important position
among the Semitic races to which it belongs, and even
generally among the cultured peoples of antiquity. The
relation of the simple outward apparatus and the insignificant
national means to the world-wide mission in history which
this nation accomplished, is an actual evidence that, by
means of the history of Israel, not only a human, but a
divine work was realized. It runs out into three great
periods. The first embraces the earliest times down to that
of the kings. The second embraces the period of the kings
down to the end of the exile. The third embraces the post-
exiUan period down to the beginning of Christianity and the
1 George, Mythus und Sage, Versuch einer wissenschaftlichen Entwickelung
dieser Begriffe und ihres Verhaltnisses zum christliohen Glauben. Berlin 1837.
O Bagge, Das Princip des Mythus im Dienst der christliohen Position.
licipzig 1865.

62 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
complete collapse of Judaism under the Eoman Empire in
the second century after Christ.''
The primitive history of the Hebrews is, like that of all
ancient races, surrounded by legends and myths. Myths of
foreign origin were adopted by the Hebrews and remodelled
in accordance with the spirit of Hebraism, so that, under
their national Hebrew dress, they have to be reckoned, not
so much myths, as rather theologoumena,, the contents of which
have to be taken into account in the history of religion.
The old Hebrew legend, with its relics of historical reminis
cences, goes back to the immigration of the Hebrews into
Canaan under Abraham. Terah, the father of Abraham,
went out from Ur of the Chaldees in Babylon ^ toward
Haran in the north-west of Mesopotamia, and from thence,
out of the Semitic land of Aram, Abraham went with his
family into the land of Canaan, which was also Semitic.
The inhabitants whom they met with here, were not the
original inhabitants of the land, but were also incomers of
a Semitic race.* According to our mode of reckoning, the
immigration of the Hebrews is to be put down somewhere
about the year 2200 before Christ. From it, without doubt,
1 The distinction which Lange, in his Encyclopsedie, p. Ill, endeavours to
make between biblical history and the history of the people of Israel, has no
exegetical foundation. What Lange assigns to biblical history belongs exegeti-
cally to biblical theology, and the separate treatment of biblical history can
only be recommended on the grounds of practical convenience. [Lange's words
are these : " The History of the people of Israel treats of the nation as a
whole in its historical development, considers it in the mass, according to the
predominance of the multitude in it over the elect spirits, the prophets, and
therefore, also, leads on to the tragical catastrophe which had its climax in the
destruction of Jerusalem. Biblical history, again, cannot indeed altogether
overlook this aspect of the Jewish national life ; its attention, however, is
specially fixed, not on the history of the Jews, but on the history of the Israel,
the champions for God, the long line of the heroes of faith, who have been the
organs of God's grace for the revelation and accomplishment of salvation in the
world." As an example of the treatment of biblical history, as thus conceived,
Lange refers to the eleventh chapter of the Epistle to the Hebrews.]
* Compare E. Schrader, Die Abstammung der Chaldaer und die Ursitze der
Semiten. Zeitschrift der D. M. G. Bd. 27, p. 422.
' Compare Ewald, Ge.'ichichte des Volkes Israel. Bd. 1. 2 Ausg. p. 301 ff.
[English translation, vol. i. pp. 232-255.] Compare also Schrader, I.e.

ISEAEL IN EGYPT. 63
the ethnographical name " Hebrews " is to be derived, and
it means " those who have crossed over from the other
side of the Euphrates" (Gen. xiv. 13, according to the
Septuagint). The patronymic national name " Israel " is
derived from the patriarch Jacob or Israel (Gen. xxxii. 28,
29, XXXV. 10; Ex. iii. 16, 18). The Abrahamic family,
with its chiefs Isaac and Jacob, lived for 200 or 215
years as a nomadic shepherd tribe in Palestine. Tradition
is able to tell more about its outward fortunes than about
its spiritual and intellectual development. This much,
however, can with confidence be accepted, that the children
of Abraham had withdrawn themselves from the worship
of the heavenly bodies practised by the Northern Semitic
races, and had risen to the worship of the one God, who,
as the Almighty, governed the affairs of men. The history
of the immediately following period also testifies to the
monotheistic conception of God entertained by the patriarchs.
But that the patriarchal family had been able, during the
period of their nomadic Ufe, to attain unto any degree of
literary culture, has no probability in its favour.
Driven by a famine which prevailed in Palestine, Jacob
betook himself with his family to Egypt, and by means of his
son Joseph, who had previously been carried down into that
land, and had already risen to the highest rank in the king
dom, he was prevailed upon to remain there. The Israelites
had their residence in the land of Goshen, and continued to
follow their occupation as shepherds. Eegarding the long
period of their Egyptian sojourn, 430 years, tradition has
preserved no record. We learn only that the Israelites
during this time had increased in an extraordinary manner,
that they consequently appeared to the natives to be dangerous,
that later Egyptian kings, who were no longer aware of the
eminent services of Joseph, or were indifferent in regard to
these, oppressed the Israelites, and compeUed them to yield
hard service, untU Moses was raised up to deliver his country-

64 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
men from slavery by leading them out. Thus tradition has
something to tell only about the passing down into Egypt,
and about the end of the sojourn there, but, in regard to the
fortunes of the people in Egypt during the interval, it leaves
us altogether in the dark. In the history of the period
immediately following, no trace is to be found of the Israelites
having appropriated to themselves from the Egyptians any
special higher culture, during their long residence in Egypt,
as in similar cases has so frequently happened. It is, indeed,
more than probable that in Egypt they learned the art of
writing, the indispensable condition of all literary activity;
but, owing to the social condition of the people, it is highly
improbable that they should have developed any sort of
literary activity whUe in Egypt, all the ^more that even
tradition says nothing about any literary attempts. In the
history of the immediately following period, we have just
as little trace of the Israelites haying adopted any of the
elements of the Egyptian religion. According to tradition,
they appear at the time of their departure from Egypt as
a whole knit together by the consciousness of their family
relationship. This view is further donfirmed by the fact
that already, at the time of their entrance into Egypt, they
possessed a characteristic religious consciousness, that they
also preserved this during their residence in Egypt, and
that, in consequence of this, they were kept from mixing
with the natives, as well as from the adoption of foreign
forms of worship. Moses makes his appearance among his
people, not as the founder of a religion, but as a reformer.
He did not first raise them to the stage of monotheism.
He has rather simply won to himself credit for brino'inw
into the consciousness of the delivered jpeople, during their
wilderness journey toward their new home, the one God,
as the God Jehovah, in whom alone its freedom, its might,
its happiness, rests, for setting up the will of God among
the people as the law of their life, and binding the people

ISRAEL UNDER JOSHUA AND THE JUDGES. 65
under an oath to render obedience to the divine law, as
the condition of their national independence under the
guardianship of Jehovah. Inasmuch as Moses implanted in
the Israelites the consciousness of this covenant relationship
between God and his people, he was essentially the founder
of the Israelitish nationaUty. By means of his activity as a
lawgiver and prophet, he became the originator of a religious-
ethical, theocratic commonwealth, which had to develop itself
in a long historical career within the Umits of a definite
nationality, and set in view of his nation the majesty of a
theocratic idealism, which would be transcended only when
the form of the law, under which this ideaUsm first entered
into history, was destroyed. The beginnings of the Hebrew
sacred Uterature are also to be referred to Moses. The unique
national consciousness, to which he raised the people, is itself
another indispensable prerequisite to any literary activity, and
the legislative wisdom which begins in Israel with Moses, and
continued after him for centuries, must from the beginning
have taken care to fix those laws given by him by means of
writing, and to deprive tradition of its influence in recasting
these precepts.
With the conquest of Canaan by Joshua we enter upon
the heroic age of the Hebrew race, — the period of the Judges,
which embraces somewhere about five hundred years. After
a settled dwelling-place had been secured, the race abandoned
its earlier nomadic habits and applied itself to agriculture, and
thus were laid the natural foundations of a truly national
life. So far as we can learn the condition of the people
durinty this period from the Book of Joshua and the Book of
Judges, the nation was still without a constitution. The
Hebrews make their appearance among the Canaanites and
their neighbours, not yet as a people united and outwardly
bound together into one whole, but the twelve tribes maintain
a certain republican independence over against one another,
sometimes ruled over by separate Judges, sometimes wholly
VOL. n. E

66 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
giving way to anarchy, sometimes combining together in their
attacks upon the Canaanites and the neighbouring tribes,
sometimes engaged in internecine feuds. The ideal theocratic
consciousness called into being by Moses is evidently not
even yet the might which dominates the whole people.
There seems rather an inclination to turn away from the
ideal religion of Jehovah and to embrace the nature -wor
ship of the Canaanites. It is only by means of a long
conflict that the religion of Jehovah succeeds in gaining
the victory over the powers of the nature religions. Never
theless, what Moses had done could not be lost. A pro
phetic activity, which, by its own free choice, placed itself
at the service of Jehovah, continued, up to the period of
the Judges, the work of Moses. Then, also, there were
among the Judges .themselves men who, after Joshua's death
and up to the time of Samuel, exercised just such a theocratic
activity among the people, inasmuch as, in the name of
Jehovah, they led the people against their enemies, in the
name of Jehovah, they settled internal disputes among the
people themselves, and, in the name of Jehovah, they fought
against the idolatrous tendencies of the people. The Judges
of this period represent the later kings. But it was pre
eminently the last of the Judges, Samuel, whose work among
the people attained to an enduring influence. Devoted to the
service of the sanctuary and to the prophets, he fought the
Philistines as Judge at the head of the people, he rooted out
idolatry, and at Bethel and Gilgal, at Mizpah and Shiloh, in
accordance with the ancient forms of worship, he held general
assemblies of the people, and met them every year to give
judgment. By means of all this he, in a special manner,
awakened among the people the consciousness of national and
reUgious unity. In this way he succeeded in giving at last
to the life of the people a strong condition by the institution
of the kingly office, and to the work begun by Moses a firm
historical basis. By means of the kingly office as represent-

ISEAEL UNDER SAMUEL AND THE FIRST KINGS. 67
ing Jehovah, the people's invisible King, the twelve tribes
were also outwardly bound together into one national whole,
while they retained their separate tribal constitution and their
tribal chiefs.
In the disturbed age of the Judges, during this period of
struggling and striving after national independence, the spirit
of the people was roused to higher activity. Even then a
popular poetry arose which in its songs celebrated the
praise of Jehovah, the praise of heroes and saints, and
probably, even at this early date, narratives of the most
important historical events were committed to writing,
which could be used by later historians. A special service
was rendered to the intellectual culture of the people and
the consequent development of a national literature by
Samuel, through the agency of the schools of the prophets,
whether we regard him as their founder or simply as their
reformer. The schools of the prophets were free societies
for the appropriation of the higher popular culture of the
day in the theocratic sense of the word. Music, song, and
the art of poetry were prosecuted in them, but specially they
were intended for the development of the theocratic spirit.
Without doubt they did contribute to securing for the pro
phetic office that recognised place and function which it
maintained during later periods in the kingdom of God, and
to the general development of a prophetic literature.
The second period extends from the time of the kings to
the end of the exile, that is, from about 1095 B.c. tUl 536 b.c.
With the institution of the kingly office the theocratic
state was established. Under its first three kings, Saul,
David, Solomon, each of whom reigned for forty years, from
1095 till 975, the nation, by means of the wars and victories
of Saul, and especially of David, was raised to a height of
power and renown, which was indelibly impressed upon the
memory of the people, so that in following generations the
age of David was regarded as the ideal for the future of the

68 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
theocratic state, and the Davidic kingdom was looked on as
a guarantee of the nation's unity. During the peaceful
reign of Solomon the arts and sciences of peace flourished.
The connections which he formed with foreign nations gave
to his people greater breadth of view, and he rendered the
highest service to the consolidation of the theocratic life by
the building of the temple. In the royal palace, and in the
central sanctuary at Jerusalem, the state had now secured a
firm basis. The kingly office and the priestly office were
called to work for the maintenance and development of the
reUgion of Jehovah. As the former, by means of its outer
and inner power, had to give effect to the divine law, so it
was the task of the priesthood, by means of the forms of
worship that had been then established, to see to it that the
people as a community were kept in strict connection with
Jehovah, and that they continued obedient to His law. That
theocratic glory, however, was only of short duration. In
consequence of the errors into which Solomon, fell toward
the close of his reign, the division of the divine state into
two kingdoms took place, — into the kingdom of Judah, the
kingdom of the south, under Eehoboam, and the kingdom of
Israel, the kingdom of the ten tribes, the kingdom of the
north, under Jeroboam. In the latter, which abandoned the
central sanctuary of Jerusalem as well as the divinely-ordained
royal house, the theocratic instinct more and more faded
away, and high and low gave themselves up to foreign
idolatrous practices. The two kingdoms, thus separated, and
not unfrequently engaged in war with one another, were
powerless against foreign foes, and were exposed to the
superior might of the great neighbouring kingdoms of Egypt
and Assyria. An end was made of the kingdom of Israel
by the Assyrian power as soon as the year 722 b.o. ; and also
the kingdom of Judah, in which the theocratic consciousness
had retained greater purity and energy, could not withstand the
Chaldsean power ; it was overthrown by the Chaldsean king

THE EXILIAN PEEIOD. 69
Nebuchadnezzar, who conquered Jerusalem in the year 588
B.C., destroyed the temple, and led away the greater part of
the people into exile. Amid the ruins of Jerusalem all the
hopes of the people of God seemed to be buried. However,
in the midst of the deepest humiliation, which they had to
experience in a foreign land, the faith of the people in their
destiny and in the restoration of a theocratic state gained
strength. In the Persian king Cyrus, who, in the year 536
B.C., granted the Jews permission to return to their own land,
those among the exiles who remained true to Jehovah saw
the deUverer, whom God had sent them, in order to fulfil
His promises to His people.
This period of the kings, this period of national exaltation,
of national division, and of national misfortune, is at the
same time the period in which the theocratic spirit rose to
be a real power among the people, whose representatives in
the freest manner built upon the foundation "laid by Moses,
and, alongside of the kings and priests, contributed most to
the spiritual elevation of the people. What was a living
reality in themselves, to that they gave most faithful expression
in numerous writings, and in their historical works, poetry,
prophecy, and proverbs of wisdom, they created a genuine
national Uterature.
The third period extends from the end of the exUe to the
beginnings of Christianity and the complete conquest of the
Jews by the Eomans in the year 135 a.d.
Faith in the promises of Jehovah, who led back those
who had been in exile into the holy land, was the ground
upon which those returning exUes began the work of
restoration. When the exUe was brought to an end, its
consequences were not ended. Political freedom was not
regained by those who returned home. Placed under the
Persian supremacy, they were not able to restore the inde
pendent national Ufe of the divine state, but only a theocratic
commonwealth, to which, immediately after the return,

70 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Zerubbabel and. Joshua, and, during the fifth century, Ezra
and Nehemiah, in a pre-eminent degree contributed. In the
exile, the new generation recognised the judgment threatened
often before by the prophets, which Jehovah sent upon His
people because of their sins. Taught by means of this great
national disaster, this race must have been led to apply
themselves with all the greater zeal to the law of Jehovah, and
to remove themselves far from anything that was at all opposed
to that law, in order to avoid the sins of their fathers, and so not
to fall anew under Jehovah's anger. In the most rigid observance
of the law, and in the newly-built temple, with its legalistic
worship of Jehovah, the community now found its one and
only source of strength, and in the priests, instead of the inde
pendent kings, they had their highest leaders. This com
munity was subject to a foreign yoke for three hundred years,
having been, after the overthrow of the Persian Empire,
successively under the dominion of the Grseco - Egyptian
Ptolemies, and of the Graeco - Syrian Seleucidse. It was,
nevertheless, able, upon the foundation of legal worship and
priestly government, to maintain its hopes of future glory.
With reference to the Jews of this period collectively, the
community at Jerusalem had gained the highest national
importance. Since the exile, the dispersion of the Jews
among foreign nations had been always assuming greater
dimensions. WhUe a not inconsiderable number of those
who had been in 'exile remained behind in Babylon, and
then again, very soon after the destruction of the city, a part
of those who had not been led away into captivity sought
refuge from the Chaldaean dominion in Egypt, many Jews,
partly under compulsion, partly of their own free wUl, came
under the Greek dominion in the principal cities of the
Grecian Empire, at Alexandria and Antioch, and, stiU farther
away, in the islands and in the cities of the West. All these
Jews of the dispersion, wherever they had settled in sufficient
numbers, organized themselves into independent communities ;

DECLINE IN JEWISH HISTOEY AND LITEEATUEE. 7l
and although indeed many individuals, in consequence of
favour shown by foreigners, by reason of Greek culture and
habits, were drawn away from their ancient national religion,
yet the majority, notwithstanding that they had adopted the
Greek language, and had become acquainted with the products
of the Greek intellect, remained true to the faith of their
fathers. Those scattered Jewish congregations saw in the
mother Church at Jerusalem, with its temple and its priestly
ranks, the grand centre by means of which they were bound
together into one national and reUgious fellowship. The last
sacred possession that was still here preserved to the people, the
possibility of worshipping according to the law, was threatened,
when Antiochus Epiphanes, assisted by apostate Jews them
selves, undertook, about the year 167 B.C., to set up the Greek
ritual in the temple at Jerusalem instead of the worship of
Jehovah, and to compel the Jews to observe Greek customs.
Those among the people who were true to Jehovah were now
roused to engage in an enthusiastic struggle on behalf of their
sanctuary and the ancient customs of their fathers, and, as it
were, by a sudden rush, their enthusiasm won a glorious
victory over the great Syrian host. By means of the heroic
acts of the Maccabees, the theocratic state was once more
restored to political independence; but, weak in comparison
with those around, and disturbed within by the party jealousies
of Pharisees and Sadducees, and by misunderstandings among
the members of the Asmonsean family itself, it fell under the
dominion of the Eomans as early as the year 63 B.C. The
later Asmonsean and the succeeding Idumsean princes pro
longed their reign under Eoman supremacy. By the favour
of Eome the theocratic state led a mere phenomenal existence,
and continued its descent toward final overthrow.
The condition of political dependence, and the dominion of
the law and the priests, upon which the new commonwealth
was established, prevented the literary talent of the nation,
during the first centuries after the exUe, from venturing upon

72 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
any lofty flight. The priestly - legal spirit dominated the
literature of this period. Prophecy had lost the free national
ground upon which alone it could flourish. The idea of any
immediate operation upon the people by means of the living
word in the power of the Spirit of Jehovah was excluded.
In correspondence with the character of the community, the
law became the one subject of study. The elaborate learning
of the scribes begins its activity with the times of Ezra, and
the intellectually poverty-stricken present seeks to retain and
render accessible the literature of antiquity, in which the
treasures of theocratic truth are contained. It was the won
derful success of the battles of the Maccabees that first gave
to the national hopes new sustenance and a new life. Pro
phecy now applies itself predominantly to the future of the
people of God, and passes over into apocalyptic vision, which
proclaims, as the conclusion of the great struggle between
heathenism and the people of God, the near approaching
universal supremacy of the Jews. In Greek culture the Jews
of the dispersion find the obstacle to a deeper intellectual
activity. They make the highest ideas of Greek philosophy
their own, and seek by means of an artificial treatment to
bring the new world of thought into harmony with the truths
of their ancient revealed faith:-
During this period of national decline, of political depend
ence, of intellectual impoverishment, of reUgious stagnation,
of overstrained expectations and spiritual commotions, Christ
appeared among His people. Linked firmly on to that eternal
truth, upon which the old covenant of God with His people
rested, He created, by means of the revelation proceeding
from Him, the new covenant of God with mankind. The
historical mission of the Jewish race was with Him brought
to a close. In the sentence of death which they pronounced
upon Christ, they uttered the sentence of death against their
own nation. In behalf of national hopes, to which Christ
had already given a spiritual interpretation, they shed their

LITEEATUEE OF JEWISH HISTOEY. 73
blood in a fanatical struggle against the Eomans. This led
to the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70 a.d. Only
once afterwards, by their Messiah Bar Cochba, they were led
into a general rising against the Eoman dominion under the
Emperor Hadrian, who, after obtaining the victory, built upon
the site of the City of God ^lia CapitoUna, and thereby
rendered vain all schemes of Jewish dominion. From this
time forth the Jews have appeared in history as a scattered
and unsettled, wandering race, a fate which has befallen them
because they persistently deny the greatest fact of their own
history, and live under the delusion that the old promise is
not yet fulfiUed, and that, after the spiritual Messiah appear
ing in Christ, there shall yet another earthly Messiah come
for the advancement of His people.
J. J. Hess, Geschichte der Israeliten vor den Zeiten Jesu.
Zurich 1776-1788. 12 Bde. G. L. Bauer, Handbuch der
Geschichte der hebraischen Nation, von ihrer Entstehung bis
zu Zerstorung ihres Staates. Niirnberg 1800-1804. 2 Bde.
H. Leo, Vorlesungen iiber die Geschichte des jiidischen Staates.
Berlin 1828. E. Bertheau, Zur Geschichte der Israeliten.
Gottingen 1842. H. Ewald, Geschichte des Volkes Israel
bis Christus. Bd. 1-3. Gottingen 1843-1852. 2 Auflage,
Bd. 1-7. Gottingen 1851 bis 1859. 3 Ausgabe, Bd. 1-6.
Gottingen 1864-1868. [English translation from the third
German edition. First English edition: Ewald's History
of Israel, vols. 1-5. London 1867-1874. Third EngUsh
edition begun in 1876. To this translation has been added
a sixth volume, containing the Life of Christ, and volumes
7 and 8 are now announced.] C. von Lengerke, Canaan,
Volks und Eeligionsgeschichte Israels. Th. 1. Konigsberg
1844. J. H. Kurtz, Geschichte des alten Bundes. 2 Bde.
2 Auflage. Berlin 1853-1858. 3 Auflage 1864. [Eng
lish translation: History of the Old Covenant, published
by T. & T. Clark. 3 vols. Edinburgh 1859.] G. Weber

74 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
und H. Holtzmann, Geschichte des Volks Israel und der
Entstehung des Christenthums. 2 Bde. Leipzig 1867. E.
W. Hengstenberg, Geschichte des Eeiches Gottes unter dem
alten Bunde. 1. 2. Period. Berlin 1869-1871. [Eng
lish translation : History of the Kingdom of God. Published
by T.& T.Clark. Edinburgh 1871, 1872. 2 vols.] F. Hitzig,
Geschichte des Volkes Israel. 2 Theile. Leipzig 1869.
[Milman, History of the Jews. 3 vols. London. First edi
tion in 1829. Niimerous editions since. Stanley, Jewish
Church. 3 vols. London 1862, 1865, 1876. Several edi
tions since of each of the volumes. Sime, The Kingdom of
All Israel, its History, Literature, and Worship. London 1883.]

BIBLICAL ISAGOGICS. 75

§ 29. BIBLICAL ISAGOGICS, OR INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD
AND NEW TESTAMENTS.
Since the biblical writings form a national literature, for
the understanding of which hermeneutics must demand the
grammatico-historical exposition, there follows the necessity of
an exegetical department of study, which has to set forth this
literature in its entirety as the product of the national spirit,
according to the various directions in which it seeks for itself
literary expression, and according to the various phases of its
historical development. It is the part of this branch of
exegetical theology to put the exegete in a position to estimate
each writing, which forms a constituent part of this literature,
as to its general tendency, and as to its particular expressions
and words, in connection with the national spirit and the
writings homogeneous to it, and also to view each writing
according to the characteristics of the age to which it belongs.
The so-caUed Introduction to the Old and New Testaments
ought, indeed, to treat of the Old and New Testament writings
as a whole ; hitherto, however, it has but little regarded the
limits which, from the exegetical standpoint, are assigned to
it. It forms one of the oldest branches of theology, and has,
with the name which it obtained in its beginnings, maintained
its unscientific character up to the most recent times. Adrianus,
who, as early as the fifth century, wrote his elaajwyrj ei? ra?
Oeia'i 'Ypa(pdi, and gave the name to this department, and
besides him also in the fifth century, Eucherius, then, in the
sixth century, JunUius and Cassiodorus, presented in a
coUective form the different studies which, up to that time,
had been exercised upon the study of Scripture. In their
writings are to be found, mixed up together, most of the
exegetical branches, which in modern times are treated inde-

76 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
pendently, and now form the sum-total of exegetical theology.
Their standpoint for the treatment of Scripture is the eccle
siastical-dogmatic. Their tendency leads' them pre-eminently
to the proving, for the purposes of the Church, what writings
belong to the canonical, that is, to the revealed and inspired,
Scriptures, and how the meaning thereof is to be understood
in a way worthy of God.
The exegetical material of the ancient Church, together with
some inconsiderable additions, which were made to it during
the Middle Ages, was, in the Eoman Catholic Church, at the
beginning of the sixteenth century, gathered together by
Sanctes Pagninus and Sixtus of Sienna, so as to form one
theological department under the name of Introduction or a
sacred Bibliotheca. The same was also done for Protestant
theology. The traditional form, and particularly the eccle
siastical-dogmatic treatment, were also adopted by Protestant
theology, as, for example, in the seventeenth century by
Eivetus and J. H. Hettinger, and in the eighteenth century
by J. Chr. Wolf and J. G. Carpzov. But even during the
seventeenth century, under the influence of Baruch Spinoza,
and during the eighteenth century, in the Eoman Catholic
Church under the influence of Eichard Simon, and in the
Protestant Church under the influence of John Solomon
Semler, a start was made in the direction of a historical treat
ment of Holy Scripture. The historico-critical now takes the
place of the dogmatical standpoint for the treatment of
Scripture. This new departure was represented in the Intro
ductions of J. D. Michaelis, Eichhorn, Bauer, Augusti, Bertholdt,
and de Wette ; while the old dogmatic style found new
representatives among the Eoman Catholics in Jahn, Herbst,
and Scholtz, and among Protestants, in Hengstenberg, Haver
nick, and Keil. But although these two standpoints are so
directly and diametrically opposed to one another in the
treatment of Scripture, the two schools are thoroughly agreed
as to the treatment of Introduction. Both stand under the

INDEFINITE CONCEPTION OF INTEODUGTION. 77
blighting tyranny of custom. From its very nature the
ecclesiastical-dogmatic standpoint cannot free itself from this.
Starting in its theory from revelation and inspiration, it treats
Holy Scripture as a purely divine work, and regards the
biblical books, not as historical, but as canonical, so that its
interest in bibUcal Isagogics does not lead to a striving after
the attainment of a historical acquaintance with the biblical
writings, but simply to an endeavour to secure a conviction
of their genuineness and integrity, and generally of their
canonicity. In the case of the historico-critical standpoint,
however, the matter is altogether different. After the material
of exegetical theology had been extraordinarily enriched, during
the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, by means of valuable
philological, critical, historical, and geographical researches,
and the various constituent parts thereof had become consoli
dated into independent exegetical branches, it then became
the task of those occupying the historico-critical standpoint,
from the historical point of view to mark off the limits of
Isagogics over against the other exegetical branches, and to
give it an independent scientific form. Nevertheless, criticism
was not yet in its beginnings sufficiently freed from that
which was opposed to it, to be able to accomplish this.
Instead of representing the biblical writings as a historical
whole, it was satisfied with indicating the contradiction which
exists, at certain points, between the dogmatic conception of
Scripture and the facts of history ; and instead of seeking out
a definite principle as a standard for the adoption and arrange
ment of its contents, it allowed itself rather to be led by
practical interests, to give a place in the department to every
thing which stood in any sort of relation to Holy Scripture,
and could thus in any way serve as an introduction to Holy
Scripture. From neither of these sides, neither from the
doo'matic nor from the critical, had it been found possible to
rise above the traditional formlessness of Isagogics, and the
merely bibUographical treatment of the biblical books. Thus

78 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
de Wette, in the first section of his Introduction to the Old
Testament, defines Introduction as a presentation in a collected
form of certain pieces of preliminary information necessary for
a right conception and treatment of the Bible, which are held
together as one whole by their practical aim, and their
relation to the history of the Bible. Also Dr. Schrader, who
has revised the eighth edition of de Wette's Introduction,
accepts this definition, and seeks in justification of it to call
attention to the actual performance of the task of Introduction
wrought out upon these lines. If one did resolve to put a limit
to the contents of Isagogics at any point, he could do so, not
on the ground of any fixed principle, but rather on the ground
of the practical impossibility of mastering and setting forth the
multiplicity of the material. Under shelter of this definition,
however, one might include in Isagogics, if he pleased, the various
exegetical branches, which should indeed contribute their aid to
Isagogics, but should not import into it their whole material.
Thus, up to quite recent times, biblical Isagogics continued
a mere chaotic confusion, an unscientific gathering together of
learned notes of the most diverse kind regarding the Bible and
the several biblical books. Even Schleiermacher in his Her
meneutics and Criticism, p. 36, regards the customary Intro
duction simply as practical-serviceable, not as an organic part
of theological science. He quite properly characterizes it as
"a science, which has really no limits, into which one may
cast what he wiU," for reaUy there is no attempt made to
ground it upon any fixed principles. But the question which
he raises, whether there may not be such principles, is
immediately answered by himself, when he says that the
principle lies in the historical connection (Hermeneutik und
Kritik, p. 379 f.). Now this principle, that each particular
is to be conceived of as a historically connected whole, is in
fact the principle which has to be applied to the whole
department of biblical Isagogics. As the subject of Isagogics
is historical, it can be properly treated only when that

SCIENTIFIC IDEA OF INTEODUGTION. 79
principle is assumed as the fundamental principle of its
treatment. Dealt with after this fundamentally historical
method, biblical Isagogics gains for the first time a truly
scientific form, and then, also, attains its proper position in
the circle of the theological sciences. Its task consists
essentially in conceiving of and representing the biblical
writings, and those related to them, in respect of their origin
and their characteristics, as the product of the Hebrew
national mind, viewed according to its historical development,
as a national literature. The utterly unsatisfactory and
unscientific conception of the department favoured by the
name Introduction is, therefore, along with the name, to be
discarded for one which wiU clearly and definitely express
the idea of this exegetical department. Biblical Introduction
is, according to its idea, the history of the Hebrew-Jewish
national literature. So conceived, this exegetico-theological
department gets a place on equal terms side by side with the
history of all other literatures, and has to vindicate its
scientific character just by performing its allotted task in a
strictly historical manner. Already this has been acknow
ledged and acted upon from various sides. Eeuss and
Hupfeld especially have contended against the unscientific
character of the biblical Introduction of former times : Eeuss
in his history of the sacred writings of the New Testament
(Geschichte der heUigen Schriften Neuen Testaments. Halle
1842. 5 Ausgabe, 1874), and Hupfeld in his work on the
idea and method of the so-caUed bibUcal Introduction (Ueber
Bef^riff und Methode der sogenannten biblischen Einleitung.
Marburg 1844). Those two scholars agree in assigning its
place to biblical Introduction completely under the historical
point of view, in claiming for it scientific independence as a
history of the biblical literature, and also, in giving it this
name in exchange for that by which it previously had been
called. However, whUe they quite rightly emphasize the
idea of the historical, they yet give to the idea of the historical

80 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
such a wide comprehension, that in this way, again, the
scientific character of this department is endangered, and the
limits of exegetical theology are overstepped. Both of these
writers, for example, understand the history of biblical
literature generally as the history of the Bible, and thus drag
everything that is in any way connected with the fortunes of
the biblical writings into the range of their history. In five
books, Eeuss treats of the New Testament literature. We
have : 1. The History of the Origin of the New Testament
Sacred Writings (History of the Literature) ; 2. History of the
CoUection of the Sacred Writings of the New Testament
(History of the Canon) ; 3. History of the Preservation of the
Sacred Writings of the New Testament (History of the Text) ;
4. History of the Spread of the Sacred Writings of the New
Testament (History of the Translations) ; and, 5. History of the
Theological Use of the Sacred Writings of the New Testament
(History of Exegesis). Hupfeld divides the history of the
biblical literature into two periods. The first period embraces
the history of the biblical literature during the period of its
formation ; the second contains the history of the Bible as
Holy Scripture within the synagogue and church. In this
second part, the history of the canon, the history of the^
text and its critical treatment, the history of exegesis, the
history of translations, the history of the use and spread of
the Bible in the Church, are included.
Against this wide conception of the history of biblical
literature, Hagenbach in his Encyclopaedia (Encyclopaedic, p.
151. English translation, pp. 191, 192), and E. Meier in
his History of the Poetical National Literature of the Hebrews
(Geschichte der poetischen National-literatur der Hebraer.
Leipzig 1856), in his preface, p. 3 ff., bring well-grounded
objections. If the biblical literature be viewed as a national
literature, its history, just Uke that of any other literature,
must confine itself within the limits of the national historical
field to which the literature belongs. The history of bibUcal

FAULTY CONCEPTIONS OF INTEODUGTION. 81
literature, as the, history of the Hebrew - Jewish national
literature, has, therefore, its scientific principle in the national-
historical development. Upon the ground of this principle it
has to determine the material of which it has to treat, and to
protest against any limitation thereof contrary to its principle,
just as much as against any expansion thereof in contradiction
to its principle. Its undue limitation is peculiar to the
ecclesiastico-dogmatic standpoint, according to which Introduc
tion has to take for its subject only the canonical books of
Holy Scripture. HistoricaUy considered, this is altogether
unjustifiable. It has rather to embrace within its range not
only the writings regarded by the Church as canonical, but
generally, all writings which took their rise from the Hebrew-
Jewish nation during its historical existence. Thus it has to
consider also the so-called apocryphal and pseudepigraphical
writings, which originated in the ages of later Judaism and
the early Christian Church. Hence also it is inadmissible to
set Canonics, as Eosenkranz in his Encyclopaedia, p. 116, does,
in place of Introduction. Eosenkranz divides Canonics into
three parts : 1. The Inspiration (Theopneustie) of the Canon ;
2. The Genesis of the Canon; and 3. The Credibility
(axiopistie) of the Canon. At the basis of this proposal there
lies a Church idea, according to which the branch of study
treated of retains, on one side, a dogmatic material foreign to
it, and on the other, limitations which, by reason of its
historical principle, it must overstep. But equally irreconcil
able with this its principle is that enlargement which Eeuss
and Hupfeld have given to this department. What these
scholars import from the history of the canon, from the history
of the critical treatment of the biblical text, and from the
history of translations, into this department, Ues for the most
part outside of the limits of the national-historical develop
ment; and what they introduce from the history of the
exposition of the Bible and from the history of the use and
spread of the Bible in the Church, lies completely outside of
VOL. IL F

82 , THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
that developmeiit. These latter elements are, therefore, to be
altogether excluded from this branch of study, whUe the
former are only to be admitted in so far as they still lie
within the range of the national-historical development. The
greater part of all this wide range of material belongs, partly
to dogmatics, partly to biblical criticism and hermeneutics,
partly to the history of exegesis, and partly to Church
history. The history of bibUcal literature has to concern
itself only with that which Eeuss treats of in his first Book
and Hupfeld in his first period, with the biblical literature
during the period of its formation, which Hupfeld calls the
pre-canonic or primitive history of biblical literature. Only
after the limitation of its material has been agreed upon will
it be in a position for accomplishing its task, the describing
of the course of the formation of the Hebrew literature from
its first beginnings down to the decline of the Jewish national
and civU life, and the giving of a vivid picture of the spiritual
productivity to which the Hebrew race, according to its
historical mission, has given a permanent form by means of
its literature.
The division and arrangement, as well as the subject-matter,
of the history of biblical literatiire must be determined in
accordance with its historical principle. First of aU, the
universally prevalent division of Isagogics into Introduction
to the Old Testament and Introduction to the New Testament,
which is especially misleading to those entering on their
theological studies, calls for consideration. The partition is
often made in such a thoroughgoing manner, that it might
give the idea that the two Introductions were two distinct
exegetical branches. If, however, as is now generally
admitted, the New Testament can be understood in its essen
tial truth only when viewed in its historical connection with
the Old Testament, then this connection must have expression
given to it in the history of both Testaments. Since the
New Testament makes its appearance as the conclusion of the

THE GENERAL PAET OF INTEODUGTION. 83
historical development of a national literature, the Old and
New Testaments are brought together under the idea of
bibUcal Uterature. They both together form a single historical
whole and are to be regarded as the product of one national
spirit, in which there is transmitted that divine revelation
which was to issue from Israel unto aU nations. In con
sequence, however, of the importance which the New Testa
ment has as the beginning of a new development of the
world's history, the separate treatment of its history is quite
justifiable ; and so we have the Old and the New Testament
Introduction as the two sections of the one history of bibUcal
literature. For scientific, and, at the same time, academic
use, separate treatment of the two may be recommended ; but,
whUe the separation is made, it must be remembered all the
time that the two are historicaUy one.
Further, it has been customary to divide both the Old
Testament and the New Testament Introduction into a General
and a Special Part. Now the General Part is just the place
in which that practical aim can get free scope, gathering
together all possible learned apparatus, if only in any way
it may serve as an introduction to Holy Scripture. This
apparatus in great measure does not belong to the particular
branch of study before us. But, apart even from this, the
mode of procedure is in conflict with any historical treatment
of the subject. For it is in fact quite abnormal to treat in
the General Part of the collection of the bibUcal writings, of
the condition of their text, of the methods of their exposition,
of their translations, etc., while, for the first time, in the
Special Part, notice is taken of the main subject, the biblical
writings themselves. Hence, both oh material and formal
grounds, this General Part is altogether objectionable. In
accordance with the remarks previously made in reference to
the history and idea of this branch of study, an Introduction
must confine itself within its own Umits, and must con
sequently restrict itself to the history of biblical Uterature.

84 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
In such an Introduction, we are required to develop the
postulates of biblical literature, and the historical foundations
from which it proceeds, and by means of which it should be
conditioned during the whole course of its development. The
material that is to contribute to the placing of biblical literature
under the proper light for understanding the national element
has to be borrowed by Introduction from biblical linguistics,
archaeology, and history. As thus limited, Introduction has
to characterize the Hebrew language and the Hebrew writings,
according to their origin and history, but it has pre-eminently
to determine the national peculiarities that appear in the spirit
of the Hebrew race on the basis of the results of the history
of its culture. Like other cultured races of antiquity, the
Hebrews have created a thoroughly original literature. In
such a literature a people always gives expression to the
innermost essence of its spiritual and intellectual life. It is
with races as with human individuals ; they are distinguished
from one another by means of their proper and peculiar
character. Now the national character of the Hebrews, as
the result of their historical culture, was distinctly religious.
The religious-theocratic consciousness was the characteristic
feature of the national life, and therefore had to find expression
also in its literature. Hebrew literature, therefore, has
always a thoroughly religious impress. It is the classical
creation of a national cast of mind that is characteristically
reUgious in its inmost core. Since, however, these intellectual
characteristics of the nation passed through various stages of
development, the literary activity of the people must also
have been affected by the influence of these changes. Hence
it is not enough to arrange the biblical literature in the
ordinary way according to a mere material distribution. It
must rather be also classified according to the chief periods of
the nation's history. In accordance with this idea it has to
be set forth in three periods. The first period extends from
the earliest times down to the time of the kings,T-the period

INTEODUGTION AS HISTORY OF BIBLICAL LITEEATUEE. 85
of the beginnings of the national theocratic Ufe and literary
activity. The second period extends from the time of the
kings down to the end of the Babylonian exUe, — the period
which may be called the golden age of the national civU life
and the national literature. The third period extends from
the exile down to the second century after Christ, — the period
of national dissolution and overthrow, and of literary im
poverishment. The first part of the history of biblical
literature embraces the Old Testament literature under these
three periods. The second part embraces the New Testament
literature. In the third period, that of dissolution, Christianity
makes its appearance as elevation amid overthrow, as victory
in the midst of defeat, and together with the spirit which it
created, a new literature, which grew up on the old national
soil, breaks through the limits of nationaUty, and forms the
beginning of an endlessly rich, universally human literature,
behind which the Old Testament literature retires to a great
distance. In the first period, only attempts and beginnings of a literary
productivity are to be found ; but in these primitive utterances
the main directions, in which the literary activity of the
Hebrew spirit was to be exercised, are already shown. In
the second period, these literary tendencies are already
represented by means of a rich literature, of which indeed
only a smaU part remains to us, and it is from those remnants
that the distribution has to be attempted, according to which
the various writings of the period are to be arranged into con
nected groups. By the Palestinian Jews and the Masoretes,
the Old Testament was divided into the Law, the nnin
(Torah), the Five Books of Moses ; the Prophets, !a''K''?3 ; and
the Hagiographa, D''3!;n3 ; and the Prophets, again, were
divided into the Earlier, D'^Sm\ and the Later, D'Mins. To the
Earlier Prophets the historical books, from the Book of Joshua
down to the Books of Kings, were reckoned. The Later
Prophets, again, were distinguished as the Greater and Smaller

86 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Prophets. All the other writings were placed under the
Hagiographa. This division was evidently made in the
interests of the national worship, and made no pretence to be
a historical representation. But even the division adopted by
the Alexandrian translators, then by the Vulgate, and from
these by Luther also, into historical, poetical, and prophetical
writings, which, with some diversity in the arrangement of
the classes, has been adopted in most of the Old Testament
Introductions, does not entirely correspond to the historical
facts. The division must connect itself with the actual
utterances of the life of the national spirit. At the very
founding of the theocratic state, the demand was forthwith
made for information regarding the sources and the continued
development of the national theocratic life. To the legends
prevalent during the first period there now follows that style
of historical writing, which, by reason of the theocratic
pragmatism which dominates it, maintains its essentially
national impress. In its thorough decisiveness, attained by
means of divine truth received, the national spirit finds
expression most clearly in the poetry which, in correspondence
with the national character, confines itself to the sphere of
lyrical poetry, and by preference to that of religious lyrical
poetry. In prophecy, which is the intellectual tendency most
characteristic of Hebraism, the theocratic spirit asserts itself
over against the decline from the ideal unto which the people
had been called. In the criticism of the present it points to
the theocratic fulfilment of the future. Further, alongside of
that legislative and poUtical wisdom, the products of which
were incorporated in this historical writing, a place was
demanded by the religious ethical wisdom of the life, which,
in its proverbs, which had their foundation in the law, set
forth the rules of a God-fearing attitude, and made advances
toward the solution of the highest problems of the conscious
ness of the people. In accordance with this conception, the
writings of the second period are to be divided into historical,

VARIOUS TENDENCIES IN HEBEEW LITEEATUEE. 87'
poetic, prophetic, and didactic. These four literary tendencies
have taken their origin from the most decidedly peculiar and
individual trait of the Hebrew national character, and have
given to Hebrew literature the impress of its originality.
They therefore repeat themselves also in the third period,
only modified by reason of the political condition and the
intellectual tendency pecuUar to the post-exilian generation.
The Hagiographa, which belongs in part to this period, re
presents the same tendencies as the Old Testament Apocrypha,
the pseudepigraphic writings, and the works of . Philo and
Josephus. The writing of history has lost its old prophetic
character. At most it stands under the influence of the
sacerdotal-legalistic spirit of the age, and attains its con
summation in the comprehensive historical work of Josephus.
Poetry comes to be simply temple poetry, and by degrees
becomes silent. Prophecy has a similar character, but has its
representative in the Apocalypses.'' The didactic literature,
with the exception of Koheleth, which proclaims a wisdom
altogether new to Israel, is pre-eminently represented in the
apocryphal books, and, in the works of Philo, passes over into
a phUosophy profoundly penetrated by the Greek spirit.
And now just at this time there arose a special literary
activity. Scripture learning or the learning of the scribes,
which concerned itself with the old national literature in the
interests of the Church of the people for liturgical purposes ;
and, in connection therewith, there should also be reckoned
the liturgical employment of the old literature. This activity
was a threefold one : (1) An activity exercised in collecting
(the Origin of Old Testament Canon) ; (2) an exegetical
activity (the oldest Translations of the Old Testament) ; and
^ Compare Liicke, Einleitung in die Offenbarung Johannes und die sogen-
annte apocalyptische Literatur. 2 Auflage. Bonn 1852. [Reuss, History of
Christian Theology in the Apostolic Age. London 1872. VoL i. p. 369 S.
Eeuss, History of the Sacred Scriptures of the New Testament. Edinburgh
1884. P. 154 ff.] Hilgenfeld, Die jiidische Apocalyptik in ihrer gesohieht-
lichen Entwickelung. Jena 1857.

88 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
(3) a critical activity (the Establishment of the Old Testament
Text). To the second part, the history of the New Testament
literature, an Introduction is to be prefixed, in which generally
the relationship of Christianity and Judaism in their historical
connection and difference, their gradual separation from one
another, and the various intellectual and spiritual tendencies
in the primitive Christian community, are to be discussed.
In succession to this there comes the history of the gradual
gathering together of the New Testament writings into one
collection, as a testimony of the ancient Church to the value
which those writings possess as the historical documents of
primitive Christianity. Christ, as fulfiUer of the Old Testa
ment, and founder of the New Testament, has not given forth
in writing any testamentary document, but, by means of the
living word and deed. He has confirmed its estabhshment. He
wrought, however, among the theocratic people, from whom
should come the salvation of mankind, and the literature,
which was first of aU called forth by means of His works, arose
upon the same national soil with the Old Testament literature.
Hence also the form and style of the Old Testament litera
ture reappear in the New Testament. Thus, the Church of
God founded by Christ pictured its establishment and early
fortunes in historical writings, the Gospels and the Acts of
the Apostles. The early Christian didactic writings are re
presented by the Pauline and Catholic Epistles. Poetry
blended with the idealism of Christian hope, and raised itself,
in the Apocalypse of John, to the magnificent representation
of the final judgment of prophecy and the unquestionable
victory whereby the whole kingdom of God overcomes the
world. The writings of the so-called New Testament
Apocrypha attach themselves to the principal writings, and
are to be taken up at fit places in the exposition.-' This con-
1 C Tischendorf, Acta apostolorum apocrypha. Lipsise 1851. Evangelia
apocrypha. Lipsise 1853. Apocalypses apooryphse. Lipsias 1866. Hilgenfeld,

HISTORICAL TREATMENT OF INTRODUCTION. 89
tinuity of the literary expression leads up to the treatment of
the New Testament literature in close connection with the
Old Testament literature. As the Apocalypse of John can
only be rightly understood from the older prophecy and from
the modern Jewish apocalyptics, so also must the didactic and
the historical writings of the New Testament be expounded with
reference to the doctrine of wisdom that went before, and the
peculiarities of the Old Testament style of historical writing.
Under each of those periods a separate treatment has to be
given to those writings which represent a particular tendency.
Each writing must be characterized in accordance with that
which is peculiar to it. Its form, language, and style, its
contents, the fundamental ideas which it developes, the
peculiar ideas which it contains, are to be discussed ; the time
at which it was written is to be made historically clear ; the
author, where this is possible, is to be depicted according to
the circumstances of his Ufe, in order that the writing may be
recognised as a product of a particular time and of a parti
cular personality. It is especially here that criticism with
its laws and rules finds its application. The history of
biblical Uterature must be a thoroughly critical one, but it
must not incorporate in itself the theory of criticism. The
history of biblical literature must be constructed out of the
national actual life in order to overthrow the schematism
in which it has been customary to confine it, and to bring
everything, down to each particular writing, into the Uving
stream of history. In the latter connection, Baur of Tiibingen
along with his school has rendered most important service,
especially in reference to the New Testament literature.
Although one may not be able altogether to agree with the
results to which he attains in regard to the Gospels and the
Novum testamentum extra canonem receptum. Lipsise 1866. [B. H. Cowper,
Apocryphal Gospels and Documents relating to Christ. London 1867. S. Baring-
Gould, The Lost and Hostile Gospels. London 1874. Most recently and of
special importance : R. A. Lipsius, Die Apokryphen Apostelgeschichten und
Apostellegenden. 2 Bande. Braunschweig 1883, 1884.]

90 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Pauline Epistles, yet he will be obliged thoroughly to accept
in principle the historical standpoint which he assumes. The
reproach might rather be brought against him, that, in his
historical investigations, he allows himself to be led by certain
philosophical presuppositions, and that he attends too little to
the historical connection in which the New Testament and the
Old Testament literature stand with one another. In this depart
ment the purely historical procedure is the truly philosophical.
Answering to those historical requirements, which in the
present are to be made of an exposition of biblical Isagogics,
to mention only those of the most recent times, are the
Introductions to the Old and the New Testament by Bleek,
and, besides Eeuss' History of the New Testament Writings,
also Hilgenfeld's Introduction to the New Testament.
Friedrich Bleek, Einleitung in die heilige Schrift. 1 Theil.
Einleitung in das Alte Testament. Herausgegeben von
Johannes F. Bleek und A. Kamphausen. Mit Vorwort von
C. I. Nitzsch. Berlin 1860. 4 Auflage bearbeitet von J.
Wellhausen. 1878. [English translation from the second
German edition of 1865 : Introduction to the Old Testament.
London 1869. 2 vols.] 2 TheU. Einleitung in das Neue
Testament. 1 und 2 Auflage. Herausgegeben J. F. Bleek.
3 Auflage besorgt von W. Mangold. Berlin 1875. [English
translation from the second German edition : Introduction to
the New Testament. Edinburgh 1869-1870. 2 vols.] A.
Hilgenfeld, Historisch-kritische Einleitung in das Neue Testa
ment. Leipzig 1875. [Keil's Introduction to the Old Testa
ment. Edinburgh 1869-1870. 2 vols. Translated from the
second German edition, De Wette, Critical and Historical Intro
duction to the Canonical Scriptures of the Old Testament. Trans
lated by Theodore Parker. Boston 1843. 2 vols. De Wette,
Historico-critical Introduction to the Canonical Books of the
New Testament. Boston 1858. Dr. Samuel Davidson, Intro
duction to the Old Testament. London 1863. 3 vols. Intro
duction to the New Testament. London 1848-1851. 3 vols.]

EXEGESIS. 91

§ 30. EXEGESIS.
Exegesis is applied hermeneutics. If hermeneutics lays
down the theory of exposition, then exegesis shows how the
exegete, in the performance of exposition, has to bring the
theory into application and accomplishment. It is intended
to interpret a world of thought to which a distinct literary
impress has been given, and to make it clear to others. For
this end the exegete cannot dispense with the theory ; but the
theory alone is not sufficient. As the theory of an art does
not make the artist, so hermeneutics does not make the
exegete. Exegesis, which determines the practical procedure
of the exegete, demands, besides the objective conditions which
hermeneutics lays down for the understanding of Scripture,
certain subjective conditions, a certain spiritual disposition of
the exegete, without which even the best theory wiU not lead
to the proper end. A historical sense, Uveliness of spirit,
fancy, the gift of sharp apprehension, discretion, logical acute
ness, sesthetic tact, are in general the qualifications which,
before all theory, are to be presupposed in the exegete, and
which quaUfy him for passing over easily into a world of
thought altogether strange, and also for representing to others
the results of his labour with clearness, precision and per
spicuity. But especially between the exegete and the
literature expounded by him there must exist a spiritual
affinity. With reference, therefore, to the essentially reUgious
content of bibUcal literature, the exegete, who is to arrive at
an understanding of it, must above all be endowed with a
religious sense, and must engage upon its exposition with a
religious interest. As the philologist, in order to gain an
understanding of Greek literature, must be endowed with an
aesthetic and philosophical spirit and interest, so must also

92 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
the theologian, as a biblical exegete, have on his part a spirit
in sympathy with his literature, and must be able heartily to
pass over and surrender himself up to the spirit out of which
it arose, and to enter into the pecuUar religious views which
are delivered in it. In so far the demand, which has always
been made by the Church theology, that Holy Scripture is to
be read cum spiritu sancto, has its truth also for the exegete.
All these qualifications are quite apart from the theory, and,
as the natural endowment of individuals, resist aU further
scientific determination. In their combination they constitute
that geniality which, as an essential condition of exegetical
success, raises the work of exposition into an art of exposition.
But even the highest artistic endowment does not yet make
the artist. Geniality, if it is to be preserved from bypaths
and errors, must submit to the discipline of the theory. It
can succeed in producing really artistic work only when it
binds itself with the theory, and makes itself so thoroughly
acquainted with it, that the theory becomes to it just a second
nature. Exegesis, too, has to demand of the exegete most
highly endowed by nature, that in his exposition he shall
invariably follow the hermeneutical theory. The most general
law which it laid down, was that of the objective interpreta
tion of Scripture. To it must the exegete, and especiaUy the
genial exegete, subordinate himself, if his geniality is to bear
fruit for exegesis. However hard it may be, it is nevertheless
indispensable for the exegete that with all resignation he put
to silence his subjectivity, while engaged in the work of
exposition, and that he neither import his own subjective
views and notions into the thoughts of his author, nor aUow
the thoughts of his author to be curtailed and mutUated from
subjective interests. The method which, in consequence of
that law, hermeneutics prescribed ,for the procedure of the
exegete, was the grammatico-historical. From it resulted
those exegetical branches which have been already explained
bibUcal Linguistics, Criticism, Archseology, History, Isagogics '>

SPECIAL SIGNIFICANCE OF SCEIPTUEE FOE EXEGESIS. 93
and , these collectively, exegesis has to recommend to the
expositor, as auxiliary sciences indispensable to him. Between
them and exegesis a relationship exists of mutual service.
As without their help exegesis cannot accomplish its task, so,
on the other hand, exegesis regularly supplies to those branches
the material which their further cultivation demands, and
which renders them more and more capable of serving
exegesis. Especially to laymen, who should read Holy Scrip
ture for their own edification, but who not seldom become
conceited, and think to be able to expound Scripture, exegesis
will have to make clear what the nature of Scripture exposition
really is, and what acquirements are indispensable thereto.
The best intention, the most lively religious interest, the most
hearty love for Scripture, all this, which is very often quite
characteristic of such laymen, cannot by itself alone lead to a
satisfactory end any more than the mere theory. Only that
exegesis which, along with these preparatory conditions, is at
the same time built up upon those other auxiliary sciences,
and carried out according to a strictly grammatico-historical
method, answers to the requirements of theological science,
and serves the final purpose of exegetical theology, the attain
ment of a knowledge of Christianity in its historical
primitiveness, The scientific character of biblical exegpsis is not prejudiced
in consequence of that consideration for the Church which has
to be recommended to it. The writings, th© exposition of
which is the duty of the exegete, stand to the present in a
relation altogether different from that of the other writings of
antiquity. These, too, may have their value for the present,
and so, as for example, classical philology, ought to be culti
vated ; but in general, the significance which they have is
still only historical, and their influence upon the life of the
present is quite indirect and limited. On the other hand, the
biblical writings are of importance to the Church as the source
and the rule of its faith, and stand in the most immediate

94 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
connection, not only with the Church life, but also with the
life of the community as a whole. The individual members
of the Church find in these writings the divine revelation
upon which they ground their reUgious convictions. Our
family life, our social intercourse, our customs, our civil
regulations and laws, rest in great part upon the views and
truths which have been transmitted in those writings. The
exegete then himself stands within the influences of this life,
and finds, in the writings which he expounds, the deepest
satisfaction for his own spiritual life. Now, as the servant of
science, the exegete has it always laid upon him, as an inviol
able duty, to proceed in his exposition of Scripture on strictly
historical lines, and consequently he comes to his work
inspired with the conviction that, by means of this purely
scientific procedure, he performs a great service to the Church
itself. And thus, although the results of his work first operate
mediately upon the Church life, yet, in consequence of the
actual relation of immediate participation in which he himself
and the life surrounding him stand to Holy Scripture, he will
not be able to withhold the consideration due to it. That
which has its origin in the most personal need of the exegete,
and which appears as a need of the Ufe, exegesis must not
only allow, but must even recommend. Only the question
remains, How is the exegete to carry out the recommendation ?
According to what was said in an earlier page, it is to be
understood that it is not permissible that the exegete, from
any merely subjective interests, should in any case alter the
meaning of Scripture, and perchance, under cover of this
altered interpretation of Scripture, secure countenance in the
practical life for his own personal views and convictions.
Therefore the sense of Scripture already objectively laid down
by him wUl of necessity always be the foundation from which
the exegete has to proceed, if he is to enjoy any consideration
at the hands of the Church. The religious ideas, which in
Holy Scripture are often expressed with great brevity but in a

EXEGESIS.  THE COMMENT AEY. 95
strikingly pregnant manner, are to be developed by the exegete
in accordance with the whole wealth of their contents.
Occupying the high point of view of his own age, he will,
from the various tendencies and endeavours of the present,
glance back upon the content of Scripture, and, where an
opportunity presents itself, he will emphasize the practical
importance thereof for the life of the present. A great multi
tude of references is here possible, and it is juSt in the finding
out of these that the geniality of the expositor comes into
requisition. Much that in Scripture is addressed for some
special reason to particular persons, and to particular Churches,
at some special time, and under special circumstances, has, in
consequence of the nature of that which is said, a thoroughly
general character, and admits of a general appUcation to all
times, and to the most important relations of life, if only it be
rightly understood. In consequence of this, however, the
exegete wiU be obliged to proceed more by way of hints than
of authoritative statement, andto find the true measure for
possible references always in the objective sense of Scripture,
in order that he may not fall into what is merely fanciful, and
artificial, and purely arbitrary.
By means of the scientific task of exegesis, the forms in
which it has to set down its expositions of Scripture, are con
ditioned. Hence they also are set forth and gain recognition
as historical. Exegesis requires to determine these on the
basis of the hermeneutical theory. The forms of exegesis are
three : (1) The Commentary, (2) The Paraphrase, and (3) The
Translation. The Commentary is the most complete form of exposition.
In it the masterpieces of the exegete are to be found. What
ever artistic skUl for exposition, whatever hermeneutical
dexterity, whatever linguistic accomplishments and acquaint
ance with antiquity he possesses, all these he must concentrate
in his commentary to the realizing of one common end. All
the exegetical branches that have been already discussed must

96 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
find their practical application in the commentary. The
author whose writing is to be commented upon, and the time
at which his work was written, must be determined by means
of critical investigation ; the author must be described bio-
graphically ; the period during which he wrote must be
historically characterized ; and, in accordance with the
principle, that the exposition is to be ex anaXogia, fdei, and the
maxim scriptura scripturce interpres, his writing must be put side
by side with related writings and compared with them ; the
peculiarity of its language, the critical condition of its text,
the order of discourse to which it belongs, must be discussed ;
and then, its entire contents must be set forth in brief outline
and clear review.. All this belongs to the introduction to the
commentary. In the exposition itself the exegete must
proceed in a strictly philological method from the particular
to the general, in order to fix the significance, sense, and
thought of the words, propositions, and verses, and then, the
contents of the larger sections. Philological knowledge must
for this end be always accompanied by the critical investiga
tion of the text, by archseological and historical acquirements,
by the careful use and employment of already existing com
mentaries and translations, by an artistic-genial tact, and the
exegete's own hearty appreciation of the contents. This last
characteristic may show itself in the commentary in attachincr
to suitable passages remarks and considerations upon the
content of Scripture arrived at by grammatico - historical
processes, by means of which the word of Scripture is brought
into immediate relatibn to the present. The purely scholarly
treatment wins by this means practical fruitfulness in reference
to actual life. Nevertheless this ought to be for the com
mentary only a secondary consideration. The chief thing for
it is the scientific task of exegesis, the setting forth of the
sense of Scripture in its objectivity.
The Paraphrase is the setting forth in an amplified form
the sense of Scripture. It has the commentary for its presup-

EXEGESIS. — THE TEANSLATION. 97
position. It has not to adopt the philological, critical, and
historical apparatus, by the help of whicb the commentary
endeavours to lead to a fuU understanding of a writing, but it
must have aU this learned labour behind it, and must build
thereon, if it is not to lose itself in what is arbitrary, unfounded,
and insipid. The paraphrase has as its task to explain the
historical sense of Scripture by means of fuller expansion. It
must develop the pregnant contents of particular words ; it
must make clear the connection of particular propositions,
which is often not readily recognised by the reader of Scripture ;
and it must set forth the thoughts of the more closely connected
verses in their express significance, and the succession of ideas
throughout the whole section in distinct outline. The para
phrase, too, as well as the commentary, may serve purely
scientific ends, but in it, even more than in the commentary,
is there an opportunity for bringiog the word of Scripture
into relation with the present, and pointing out the mutual
reaction of Scripture and life upon one another.
The Translation is the most difficult work of the exegete.
It is the reproduction of a writing in another language. It
therefore presupposes the most exact understanding of the
foreign text. The exegete cannot begin a translation untU he
has undertaken a thorough scientific investigation of the text,
as it is laid down in the commentary. On the other hand,
the exegete who undertakes to translate must possess the
most exact and accurate knowledge of the language into
which he translates, in order that he may with delicacy and
precision choose in it the expression which most thoroughly
corresponds to and harmonizes with that of the foreign language.
In the matter of translating itself, in the transfusion 'of the
foreign language into the other, he mustguard against allowing
the colouring of the foreign language to dominate over that
into which he translates, or allowing the colouring of the
latter to dominate over the former. If either of these
mistakes be made, no good translation can result. The
VOL, IL G

98 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
translator who would give equal rights to the spirit of both
languages, must rather blend both in the translation in such
equal proportions, that the reader of the translation, as Eosen
kranz strikingly says, may at once feel himself abroad and
at home. By means of the translation the exegete is also
directly contributing to the purely scientific purpose of
exegesis, the objective historical understanding of the word
of Scripture, but, at the same time, he speciaUy concerns him
self therewith in view of the immediate needs of the Church
life, seeing that, by means of the translation into a spoken
language, he makes spiritual intercourse with Scripture generally
possible to a wide circle of the laity. Here we need only to
refer to Luther's translation of the Bible, which has contributed
less to scientific exegesis than to the religious need of the great
community of the Evangelical Church.
The division of exegesis as cursory and detaUed does not
belong to the province of science, but is only employed in the
interests of methodology. The exegete as such must treat
every writing in elaborate detail. But, for exegetical begin
ners, it may be recommended to read Holy Scripture cursorily,
that is, without attending to every particular word, and enter
ing into a learned investigation of each particular proposition,
in the fuUest sense of the term. It may be weU that they
should read Holy Scripture simply with the help of lexicon
and grammar in order to gain acquaintance generally with
its language, contents, and spirit. But along with this they
must join the detailed examination of one particular book,
that is, they must consult the best commentaries, in order, by
the study of them, to attain unto a wide and fair understanding
of the particular books, and so gradually to reach a scientific
exegetical knowledge of Scripture. Especially ought the
beginner, whether he read cursorily or in detaU, to be counselled
not to read thoughtlessly, but to make clear to himself in regard
to each chapter, what its fundamental thoughts are, and, in
concluding every book, what are its principal contents.

THE HISTOEY OF EXEGESIS. 99
The history of exegesis is of the greatest importance for
the exposition of Scripture. The Old Testament was for the
Jews, as the Old and New Testaments are for Christians, the
subject of uninterrupted scholarly occupation. In numerous
commentaries, paraphrases, and translations, they have given
expression to their understanding of Scripture. Those
exegetical works of early times are an indispensable aid to
the exegetes of the present. In regard to the exposition of
particular books, upon which he comments, the exegete
must consult the already existing commentaries and transla
tions, and in every particular passage he must endeavour to
establish the objective sense of Scripture by means of a
critical examination of the earUer expositions. In his own
commentary, he must enumerate and name the most useful
commentaries, and characterize them in accordance with their
value. An exegetical treatise, therefore, has to incorporate in
itself the history of exegesis. While, then, hermeneutics
subjects to its criticism the various methods according to
which, in the course of time, the exposition of Holy Scripture
has proceeded, in order that, on the basis of this critical
review, the method which it adopts as the only proper one
may be vindicated, it is the task of the exegetical treatise to
indicate historically the application of those methods, and to
describe, with reference to those methods, the exegetical works
from the earliest down to the latest period, so that their value
may be forthwith acknowledged in general, according to the
value of the method which they follow. The conclusion,
.however, must not be made dependent upon this alone,
since the faultiest methods do not altogether exclude good
results in details.
On tlie history of exegesis consult the following works : —
J. G. Eosenmiiller, Historia interpretationis librorum sacrorum
in ecclesia Christiana. Hildb. et Lips. 1795-1814. 5 voll.
G. W. Meyer, Geschichte der Schrifterklarung seit der Wieder-

100 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
herstellung der Wissenschaften. Gottingen 1802-1808. 5
Bande. L. Diestel, Geschichte des Alten Testaments in der
ChristUchen Kirche. Jena 1869. Fr. Bleek, Einleitung in das
Alte Testament. 4 Auflage, p. 563 ff.; more fully in the first
Grerman edition, p. 98 ff. [English translation from the second
German edition : Introduction to the Old Testament. London
1869. 2 vols. Comprehensive History of the Exegesis of the
Old Testament, vol. i. pp. 110-170.] Ed. Eeuss, Die Geschichte.
der heiligen Schrift Neuen Testaments. 5 Ausgabe. Braun
schweig 1874, p. 421 ff. [§ 501. Fiinftes Buch, Geschichte
der Exegese. English translation : History of the Sacred
Scriptures of the New Testament, published by T. & T. Clark,
Edinburgh 1884, pp. 526-625. C. A, Briggs, BibUcal
Study, its Principles, Methods, and History. T. & T. Clark,
Edinburgh 1884. On Biblical Exegesis, see pp. 27-37. On
the history of Exegesis, see chapter on the Interpretation of
Scripture, pp. 296-366. On Eabbinical Systems of inter
pretation : — F. Weber, System der Altsynagogalen palastin-
ischen Theologie aus Targum, Midrasch und Talmud. Leipzig
1880. Also interesting papers by F. W. Farrar in Expositor
for 1877, vol. V. of first series. Especially article Eabbinic
Exegesis, p. 3 62. On Patristic and Eeformation Systems of
interpretation : — Samuel Davidson, Sacred Hermeneutics
developed and applied ; including a History of Biblical
Interpretation from the earliest of the Fathers to the Eefor
mation. Edinburgh 1843. Papers on the value of the
Patristic Writings for the Criticism and Exegesis of the
Bible, by W. Sanday, in the Expositor, vol. xii., first series.
Chrysostom, p. 123 ff.; Jerome, p. 217 ff.; Augustine,
p. 304 ff. Papers on the Eeformers as exegetes, by Farrar
in the Expositor, vol. vii., second series. Erasmus, p. 43 ff, ;
Luther, p. 214 ff. ; Calvin, p. 426 ff.]

BIBLICAL THEOLOGY. 101

§ 31. BIBLICAL THEOLOGY.
As hermeneutics and the whole of the branches of study
which precede it are, in relation to exegesis, mere auxUiary
sciences, exegesis is itself again an auxiliary science in relation
to that branch of study designated biblical theology, in which
the conclusions of exegetical theology are given. The highest
aim of exegetical theology, that is, of the first division of
theological science, is the attainment of a historical under
standing of primitive Christianity, and this aim is realized in
the last subdivision of exegetical theology, in the so-called
biblical theology. Inasmuch as this last-named branch has
in a pre-eminent degree to form its contents out of Holy
Scripture, it must assume the most exact understanding of
Scripture, and the acquiring of this is the service which
exegesis, with all its auxiUary sciences, has to render. It
must certainly be acknowledged that exegesis itself already
answers to the highest end of exegetical theology. For if,
indeed, it expounds the particular books of the Old and New
Testament, it not only leads up regularly to the preparations
or foreshadowings of Christianity, as they are given in the
Old Testament, but it also already introduces us to the under
standing of Christianity. Nevertheless, inasmuch as these
exegetical operations only extend to the one particular book
of which the exposition happens to treat, and inasmuch as
the exposition must take into account the continuous content
of the writing to be expounded, much that has no immediate
connection with reUgion must be expounded with equal
thoroughness and care. On the contrary, biblical theology
has to take up only the essentially reUgious contents of the
Old and New Testaments, and to set forth these contents, not
according to their several parts that have been fortuitously

102 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
thrown together, but according to a definite plan and in their
inner objective connection. Only in modern times has it been
possible, in consequence of the more complete scientific con
struction of theology, to give definite recognition to this
problem of biblical theology. The beginnings of this science
already appear in the ancient Church. Then in a more
extensive way it was called forth by the needs of the Eeforma
tion. In the earlier attempts at a biblical theology in the
Eeformation period, it occupied a position of absolute depend
ence upon dogmatics. According to the principle of the
Eeformation, every dogma must be established by means of
biblical proof passages. In consequence of the multitude of
passages, and in the interest of their full exposition, theologians
were soon obliged to treat them by themselves apart from dog
matics. Thus arose the theologia topica which was occupied with
the exposition of the roiroi, the loci clcossici or dicta probantia
of Holy Scripture, for the purpose of furnishing dogmatic proof
according to the scheme adopted from dogmatics. From this
servile position the so-called topical science gradually emanci
pated itself, and, on the ground of its historical task, raised
itself to the rank of an independent exegetical branch, to
which now "the name of biblical theology is usually given.
The name, however, is not quite appropriate and suitable for
this branch. The word " theology " can be here taken, neither ,
in its narrower sense, as the doctrine of God, nor in its wider
sense, as theological science. Were one to understand it in
the latter sense, biblical theology would then be identical with
exegetical theology, and would mean the theological-scientific
treatment of the Bible generally. It is in this way that Pelt
and Eosenkranz, for example, in their Encyclopsedias employ
the term biblical theology for exegetical theology. Hence
they resolved to give up the use of the name "biblical
theology" for that particular branch of exegetical theology,
and to employ instead the term " bibUcal dogmatics." How
ever, even this name does not exactly suit to describe the

HISTOEY OF , BIBLICAL EELIGION. 103
character of this branch of study. If we were to retain it, we
should scarcely be able to affirm decidedly its historical
character from the want of an exact definition of its special
task. This is seen very distinctly in Hagenbach's treatment
of it in his Encyclopsedia. The expression " biblical dogmatics "
can only designate, either a department which has to set
forth the Christian doctrines on the basis of Holy Scripture, or
a department which has to exhibit the doctrines contained in
the Bible. In the former sense, this is not descriptive of our
department, as is at once evident; but even in the latter
sense it is not suitable, for its task is, not to set forth what
we call dogmas, but rather the religion contained in the Old
and New Testaments, and to represent this in its historical
development. Hence the exegetical department, which accom
plishes this, is most appropriately designated — The History of
Old and New Testament Eeligion. In this department what
theology will reach as its final end is the knowledge of
Christianity in its original and primitive form. As, however,
Christianity originally made its appearance in history, it
mostly coincides with the reUgion of the race out of which it
arose, and apart from the knowledge thereof, Christianity
cannot be understood. The immediate presupposition of the
Christian reUgion, the Hebrew reUgion, must therefore of
necessity be admitted into this department, and developed
with historical precision. But in order at once to understand
the special characteristics of the Hebrew religion, and also
rightly to estimate the significance of Christianity in its
original form, this department must, besides the Hebrew
religion, take also for the subject of its investigation the other
pre-Christian religions, and so expand itself into a universal
history of reUgion. It is obUged to take this wide range, not
only for the sake of its own special aim, but also on account '
of a higher theological and churchly reference. Theology,
as the science of the Christian reUgion, has for its highest
task to substantiate the presupposition of the Church, that in

104 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
the Christian religion we are in possession of the absolute
religion, and to show that it is entitled to this name by means
of a scientific demonstration. To this end every part of
theology ought to contribute; therefore also its first part,
exegetical theology. This is what exegetical theology does
furnish in the so-called biblical theology, which forms its
conclusion. This department, therefore, includes within its
range of treatment all the religions preceding the Christian
religion, and, from the comprehensive character of its exposi
tion, it makes Christianity appear as the completion of the
universal historical development of religion. Not only, as in
its earlier endeavours as topical science, does it bring together
particular passages of Scripture as means of proving particular
doctrines, .but it has to show its scientific progress by this, that
it produces for this purpose the general history of religion as
the dictum classicum and prolans, that religion is a historical
reality in the life of the nations, and that, among these
historical realities, Christianity occupies the highest place.
The proof which it thereby furnishes for the reality of religion
in general, and for the truth of the Christian reUgion, is first
of all indeed a merely historical proof, which, as such, has only
a relative significance. Its value is not sufficiently high to
take effect against such objections as are directed against
reUgion, against Christianity and the Church by a depreciating
view of history in consequence of any subjective conceptions.
The historically presented realities point back to one reality in
the human spirit itself, which cannot be destroyed either by
individual antipathies or by philosophical theory.
In accordance with this conception of it, bibUcal theology
is found in the closest connection with the philosophical
history of religion, without, however, becoming identified
therewith, as has been indeed insisted upon on the phUosophical
side. Theology wiU be obliged to allow to phUosophy the
right of treating, not only the Old Testament, as Noack, in his
Encyclopsedia, p. 272, demands, but also the New Testament,

PHILOSOPHICAL AND THEOLOGICAL HISTOEY OF EELIGION. 105
as only of equal value with all other sacred writings. Philo
sophy occupies a position superior to history. With it there
cannot be any separate style of exegesis for any one portion
of the sacred •writings, as claiming to be specially privileged.
All these sacred writings have for it the same dignity, and
must all alike yield to the same kind of critical investigation.
The material for the history of religion thus gained has for
philosophy no generaUy normative significance, but submits
itself again to phUosophical criticism, which has to examine
whether the phUosophical idea of religion has found its real
expression in any one of the historical religions. Now to
assume that theology must take the same course is a require
ment quite incompatible with the , positive character which it
bears in itself by reason of its connection with the Church.
As the Church finds the idea of religion in the Christianity
testified to in the Old and New Testaments, and ascribes to
both Testaments a normative significance, theology attaches
itself to this conception of the Church, and must acknowledge
in these two Testaments a higher dignity than in, for example,
the sacred writings of the Chinese, the Indians, the Parsees.
By means of the dignity given by the Church to these two
Testaments, theology is obliged to devotd to them a special
exegetical activity which, with all its auxUiary appliances,
pursues the one end of showing that Christianity, in connec
tion with the Old Testament reUgion, is the idea of religion
which the Church acknowledges, and for the truth of which
theology has to furnish the demonstration. By reason, how
ever, of this positive attitude which belongs to exegetical
theology, it is in no way hindered from entering into the
freest relationship with the philosophical history of religion.
For its own comprehensive history of the religions, it not
only adopts without exception aU the historically established
results, which the philosophical history of religion brings to
light in regard to the extra-biblical religions, but also, in the
special department to which it limits itself, the ascertainment

106 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOpJeDIA.
of the Old and New Testament religion, it compUes with the
same laws of historical criticism which the philosophical,
history of religion lays down as the foundation of its general
investigation. Inasmuch, then, as its biblical theology is
expanded into a general history of religion, and adopts into
itself, besides the Hebraic, also other non-Christian religions,
it furnishes the proof that it passes beyond the limits of the
historically unfree orthodox theology. Of the so-caUed
heathen religions, this theology generally can know nothing.
They appear to it mere Ulusions of the human spirit, a falling
away from the truth, which has been brought about by the
universal sinfulness of the human race. Only in the Old and
New Testaments is the divine revelation contained. The
heathen religions cannot be brought into any connection with
this revelation, but can only be held forth as warnings and
pictures of horror before the confessors of revealed reUgion.
This view of the history of religion rests upon the mechanical
notion of revelation, which the orthodox theology maintains,
but this has been abandoned as untenable, not only by philo
sophy, but also by scientific theology. By both of these not
only the Old and New Testament reUgions, but all religions,
are recognised as revealed. Eeligion in general, according to
its historical idea, is a relation of man to God. In the various
historical religions this presents itself in the most diverse
ways. Taken collectively they constitute the great process of
the history of religion which, not arbitrarily, but in accordance
with an inner spiritual necessity, runs its course, as a develop
ment of religion from its rudest elements up to its perfect
ideal. In this development, the idea itself is the infinite
motive power which, by its inherent force, bears on the
human consciousness to ever higher stages of the reUgious
life, until, finally, idea and actual phenomenon agree, and the
absolute relationship to God has become historical. The
whole course of the development, however, is conditioned by
means of an absolute act of God. If God had not originally

COMPEEHENSIVE CONCEPTION OF EELIGION. 107
revealed Himself in the spirit of man, then human history
would have been without a religion. Eeligion as such rests
upon an original primitive revelation of God, and in its
development there is the co-operation of two activities, the
divine operation and the human. The Absolute is in Him
self unchangeably one and the same, but, for the human con
sciousness, there is a gradual process which only by degrees,
through various stages, rises to the absolute idea of God, and
to a life corresponding to this idea. From this standpoint
the pre-Christian religions collectively, in so far as they are
historical stages in reference to Christianity, appear, as Noack
says in his Encyclopaedia, like a great Old Testament of
universal history, and in this sense biblical theology is to be
conceived as the history of the religion of the Old and New
Testaments. The orthodox theology, which in its narrowness
of vision rejects a universal history of religion, brings upon
theology the loss of the most striking testimony to the power
of reUgion and the supreme worth of Christianity. But
besides this, the course of the orthodox theology keeps aloof
from the special treatment of Old and New Testament religion.
Inasmuch as it conceives of the reUgions of both Testaments
as the one and only divine revelation, it is obliged, in an
unhistorical way, to deny the distinction that subsists between
the two, and with special delight to recognise New Testament
elements already in the Old. In opposition to this, biblical
theology has also here to make application of historical
criticism, and, inasmuch as it brings the two Testaments
into the relation of historical sequence with one another, it
has to undertake the task of exhibiting with critical precision,
at once the essential unity which subsists between the two,
and the historical differences by which they are distin
guished. From what has been said there foUows the scientific dis
tribution of the theological history of religion. After an
Introduction in which its name is to be justified by reference

108 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
to its history, its place in the theological system, its signifi
cance for theology, and its relations to the philosophical
history of religion are to be discussed, it sets forth its subject
in three divisions: (1) The Heathen Eeligions; (2) The
Hebrew Eeligion ; and (3) The Christian Eeligion.

LITEEATUEE OP THE HISTOEY OF EELIGION. 109

§ 32. THE THREE DIVISIONS OP THE THEOLOGICAL HISTORY
OF RELIGION.
First Division — The Heathen Eeligions. — It is only in
recent times, after the bonds of the old theology had been
broken, that any special attention has been paid to the general
history of religion. The exegete now finds ready to his hand
a rich literature for use in the first division of the history of
religion. C. Meiners, Kritische Geschichte der Eeligioiien.
2 Bde. Hannover 1806. Gorres, Mythengeschichte der
asiatischen Welt. 2 Bde. Heidelberg 1810. Fr. Creuzer,
Symbolik und Mythologie der Alten Volker, besonders der
Griechen. Bd. 1-6. Darmstadt 1819-1823. F. Chr.
Baur, Symbolik und Mythologie oder die Naturreligion des
Alterthums. 2 Bde. Stuttgart 1824. P. F. Stuhr,
AUgemeine Geschichte der Eeligionsformen der heidnischen
Volker. Th. 1, 2. Berlin 1836-1838. Hegel's
Vorlesungen iiber die Philosophie der Eeligion. Bd. 1, 2.
(Werke, Bd. xi., xii. Berlin 1832.) J. A. Hartung, Die
Eeligion der Eomer nach den Quellen dargesteUt. Th. 1, 2.
Erlangen 1836. Die Eeligion und Mythologie der Griechen.
Th. 1-3. Leipzig 1865-1866. C. Eosenkranz, Die
Naturreligion. Iserlohn 1831. L. Noack, Mythologie und
Offenbarung. Th. 1, 2. Darmstadt 1846. A. Wuttke,
Geschichte des Heidenthums in -Beziehung auf Eeligion,
Wissen, Kunst, Sittlichkeit und Staatsleben. Th. 1, 2.
Breslau 1852-1853. Gastrin, Vorlesungen fiber Finnische
Mythologie. Aus dem Schwedischen von A. Schiefner.
Petersburg 1853. L. PreUer, Griechische Mythologie. Bd.
1, 2. Leipzig 1854. Eomische Mythologie. Berlin 1858.
J. G. Welcker, Griechische Gotterlehre. Bd. 1-3. Gottingen
1857-1863. Joh. Scherr, Geschichte der Eeligion. 3 Bde.

110 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Leipzig 1855-1857. ^ Auflage 1860. Bunsen, Gott in
der Geschichte. Th., 1-3. Leipzig 1857-1858. [EngUsh
translation : God in History, or the Progress of Man's Faith
in the Moral Order of the World. With Preface by Dean
Stanley. London. 3 vols.] L. Krehl, Die EeUgion der
vorislamischen Araber. Leipzig 1863. Chr. Petersen,
Griechische Mythologie. (Ersch und Gruber'sche Encyclo
paedic. Bd. 82. 1864.) E. Zeller, Eeligion und Philosophie
bei den Eomern. Berlin 1866. Schelling, Philosophie der
Mythologie. (Werke, ii. 2.) 0. Pfleiderer, Die Eeligion, ihr
Wesen und ihre Geschichte. 2 Bde. Leipzig 1869. F.
Schultze, Der Fetischismus. Leipzig 1871. E. Seydel, Die
Eeligion und die Eeligionen. Leipzig 1872. M. MiiUer,
Essays. Beitrage zur vergleichenden Eeligionswissenschaft.
Aus dem Englischen in's Deutsche iibertragen. 2 Bde.
Leipzig 1869. [Max MuUer, Chips from a German Work
shop, being a series of Essays on the Science of EeUgion,
Mythologies, Traditions, and Customs. 4 vols. London 1880.]
M. MiiUer, Einleitung in die vergleichende Eeligionswissen
schaft. Strassburg 1874. [Max MiiUer, Introduction to the
Science of Eeligion. London 1873. Also, Lectures on the
Origin and Growth of Eeligion as iUustrated in the Eeligions
of India. Hibbert Lecture. London 1878. F.D.Maurice,
The Eeligions of the World and their Eelations to Christianity.
J. Gardner, Faiths of the World. 2 vols. Edinburgh 1858-
1860. J. J. Ign. Dbllinger, The GentUe and the Jew in the
Courts of the Temple of Christ. 2 vols. London 1862.
Sir George W. Cox, Mythology of the Aryan Nations. 2 vols.
London 1870., E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture : the Develop
ment of Mythology, PhUosophy, Eeligion, Art, and Customs.
London 1873. 2 vols. Also, Early History of Mankind.
2nd edition. London 1870. C. Hardwick, Christ and Other
Masters: a Historical Inquiry into some of the Chief
Parallelisms and Contrasts between Christianity and the
Eeligious Systems of the Ancient World. 3 parts. Cam-

CLASSIFICATION OF EELIGIONS. Ill
bridge 1855-1858. Ed. de Pressens6, The Eeligions before
Christ. Edinburgh 1862. Compare also the Hibbert
Lectures by Eenouf, Kuenen, Eenan, Ehys Davids, E^ville, —
aU on questions relating to Comparative Eeligion.]
If the so-called heathen reUgions be here treated separately
from the Hebrew and Christian reUgions, this is not done
from the motive previously attributed to the older theology,
as though the heathen religions were related to the revealed
biblical reUgions as merely natural, and therefore false reli
gions. The. heathenish, as well as the biblical, are revealed
reUgions ; and the biblical religions, as well as the heathenish,
are historical. The two, therefore, are not placed over against
one another as true and false, but their mutual relations are
historicaUy estimated. Even to the lowest stages of heathen
religion there belongs a relative truth, inasmuch as they give
expression generally to religion, and raise the races which
profess them into the general community of mankind, just as
the lowest attempts at art, which the, history of art discloses,
have a universaUy human value as historical evidence of au
artistic sense. Hence, if a distinction is to be drawn between
one and another of the historical religions, not excluding that
between the heathenish and biblical religions, it must be
done without reference to revelation which is common to all.
A characteristic attribute, which history acknowledges as such,
must be sought out, by means of which such a distinction
may be justifled. One may certainly consider the reUgions
Collectively as one whole, and arrange in special groups the
particular religions according to a certain affinity in which
they stand to one another. In this way Max MuUer pro
ceeds, for he, in accordance with the results of the com
parative science of language, takes linguistic affinity as the
principle for the classification of religions. The three classes
of languages which the comparative science of language has
hitherto admitted, — the Turanian, the Semitic, and the Aryan,

112 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
form the basis also of three classes of religions, which can be
interchanged with one another just as little as the languages
themselves. So thinks Max MiiUer. The great importance
of the comparative science of language for the history of
religion is now admittted on all hands. Wherever there is
language there is also religion, and in the word the religious
consciousness creates for itself its immediate expression. In
order to become acquainted with religious views, it is neces
sary to understand the words in their original significance.
Eaces with allied languages, that express their religious con
sciousness by the same words, are also allied in respect of
their reUgion; while peoples of different tongues are, so to
speak, uttering a different religion. Affinity and diversity of
languages are conditions of a similar relationship in respect of
religions. Hence the treatment of the historical religions
with regard to those three classes of languages is not without
a good foundation, and wiU contribute toward giving to the
history of religion the linguistic explanations that are to be
desiderated. Nevertheless the division of religions in accord
ance with that classification of languages does not recommend
itself in the history of religion. Apart from the fact that the
hitherto accepted' classification of the languages applies only
to the Asiatico-European, and that consequently the African
and American religions do not get a place in the schedule of
the science of language, there is this general objection, that
language as such is not fitted to afford an explanation of the
religion which speaks in it. The classification of languages is
based upon their peculiar forms : according as these are
diverse, simUar, or allied, the languages are grouped into
separate families of speech. Now, in reference to religion
this form of the language is of no importance. It scarcely
can be proved that it has had any, not to say a thoroughgoing,
influence upon the essential nature of a religion. On the
other hand, it is not difficult to show that reUgion has had a
certain influence upon language. Therefore it is not the form

LINGUISTIC AND EELIGIOUS AFFINITIES. 113
of the language that is of value for the history of reUgion,
but only the word in which the religious spirit has expressed
itself, for the interpretation of which the history of religion
claims the aid of the comparative science of language as in
dispensable, though not aU-sufficient, The proof furnished
by linguistic investigation from the use of the one name for God
among all the Aryan nations, that there was peculiar to all
these races, and for the same reason also to the Semitic and
to the Turanian races before their dispersion, a common con
sciousness of God, by means of which they are distinguished
from one another, and that after their dispersion the several
national stems into which they were divided were bound to
gether by means of their religious affinity, is in the highest
degree instructive. Nevertheless this religious affinity and
diversity can be determined upon linguistic lines only in a
general way, but not as to its characteristic properties. Origin
ally each one of those three great groups of races may have
had the game consciousness of God, but as they fall apart into
separate nationalities, and the originally common language
becomes separate although still aUied languages, a difference
must also make its appearance in the originally common form
of religion, and, even if the old names be retained, into these
other notions will be introduced. Linguistically, Z'^aMS-^iter,
Zew-irarrip, Ju-fiter, may have the same signification ; but
then the question arises, whether the Indians, the Greeks, and
the Eomans associated the same idea with the word. The
Chinese Tien may make its appearance also in Mongolian,
but has it in the one case the same . religious meaning as in
the other? In order to ascertain the proper character of a
religion, we must take into consideration, not only the
language, but the whole conditions of life which are associated
with it, and the historical relations under which it has arisen
and operated. We must treat religion not only in the light
of the science of language, but also in the light of the history
of worship and of culture. Hence, although the history of
VOL. IL H

114 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
religion has to regard the comparative science of language as
one of its most important auxiliary sciences, it will not be
able to derive the distribution of the reUgions from the classi
fication of the languages, because the peculiarity of linguistic
forms is, in reference to the reUgions, a matter of indifference,
and also because the investigation of language is not alone
sufficient for the understanding of the religions. The prin
ciple for the distribution, distinguishing, and co-ordinating of
the historical reUgions must rather be derived from the nature
of religion itself. Among the rudest as weU as among the
most highly cultured races, the historian of religion finds
traces of that which is called reUgion, faith in a superior,
superhuman power, the consciousness of dependence upon this
power, the longing after deliverance from the bonds of sin and
finitude. The history of aU races gives expression to these
same fundamental elements. They blend together in a rich
harmony, the tones of which, wherever and whenever they
are audible, awaken sympathy in every human heart. But, at
the same time, the most diverse variations and modulations
enter into this harmony, and it is the business of the historian
to represent this diversity in all its manifoldness. It is
exactly this that is of greatest importance in order to secure
immunity from dangerous errors in regard to reUgion. When
Max MiiUer, in his Introduction to the Study of Religion,
insists that, in order to an understanding of the religious
language of the ancients, we should make the assumption
that the ancients iv toZ? fieylcrroii were precisely like our
selves, this can only be admitted in reference to a common
reUgious feeling. If this may be generaUy made applicable
to the old Aryan prayer, " Heavenly Father," and the Christian
prayer, "Our Father who art in heaven," there is still a
difference between the two prayers wide as heaven itself, and
it is pre-eminently the duty of the history of religion to
combat the notion that one religion is as good as another.
Now the centre around which the religious life of a people

EELIGIONS DISTINGUISHED BY THEIE NOTION OF GOD. 115
revolves, is the notion of God that is proper to it. In accord
ance with this notion are formed its peculiar views of the
relations in which God stands to man, and of the attitude
which man occupies in reference to God. The diversity in
the conception of God entertained among the different races
of mankind, determines the diversity of their religions. Hence
only the notion of God is fit to be a norm for the distribution
of these in a history of religion. From this point of view the
heathen religions are to be distinguished from the Hebrew and
Christian religions, inasmuch as the two last named have a
notion of God diverse from that of the heathen religions,
whereas the heathen religions are in this respect generaUy .
agreed. Of these collectively it is characteristic that they
regard nature as the bearer of the divine, that to the things of
nature they assign the attributes of divinity, and by this
means drag the divine within the region of the finite, and
bind upon themselves the bonds of finiteness. They appear,
therefore, as religions of immanence, in contrast to the biblical
religions, as religions of transcendence. Hence, also, the
proposal recommends itself in the history of religion, altogether
to discontinue the non-significant name, " Heathen Eeligions,"
and in place thereof to adopt, as has been already done by
many, the significant name, " EeUgions of Nature." Notwith
standing this specified affinity, whereby they are bound to
gether, they at the same time show quite characteristic features,
by means of which they are distinguished from one another.
In order to indicate their diversity, some have divided them
into dualistic, polytheistic, and pantheistic. The distinctions,
however, which are implied in these terms, are too indefinite
and pUable to be suitable for the distribution of the history of
religion. Some characterize the Indian form of religion as
pantheistic, the Greek as polytheistic ; but with equal right
the former might be caUed polytheistic, and the latter panthe
istic. Instead of this merely numerical principle a qualitative
principle of distribution must be adopted, and that same point

116 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
of view, according to which the biblical religions have been
distinguished from the heathen religions, must be maintained.
If generally the same notion of the divine is common to
the religions of nature, they are nevertheless distinguished in
respect of the different form and manner in which they make
nature the bearer of the divine. The peculiarity of the notion
of God is conditioned by means of the pecuUar notion of nature.
This last is always dependent, upon the natural surroundings
amid which the people lives, its geographical and climatic
conditions, its intellectual, social, and political training. The
religions of nature are therefore all of them national religions,
and can be understood only in connection with the position in
respect of culture of the races among which they prevail
Even Hebraism has its share in this particularism, and has
therefore still a connection with the religions of nature, but,
at the same time, by reason of its idea of God, it rises superior
to itself. What the exegete in his restricted domain has to
do, the historian of religion will have to do in aU the separate
domains of religion, so far as the means are available. This
is a serious task, which can only be accomplished by a division
of labour. Consequently, if the religions of nature are arranged
according to their notion of the divine, it wiU Ukewise be
serviceable for the purposes of the history of reUgion to rank
together in groups those races whose affinity has already been
proved by means of the science of language. The allied
religious notions of a particular circle will serve to bring out
more distinctly the difference by means of the comparison.
The origin of reUgion cannot be historically ascertained any
more than the origin of language. It is the business of the
history of religion to arrange the historically acknowledged
reUgions according to their inner contents, and to point out in
them the gradual stages of elevation from the lowest notions
of God up to the highest. But even among these it is scarcely
possible to determine that which was historically the first, the
original religion, in which first the morning rays of the infinite

VAEIOUS STAGES IN THE HISTOEY OF EELIGION. 117
broke in upon human consciousness. Quite different begin
nings may have been made contemporaneously by different
races. To establish a priority would be of value only if a
reciprocal action were recognised. Seeing that this is scarcely
capable of being established, the history of religion can only
deal with what is given historically, and seek by means of
comparison to determine the inner relationship of the histori
cal religions to one another. A manifoldness of religious
conceptions that is scarcely realizable, presents itself in the
domain of the religions of nature. In the Fetishism of the
so-called savages of the old and new worlds, and in the Shaman
ism of certain Turanian tribes, the lowest stage is found, inas
much as the glimmering conception of higher powers associates
itself, in a purely arbitrary way, with particular natural objects,
and priestly magic is regarded as the means whereby the favour
of the gods is won and their displeasure is averted. Among
the Turanians, the Chinese have risen to a general notion of
heaven, and in it worship the divine power which by its laws
determines and maintains the order of nature and of human
life. The Semitic nations, the Babylonians, Assyrians,
Canaanites, Phoenicians, Arabians, and also originally the
Egyptians as well, saw in the stars of heaven the divine,
which in creating and destroying, ruled over nature and man.
The Aryan nations, the Indians, Persians, Celts, Germans,
Slavs, Greeks, regard the powers which rule in the finite world
as the all-powerful gods, whether it be that, as in the case of
the Indian reUgion, the consciousness rises to the representa
tion of one principle of nature, which out of its own fulness
calls into being every separate creaturely existence, and is
personified in a power for creating, preserving, and destroying,
or that, as in Parseeism, the divine is conceived of as a con
trast of nature between light and darkness, or that, as in the
Old German and in the Graeco-Italian religion, the endless
multitude of powers which manifest themselves in the life of
nature and in the life of the individual man, in social and

118 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
poUtical life, is deified in the form of the human personality.
In the higher stages of the religion of nature the imagination
has created an innumerable crowd of mythological divine forms,
until in the Grseco-Eoman the ideal human was raised to the
throne, and the gods were regarded as ideal human personalities.
In this way the most distinct varieties of reUgion must arrive
at worship. The worship, however, of the religion of nature,
even in its highest stages, is essentially nothing more than a
deifying of nature and self, and does not raise man above
nature and above himself. The longing implanted in the
human spirit after elevation and emancipation from the bonds
of finitude, and after reconciUation and fellowship with the
divine, could not be satisfied in the religion of nature in spite
of all the expiations, sin-offerings, and sacrifices which it
demanded. It was just in the Graeco-Eoman world, where the
religion of nature had attained unto its highest refinement,
that it experienced its decline, inasmuch as the same national
cast of mind, so soon as it had developed into more mature
understanding, destroyed that world of the gods which in its
youth it had created. The Greek philosophy only executed
the sentence upon the popular belief which must have faUen
upon it because of its inner negativity. In the myth it
acknowledged a mere aUegory, which, by means of its historical,
physical, and metaphysical interpretation, it reduced to its own
proper content. The mythical circle of the gods, to which
the people looked up as to the Supreme, is a poetic apotheosis
of merely finite thoughts. The ideal truth, which forms the
basis of the myths, is alone to be retained. The gods, who
appear as the vehicle of this truth, have no objective reality,
are unsubstantial forms, which the imagination' of the race has
created, and their worship is a delusion, from which the
intelligent turn away with contempt, yea, with mockery and
scorn. PhUosophy now struck out its own path, and endea
voured, by means of the power of thought with which it had
laid bare the falseness of the popular reUgion, to rise above

PHILOSOPHY OVERTHROWS THE RELIGIONS OF NATURE. 119
the sphere of the finite into the realm of the infinite. To the
people, however, from whom it had taken away their gods,
philosophy could make no reparation. If the gods, on whom
they had hitherto believed, are no gods, then they would just
rid themselves of any beUef in them ; but the philosophical
idea was too high to be grasped by the people and to become
a real, power in their lives.
The Greek philosophy exercised the same annihilating
influence upon the Eoman religion. While the liberties of
Greece had been destroyed by Eoman domination, the Greek
spirit gained dominion over Eoman life. As the Greek
worship had been blended together with the Eoman, the
Greek culture, which had destroyed its own people's faith,
so soon as it passed over to the Eomans, led also to the
destruction of Eoman worship. The empire of the Caesars,
one of the greatest creations of human might, sought indeed
its support in the higher divine powers, and while, in con
quered lands, extending a liberal toleration to foreign modes
of worship, it raised the old national religion to the rank of a
legalized state religion. But the law could not change the
spirit of the people, which had already turned away from it,
and the contention of philosophy received confirmation in the
apotheosis of the civil power, when the person of the emperor
was deified as the representative of an imperial might omni
present and reaching over all. While those occupying the
highest ranks in society found a spiritual holding ground in
their philosophical culture, or drowned in forgetfulness their
despairing abandonment of the divine and their unbelief by
rushing into the enjoyments of a dissolute life, others, who
were excluded from a share in government, culture, and
enjoyment, and had been in their hearts cut adrift from the
worship of the gods of their fathers, sank down into the
grossest superstition. As the philosophers had thought to
find the truth in Eclecticism, those untutored ones endea
voured to satisfy the unsatisfied craving after the divine in

120 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
the conglomeration of a multitude of foreign religious rites,
which indeed attracted only by the charm of strangeness, but
at most offered nothing higher, often something lower, than
their own cast-off and effete religion.^
What were thus carried out in the Grseco-Eoman Empire
immediately before and after the beginning of the Christian
era, has a more general significance far beyond these limits.
By reason of the conflict in which the national religion was
here involved with the national philosophy, it was shown
historically that the religions of nature generally, in spite of
the fundamental reUgious elements which belong to them,
bear about within them the seeds of death, and in the struggle
with phUosophical criticism are not able to maintain their
ground. For that which in its fall was brought to light in
regard to the Grseco-Eoman reUgion, is the universal untruth
of all religions of nature, that they, banished into the sphere
of nature, take the finite for the infinite.
Second Division. — The Hebrew religion, by reason of its
thoroughly national character, still occupies a place alongside
of the religions of nature, but over against these it secures to
itself a higher and independent position. Writers on the
philosophy of religion have had trouble in co-ordinating it in
the ranks of the historical religions. Hegel does not reckon
the Greek and Hebrew religions among the religions of nature,
but assigns to them a separate and a higher place ; whereas
Noack regards them as only reUgions of nature, and considers
the Hebrew, as compared with the Greek, a lower stage.^
However, as it can scarcely be matter of doubt that the
Greek religion belongs to the religions of nature, so it may be
granted that the Hebrew religion has its place above these,
and therefore, also, above the Greek religion. The very com
mandment of Ex. XX. 4, not to make or to worship any
1 Compare Holtzmann, Geschichte des Volkes Israel. Bd. 2, p. 273. E.
Renan, Les ApStres. Paris 1866, p. 304 If.
^ Noack, Encyclopsedie, p. 335 ff.

PERIODS IN HEBEAISM. 121
image or likeness of that which is in heaven above, or below
upon the earth, or in the water under the earth, indicates a
consciousness of God which rises far above the sphere of the
religion of nature, and attains unto an absolutely transcendent
conception of God. The difference between the divine on the
one hand, and the natural and human on the other hand, is
here clearly recognised, and the worship of the many gods of
nature is exchanged for the worship of the one purely extra-
mundane God. The Hebrew religion, however, does not
appear as from the beginning, in respect of its contents,
determined and finally and fully settled by means of a divine
revelation ; but it is rather seen advancing through various
stages of development on to the time of its dissolution. The
exposition of it must, therefore, foUow the historical course,
and must take into consideration the periods in which charac
teristic modifications of the religious consciousness are to be
recognised. In recent times, after the example of de Wette,
it has been customary to distinguish two periods : — the period
of Hebraism, down to the end of the exile, and the post-
exilian period of Judaism. This division, however, is quite
too general, inasmuch as in the period of Hebraism an
important difference of culture makes its appearance. Others
propose to divide into Patriarchal, Mosaic, Prophetical, and
Post-exilian periods.^ But even this does not correspond to
the historical reality. Prophecy is not to be limited to any
one period, and during the very period in which the prophetic
activity was especially influential in securing the further
development of the reUgious consciousness, poetry and didactic
writings were also operating along with it. Since also the
religious development generally stood in the closest connection
with the political and intellectual development of the race,
the division of the history of the religion of the Old Testa-
1 Compare Pelt, Encyclop?;die, p. 224 ff. [F. W. Schultz in Zockler's
Handbuch : — 1. Pre-prophetic ; 2. Prophetic ; and 3. Post-prophetic periods.
Oehler : — 1. Mosaism ; 2. Prophetism ; and 3. The Chokma or Wisdom.]

122 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
ment must attach itself to the division of the Hebrew history
and literature. When we adopt this method, we get three
periods : the first, extending from the earliest times down to
the time of the kings, — the Period of the Founding: the
second, from the time of the kings down to the end of the
exile, — the Period of Advancement : and the third, from the
end of the exile down to the Christian era, — the Period of
Decay.^ First Period. — The beginnings of the Hebrew religion, Uke
the beginnings of language, lie in historical obscurity. The
sources, which are at our command, make it impossible to
determine historically the reUgion of the patriarchs, and that
of the antediluvian times, as was attempted by the old
theologians. This much only may be determined from the
legendary account of Genesis, that the religious consciousness
of the Abrahamic family points back to an original connection
with the old Semitic religion of nature, but that already in
Abraham's family the many heavenly bodies, which were
worshipped in the Semites' reUgion of the stars, were recog
nised and personified as the one heavenly power and divinity
(Mohim), and worshipped as the HI Eljon and El Schaddai
(Gen. xiv. 18 ff.; Ex. vL 3). As to how this transition
was accomplished we have nothing on record. The fact
remains, though the historical explanation is wanting. A
step in advance, of supreme importance in the history of
religion, was here made, which, whether it was accompUshed
now in the experience of one or in that of many, is to be
referred to the divine efficiency present in all reUgions, to an
inner act of revelation, by means of which the yearning after
the divine was raised to a higher stage of the consciousness of
God.^ The same is to be said of the work of Moses.
1 In this threefold distribution we are in agreement with Hermann Schultz,
Alttestamentliche Theologie, Bd. 1, 2, Frankfurt a. M. 1869, Bd. 1, p. 73 ff.,
only that he assigns somewhat different limits to his periods.
2 Compare on the Pre-Mosaie Period, Schultz, Alttestamentliche Theologie,
Bd. 1, p, 95 ff.

INFLUENCE OF MOSES ON HEBEEW EELIGION. 123
Undoubtedly Moses found among his contemporaries the
beginnings of a peculiar religious consciousness, and under the
sanction thereof, a special form of morality. As the same
tribal origin, the same language and reUgion, are generally the
strongest connecting links of nationality, one is entitled to
assume that the Israelites also in Egypt were distinguished
from the foreign people by means of their monotheistic con
sciousness of God, and were thus held together as members of
a common stock. This national religious basis is a presup
position of the activity of Moses. Not as the founder of a
religion, but as a reformer and prophet, did he make his
appearance among his people.. At the same time, he was
more than a prophet, inasmuch as he, by means of the creative
act of the divine spirit dwelling within him, and by means of
that legislative wisdom with which he was endowed, laid
down as legislator the ground upon which the Israelites
became a religiously united national community. According
to Moses, the one God is the spiritual personal God, who has
absolute power over nature as well as over man, whose
lordship indeed stretches over all peoples, who has, however,
out of free love chosen the Hebrew race to be His own, and
has raised them to be the people who shall receive His direct
revelation. Elohim is Jehovah, the God of His own people,
and the plan, which by means of this race He should carry
out, was made known to Moses, inasmuch as to him Jehovah
revealed His will as the law, under which the Hebrew race
through all time was to be bound. The relationship between
Jehovah and His people is a covenant relationship. Jehovah,
as absolute Lord and Governor, has through Moses promul
gated His wiU as law, and the people are bound to yield
obedience to the law. Only through obedience to the law
does the nation win and maintain its independence both of
other nations and of nature. When they become disobedient
to the law, they fall under the wrath and punishment of God.
This covenant relationship is theocracy. Jehovah is King

124 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
of the people ; they are the servants of Jehovah. Jehovah iS
Lawgiver ; the people are subjects bound to render obedience,
who according to their conduct preserve or forfeit their divine
privileges. The religious sentiment of the people is the fear
of God, as a reverential fear in presence of the Almighty and
All-merciful, and as a holy dread in presence of the angry and
avenging God. Out of this arises the conception of righteous
ness, the nj^ns, conduct corresponding to the divine will. As
Jehovah over against nature is the absolutely holy, so His
people also, and every individual among them, are holy.
Distinguished by means of the covenant sign of circumcision
from other nations, by means of the ceremonial law from
nature, the people are secured against contamination through
any element foreign or natural. As in the religions of nature,
reverence for God expressed itself in sacrifice, the rendering
of which secured the favour of Jehovah and expiation for the
sins of the nation and of individuals.
By means of the activity of Moses as a reformer, the
nation of Israel was raised to an ideal height which has no
analogue in ancient history. But not only in the Hebrew
national life, but also generally, in the life of the world, there
was now implanted an ideal divine aim. The reUgious
ethical commonwealth, into which Moses brought his people,
carried in itself according to its fundamental elements the
destination of becoming a kingdom of God for all nations.
It cannot be wondered at, that in the covenant conception of
Moses there should still be present elements of the old
Semitic religion. Just as little can it seem strange, that in
the immediately post-Mosaic period, during the times of the
Judges, the theocratic life was for the most part regarded
as simply an abstract demand, and that the people want
ing any established and central authority, did not so easily
avoid the sensuous life of nature, or the forms of nature-
worship prevailing among neighbouring nations with whom
they had a tribal affinity. Nevertheless, the fundamental

HEBEEW SACEED LITEEATUEE UNDEE THE KINGS. 125
thoughts of Mosaism still continued to be, even in the wild
and unsettled times of the Judges, a Uving power among the
people, and especially the priests at the national sanctuary in
ShUoh seem, in the spirit of Moses, to have further developed
the worship of Jehovah, and to have carried on to fuller
perfection the leading characteristics of the theocratic law laid
down by Moses.'-
Second Period. — By means of the establishment of the
kingly authority and the building of the temple at Jerusalem,
the people became a civilly and religiously united national
community. What Moses had conferred upon them, now
penetrated more generaUy and more deeply the national con
sciousness. The highest national civilisation was inspired
and charged with the spirit of the worship of Jehovah, and as
it had originated within the realm of the community, so
it must also in its utterances react continually in the
spirituaUzation and theocratic elevation of the life of the
whole community. With the kings and priests are associated
the poets, prophets, and wise men of the nation. WhUe the
former have the preservation and administration of the
worship of Jehovah officially under their care, the others in a
perfectly free manner insist upon the enduring character of
the divine covenant and the purpose of the divine state.
Lyric poetry, as it appears in the Psalms, is the most direct
expression of the individual life determined by Jehovism, and
the purest source from which a knowledge of religious national
consciousness may be derived. The sublimity of the Hebrew
lyric lies in the contrast, which here is brought out in all its
severity, between the divine and the human. Over against
the Almighty and All-holy God stands man in his weakness
and sin. The law sets God at once near and far from man.
1 On >the work of Moses, compare Hermann Schultz, Alttest. Theologie,
Bd. 1, p. 123, and H. Ewald, Die Lehre der Bibel von Gott, oder Theologie des
Alten und Neuen Bundes. 4 Bde. Leipzig 1871-1876. Bd. 1, p. 103 ff.
[English translation of first volume : Revelation, its Nature and Record. Edin
burgh, T. & T. Clark, 1884, p. 106 ff.]

126 . THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Should one glory before God in the righteousness of the law,
then the manifold sufferings of his own condition remind him
again and again of the divine revenging wrath, and fill him
with the consciousness of sin and guilt, so that he can have
recourse only to the mercy and the grace of God. As it is in
this that the saint under the law places his fullest trust for
himself and for the community in which he Uves, the same
legalistic consciousness leads him to beseech God to take
vengeance upon His enemies and the enemies of the saints,
and according to His righteousness to destroy by His judgments
the wicked, the godless, and the evil-doers. But in His grace
God must not linger, and must not leave penitent sinners to
die in misery. Over against the earthly life there is the com
fortless shadow-life in Sheol in the lower world. Only upon
earth can God dispense happiness, and He can be praised only
by the living. It is the characteristic attribute of God to
show mercy to the unhappy. The souls in Sheol can no
longer praise Him. In a thoroughly original way the Hebrew
piety has expressed itself in the Psalms, as individual
experience, with all the varied affections and emotions, which
religious feeling has to pass through, from the profoundest
sorrow before God to the highest rejoicing exultation in God ;
but the ground-tone, which sounds through all, is humility
before God and unconditional confidence in the divine
guidance. While the poet turns in upon his own inner Ufe and
becomes subject to the fitful frames of his own religious feel
ing, the prophet directs his gaze outward to the national life
of his age, and confronts it with the sure consciousness of the
fellowship in which he stands with God. Prophecy is the
most perfect form of the life of Hebraism, the most complete
realization of the theocratic religious spirit. The spirit of
God, which inspires the prophet, is the power to which his
human understanding and will are subordinated, and the law
is for him the covenant expression of the divine wUl, which

THE CHARACTER OF HEBEEW PEOPHECY. 127
by means of his people is to be realized. As the messengers
of God to His people, the prophets are called to serve the
highest national idea, the idea of God's sovereignty. Their
utterance is always an act of inspiration, in which they
declare to their nation the very word of God, and immediately
in the spirit show what, among the most complicated relations
of the present, is theocratically right, and for the future
theocratically necessary. Eegardless of its severity, they apply
to the life of the people as a whole the standard of the law,
and judge according to this standard, both the present and the
future of the divine state. They borrow from the law the
fundamental idea which characterizes the covenant relation
ship, the idea of retribution. According to the attitude of
the people to the divine wUl, the attitude of Jehovah toward
the people is determined. All the sufferings and misfortunes
which come upon the nation, and aU the dangers which are
experienced, are called forth by departures from Jehovah and
disobedience to His commands. The covenant is dissolved.
Jehovah is not bound to be .faithful to a faithless people, but
to punish. Hence by aU the prophets the exhortation is
addressed to the people that they put away from them every
thing untheocratic, and in rraentance and mourning return
unto Jehovah, that they maintain obedience and unbroken
allegiance to His will, unfaltering confidence in His help and
in His promises, and, even amid the greatest sufferings, a joy
ful hope in Jehovah. The blessing of the kingdom wUl not
then be lost, for the love of Jehovah is unchanging toward His
chosen people, and the faithfulness of His promises endures
for ever. But as no period answers to the demands of the
law, so no period answers to the exhortations of the prophets.
Hence the prophets, who in the spirit of God have the
"•uarantee of fulfilment, rise above the sin which has laid hold
upon all ranks of the people, and above the mischiefs produced
thereby, and the breaches made upon the kingdom, by an
onward look into the future. The completion of the kingdom

128 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
can only be shared in by the ideal people of God. So, what
poets only uttered as a wish in prayer, the prophets by the
order of God Himself proclaim quite objectively as a reaUty of
the approaching future, — a universal judgment, a great day of
account, in which Jehovah will destroy all apostates and
sinners from among His people. The rest of the faithful wor
shippers of Jehovah, who remain after the completed purging
and purification, form the basis of the theocratic kingdom of
the future. A time of glorification then begins, in which all
,the divine promises are fulfilled. The kingdom of the future
will be made by Jehovah to overflow with all earthly
blessings. After the pattern of the great king of ancient
times, after the pattern of David, the government will be
upon one anointed above all, upon a Messiah sprung from the
stock of David, who is endowed with the spirit of Jehovah
and with all theocratic virtues. The members of this kingdom
will be participators in the spirit of Jehovah, and in love to
Jehovah will keep His commandments. They will live in
peace with nature and with man. The power of death wiU be
restricted, yea, will be destroyed. The just shall live by their
faith. The strange nations, too, of whom Jehovah from time
to time made use as a scourge upon His sinful people, will
be then joined to the theocratic kingdom, and together with
its members will worship Jehovah at Jerusalem. This 'is
essentially the contents of all prophetic preaching : a loud
warning to all untheocratically-minded among the people, and
rich divine comfort unto all who are faithful to Jehovah.
The most important creation of the prophetic spirit is the
Messianic hope. Everything great, which is of enduring
worth for mankind, occurs in history by means of individual
personalities ordained and called of God. The prophetic
declaration, that by means of a great theocratic personahty the
religious Ufa of mankind should be brought to perfection, pro
ceeded from a notion deeply religious and historically true.
The promise, too, has at the same time a thoroughly universal

OEIGIN OF THE WISDOM LITEEATUEE. 129
character. AU nations will be united with Israel in a common
worship of Jehovah in the glorified Jerusalem. The reUgious
ethical perfection was, undoubtedly, always associated by the
prophets with the outward condition of the ideal theocratic
state ; but if, indeed, not broken down, the boundaries of the
national particularism were, with that promise, at least broken
through. The wise men of the Hebrews do not, like the prophets,
consider the people of a particular period, but the people as
such according to their covenant relationship with God. In
common with the poets and prophets, they have a firm faith
in the revelation given in the law. The fear of the Lord is
the beginning of wisdom, that is, it is the starting-point, and
it is also the basis upon which wisdom rests. (Prov. i. 7,
ix. 10.) In the wise man, however, along with faith there is
joined the reflective understanding, which makes the national
religion the subject of its consideration, and from the national
idea of God and the truths inherent therein, rises to a universal
view of the world and Ufe, which is exercised upon the col
lective life of the nation. The Hebraic wisdom is the insight
into the nature and will of God mediated by the reflective
understanding, and the moral self-determination in corre
spondence with this will, — a quite peculiar intellectual
tendency, similar to the philosophy of other nations, but
distinguished from it in principle and form. — The contrast
between the actual condition of the people's life and the ideal
of the national covenant could not remain hidden from the
Hebrew consciousness. Out of the consciousness of this
contrast arose the Wisdom literature, and the problem which
it had to solve. The task which was assigned it consisted
essentially in obtaining an answer to the question as to the
relation of evil to the national idea of God. While prophecy
looks forward, and seeks, in the ideal conlition of the future,
the solution of those disharmonies from which the life of the
people suffers. Wisdom looks backward, and transports the
VOL. II. I

130 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
ideal condition to the past, in order to find the explanation of
those disharmonies, and, at the same time, the proper remedy
for their removal in the present. Wisdom has an open eye
for the shady side of present reality. It sees suffering and
misfortune preponderating in human life, vain striving and
small success, foolish fancies, boasting and impotence, enmity,
discord, the insolence of wealth, the oppression of the poor,
sickness, a short life, and the dominion of death ; and over
against this condition of life, the question presses forward
in Wisdom, whether all this was originally ordained of God
and must necessarily so remain for aU time. In the most
decided manner from its idea of God it answers this question
in the negative, and places itself on the height of a theodicee.
From this point of view, the first three chapters of Genesis,
the account of the creation and the life of our first parents,
are conceived : in them Wisdom has laid the foundations of its
theory of the world and of life. God is the Almighty : by His
word He has made heaven and earth, and everything that
arose at His word was good. He created man in His own
image ; the breath of God was the principle of life in man.
The sphere of life, which God prepared for man's first parents,
was Paradise. The deeply religious fundamental thought, from
which the story proceeds, is the fellowship of life with God,
for which the first men were intended in conformity to their
relationship with God. It is represented as a sensible out
ward intercourse with God, and as an eternal physical life
with God, as a condition, in which men were to lead in
harmony with God and nature a Ufe free from all evils and
sufferings, and to enjoy a paradisaical blessedness. But this
glory, destined of God for man, was by the first man himself
frustrated by reason of the transgression of a divine command ;
driven out of Paradise on account of his sin, man was involved
in a struggle with nature and its horrors, obliged to engage in
hard labour, to endure all the toils and miseries which are
seen in our present lot, and rendered subject to what is most

PERSONIFICATION OF THE DIVINE WISDOM. 131
terrible of all, the inevitable power of death. The cherubim
constantly guard with flaming sword the approach to the tree
of life. At the basis of this conception there lies a spirit of
resignation truly tragical. To the unhappy present the ideal
state seems the pure condition of a remote past. But the
result to which it leads is firmly estabhshed : the ground of
all evil in the condition of man is to be sought, not in God,
but only in the sin of men. Now over against this actual
state of matters, the people of God are not powerless and
defenceless. If that which was originally lost cannot be per
fectly won back again, man is, nevertheless, in a position to
deliver himself from the miseries which threaten him, and
even to restrain the power which death has over him. But
this end is attainable only by means of struggle against sin,
and wisdom itself affords the weapons for this, in so far as it
rises to a more profound recognition of God. By the word
of power, which created all things, Wisdom points to an
intelligence in God from which the word proceeded, to an
intelligence, in accordance with which God conceives and
executes the plan of creation. This intelligence is the divine
Wisdom which is regarded as an attribute of God, but is
viewed at the same time, according to a poetic conception, as
a person existing outside of God, who before anything was
created was with God, and stood in relation to the creation
as an artificer and master-worker by the side of God.
(Prov. viii. 22.) The Almighty God, therefore, is also
the All-wise, who carried out the plan of the creation
according to His wisdom, and provides by His wise ordinance
for sustaining the whole life of nature and man. For His
own people He has laid down this ordinance in His law,
and human wisdom, which cannot, indeed, fathom the depths
of divine Wisdom (Job xxviii.), still recognises in the law
the holy will of God as the universal rule of life for the
people of God. As the Almighty and the All- wise directs
and determines the affairs of all nations, so pre-eminently

132 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
He determines the affairs of His own nation, and the
individual members thereof, in accordance with their attitude
toward the law. The harmony between God and man,
which was disturbed by sin, can only be restored through
man's submitting himself to the holy will of God. Inas
much as sin is the original cause of all evil, obedience to the
law is the primary condition for winning again freedom from
all suffering and the happiness of the earthly condition. In
union with the almightiness and wisdom of God stands His
righteousness, according to which He relates Himself in love
to those who are obedient to His will, and in wrath to those
who are disobedient. The realization of the ideal ends of
life, which God has set before His people, is placed by
Wisdom, not in a Messianic future, but in the actual present.
The judgment of God is an administration of His righteousness
for aU times. He blesses the righteous with the richest ful
ness of blessing and with long life ; He punishes the godless
with all kinds of misfortune and sudden destruction. The
didactics of Hebrew Wisdom thoroughly establishes the idea
of retribution essentially corresponding to the theocratic
consciousness, and is the most perfect expression of the ethical
tendency which is present in Hebrew religion. The practical
experience of life, however, which placed undeniable facts
over against the theory, made a deep rent in this conception.
The reality ordinarily presents itself, not as this theory
teaches, but as something quite the reverse. Not the right
eous, but the godless, live in comfort ; and not the godless,
but the righteous, live in misery. Unquestionable as this
experience was, it exposed to danger alike the theocratic piety
and the theocratic morality. If there be no moral order of
the world, why fear God and keep His commandments ? Out
of this there sprang up for Wisdom the hard problem, the
solution of which was undertaken by the author of the Book
of Job. It had to defend the standpoint of faith and the
ethical standpoint which Wisdom had hitherto assumed. The

THE RISE OF THE JEWISH SCEIBES. 133
highest end, which is assigned to man, is still the ni5"is, the
righteousness of the law. Though this, by man's judgment,
may be called in question constantly by reason of the misfor
tunes which overtake the righteous, still the righteous man
should never let himself be confounded in regard to his faith
and his striving, either by misfortune or by escape from
misfortune. He stands under the guidance of the Almighty
and AU-wise God, and must, in spite of every contradiction
of experience, finally be acknowledged and blessed by the
righteous God in His righteousness. In the Book of Job,
Hebraism with its Wisdom celebrates its highest ethical
triumph. Third Period. — The legalism which became dominant in the
post-exilian community, and the foreign influence, which the
community was not able to resist, led to the gradual dissolu
tion and overthrow of the old faith of the fathers. The
promise, which was given by God to His people, cannot
remain unfulfilled, but the fulfilnaent is conditional upon the
strictest observance of the legal temple worship, which
excluded all idolatrous elements, and upon the most complete
subjection of the whole life to the standard of the law. This
is the fundamental thought which inspired the community,
and which, from the times of Ezra, who himself makes his
appearance as Cohen and Sopher, as priest and scribe, was
fostered by means of the learning of the scribes, which
graduaUy won the most extensive infiuence, and ultimately
thrust aside all other inteUectual employments in the com
munity. To teach the law to the people was originally the
duty of the priests, but soon now besides the priests there was
formed, from the midst of the laity, a special order of scribes,
who, at the beginning of the second century before Christ,
were already held in high repute, as appears from the praise
of the jpafifiarev<; by Jesus Sirach. (Chap, xxxix. 1-11.)
After these scribes had out of the old literature placed
together a collection of writings as inspired of God, a sacred

134 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
canon, they applied themselves with astonishing zeal to the
study of it, and to the establishment of the sacred text. The
most approved subject of their investigation was the law,
which, with hypercritical subtilty, they explained and inter
preted, in order to lead to a right understanding thereof and
to an insight into all the possible consequences which might
be derived therefrom, and be made applicable to the worship
or to the life. The Book of Jubilees, or the little Genesis,
is an instructive example of their exegesis, a commentary on
the canonical Genesis, conceived quite in the spirit of that
age. They sought then, also, in the synagogues to impart to
the people the knowledge that had been gained in the school,
and with their Halacha, their interpretations of the law, they
drew a fence around the law, by means of which the intro
duction of any foreign element, as well as any wilful addition
by the community itself, was excluded. With the apprecia
tion of the law must advance also the depreciation of every
thing foreign. The people of God, who are obedient to the
law, cannot remain unto all time subject to a foreign yoke.
The piety resulting from scribe-learning courageously under
cook the conflict with the Syrian power, and went with
enthusiasm to death for their worship and its holy rule of
life. All the hopes in regard to the future glory of the
nation, which the old prophets in their youthful vigour had
grasped, were again awakened, in the newly found school of
the priestly princes, by means of the wars of the Maccabees.
Poetry itself, which had now preserved a long silence, gave
itself to the delivery of a prophetic message." Moved especially
by the schism that was producing an inner rent among the
people of God, it threatened the breakers of the law, the un
holy and godless, who in company with the Gentiles desecrated
the sanctuary, with perdition and Hades, while it promised to
the righteous, the holy, and those who feared God, resurrection
and eternal life, and besought God to send the Messiah and
to establish the kingdom of the saints. (Psalterium Salomonis.)

JEWISH APOCALYPTIC LITEEATUEE. 135
But most prominent of all were now the Apocalypses, which
appeared in the place of the old prophets, and filled the minds
of the people with the most extravagant expectations. As
the scribes treated of the law, the writers of Apocalypses dealt
with the promises of the old prophets. Utterly deficient in
originality and creative power, they borrowed from the
prophets the Messianic promise, and sought to answer the
question, to which the whole longing of the age was directed,
how and when the Messianic kingdom was to be realized.
The apocalyptic literature is the prophecy of refiection, and
has, conformably to its inquiry regarding the final determina
tion of things, an essentially eschatological character. Ac
cording to the experience, however, which lay behind it, the
circle of its historical vision was extended, as compared with
the ancient prophecy. It had to solve the riddle that was
everywhere pressing, how and when the Gentile rule of the
world (and that was, in general terms, the rule of the wicked
in the earth) would be overthrown, and the theocratic
Messianic rule attain unto victory. Daniel, the Alexandrian
author of the Sibylline books (Book Third), the Book of
Enoch, and the Fourth Book of Esdras, agree in this, that the
end of the worldly power has come, and that the people of
God, who by His law are set over all other nations, will enter
soon under their Messiah upon the sovereignty of the world.
There is just this difference between them, that the SibylUst,
under the influence of Greek culture, does not require that
the Gentile nations should be annihilated, but allows them to
enter with Judah into the universal kingdom of peace, in
whose capital, Jerusalem, God will shine as the eternal light.
The kingdom of the Messiah as the Church of God, which
embraces all its citizens, into which, also, all the departed
saints of the nation, whose walk has been a walk according
to the law, will be received at the resurrection of the dead, is
the fulfilment of every promise to Judah. A deeply reUgious
trait, the immoveable conviction that God who has revealed

136 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Himself to His people, who alone is the true, and toward His
own people the eternally faithful, God, appears everywhere
throughout the apocalyptic proclamations. The apocalyptic
writings, however, lay down their statements as the outcome,
of the most immediate divine revelation, which has been
obtained by direct seeing and hearing in visions and dreams,
or by direct communication of heavenly beings, the angels,
and thereby it meets the longing deeply rooted in human
nature for a divine authority which would deliver faith from
every human doubt. Besides this, the attitude which it
assumed toward the powers of the world, and the expectation
of future glory which it led the people to indulge, are specially
worthy of notice. It was particularly just in consequence of
the pressure of the age, that the apocalyptic literature was
fitted to win over to itself the spirit of the people, and to
foster a fanaticism which recklessly hurled itself into the
conflict with the might of the Eoman world.
The didactic literature of this period is not carried away
by the dream of that national ideal which is present every
where in the apocalyptic writings. Under the Persian rule
a perfectly rational conception of things prevailed ; the reality
was admitted, and the idea of retribution, which was the
characteristic source of the apocalyptic literature, was in
danger of being lost sight of altogether. If notwithstanding
the doctrine of the scribes, if notwithstanding aU obedience
rendered to the law, and notwithstanding the most conscien
tious observance of the legal worship, the coming of the pro
mised reward was from time to time delayed, a discouragement,
dejection, and despondency must arise, which Koheleth, by
means of its doctrine of the vanity of all things, endeavours
to transcend. With great subtilty it effectuates the negation
of the whole realm of the finite, so far as known to Hebraism.
All the intellectual and material goods of life, to which man,
on the ground of his moral condition, lays claim, though,
indeed, there is a relative, distinction of worth, are funda-

LATEE DIDACTIC JEWISH LITERATURE. 137
mentally considered alike worthless. A pessimism of this
sort could only in theory acknowledge a moral order of the
world, and could not find it in reality. Instead of breaking
through the limits of the absolutely vain finitude, it lapsed
into the most comfortless resignation, which recommends as
the highest good a condition deprived, as far as possible, of
the alternatives of life, in which man's needs have been
reduced to a minimum, and enjoined the continued fear of
God only as a preservative of that condition. Against this
declaration, unprecedented in Israel, which was in effect a con
ception of the law destructive of the Wisdom theory, a reaction
must of necessity set in. While the Book of Tobit, in the
genial recital of the story of a strictly theocratic family,
purely from the point of view of faith glorifies the idea of
retribution, and causes a suitable reward to follow believing
submission to the lot ordained of God, in Jesus Sirach there
appears, on equal terms with the preacher, an objector, who,
quite in the spirit of the pre-exilian didactic literature, seeks
in Wisdom the ultimate grounding for the whole intellectual
attainment and ethical deportment of his people, and with
careful exactness weighs over against one another the ob
servance of the law, especiaUy of the legal worship, and earthly
happiness. The didactic literature of later Judaism took a
higher flight after coming into contact with Greek culture.
Here East and West appeared over against one another in
their essential characteristics as the opposition of religion and
philosophy, of faith and knowledge, of intellectual restraint
and inteUectual freedom, and to combine these disparate mental
tendencies was the endeavour of Alexandrian Judaism. The
world of ideas, which the Jewish thinkers adopted from the
Greek, and especially from the Platonic philosophy, raised
them above the Umits of finitude and the Jewish particularism,
but was not able to carry them on to a breach with the
ancient faith of their fathers. By means of their monotheism
the Jewish people were from the beginning raised above all

138 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
the other nations, and in their sacred, inspired writings, they
possessed absolute divine truth. When the Jewish thinker
comes to recognise the ideas of the GentUe philosophy, he does
not thereby at all bring them into conflict with the religion
revealed to him. Those ideas are not a higher truth, transcend
ing the truth of Scripture, but are rather originally contained
in it, and hence only borrowed from it ; an agreement which
the Gentiles ought on their part to assent to by recognising
the worship of Jehovah, and uniting with the Jews in common
adoration of the one God. The author of the Wisdom of
Solomon, by means of Wisdom, which is identical with the
knowledge of the divine revelation or the law (Fourth Book
of Maccabees and Aristeas), thinks not only to lead back
apostate Jews to the worship of Jehovah, but also to win to
it the Gentiles, and to show unto both the way to the highest
end of life. From the very idea of God he obtains the notion
of Wisdom. Divine Wisdom, a substantial entity, is, as the
resplendence and image of the divine essence, the self-revela
tion of God. As mediator between God and man. Wisdom is
the principle of life which penetrates all humanity and nature.
Human wisdom is an emanation of the divine, which, con
secrated to the administration and plans of God, leads man
to virtue, and through virtue to immortality. The idea of
immortality adopted from the Platonic philosophy enables the
author to rise to the idea of an eternal retribution for every
human action. The righteous, with their piety and virtue,
attain unto eternal life and blessed fellowship with God ; the
godless, with their contempt of God, and their selfish enjoy
ment of life, pass away in death.
Philo, the most distinguished of the Alexandrians, has
affirmed the harmony between the Greek philosophy and the
religion of Jehovah, and by the blending of the two has
sought to bring out a universal religion that would prove
acceptable to humanity as a whole. For this purpose he
assigns an equal value, in his dualistic emanation system of

THE EELIGIOUS PHILOSOPHICAL SYSTEM OF PHILO. 139
religious philosophy, to the fundamental truths of revelation
and to the Platonic ideas. In the most comprehensive manner
PhUo recognises the whole formal and philosophical culture of
Greece, but is, at the same time, thoroughly convinced that
the truth which the Greek philosophy affords him is contained
in the divine truth which his sacred writings afford him.
God in Himself, the purely unknowable Being, without qualities,
stands in absolute contrast over against matter without form
and void. Since God, according to His original essence, cannot
come into contact with matter, there proceed from the original
divine essence certain divine potencies, which collectively con
stitute the divine intelligence, which bears in it the plan of
the world, and constructs the world as a beautiful divine work
of art, such as now appears. This divine intelligence con
ceived as a personal entity is the Logos, the medium between
the divine original essence and the visible world. In the
doctrine of the Logos all that in the Old Testament and in
the Targums is said of the word of God, and in the Proverbs,
in Job, in Jesus Sirach, and in the Wisdom of Solomon, in a
more poetic form, is said of Wisdom, is by Philo wrought up
into a definite philosophical notion. The Logos is the self-
revealing, and, in the visible world, the revealed God. He is
the eldest or first-born Son of God, the express image of God,
and as such the pattern of the world and man, the organ of
divine revelation to mankind. Hence it is by the Logos that
the knowledge of God first becomes possible, and occupation with
this is philosophy or the Wisdom accessible to all men, which
raises man not only to the height of an ethical life, but to
the highest stage of human intellectual development, to the
theoretic contemplative life, or to mental absorption in the
consideration of God and of divine things. Only the souls of
those who live according to their divine destination, and
according to the commandment of Wisdom have purified them
selves by the practice of virtue, attain unto true immortality,
to a more and more clear apprehension of God in His blessed-

140 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
ness ; whUe, for sinners, the life after death is only a
continuation of the punishment which is already experienced
upon earth.
It was no easy task, but one which the Alexandrian Jews
could not possibly evade, to establish exegetically the affirma
tion that the philosophical truth of the Greeks agreed with
the revelation of Scripture. Philo in an especial manner has
endeavoured to advance the proof; but the method according
to which he proceeds proves rather the contrary. He inter
preted Scripture aUegorically, importing philosophical ideas
into the Uteral sense of Scripture, as the deeper mystical
sense ; this, however, was, to say the least of it, quite foreign
to the actual literal sense ; and so the whole procedure shows
that the Alexandrian Jews were involved in a self-deception,
and by their profession of Greek philosophy were in fact
transcending their national Jewish profession. Objectively
considered, the Jewish - Alexandrian philosophy of religion
confirms the historical fact that the national Judaism had
subordinated itself to the philosophical spirit of Greece, and
still retained only so much of the sense of nationaUty as to
resolve not to confess the fact openly.
To intellectually active Jews residing abroad, who sought
to transcend the conflict between their national Jewish con
sciousness and the appropriate Greek culture, a theosophical
mysticism, with its allegorical interpretation of Scripture, as
carried out by Philo, might afford the desired satisfaction, but
for the mass of the Jewish people it would necessarily remain
inexplicable, and without any special influence. The learning
of the scribes and the apocalyptic literature had in a large
measure satisfied their understanding and met their needs, so
that what was presented by these two soon became an affair
of the people generally. The Pharisees, who had sprung up
from among the pious of the Maccabean age, men zealous in
matters of the law, just as the Jesuits were zealous in matters
of Church doctrine, thought to coop up the whole life of the

EEL ATION OF HEBEAISM TO THE EELIGIONS OF NATUEE. 141
people, with all its utterances, within the fence of the law
erected by the learning of the scribes, and to inflame the
hearts of the people with the ideals of apocalyptic prophecy.
The Sadducees who, in order to secure their possessions and
their rank, had abandoned the national hopes, and, in opposi
tion to the rabbinical novelties, held fast by the old written
law, attaching themselves to it in the spirit of the old Wisdom,
or perhaps of a Jesus Sirach, were not able, in spite of all their
powerful aristocratic support, to overthrow the influence of the
Pharisees among the people. Still less could the Essenes,
who, withdrawing from public life, prepared themselves for the
promised kingdom of God by a strictly legalistic asceticism,
lead the masses of the people away from their Pharisaic
leaders. Eabbinical Pharisaism was the historical product of
the religion of the law, and the people with resignation placed
themselves under its guidance and at its service.
Although Hebraism by means of its idea of God, by means
of its separation between the finite and the infinite, rises
superior to the religions of nature, it has, nevertheless, failed
to recognise either the infinite in its absolute infinity, or the
finite in its absolute finity. The religious ethical idealism,
which obtains expression in the theocratic covenant, finds its
limitation partly in the moments, according to which Hebraism
still coincides with the religion of nature, in the particularism,
in the institution of sacrifice, and in the ceremonial forms,
which appear with the sanction of divine commands, but partly
also, and chiefly, in the law itself. By reason of, the covenant
of God with one nation, the adoration of God is made de
pendent upon the continuance of this one people and the
individual members of this community, and, inasmuch as the
law lay at the foundation of the covenant relationship, and
inasmuch as a reciprocity of duties and privileges is thereby
established, the nation and its several members, on the basis
of their legislation, balance, as it were, their finite interests
over against God. Hebraism by means of its idea of God

142 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
does not transcend the realm of the finite, and its worship
does not consist in the unconditional surrender to God, but
is conditioned by the divine performances, which from a
purely particularist standpoint are claimed as a reward for
behaviour in accordance with the law. Hence, also, the
consciousness of sin, although intensified to the utmost by the
law, does not lead to a moral deepening, to a horror of sin
as such, and to a spiritual victory over it, but rather to
an external agreement with God, inasmuch as reconcilia
tion is found in the sacrifices appointed by the law, and
in the regular exercise of the legally prescribed forms of
worship. Side by side with the present utterances of piety
called forth by the theocratic idea of God, there appear
others, the piety of which is determined by the particularist
legal cast of thought. The supplication of Psalmists for
the forgiveness of sins has its origin, not in sorrow for sin, but
in outward misfortune ; and it has in view, not deliverance
from sin, but from the outward miseries of life.^ Even the
ethical pathos of the prophets, with which they demand from
the people moral reformation and moral sentiments, has not
ethical improvement for its final end, but the hope thereby to
bring about the external divine state, in which the theocratic
people are to attain unto might, dominion, and the full
enjoyment of life. Therefore, even the highest ethical ideal
which the Hebrew Wisdom has delineated in Job, wants
the essentially religious basis, faithfulness unto God purely
' For a much more profound and correct estimate of the theology of the
Psalms, see Perowne, The Psalms (London 1883), vol. i., Introd. pp. 61, 62.
He shows that while the sense of sin is often first awakened by suffering,
and acts of sin are referred to rather than the sinful nature, yet in Psalm li., for
example, we have distinct confession of the sinful nature, and sin defined as
wrong committed against God. The Psalmist enlarges on the blessedness of
forgiveness in words which Paul in the Epistle to the Romans finds suitable to
his argument about justification by faith ; and generally they enlarge upon
the need and longing for sanctification through the Spirit. Compare, also,
Hengstenberg on the Psalms (Edin. 1864), vol. iii. Appendix vii., On the
Doctrinal Matter of the Psalms, especially pp. Iviii.-lxiv. Dr. Binnie, The
Psalms : their History, Teachings, and Use. Edinburgh 1877.— Ed.

PEEPAEATION FOE CHEISTIANITY. 143
for God's sake. , Although in Judaism toward the close of its
history there was seen a spiritual elevation beyond the bounds
of finitude, this did not occur through the energy of the
national mind, but by means of ideas borrowed from foreign
philosophy. On the contrary, the characteristics of Mosaism
showed themselves on the national soil in their strict
peculiarity. The particularism inherent in it attained to its most
extreme expression in the apocalyptic promise of a universal
Jewish sovereignty of the world, and its ethical tendency
based on the law reached its culmination in the scholasticism
of rabbinical Pharisaism. If the apocalyptic hopes with which
the national spirit was nourished, led to the outward over
throw of Judaism, the Pharisaic scholasticism destroyed the
religious Ufe of the people in its deepest roots. The legalistic
formalism, by which the life acceptable to God was exter
nalized into a mere service of the letter, could afford no true
satisfaction to religiously determined feelings. It must have
rendered such as were in earnest about the fulfilling of the
law and of all the statutes added by the Wisdom of the schools,
conscious of the deep cleft that had opened between human
impotence and the divine requirements, so that deUght in the
law was turned into despondency, and the required obedience
into man's despair of God and of himself.
Thied Division — Cheistianity. — In its most comprehensive
sense the word is true that the fulness of the times had come
when Christ was sent (Gal. iv. 4). The religion of nature,
in the highest form of the development which it reached in
Greece, had been overthrown, and Hebraism in its Mosaic
form had degenerated into a religion of mere externalism.
While in the Grseco-Eoman world, from the feeUng of God-
forsakenness, the longing after God was awakened, and in
Judaism, out of the deepest impulse of the heart, the yearning
after reconciliation with God was born, Christ appeared as
the Eedeemer and Saviour of mankind. With Him the history
of reUgion and the divine revelation embraced in it, come to

144 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
a conclusion. His religious self-consciousness is the idea of
religion, by which man was brought to a consciousness of the
true nature of God and of his own nature. As it was mani
fested in Christ Himself as a personal life, the one aim of His
life was to communicate it to all those who would receive it,
and of them to form a Church which would be the historical
bearer of that life. The New Testament history of religion
has therefore a twofold task, to show forth (1) the religious
self-consciousness of Jesus, and (2) the Christian conscious
ness of the early Church.
1. The Eeligious Self -consciousness of Jesus. — In treating of
the first division we have to consider the life of Jesus, since
only from a collective view thereof can its innermost spiritual
characteristics be understood. The life of Jesus of Nazareth
was destined to gain the importance of a fact of universal
history, but originally it had no conspicuous influence upon
the course of Jewish history, still less upon the course of the
general history of the age. It was spent first of all in the
quiet and retirement of the Galilean province ; and even when
it appeared on a more public platform in the capital, Jeru
salem, it did not even then press into the foreground of the
national history. Hence.the most fitting place to be assigned
for its treatment in the theological system appears to be
exegetical theology, and in it the history of New Testament
religion. In consequence of the importance which the life of
its founder has for the Church, all the principal divisions of
theology are in a high degree interested in it; but, even
apart from the fact that it pre-eminently is in possession of
the means for its exposition, exegetical theology has in it
undoubtedly the most intimate and the highest interest. The
history of the life of Jesus, which exegetical theology has to
give, will at the same time serve as a storehouse from which
also the other divisions of theology have to draw.
The theology of the ancient Church, owing to its dogmatic
standpoint, did not give its attention to a history of Jesus.

MODEEN TEEATMENT OF THE LIFE OF JESUS. 145
This branch of study owes its origin to modern theology.
Since the middle of the eighteenth century, and more and
more since the second quarter of the present century, it has
been recognised in its full significance for theology. By
Schleiermacher and Hase it was included in the course of
academical lectures, and both by them and by their foUowers
its literary elaboration has been pursued with special earnest
ness. Here, as scarcely in any other department, the theo
logical antitheses come into collision with one another. After
David Strauss, in his Life of Jesus, had carried out the mythical
treatment of the gospel history, and by this means had accom
plished the most complete breach with the dogmatics of the
early Church, a theological confiict was kindled, which spread
into the widest theological circles, and led to the most
elaborate and complete investigations in regard to all the
subjects belonging to this department. On one side, without,
indeed, direct reference to Strauss, but still making acknow
ledgment of the service rendered by him to science, this
department has, with various gradations, been further de
veloped. Among those who have wrought in this direction
we may name Hase, Neander, Ammon, Ewald, Weisse, Eenan,
Schenkel, Keim, Kriiger-Velthusen, Wittichen. On the other
side, greater confidence was shown in the conception of the
traditional and dogmatic Christ that had been supported by
the Church. Of those manifesting these conservative ten
dencies, we may name especially Krabbe, Ebrard, and J. P.
Lange.^ , According to the confession of one of its most
distinguished representatives, this branch is stUl only in its
infancy ; ° but this much at least has been accomplished by
means of the confiict, that a general agreement has been
reached in regard to the method of its treatment. And since
upon this the understanding of the life of Jesus in its his-
' On the literature, compare K. Hase, Geschichte Jesu Leipzig 1876.
S. 110 ff.
^ Hase, Geschichte Jesu. S. 162.
VOL. II, K

146 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
torical reality depends, the investigation and exposition of
it must be conducted on purely historical principles. There
fore, without any dogmatic presuppositions whatever, but only,
as should be self-evident, with the general theological interest,
the exegete has here to address himself to his work, and to
describe the history of the life of Jesus in accordance with
the demands of historical science.^ Here, however, the his
torical task has to contend against the most extraordinary
difficulties. The greatness of the subject, and not less the
peculiar condition of the sources, place difficulties in the way of
the historian which can scarcely be completely overcome. _ The
principal sources which are at the command of the exegete for
the history of Jesus are the four New Testament Gospels. But
these as a whole are not contemporary accounts composed by
eye and ear witnesses of the life of Jesus. Jesus Himself has
written nothing : the contemporary accounts of others are not
in our possession ; and for the investigation, the first two
decades after the death of Jesus are a period devoid of litera
ture. None of the Gospels date back to the period of the
Pauline Epistles. To this there must be added, that the
authors of all the four Gospels, according to their own state
ments, had no intention of giving an objectively exact his
torical presentation of the life of Jesus, but rather in their
presentation they pursue religious tendencies. They delineate
Jesus in order to lead to the exercise of faith in Him, and
represent Him in the reflection of the idea which the person
of Christ had already assumed in their own heart. While,
then, the first three Gospels, the so-called synoptical Gospels,
1 Theology can have no objection to having the life of Jesus treated from the
standpoint of the general history of the world and of the extra-Christian, as is
done by L. Noack, Die Geschichte Jesu. 2 Ausgabe. Mannheim 1876. In
doing so, however, Noack should remember that he must not exclude the
theological interest which is in the truth. In his Jesus, however, addicted to
enthusiasm, not only theology, but also historical science and philosophy, will
scarcely find anything else than an anachronism. While Strauss accommodates
to his own polemical purpose a historical Christianity, Noack sets up a historical
Christ that \yill justify him in withdrawing himself from Him.

THE CHRIST OF THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 147
notwithstanding frequent variation in particulars, by a sur
prising agreement in the most of the narratives, manifest an
undeniable relationship, the fourth evangeUst again evidently
is distinguished from them, as well by his peculiar conception
of Christ as by the account of the outward course of His life.
In presence of this fact, the credibiUty of his sources gene
rally must be questioned by the historian, and especially
there will be an uncertainty as to which of his sources he is
mainly to rely upon for the history of Jesus, whether on John,
or on the Synoptists, and again on which of these. The diffi
culty is so great, that it may well induce one to entertain the
doubt, whether in this department generally anything actually
and historically certain can be ascertained. Nevertheless
even here criticism will shed the necessary light, at least
upon the principal points. Led by it, the historian, in order
to gain information as to the condition of his sources, will be
obliged to inform himself thoroughly in regard to the circum
stances of their inception, and to take up his position at the
beginnings of the early Christian Church. For the circle of
His first disciples the Lord after His death was necessarily
the middle point of their every thought and hope. . Their
memory would surely recur constantly to the life they led
with Him, and love would glorify to the utmost the person
of the departed. The similarity of the synoptic accounts
in regard to the discourses and acts of the Lord shows that
they were communicated to the young community by ear and
eye witnesses, and preserved by it in regular tradition, and
probably also even then fixed by writing. These constituent
parts of oral and written tradition, mixed with ideal traits,
were without doubt imported into our synoptical Gospels, and
retained by the later writers, who adopted them into their
collected works, together with their own further ideal addi
tions. These fundamental elements of the synoptic Gospels,
which reach back to the pre-Pauline period, undoubtedly
guarantee the historic fidelity of the first Gospels in a higher

148 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
degree than that of the fourth Gospel is guaranteed, which
also indeed points back to the synoptic tradition, but, in con
sequence of its excessively ideal conception of the person of
Jesus, calls forth more serious doubt as to its historicity. The
decision of the controversy over the Johannine writings does
not seem to have the great importance for the history of
Jesus which many appear to attach to it. In any case, the
question in dispute is not to be stated as if, were the fourth
Gospel the work of the beloved disciple, it would then be
historical ; and were it, on the other hand, the work of a later
and unknown writer, it would be unhistorical. Even in the
former case it might contain what is unhistorical, and in the
latter case, what is historical. However one may decide, he
will not be able to withhold the acknowledgment that the
fourth Gospel presents not so much a history as a doctrine
about Christ ; but, on the other hand, he will be justified in
regarding this doctrine as a faithful reflection from the actual
life of Jesus.^
If, therefore, the historian by literary criticism is enabled
to place his sources on a real historical basis, and is raised
above radical doubt in regard to their credibility, he will find
himself at the same time obliged to employ historical criticism
upon his sources with reference to their origin and the ideal
conceptions, which were formed in the bosom of the early
Church, and which are to be taken into account in the
representation of its Christian consciousness. In the Gospel
narratives, too, the question is how to separate the actually
historical from the ideal elements, which belong to poetry,
legend, or myth, and how to estimate those constituents them
selves according to their ideal value. But, however micro
scopically one may proceed in the matter, he must always

¦ On the sources, compare Th. Keim, Geschichte Jesu von Nazara. 3 Bde.
Zurich 1867-1872, i. S. 7-172. [English translation : History of Jesus of
Nazareth. 6 vols. London 1873-1884. See vol. i. p. 10 ff.] Hase, Leben
Jesu. S. 8-92. Bleek and Hilgenfeld, Einleitung in das Neue Testament.

THE EELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT OF JESUS. 149
leave himself open to conviction, and renounce any attempt
at producing a complete biographical delineation of Jesus.
This renunciation may indeed be made unhesitatingly. The
various outward occurrences, and the various psychological
dispositions and ethical fluctuations, the most complete know
ledge of which is indispensable for the plan of a biography,
are not of such importance that if, on account of the incom
pleteness and frequently peculiar condition of the sources,
they cannot be perfectly reproduced, the main purpose of
this course of study, which is to penetrate into the inmost
core of the personality of Jesus, and to bring into view
His religious self-consciousness, would be thereby rendered
impossible. In respect of His birth Jesus belongs to the past and to
His own nation ; in respect of His works, He belongs to the
future and to mankind. His spiritual development and public
activity were dependent upon national conditions and in
fluences, but, at the same time, they were animated by an
original power of His own spirit witnessed to by God. In
the synagogue, according to the custom of the time, initiated
in the Holy Scriptures, possessed by divine thoughts, which
they had afforded Him, and by the glory to which His
people had been caUed of God ; in His home too, and
regularly at the festal gatherings at Jerusalem, brought into
contact with the national sufferings of His nation, with the
tyrannical acts of parties and their unscrupulous political
plans, with the intellectual bondage of the people, with the
troubles of their religious life, with the externalizing of their
worship : Jesus rose to the noble height of resolving, to lead
His people, and with them mankind, to a spiritual new birth.
Inspired with the Old Testament idea of God, He at the same
time appropriated the most profound idea of ancient prophecy
when He confessed Himself to be the Messiah, who was to
carry out the plan of God in reference to His people. Start-
ins from this national foundation, which constituted the

150 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
historical presupposition for the religious consciousness of
Jesus, He at the same time broke through^ the limits of the
national consciousness of God, for He transcended the hard
dualism by which in Mosaism God and man wer^ separated
from one another. God does not stand out before Him as
the Almighty, who lays down His will as an external law, in
order by its fulfilment and by the legal worship of the temple
to enforce adoration under promises of reward and threatenings
of punishment, but as the heavenly Father, who enters into
immediate communion with Him. Jesus conceives of God
in the very spirit in which God originaUy revealed Himself
to mankind, and not only momentarUy and transitorily, as
the prophet of the Old Testament, but constantly and endur-
ingly, He knows Himself to be determined by the Spirit of
God. The idea of God with the full ideal content, which
under the Old Testament it possessed, adopted into His own
spiritual life, is the power which, working from within, raises
Him above the covenant of the law. For Him there was no
need of an outward law which should inform Him of the
will of God. The Spirit of God dweUing within Him teaches
Him immediately the wUl of God. It is not the positive
law that is, by reason of its traditional sanction, the ruling
and determining authority in His life, but the divine wUl
witnessed to in His own inmost being. He stands under the
law only in so far as He stands over it. His life is a life in
the Spirit of God and the perfect fulfilling of the law. By
reason of His spiritual fellowship with God, He knows Him
self to be in the most intimate relationship with Him, in the
relationship of the Son, whose life is spent in working in love
to the Father, and in the calling ordained by Him, for the
salvation of His people and the salvation of mankind. For
the religious consciousness of Jesus, both the Old Testament
idea of God and the Old Testament idea of the Messiah
must lose their national limitation, and attain the universal
religious ethical significance already inherent in them. In

THE SELF-REVELATION OF THE MESSIAH. 151
His public work wrought before His fellow-countrymen, to
which He points as historical, and in those works performed
before the chosen circle of the twelve apostles, Jesus has done
nothing else than give , expression by word and deed to what
was Uving within Him. It is not a mere doctrine, or a
perfectly-rounded doctrinal system, that He has to preach.
Not as a man of the school, not as a learned Eabbi, not even
as a prophet, does He make His appearance, but as the true
revealer of religion, who presents before the eyes of His fellow-
countrymen the religious Ufe realized in Him. Thus, not
according to any previously designed and arranged plan, but
moved by the impulse of His own spirit. He influences all those
who will follow Him, to rise into the same communion with
God, of which in His own heart He Himself is certain. The
call which He addressed to His contemporaries : fieravoeire Kal
iritxrevere iv ra> evayyeXio) (Mark i. 15), appears to use
fieravoetv not only in the ethical, but likewise in the intel
lectual sense, so that, besides return from estrangement from
God and from sin, it signifies generally return from the whole
tendency of thought impUed in the external legal service,
which leads to estrangement from God and does not work
deliverance from sin. The other positive requirement added
to the negative fieravoelre, faith in the message of the king
dom of God, has pre-eminently for its content faith in the
person of Him who brings the message, and in all the con
ditions which He prescribes for entrance into the kingdom of
God. As the founder of the kingdom of God, the Jews longed
for the Messiah. This longing Jesus met. He preached the
kingdom of God, and as the Messiah made Himself known to
the people. But in accordance with the Messianic calling as
it appeared to the mind of Jesus, the kingdom of God founded
by Him was not that worldly kingdom of Jewish dominion
expected by the Jews, but one pointing back indeed to Old
Testament foundations, but freed from all particularist-Judaic
hopes. In its full ideality He established a purely spiritual

152 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
kingdom of God or kingdom of heaven, which, in contrast to
the kingdoms of the world, consists rather in elevation above
and deliverance from the world. True and firm faith in Jesus
as the Messiah was, therefore, essentially conditioned by the
whole work of Jesus, from which there was awakened among
His people that spirit which led to the acknowledgment of the
kingdom founded by Him, and to the fulfilment of the condi
tions of the kingdom which He laid down. As Christ knows
Himself to bear to God the relation of Son, He sets in place of
the covenant of the law in the new kingdom the covenant of
love between God and man. The one God of the old covenant
is the heavenly Father, who embraces all men in His Fatherly
love (Matt. v. 45). The negative condition of entrance into
His kingdom is the fierdvoia, the turning away from the
righteousness of the law, and the penitent forsaking of sin ;
the positive condition is love to God and love to our neigh
bour springing therefrom (Matt. xxii. 34 ff. ; Mark xn.
28 ff. ; Luke x. 25 ff.). The divine will, the knowledge and
realization of which are conditioned by the love of God and
of our neighbour, is the law and aim of the kingdom. The
Mosaic law is unquestionably a revelation of God, but first
through love does it find its true meaning and fulfilment.
The same is true of all the utterances and manifestations of
the religious-moral life, which were called forth by the idea
of God of the Old Testament, but altered and contracted by
the legal particularism which restricted it to the finite, and,
especially in the times of Jesus, clouded and obscured by
Eabbinism and Pharisaism, by the abstract speculations of
Wisdom, and the fantastic pictures of the apocalyptic writings.
The fundamental elements of the divine life, trust in God,
humUity, obedience to the divine wiU, gentleness, merciful
ness, peaceableness, suffering for God's sake, — these are first
-explained by love, and understood in their truth and in their
ipurely ideal and universaUy human meaning. The righteous-
'hess thus born of love is the righteousness of the kingdom of

CHARACTER OF THE MESSIANIC KINGDOM. 153
God. By means of it are won the forgiveness of sins,
reconciliation with God, and life eternal. The citizens of the
kingdom of God are Uke Christ, the sons of God, who enjoy
the closest communion with Him, and possess the most perfect
liberty which emancipates from all anxiety about earthly
things, and places everything finite at the service of the
eternal. In consequence of His historical position, Jesus
called His fellow-countrymen to the kingdom of God ; but it
is intended not only for Jews, but in its very nature, and in
accordance with the commission which He gave to His disciples,
to receive all nations into discipleship by baptism in the name
of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, it was
intended for mankind. The kingdom of God founded by
Christ has a thoroughly universal character. It is a universal
human kingdom of love, of the righteousness of love, of peace
with God, of freedom, of blessedness, and of eternal life.^ The
fundamental characteristics thereof are laid down by Jesus in
numerous proverbial sayings, such as those gathered together
in the Sermon on the Mount and in numerous parables. The
Lord's Prayer is the most concise expression of His religious
consciousness complete in itself. It alone is a witness to the
historicity of His person, and not less the simpUcity and clear
ness of His teaching generally, which forms the most beautiful
contrast to the sophistical, redundant, and dark doctrinal
method of the scribes and Pharisees, the teachers of Wisdom
and the writers of Apocalypses. His word, which expressed
the profoundest truth in the simplest and universally intelli
gible form, could not fail to make its impression (Matt.
vii. 28, 29 ; Mark xii. 37), and must, especially when always

' Compare on the kingdom of heaven, A. Immer, Theologie des Neuen Testa
ments. Bonn 1877. S. 63 ff. [Dr. J. S. Candlish, The Kingdom of God.
Cunningham Lectures for 1884. Especially — Leet. II. Old Testament and
Post-Canonical Jewish Views. Leot. III. Teaching of Christ and Apostles.
Leet. IV. Doctrinal Idea of Kingdom of God. Pp. 49-231. Also important
paper by Prof. A. B. Bruce in Monthly Interpreter for November 1884, pp. 31-48 :
" Christ's Idea of the Kingdom."]

154 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
and everywhere confirmed by His works, have knit to Him the
hearts of many of His fellow-countrymen. The few who at
the first believed in Him, and acknowledged Him as the
Messiah who had come to found the promised kingdom of
God, broke thereby completely with the Judaism that held by
the tradition, which looked for an altogether different Messiah.
The greater the enthusiasm of His followers for Him was,
so much the more bitter was the hatred with which the great
mass of the people, the dominant parties, and the priestly'
aristocracy, persecuted the dangerous innovator, the deceiver
of the people, and the mover of sedition. Christ must suffer
death by a national decree that is passed upon Him ; but He
went to death with a free resolve, in order to witness by His
death that life in the service of God is to be presented as a
sacrifice, and to give to the truth preached by Him its highest
confirmation. With reference to His approaching death He
instituted the Lord's Supper, as an enduring memorial of His
death on the part of His own, and as a repeated admonition,
that all who believe in Him and are resolved to follow Him,
are under obligation to render that spiritual sacrifice, in love
to God to abandon the love of self, of worldly property, and
even that possession dearest of all, life itself (Matt. x. 37-39,
xvi. 24, 25 ; Luke xiv. 25 ff.).
The Ufe of Jesus stands out in the circle of contemporary
events as an Uluminated picture from a dark historical back
ground, the rays of which now light up the history of man
kind. When it was seen that the way of the law did not
lead to salvation, Christ pointed out the way of the Spirit,
upon which mankind should attain unto the true life in God.
What the old prophets had longed for and prophesied, was
in a higher way fulfiUed in Him. The national-restricted
theocratic commonwealth was remodelled and conceived of
as a type to the future of a kingdom of God destined for
mankind. In place of the Jewish dominion of the world
that had been dreamt of, was presented the dominion of the

CHRIST AND CHRISTIANITY IN THE PRIMITIVE CHUECH. 155
Spirit of God over the world. As a revolter against the law,
Christ was brought to the cross, and was laid in the grave ;
but His work could not be crucified and buried. As the
beginning of a new universal-historical development, it has
celebrated its resurrection. What constituted the inmost core
of the personal life of Jesus, the consciousness of God which
He lived out in the midst of His people, is the new religion of
humanity, Christianity according to its idea as the fellowship
of spirit between God and man, realized in Christ by means
of the Spirit of God, the idea of religion, which the Church,
and with it, theology, confess. In the history of religion,
Christianity appears as the highest revelation of the religious
spirit. All imperfections and defects, from which the pre-
Christian religions suffer, are by means of Christianity
surmounted and overcome. The particularism, which is
characteristic of all of them, all worship of the finite, all
legaUsm, all mere external sacrificial service and ritual, vanish
before the universalism and the spiritualized monotheism of
Christianity. 2. The Christian Consciousness ofthe Early Church. — Accord
ing to Jesus' own expression, the kingdom of heaven is like a
grain of mustard seed, which was cast into a field, and grew
into a great tree ; a kingdom, therefore, which from the most
insignificant beginnings graduaUy spread out in historical
advancement (Matt. xiii. 31, 32; Mark iv. 31, 32). The
soU in which the seed was laid, was the first circle of His
disciples, who, according to the Acts of the Apostles, soon
after the death of Jesus, were developed into Jewish Christian
congregations in Jerusalem. The faith was essentially faith in
the Messiah, the faith that Jesus is the promised Messiah,
and the kingdom founded by Him the promised kingdom of
God. The spiritual impression which His life made on the
disciples, and the love which personal intercourse with Him
had strengthened, could not possibly be destroyed by His
death, but must rather, just by that death, have been aroused

156 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
into the highest enthusiasm for Him who had departed from
them. The young disciples clung to the person of their
leader in all their memories and hopes. As the members of
this early Christian community had issued from Judaism, and,
in Jerusalem, were involved in a struggle with opponents of
their own nation, they were required, in consequence of their
position, to justify and confirm their faith in the Messiah
before their own Jewish consciousness, and before its opponents
among their own countrymen. Upon this their further in
crease was mainly dependent. Thus undoubtedly, during the
first decade after the death of Jesus, the Church developed an
apologetic idealizing activity, which drew its proofs from the
source of the Old Testament universally acknowledged as a
divine revelation, and sought to affirm its right to free itself
from the traditional Judaism generaUy by this, that it pointed
to the realization of the national ideal in its Messiah, and
raised its faith in the Messiah to the highest point of the
national consciousness. These early stages of spiritual move
ment in the primitive Church are not documentarily attested
by means of contem.porary writings, but that they existed is
undoubtedly proved from the later literature. It was above
all the death of Jesus on the cross which formed the stum
bling-block to the Jewish consciousness. Irreconcilable with
the view of the Messiah fostered by prophets and writers of
Apocalypses, it not only stood opposed to the acknowledgment
of the Messiahship of Jesus, but justified its most decided
rejection. The offence was removed only by a higher provi
dential significance being given to the historical fact. In
strict connection with the Old Testament sacrificial worship,
the Church represented the death of Christ as an act accom
plished in accordance with the divine counsel, by means of which
the end of the old covenant was first attained, and the expiation
lying at the basis of the idea of sacrifice under the law was per
fectly realized. The death of Christ is the sin-offering present
to the divine punitive-righteousness for the sins of mankind, a

OEIGIN OF THE STOEY OF THE EESUKEECTION. 157
view which was in harmony with the Jewish consciousness,
and, in respect of its comforting contents, was quite peculiarly
fitted to win consideration for the idea of the Messiah's
death upon the cross. Should this be gained by the divine
intention, to which the suffering of death was attributed,
then by means of this in a still higher measure, the
enthusiasm, which had decided for Jesus as Messiah, was
intensified in consequence of His death. The present
condition of the Church did not thoroughly correspond
to the glory of the Messianic kingdom. Had the work of
Christ ended with His death, faith in Him and in His king
dom must have appeared to the Jewish consciousness a vain
delusion, and Judaism would have been right in withholding
itself from it, and in looking, afterwards as well as before, for
the Messiah and the Messianic kingdom, to the future. If
the Christian Church is to maintain its faith, it must harmonize
with the national expectation, but, at the same time, transcend
this position by conceiving of its Messiah who has already
appeared as the Messiah of the future. The work of Christ
was not brought to a close by the death of Christ, but only
interrupted, and it is to be perfected by the very one who
began it, by Christ at His second coming. Thus over the
grave of Christ sprang up a sacred poetry, which was animated
by the deepest religious motives, and transferred to the risen
Christ, idealized in a Christian spirit, views which the imagina
tion of prophets and apocalyptic seers had entertained regard
ing the Messiah. The yearning of the Church longed for an
outward act of reunion with the Lord instead of the merely
spiritual communion, and crowded together the gradual histori
cal course, which Jesus Himself had required for his kingdom,
into the visible, and indeed immediately ensuing, event of a
particular moment of time. If Jesus is the Messiah and sent
of God to establish His kingdom, then He could not remain
under the power of death. Christ has arisen from the dead
and ascended into heaven, sits on the right hand of God, and

158 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
watches over his Church upon earth. When the measure of
its sufferings is full, He will from heaven appear again on
earth, and judge the just and the unjust. The wicked will be
driven into the place of eternal fire for eternal punishment.
All powers of the world hostile to His kingdom, especially the
demoniacal powers and the kingdom of Satan, pass into con
demnation ; whereas all His own, who have approved themr
selves by continuousness and stedfastness in the faith, wiU, in
this now completed kingdom of God, be received into the glory
of the sons of God and into the life eternal. All these detailed
events stand in closest connection with one another, and have
meaning and significance only as the indispensable elements
in the eschatological picture of the future, which the faith of
the Church created, and which now formed the essential content
of its Christian hope. The ultimate end thereof is the return,
the parousia of Christ. By means of it, time, for the primitive
Christian consp\ousness, divides itself into two periods, into
that of the present time, and into that of the time to come,
the parousia. This is a distinction which had a far-reaching
influence upon the ethical condition of the Church. The
whole of the present state of the world is a merely provisional
condition. All the things of the world are as such temporal
and changing. The vision of the glory of the consummation,
which enters with the parousia of the Lord, raises the Chris
tian above the joys and sorrows which the things of the world
cause. The Christian Church borrowed from the Jewish apocalyptic
writings the poetic form for its hope, and in this form depicted
the future victory of the kingdom of God over the world. It
thus secured for its faith, not only the peculiar elevation of
the Jewish consciousness, but also a real historical foundation,
since it made the Christ who had already appeared the bearer
of the conception that was to dominate the future, and indeed
of a conception -which in its ideaUty had not arisen in the
Jewish consciousness before Christ. The view, which has

DEVELOPMENT OF DOCTEINE OF CHEIST'S EESUEEEGTION. 159
gained expression in the primitive Christian hope, is a poem
of the future complete in itself and precisely arranged, of
which the several parts are misconceived and misunderstood,
if one wrests them from their articulation, as is specially the
case in treating of the resurrection of Christ. If one demands
an outward historical attestation thereof, he will always be
answered by a historical non liquit} Should one regard it as
historical, because only by the miracle of the resurrection
could the disciples have been raised out of their despondency
after the death of Christ,^ he disregards the spiritual miracle,
the power which Jesus during His Ufe must have exercised
over His disciples. The enthusiasm of the disciples does not
owe its origin to the resurrection, but, on the contrary, the
resurrection depends on that enthusiasm. As the ascension,
the session of Christ on God's right hand, the parousia, and the
judgment associated therewith, so also the resurrection of Jesus
finds its historical explanation in the Apology which the early
Christian Church had to render on behalf of its faith. And
if, according to Dan. xii. 2, 3, the resurrection of the dead
be connected with the time of the end, the Christian Church
had at hand the answer that, first of all, for the perfecting of
His kingdom, the founder of the kingdom Himself must rise.
That under the influence of Jewish views all those notions
referred to, which constituted the body of the eschatological
hope, were very soon regarded by the primitive Christian
Church as historical realities of the past and of the future, and
as such became the object of its firmest conviction, should be
less the occasion of surprise, than that during the later Chris
tian centuries those notions should also with equal tenacity be
maintained. Poetry was changed into history.^ The Chris-
1 Compare Keim, Geschichte Jesu, iii. S. 600.
2 Compare Immer, Theologie des Neuen Testaments. S. 178.
^ This passage on the development of the doctrine of Christ's resurrection is
unsatisfactory alike in substance and in form. The method is as faulty as the
result. Rabiger professes to treat it here as a question of biblical theology,
which again is a section of exegetical theology. Instead of dealing with it

160 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
tian theory of life, which sprang out of the procedure, has not
only dominated the primitive Christian period, but with varying
effect, sometimes stronger, sometimes weaker, has also pene
trated the Christian period following, and has undoubtedly
become, in connection with the idea of sacrifice, which attaches
itself to the death of Christ, a historical vehicle for intro
ducing under a Jewish shell the ideal monotheism into the
life of the nations.
All of the New Testament writers, but pre-eminently the
Apostle Paul and John, are sharers in the belief in the sacri
ficial death and paroicsia of Christ, and give evidence that this
faith had become the common property of the early Christian
Church, which it derived from Judaism. But their writings
likewise afford undoubted testimony to the fact that, within
the range of this common faith, important differences had
found their way into the consciousness of the Church. These
arose from the consideration of the historical Christ. To
understand the peculiar nature of Christ was necessarily of
primary interest to the young Church. The enthusiasm which
was communicated to the Church by the disciples and their
reports of His historical doings, and also, in no less degree, the
view of the glorified Christ which had already established
itself in the .consciousness of the Church, had an influence
upon the Church's conception of the historical Christ. The
tendency by which, amid all sort of divergences, the Church
was led, included always the acknowledgment of the principle
of the divine life, which was realized in the person of Christ,
and the exaltation of Christianity over Judaism, and the
recognition of a separate place for Christianity, by means of
the idealization of the historical Christ, as well as by His
glorification into the heavenly Christ. The very diversity,
exegetically, he treats it dogmatically. He looks, not at biblical statements,
but at critical and speculative presuppositions. For a discussion of the biblical
doctrine of the resurrection of Christ conducted in a truly scientific exegetical
manner, the student is referred to Godet, Comm. on St. John. 3 vols. ^Edinburgh,
1876, 1877. Vol. iii. pp. 322-331. E.xcursus on the Resurrection of Jesus.— Ed.

THE CUEIST OF THE SYNOPTIC GOSPELS. 161
however, which appeared in the conception was no fortuitous
one, but was determined by the diverse spiritual tendencies
which were developed in Judaism during the period of its
formation, and had found expression in its literature. The
New Testament literature, as history, didactic writings, and
Apocalypse, is a continuation of the Old Testament literature,
and so soon as a literary, historical, and didactic activity began
in the early Christian Church, which was directed to the
historical Christ, the conception thereof had to be determined
in accordance with the national peculiarity of the Old Testa
ment historical and didactic writing, just as the conception
of the heavenly Christ was determined by the preceding
prophecy and apocalyptic writing. The Synoptists, who
describe the historical life of Jesus, proceed therein, not
according to the standard of historical criticism, but according
to the standard of the old theocratic pragmatism, which
subordinates history to definite tendencies, and puts, instead of
human interventions in history, an immediate administration
and interference of God. In the sense of this pragmatism, the
Synoptists relate and idealize the history of Jesus in order to
establish faith in Him as the Messiah. The sent of God, now
the Messiah enthroned in heaven, could not have entered this
world in the natural way of human birth. He was born by
supernatural procreation by the power of the Holy Spirit, the
Spirit of God, and heavenly powers, in the form of angels and
a miraculous star, minister to Him immediately before and
immediately after His birth. In respect of His origin He is
the Son of God, not only as the Messiah endowed with the
Divine Spirit, who stands in the closest religious ethical
fellowship with God, but as the immediately begotten of the
Divine Spirit, He stands in the position of physical Sonship
and real fellowship with God. The Spirit of God belongs to
His nature, and confers upon Him divine might, in accordance
with which He exercises authority over Nature, and especially
over the kingdom of Satan and the evil spirits. According to
VOL. II. L

162 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
the reports of the Synoptists, the miracles of Jesus, while,
indeed, mostly proofs of His mercy and love, are yet likewise
evident manifestations of the divine power indwelling in Him.
How very partial the age was to this view is shown most
distinctly by the apocryphal Gospels, the legendary stories of
which divest the miracles of their ideal background, and
reduce them into mere exhibitions of prodigies. As the ideal
Son of God, Christ suffers according to the divine counsel the
sacrificial death for the forgiveness of the sins of men, but by
resurrection goes forth from death, and ascends up to His
heavenly Father. In so far as the Synoptists, on the founda
tion of Old Testament statements, advance the proof that the
historical Jesus is the true Messiah, and the kingdom founded
by Him the true kingdom of God, Christianity appears as the
fulfilling of the Old Covenant, and as such separates itself from
it, without, however, leading to the overthrow of the covenant
of the law. On the contrary, after the fellowship with God
destroyed by sin has been restored by means of the sin-offering
of Christ, the law remains as it is, and indeed continues valid
in its strictly Jewish exclusive sense as the way of salvation,
which leads to the kingdom of God, and those who are not
Jews, the Gentiles, can only find acceptance on the condition
that they enter into the full Jewish fellowship of the law.
Christianized Judaism could not so easily appropriate the
purely spiritual and reUgious view of Christ. In it the
national particularism still contends with universalism, the law
with love, the righteousness of the law with the righteousness
of love. The didactic writings of the New Testament adopt a higher
standpoint, as represented in the Pauline Epistles, the Epistle
to the Hebrews, and the writings of John. Their representa
tion of the glorified Christ apart, the didactic writers connect
their consideration of the historical Christ with the national
didactic literature. The sublimest ideas which the Hebraic
doctrine of Wisdom, and especially Philo, had developed in

THE PAULINE CHEISTOLOGY. 163
reference to the nature of God and His revelation to the world,
are adopted by the New Testament writers, and transferred by
them to the historical Christ. The abstract thoughts of
Wisdom and philosophy have assigned to them their historical
reality, and appear before the eyes of men in the person of
Christ as an actraal human life. The historical Christ is
identical with the ideal Christ. As this ideal Christ, He was
raised to a height which the Jewish consciousness could not
surmount, and He offered to that Jewish consciousness what all
prophecy could not, an absolute guarantee and assurance of
truth. Paul, a Pharisee and strict Jew, but made acquainted
with the ideas of the Church by reason of his struggle against
it, had become, in consequence of a revelation of the glorified
Christ to him in an ecstatic condition, a convert to the new
faith. The Christ who revealed Himself from heaven was
the man Jesus. If he were to believe in this Christ, then he
must seek for his spiritual culture in a deeper grounding of
his faith. This, be found in the already developed national
doctrine. The glorification, the exaltation 'of Christ im heaven,
led of itself to the notion, that in the man Jesus a divine
principle must have been present, by which during His life
He was animated, amd which afterwards opened an entrance
for Him into heaven. The idea which had been developed
fi'om the Old Testament idea of God, from the word and
Wisdom of God, appeared to Paul to be this principle. The
speculative idea of mediaition between God and the world was
conceived of hypostatically as that Divine Being in whom the
absolutely invisible God had perfectly revealed Himself, as
that Being who from eternity was with God, by whom He
made the world, and led mankind to a knowledge of Himself.
This Divine Being, as the express image of God Himself in the
full possession of the divine glory, has, in accordance with the
counsel of Godi, appeared in the historical Christ in human
form as a servant, in oider that by means of His operation
upon men a new spiritual world might be created, as had

164 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
originally been done in the physical world. A pre-existent
heavenly nature is in the historical Jesus the divine principle
of His life. Jesus, according to Paul, is in a purely meta
physical sense the Son of God, Kara irvevfjia d,yioocrvvr]<s.^ How
this union was accomplished, Paul nowhere says. It was
with him a postulate, as a reflection from the glorified Christ.
A metaphysical abstraction is here met with. The speculative
idea is not reconcUed with the empirical reality. Over against
the consciousness of sin and guilt, over against the law which
Paul had experienced in its full depth, the Son of God, Jesus
Christ, appeared as the one Eedeemer, who was able to over
come the disunion between God and man, and restore a uni
versal reign of peace. Quite in the Jewish spirit of the law,
Paul conceives of the Son of God, whom God sent in the form
of human sinful flesh, who yet Himself knew no sin, as taking
upon Him the curse of the law which was oppressing man,
death on account of sin. In place of man, Christ suffers death
in order to satisfy the divine righteousness, and God in His
grace accepts the death of the guiltless as a sin-offering for the
whole sinful race of mankind. By means of the death of the
Son of God, however, not only the guilt of sin is taken away,
but the dominion of sin itself is thereby broken. With the
slaying of His flesh upon the cross, the power which sin had
under the law by means of the flesh is also slain. The
physical crucifixion of the flesh involves the moral.
By means of the sacrifice of Christ the enmity between
God and man is annulled, and reconciliation with God secured.
The covenant of the law which led to sin and death, and the
'' In my Christologia Paulina I have sought to prove that a pre-existent nature
is to be presupposed for the Pauline Son of God, and most modern exegetes are
on this point agreed. But to regard the pre-existent nature, with Pfleiderer, as
the heavenly man, seems to me irreconcilable with such passages as 1 Cor. viii. 6,
and even Col. i. 15-19. In opposition to Pfleidcrer's view, that the Christology
f Paul is an original product of his own mind, may be alleged the scarcely deni-
ble relationship between his views and those of Philo. Compare 0. Pfleiderer,
Der Paulinismus. Leipzig, 1873. P. 124ff. [English translation : Paulinism.
2 vols. London 1877. Vol. i. pp. 138-146.]

THE CHEISTOLOGY OF THE EPISTLE TO THE HEBREWS. 165
righteousness of the law, which does not make free from sin,
are brought to an end. The way of salvation opened up
through the death of Christ is the way of faith. The faith,
which in the death of Christ apprehends the love and grace
of God, wins from divine grace the righteousness that is
acceptable before God, and enters into a mystical- fellowship
with Christ, in which it receives from the Son of God the
divine principle, the Spirit, which out of the old creates the
new man, and makes believers partakers of the divine sonship
and sharers in the liberty of the sons of God. By means of
the resurrection, Christ is shown to be, what He originally
was, the Son of God Kara rrvevpM dyicocrvvr]!;, and as the first
born from the dead returns to His original glory in heaven,
whence, after a short delay, He will come again to execute
judgment, and to take His believing ones, after the resurrec
tion, with spiritual glorified bodies, into His own kingdom to
enjoy the life eternal. By means of Paul's doctrine of the
death of the Son of God upon the cross, Christianity is
completely emancipated from the law, and is thereby also
made free from the particularism of Judaism. The sufferings
of the Son of God were sufferings for the whole sinful race
of mankind, and the fundamental conditions of salvation,
which result from His death, faith and the life in the spirit,
are claims that may be made of mankind generally. Freedom
from the law and universalism are won to Christianity by the
death of Christ on the cross.
Like Paul, the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews also
starts from the idea of Christ, and in essentiaUy the same way
as Paul, only more distinctly under the influence of Philo, sees
in Christ the Son of God in a metaphysical sense. Without,
however, like Paul, entering into the depths of anthropological
discussion, he rather remains standing on the Christological
height, and turns his eyes upon the one point which was of
decided importance to him for the emancipation of Christianity
from Judaism. While Christ as the Son of God stands

166 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
generally superior th the prophets of the Old Testament,
superior to the angels and Moses, superior therefore to the
spirit and law of the Old Testament revelation, He also
occupies a position superior to the Old Testament sanctuary
with its priests and sacrifices. Christ, the man and the Son
of God, has been by the divine oath consecrated to an eternal
priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. Through the once
offering of His body He has made men free from sin, and with
the blood of His offering has entered into the heavenly
sanctuary, where, at the right hand of God, He administers
His eternal high-priestly office, and keeps open the approach
to divine grace for all who, in faith in Him and in confidence
in God, draw near, in order to conclude the new spiritual
covenant of purity of heart, and to make themselves worthy
of the inheritance of the heavenly Jerusalem, which He on
His coming again will establish. The earthly sanctuary is
only a feeble image of the heavenly, and could not lead to
perfection and rest. Only through faith in and confession
of the heavenly High Priest can rest be found.
According to the Epistle to the Hebrews, there can be
no fellowship between Christianity and Judaism. The
sacrificial death of Christ distinguishes Christianity com
pletely from the legal worship of Judaism, and in this way
generally from the law, and gives to Christianity its thoroughly
universal character.
What the Epistle to the Hebrews only briefly indicates,
the elevation of the revelation of the Son of God over the
Old Testament revelation, and what Paul, in unremitting
contests with Jews and Gentiles, seeks to gain recognition
for, the fourth evangelist has expounded to the Jews with
philosophic calm from the idea of the Son of God in the
Ufe of Jesus. As metaphysical basis for his argumentation
that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, he adduces in the
frankest possible manner the idea of the Logos systematized
by philo. The Logos, who was God, and from the begin-

CHEISTOLOGY OF THE FOUETH GOSPEL. 167
ning v.^ith God, the Creator of the world and the light of
men, who was in the world without being known by it,
from whom a ray fell upon God's people, but lightened only
a few, has in Jesus become man. As the Logos is the
revealed God, Jesus, as the incarnate Logos, is the most
immediate revelation of God. The word proceeding from
Him is the absolute truth of God, and His acts are the
evident manifestations of His divine nature. Salvation is
of the Jews, inasmuch as Christ is the end of the Old
Testament revelation, and as the God of the Old Covenant
in love sent His Son Jesus into the world. But the Jews
themselves under the Old Covenant did not reach unto salva
tion, but belong to the world estranged from God, which has
no understanding and no perception of the divine. The
world is the kingdom of darkness and death, of lies and of
the devil. Into it the Son of God enters as the light and the
life, as the truth and eternal blessedness. Even the law given
by Moses is tottering before the , only-begotten Son, who in
the depths of love looks upon God, and has revealed the full
truth and grace instead of the law. Christ as the incarnate
Logos is the personal truth and the personal universal life. He
who lovingly turns to His person, and in the Son sees and
loves the Father, is taken out of the sphere of the world,
and has the faith which, in spiritual communion with God
and Christ, gives the ,life eternal. AU, on the other hand,
who abide in the worldly life are unbelievers, who in their
estrangement from God pass to death and everlasting
destruction. This is the salvation which Christ brings, and
also the judgment which He executes upon earth. By the
metaphysics of John, it remains still unexplained psycho
logically, how the one class comes to faith and the other
to unbelief. Out of free love for believers, for His own,
the iSioi, Christ goes to death, in order by His sin-offering
to take from them all sin, and to consecrate them as with
drawn from the world to God, so that His death is a

168 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
glorifying of Himself as well as of His Father. He cannot,
however, remain under the power of death. In consequence
of His divine nature He must rise again, and return to that
life with God from which He proceeded, in order to send
to His own orphaned ones that spiritual advocate who
should lead them into all truth, and make them perfectly
ready for everlasting life. By means of John, Christianity
has been completely severed from Judaism. With keenest
polemics he conducts, on purely metaphysical lines, the
apology for Christianity. The revelation of the Logos
become man in Jesus has removed the Old Covenant of the
law, and given all mankind entrance into the spiritual
fellowship of life with God.
Among the more distinguished of the New Testament
didactic writers, besides the three already named, a place must
be assigned to the author of the Epistle of James. While
those just referred to treat of Christianity in its relation to
Judaism from the heights of metaphysics, James attaches
himself rather to the Wisdom of practical life of the Old
Testament didactic writers, and gives a representation which
is distinguished from those metaphysical conceptions by very
important differences. James does not develop any special
Christology, but occupies the standpoint of the common faith
of the Church regarding the glorified Christ. Christianity is
with him faith in Jesus Christ as the Lord of glory, whose
coming again to judgment draws near. Only through this
faith in the Messiah, without even 'bringing forward the death
of Jesus in its ¦ sacrificial significance for atonement, James
separates himself from Judaism. Then again, the law, from
which the metaphysicians were turned away in consequence
of their idea of Christ, remains, although not according to its
ceremonial, but only according to its moral contents, continually
in force for Christianity. What ethically constitutes Chris
tians, is the word of truth, which accomplishes the salva
tion of the soul. The revelatioii proceeding from Christ

DOCTEINAL SYSTEM OF THE EPISTLE OF JAMES. 169
is therefore to be thought of as the true fulfilling of the law,
according to which it appears to the Christian no longer as an
outward command, but as a law of freedom implanted in the
heart. The subjective condition of salvation is the hearty
acceptance of the word of truth, or faith in the same as the
word of salvation. But faith must approve itself by works.
As without faith, no works : so without works, no faith. A
faith without works is dead, like a body without the power of
life. Man secures righteousness acceptable before God by
means of his works, not through faith alone. Faith becomes
a reaUty over against the world, the kingdom of demons, and
Satan, apd over against men, through love to God and through
the royal law of love to our neighbour. The trust in God
arising from love proves itself by patience amid all sufferings,
which the world inflicts, and by opposition to all temptations
and incitements, which proceed from the world, and by the
practice of neighbourly love in all the Christian virtues. Every
departure from the divine will must be atoned for by humble
repentance, and so wiU find forgiveness with God. Christi
anity is practical piety, or, in contrast to the earthly, sensual,
devilish wisdom, it is the wisdom that cometh from above, as
the ethical course of conduct determined in accordance with a
true insight into the divine will. The recompense corresponds
to human conduct. Sinners who in the life here below are
engaged in opposing the wiU of God, pass at the last judg
ment at the coming of the Lord into everlasting death ; but
the righteous enter into the kingdom, into life everlasting.
The Epistle of James is of no small importance as affording
historical insight into the Christian consciousness of the
primitive Church. Over against Judaism the Church must
have endeavoured to secure for itself an independent position.
If it was particularly, distinguished from Judaism by its faith
in the Messiah, the distinction was in general based upon the
belief and hope in the risen and glorified Christ, who was to
come again, This became yet more prevalent through the

170 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
metaphysical idea of Christ which was associated with the
historical Christ. By means of it Christianity was raised
high above Judaism, and completely separated from it, inas
much as the law retreated before the ideal fellowship of spirit
and grace with the Son and- the Father, and lost its validity
for Christians. Nevertheless, Christians who had not soared
to this Christological height, and maintained rather a historical
theocratic notion of the Messiah, must start the question, how
far this separation from Judaism is to be carried, whether, if
one turns from it by believing in the Messiah, he must also
on this account abandon the law of his fathers. The peculiarly
deep-rooted regard for the Old Testament revelation, and the
knowledge, not less widely spread in the Church, of the place
which Christ Himself had assigned to the law, must have led
to the decisive answer, that faith in the Messiah is not only
reconcilable with the law, but oontains in itself, as the
realization of all the promises of the Old Covenant, the perfect
fulfilment of the law. That this standpoint was powerfully
represented in the Church is seen from the synoptic Gospels,
from the Pauline Epistles, and pre-eminently from the Epistle
of James. In consequence of the general opposition of the
Church to Judaism, there arose a schism ia the Church itself:
some maintaining the validity of the law for Christians, others
renouncing it. The feeling which was thereby called forth in
the Church must have led to a bitter struggle, as both parties,
in the spreading of Christianity even among the Gentiles,
called attention to their different standpoints. Those who
held by the law made the adoption of the Gentiles into the
kingdom dependent upon their being previously received into
the fellowship of the law. Those, again, who insisted upon
freedom from the law maintained that the GentUes, equally
with the Jews, were justified even without this condition.
The Apostle Peter appears as the chief representative of the
legal tendency ; Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles appears as
chief representative of those maintaining freedom from the

NEW TESTAMENT VIEW OF FAITH : PAUL AND JAMES. 171
law. At the height of the struggle their opposition was
embittered by personal animosities. The standpoint of
the law was carried out to the extreme of regarding the
law, not only as moral law, but even as ceremonial law,
as binding upon Christians. In the former milder form it
appears in the Epistle of James, but evidently in direct con
tradiction to Pauline freedom from the law. From this the
contradictions become most distinctly apparent in their own
nature and in their relation to one another. Inasmuch as it
is admitted on both sides that works presuppose faith, but by
the one side an independent value is claimed for faith without
works, and by the other side no value is allowed to such
workless faith, there exists the opposition between the right
eousness of faith on the one hand, and the righteousness of
works or of the law on the other hand. The opposition which
asserted itself very powerfully in the later jDeriod of the life of
the Church, points back to a different conception of what
faith is, and finds its only true solution in the profound
religio-psychological view of faith held by Paul, who had not
been dominated by the legalistic tendency. In the history
of the Church this solution appears in the opposition of
law and gospel, where each side of the opposition has
assigned to it its relative truth. A false relation between
works and faith enters only when an independent value is
ascribed to works as such, and to faith as a mere theory.
The attempts at reconciliation, which were made even in
the primitive Church, as especially the writings of Luke
and the Epistles of Peter show, led to no fundamental solu
tion. Owing to the historical condition in which the Church
was, the controversy must have been of great importance to
it, and must have exercised the minds of its members in
the highest degree; but it is not to be supposed that the
spiritual movement was entirely spent in this controversy.
It has been generally customary to designate this dissension
that arose within the Church itself as Petrinism and Paulinism,

172 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Particularism and Universalism, Judseo - Christianity and
Gentile-Christianity, and to represent the matter as if the
whole spiritual confiict of the Church had centred in this
particular controversy. What is thereby overlooked, or at
least placed in the background, is the widely extended and
prevalent polemical apologetical activity which was laid upon
the Church as a necessity, in consequence of its historical
position in relation to Judaism. The fact is, that the cus
tomary designation of this controversy is not sufficiently
precise to prevent misunderstanding. In itself certainly the
distinction between Petrinism and Paulinism is quite harmless;
but if the legal-Petrine standpoint is characterized as particu
laristic and Judseo-Christian, and the Pauline standpoint of
freedom from the law as universalistic and Gentile Christian,
it would lead to the supposition that Petrinism, the legal
standpoint, had assumed an attitude thoroughly hostile to the
Gentiles and one of exclusiveness in reference to the Gentile
races, and had remained standing precisely in Judaism, and
that, on the other hand, Paulinism with its freedom from the
law had assumed an attitude thoroughly hostUe to the Jews,
and had entirely freed itself from, all Jewish elements.
Neither of these representations answers to the historical
reality. Primitive Christianity rather, embracing Petrinism
and Paulinism, is generally Judaeo-Christian, that is, Chris
tianity permeated by common Jewish notions, and with
internal distinctions only according to the smaller or greater
deviations from the national Judaism.
To the common Judaistic conceptions of the primitive
Church belong those of the sacrificial death of Christ and His
coming again. That the latter especially was a power in the
Church and filled the minds of its members, in spite of
occasional dissension and disputes, with a common hope, is
evidenced in the most unequivocal manner by the Apocalypse
of St. John. In a great picture, full of dramatic Ufe, the
writer of the Apocalypse has presented the whole course of

THE ESCHATOLOGY OF THE APOCALYPSE. l73
eschatological occurrences, unto which the eyes of the whole
Church had been directed, but which had been only incidentally
touched upon by the other New Testament writers, or briefly
described. In order to produce this picture, the rich magni
ficence of colouring which ancient prophecy and the Jewish
apocalyptic Uterature afford, was employed. It is character
istic of this apocalyptic writer, that he associates the occur
rences in the closest connection with the overthrow of the anti-
christian Nero, and generally introduces a more historical
course. When the near approaching sacred advent has
arrived, the pagan-Eomish supremacy and its Emperor Nero
will be overthrown, and Satan, who rules over the heathen
nations, will be cast bound into the pit. But the end has not
yet come. Only now begins a thousand years' earthly reign
of the Messiah, in which after the first resurrection aU the
perfected martyrs wUl be received, that they may live and
reign with Christ. (Chiliasm.) After the expiry of the
thousand years, Satan will be let free for a season, but after a
ehort term of power he wiU be cast, with all the heathen,
into eternal torment in the lake of fire.
Now comes the final divine judgment. Death and Hades,
and all who are not written in the book of life, are cast into
the lake of fire. The world of the first creation is at an end ;
there are new heavens and earth ; a new Jerusalem comes
down from heaven to earth. Instead of the temple, the new
Jerusalem has the throne of God and of the Lamb, and is
lightened by its glory ; a river of life flows through the city ;
and between its golden streets and the river of life shines the
tree of life, which bears its fruit every month. Only those
who are written in the book of Ufe have entrance into the
city : before the throne of God and of the Lamb, they serve
God as His servants : enlightened by His light, they see Him
face to face, and reign with Him for ever. — The new Jerusalem,
which the writer of the Apocalypse sees at the close of his
revelation, imprints in bright colours the idea which sprang

174 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
up in the sacred poetry of the early Christian Church, the
yearning after fuller fellowship with God and His Messiah.
The lost paradise of Jewish Wisdom is, according to the
Christian Apocalypse, regained in the paradise of the future.
In the spiritual activity which the primitive Church
developed for the establishing of its faith outwardly and
inwardly, lie the first beginnings of Christian theology. The
metaphysical and eschatological mysteries, with which the
life of Jesus and primitive Christianity are surrounded,
await historical treatment, and find their solution, together
with their proper valuation, in dogmatics.
Among the numerous works on biblicail theology, besides
the older treatises of Zacharia, Hufnagel, Ammon, Bauer,
Bretschneider, Kaiser, de Wette, Baumgarten-Crusius, and
those already referred to of Hermann Schultz, Ewald, Immer,
Pfleiderer, the following are the more important works of
recent times : —
D. von Colin, Biblische Theologie, herausgegeben von
Schultz. 2 Bande. Leipzig 1836. W. Vatke, Die Eeligion
des Alten Testaments. 1 Th. Berlin 1835. Bruno Bauer,
Die Eeligion des Alten Testaments. 2 Bande. 1838. J.
Chr. F. Steudel, Vorlesungen iiber die Theologie des Alten
Testaments, herausgegeben von Oehler. Berlin 1840. J.
L. S. Lutz, Biblische Dogmatik, herausgegeben von Euetschi.
Pforzheim 1847. H. A. C. Havernick, Vorlesungen iiber die
Theologie des Alten Testaments, herausgegeben von Hahn.
Erlangen 1848. 2 Aufl. mit Anmerkungen von H. Schultz.
Frankfurt a. M. 1863-. Chr. F. Schmid, Biblische Theologie
des Neuen Testaments, herausgegeben von Weizsacker. 2
Bande. Stuttgart 1853. 3 Aufl. 186.4. [English transla
tion : Biblical Theology of the New Testament. Edinburgh :
T. & T. Clark.] G. L. Hahn, Die Theologie des Neuen
Testaments. 1 Bd. Leipzig 1854. Ch. F. Baur, Vorles
ungen liber neutestamentUche Theologie. Hamburg 1864.

LITEEATUEE OF BIBLICAL THEOLOGY. 175
Bernhard Weiss, Lehrbuch der biblischen Theologie des
Neuen Testaments. Berlin 1868. [3 Aufl. BerUn 1880.
English translation from third German edition : Biblical
Theology of the New Testament. 2 vols. Edinburgh : T. &
T. Clark, 1882, 1883.] J. J. van Oosterzee, Die Theologie
des Neuen Testaments. Barmen 1869. [English transla
tion: The Theology of the New Testament. London 1871.
4th ed. 1882.] G. Fr. Oehler, Theologie des Alten Testa
ments. 2 Bde. Tubingen 1873, 1874. [English translation :
Theology of the Old Testament. 2 vols. Edinburgh. T. &
T. Clark, 1874.] E. W. Hengstenberg, Christologie des
Alten Testaments. 2 Bde. Berlin 1829-1832. 2 Aufl.
3 Bde. 1855-1857. [English translation: Christology of
the Old Testament. 4 vols. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark,
1859-1865.] G. Volkmar, Die Eeligion Jesu. Leipzig
1857. W. Beyschlag, Die Christologie des Neuen Testaments.
Berlin 1866. [T. D. Bernard, The Progress of Doctrine in
the New Testament. Bampton Lecture. 3rd edition. Lon
don 1873.] C. Wittichen, Die Idee Gottes ais des Vaters,
die Idee des Menschen, die Idee des Eeiches Gottes. (Beitrage
zur biblischen Theologie.) Gottingen 1865-1872. W.
Weiffenbach, Der Wiederkunftsgedanke Jesu. Leipzig 1873.
C. E. Kostlin, Der Lehrbegriff des Evangeliums und der
Briefe Johannis. Tiibingen 1845. A. Hilgenfeld, Das
Evangelium und die Briefe Johannis nach ihrem Lehrbegriff
dargesteUt. Halle 1849. L. Usteri, Entwickelung des
pauUnischen Lehrbegriffs. Ziirich 1824. 6 Aufl. 1850.
E. A. Lipsius, die paulinische Eechtfertigungslehre. Leipzig
1853. K. Holsten, Zum Evangelium des Paulus und Petrus.
Eostock 1868. [Das Evangelium des Paulus. 1 Th. Berlin
1880. W. J. Irons, Christianity as Taught by St. Paul.
Bampton Lecture for 1870. Oxford 1870.] E. K. A. Eiehm,
Der Lehrbegriff des Hebraerbriefes. Ludwigsburg 1858.
W. Schmidt, Der Lehrgehalt des Jacobus-Briefes. Leipzig
1869. J. A. B. Lutterbeck (Eoman Catholic), Die Neutesta-

176 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
mentlichen Lehrbegriffe. 2 Bde. Mainz 1853. H. Messner,
Die Lehre der Apostel und Neutestamentlichen Schriftsteller.
Leipzig 1856. [H. Gebhardt, The Doctrine of the Apocalypse.
Transl from the German. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1878.
E. Haupt, The First Epistle of John : A Contribution to
Biblical Theology. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1879.] Of
special value for New Testament Theology are the works
on the Apostolic Age by Neander [English translation :
History of the Planting and Training of the Christian Church.
London 1844], Schwegler, Lechler, Thiersch, Eitschl, Eeuss
[English translation : History of Christian Theology in the
Apostolic Age. 2 vols. London 1872], Hausrath [English
translation : History of New Testament Times. London. 3
vols. 1878-1883], Schiirer [English translation announced:
History of New Testament Times. Edinburgh: T. & T.
Clark. — Ph. Schaff, ApostoUcal Christianity, a.d. 1-100.
2 vols. Edin.: T. & T. Clark, 1882. Pressens^, Early
Years of Christianity. 4 vols. London 1879. Vol. I The
Apostolic Age.]

SECOI^D DIYISIOI^.
HISTOEICAL THEOLOGY.

§ 33. INTRODUCTION TO A DIVISION OF HISTOEICAL
THEOLOGY.

I HE postulate which theology in its first part assumes
is the idea of Christianity, which also embraces
the whole of the religious content of the Old
Testament, in so far as that answers to this idea.
As the final result of the historical development of religion,
this idea points back to a divine act of revelation, by means
of which a new principle of life was created in man, and his
chief end in life was determined. The idea of Christianity is
the idea of religion which should penetrate the life of all
mankind, and lead on to its perfection. When theology has
reached this result, it has obtained its own special subject.
After it has come to know this in its origin, it is its further
task to treat it in its historical development. With Christ,
in whom the idea of reUgion, spiritual and living feUowship with
God, was reaUzed in the form of a personal human life pene
trated by the Divine Spirit, a historical course begins, in which
the Christian idea, consisting in faith in Christ, operates as
the new divine principle of life, and, from the most insignificant
beginnings, more and more extensively and intensively pervades
the world. No limit has been prescribed to the spread of
Christianity. As the religion of mankind, it is destined to
VOL. IL M

178 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
break through the pre-Christian national boundaries, and to
permeate the life of aU races and nations. This great career
is represented historically as the Church life. The Church
which makes confession of Christ, and in faith in Him has
the Christian idea for its living principle, is the organ whereby
Christianity gives to itself a historical existence, and, under
the conditions and limitations of historical development, un
folds the powers of its indwelling divine life. The end and
fulfilment of the development is the kingdom of God, as the
whole race of mankind penetrated by the Spirit of God. The
gradual growth, which was foretold concerning it by the founder
Himself, takes place in the Church. Thus the Church is the
historical organ which serves for the realization of the kingdom
of God. The various denominations, into which during the
course of history the Church has been divided, are all simply
members of this organism, and as such are all with more or
less precision helping to carry out this idea of the divine
kingdom. It is the task of historical theology to follow out
in its totality the historical course of the life of the Church,
and to reproduce the same in its entire compass according to
all the sides and tendencies of its development, and to give a
representation of its whole extension from its earliest begin
nings down to the present time. Its labours, therefore, are
never concluded. While exegetical theology is limited to
Holy Scripture and the time of its origin, historical theology
is unlimited. Should it conclude at any particular period as
the present, the Church life immediately transcends this point,
and never-endingly assigns it new tasks.
The standpoint which historical theology has assumed for
its treatment of history must be that of the idea. Only from
the idea of Christianity can it form a correct judgment, both
in regard to the principal phases of the Church life, and also
in regard to the question as to how far the Church in its
totality, or the particular denominations of the Church, together
with their development down to the present, have approached.

IMPOETANCE OF CHUECH HISTOEY FOE THE CHUECH. 179
or still remain behind, the idea of the kingdom of God. In
accordance with its task, historical theology is principally
Church historj', and embraces just this one branch. It does
not seem admissible to distinguish between the history of the
Christian Church and the history of Christianity.^ All the
utterances and results, which historically proceed from the
Christian faith, belong also to the domain of Church history.
If historical theology receives other branches besides Church
history, these can only have as their subject special constituent
parts of Church history, and can have a separate place
assigned them only for the purpose of perfecting in detaU the
comprehensive picture of Church life which Church history
produces. For the Church of the present, as well as for theology, Church
history is of supreme importance. No theory can supply to
the government of the Church the lessons which Church
history affords it. From Church history it has to learn the
wisdom which is indispensable in all the administration of
ecclesiastical ordinances, to take counsel about reforms in the
ecclesiastical realm, and to appropriate the higher points of
view which, over against the ecclesiastical, as the result of
controversies and struggles, are to be maintained. To the
ministry of the Church the rich material is suppUed by
Church history, which may be applied not only for the edifica
tion, but also for the education of the Church, in awakening
an understanding of the nature of the Church, an interest in
the tasks of the Church, love and enthusiasm for their own
Church, but not less also toleration toward those of another
faith. The apologetic service which Church history in a
signal manner affords to the Church, is to be regarded as of
still higher significance. Nothing can more successfully over
turn the objections brought against Christianity and the
Church, than the historical statement of the great results in
• As Rothe does in his Vorlesungen iiber Kirchengeschichte, herausgegeben
von H. Weingarten. Th. 1, 2. Heidelberg 1875. Th. i. p. 3.

180 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
intellectual and moral culture, which in all spheres of human
life have been won by the operation of Christianity, — results,
over against which the strifes and disturbances, which have
indeed entered into the domain of Church life, are not to be
laid to the account of Christianity and the Church, but to that
of human imperfection and passionateness.
For theology, Church history is of no less importance.
Inasmuch as it presents to view all the stages through which
the living Christian idea passes in the Church, and all the
historical utterances of the Ufe issuing from it, it affords to
theology the most valuable insight proceeding from the Ufe
into the nature of its subject. The historical experience
which, in Church history, theology hands over to Christianity,
contributes a solid foundation, from which it can give a
representation, both of the Christian consciousness of the
present, and of the ideal configuration of the ecclesiastical
system. The comprehensive empiricism of Church history is
in theology quite indispensable for its two last divisions, for
systematic and practical theology. Principally from this
theoretical interest which theology has in Church history, and
at the same time from the interest of Church history itself in
the more thorough treatment of its own subject, there arises
the demand for a Church history that will be not only a
history of the Church in its totality, but also a representation
in separate detail of the principal departments in which the
Church life has historically manifested itself. In the course of
history certain important departments branch off from Church
history, which have the condition of their being in the idea of
Christianity itself. These must therefore have a historical
development of their own. In consequence of its universal
character there belongs to Christianity a never resting impulse
toward expansion, which, so soon as a Christian community
had been formed, must from that time forth continue incessantly
active. By means of this universalism and opposition to the
Ufe of the world, the community was obliged to give itself,

GENERAL IMPOETANCE OF CHUECH HISTOEY. 181
over against the world and its various nationalities, the out
ward form which, as a firmly laid constitution, secured for
the community its united and independent life. But, as a
religious community, the Christian, as well as every other
religious community, must furnish forms of worship for the
nurture of its faith and for public devotion, which wiU answer
to what is characteristic of the Christian consciousness of God.
Now the more living the faith, the more powerful also are the
expressions of wiU determined by it, by means of which, as
the outflow of Christian love, habits are formed after a common
type, and a Christian mode of life, a Christian culture, under
stood in the widest sense, is generated. FinaUy, for its own
sake, and in opposition to other religious communions con
trasted with it, the Christian community makes the content of
its faith the subject of its consideration, and seeks to secure
for it an objective expression, which, as the doctrine of the
Church, assumes always more and more definite forms. In
these five functions and manifestations of Ufe — expansion, con
stitution, worship, culture, and doctrine — the Christian spirit of
the community, from the first beginnings through its entire
history down to the present, develops an extraordinary wealth
in the construction of separate divisions. While now Church
history represents these five great departments of the Church
life in its totality, and thereby performs practically all that
can be required of historical theology, the interests of theology,
as well as the interests of Church history, demand that a
separate treatment should be given to each of these five de
partments. Hence there appear alongside of Church history
the branches of the History of Missions, the History of the Con
stitution, the History of Worship, the History of Culture, and the
History of Doctrines. As supplementary to the last named,
may be added Symbolics and Patristics, and the all-embracing
Ecclesiastical Statistics. Of these branches, the history of
doctrines, symbolics, and patristics are of service principally
to systematic theology : the rest are of ' service chiefly to

182 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
practical theology. For the encyclopsedie treatment of histori
cal theology, it is enough in Church history to indicate the
chief phases of development, in so far as this is requisite for
the divisions of theology that follow ; while, in regard to the
other branches, it is only necessary to point out their scientific
tasks and their distribution.

CHUECH HISTOEY. 183

§ 34. CHURCH HISTORY.
Church history, as the history of the Church life, requires
for the performance of its task various auxiliary sciences. The
more that the indwelling spirit of Christianity becomes, by
means of its expansion, a historical power; the more numerous
become the points of contact of the Church with the surround
ing conditions of life; with the social habits, customs, and
culture of the nations among which it has spread, with the
constitutions and legal codes of the States in which it finds
place. While it actively produces an effect upon these condi
tions, it also passively relates itself to them, and in its own
development and culture is influenced by them in various
ways. By reason of this inter-connection, Church history has
for its presupposition the general history of the world, the
history of law, the history of general literature and culture,
the history of art and of philosophy. Particularly in common
with general history, it has, as auxiliary sciences, chronology
and geography. Since Church history, too, as well as general
history, has to obtain its material from sources, it is further in
need of a sacred philology, that is, the knowledge of all the
languages in which most of its sources were composed. It
therefore requires especially a knowledge of Greek and Latin,
particularly in their mediseval forms, and the languages of the
most important modern cultured races. It demands also a
knowledge of diplomatics, that is, the science which treats of
original documents, which teaches how to estimate ancient
documents and manuscripts according to their age and country,
and according to their authenticity, determined by inward and
outward marks. Church history must have all these sciences
in its service ; but above all, since it is itself a branch of
theological science, its own exposition must be scientific, if it

184 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
is to satisfy the demands made upon it. The need for a his
torical account of the Church appeared even in the earliest
age, so soon as the Church life had been consolidated into one
mould. The Acts of the Apostles may be regarded as the
beginning of this, and after it through all the centuries every
age has given proof of its lively interest in the past of the
Church by means of contributions to Church history. For the
Church historian of the present these contributions are most
valuable sources, but they cannot be regarded as masterpieces
of the art of writing Church history. It was by Church his
torians of modern times that Church history was first raised
to the rank of a history treated according to the requirements
of science.'' Church history has to prove its scientific character
by making its representation objective, pragmatical, and theo
logical. The objectivity consists in this, that the facts, so far
as they can be ascertained from the sources, are reported with
historical precision. Generally in this department of Church
history it is extraordinarily difficult to attain unto this objec
tivity. As the Church historian in himself exposed to the
danger of allowing his subjective views, be they of an ecclesias
tical, dogmatic, or purely individual kind, to colour his concep
tion of the historical, so also in the very sources from which
he draws, the facts may have been already tinged with a sub
jective colouring. Besides philological criticism, by means of
which the Church historian acquaints himself with the literary
concernments of his sources, he must, therefore, with the
greatest circumspection employ historical criticism in order to
distinguish the material to be drawn from the sources from all
subjective accessories. He must, at the same time, deal with
himself in the strictest way, in order to repress any subjective
tendencies to which he is prone while engaged in ascertaining
the material, and to set forth that which, with the help of
criticism, was ascertained as objective in its historical reality-
1 F. Chr. Baur, Die Epochen der kirchliohen Geschichtschreibung. Tiibingen
1852.

INDISPENSABLE ELEMENTS IN CHURCH HISTOEY. 185
However, it is not enough simply to enumerate the facts in a
chronological method ; the exposition to be scientific must be
at the same time pragmatic. Pragmatism, however, consists
not in a paltry combining of cause and effect, which does not
grasp the idea dominating a period and appreciate the geniality
of productive spirits, but in comprehending the several facts
in the organic connection in which they stand with the
collective life of the Church during any one period, and com
bining them in one clear picture of the Church history of the
age. Facts among which no such connection can be shown,
which remain detached and isolated, will have no particular
value for Church history, and in consequence of the vast
accumulation of materials which the Church historian has to
reduce to order, it will be most serviceable to have them with
drawn from the history altogether. The further demand that
the treatment be theological is intended to secure that the
Church historian keeps in view throughout his whole activity
the idea latent in his subject, that is, the idea of the Church,
and that led by it he treats both the separate periods of the
Church life, and also the history of the Church in its totality.
Not only, then, will the particular facts be conceived of in
relation to the religious spirit of Christianity, but the history
as a whole wUl also lead to a definite result, inasmuch as it
must be seen at the end of the whole development whether
the idea has reached its realization, or if this has yet to be
looked for from the future. Before this ideal treatment the
confessional and doctrinal views of the various sects, which
are the occasion of no slight difficulties in the composition
of Church history, will also disappear. And it is just that
theological treatment of history, in the sense that has been
assio'ned here to the term, that wUl place the Church historian
in a position to give his exposition that objectivity which is
demanded in the writing of general history.
Finally, for the scientific treatment of Church history a
special importance should be attached to the distribution

186 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
which it makes of its materials, for by means of this prin
cipally the perspicuity is attained unto, after which every
historical composition must aim. Before a history, of the
Church life can be commenced, it is necessary to premise an
introduction which has again for its presupposition several
branches of exegetical theology — Jewish archseology, Jewish
history, the history of biblical literature, and especially the
theological history of religion, including the life of Jesus. In
the introduction the reUgious condition of Judaism and
heathenism, as it was immediately before and after the birth
of Christ, is to be characterized, in order that both the
significance of Christianity on its entrance into history,
and also the rapid spread thereof, and the influences of
Judaism and heathenism upon its earlier development, may
be acknowledged. These two, then, Judaism and heathenism,
are to be set over against the idea of Christianity and
the idea of the Church, and for this purpose Christ, as
founder of religion and the Church, and the primitive Chris
tian community in respect of its religious conceptions and its
outward constitution, are to be described in brief outlines.
The idea of the Church is to be deflned in accordance with the
idea of the kingdom of God founded by Christ, and in accord
ance with the consciousness of the early Christian Church.
Consequently the Church is the communion of believers in
Christ, who are called in the faith of Christ to serve for the
realization of the kingdom of God upon earth, and to lead all
men into spiritual fellowship with God. The many believers
in Christ are one body, and indeed the body of Christ, which
has as its head Christ, who is identical with the idea, the
members of which are, as is shown by the most abundant
proofs, governed by one spirit, by the spirit of the head, — a
holy temple, in which the Spirit of God dwells, with Christ as
its corner-stone, the Church a congregation of the Lord, an
iKKXrjffla KvpiaKrj (1 Cor. x. 17, xii. 12-20; Eph. i. 22, 23,
iv. 5, 12, 15, 16.— 1 Cor. iii. 16, vi. 19; 2 Cor. vi. 16;

VAEIOUS DEPAETMENTS IN CHURCH HISTORY. 187
Eph. u. 21, 22). Guided by the idea of the Church, the
Church historian has to traverse the whole historical domain
of the Church, and to make first of all a division of the
materials of Church history. The Christian idea, as well as
the task of its historical realization, is included in the idea of
the Church, and from it are derived the leading subdivisions
set forth in the preceding paragraph, in which the Church life
is historically manifested. The division is to be determined
in accordance with these. If Church history is not to be a
chaotic medley, it must give a separate exposition to each of
these various historical departments, — the expansion of Chris
tianity, the constitution of the Church, the worship of the
Church, Christian culture and Christian doctrine. Neverthe
less, while doing so, this must always be kept in view, that these
are the outflow and operation of one spirit, and as such should
be, at the same time, represented as elements in one organism,
mutually supplementing and conditioning one another. This
would be im'practicable if each separate department were to be
described in an unbroken narrative from the beginning down
to the present. Hence, in order to make that organic connec
tion of the departments apparent, and to give as perspicuous a
picture as possible of the Church life, it is requisite that the
material be divided into certain, epochs, and be expounded in
accordance with the distribution suggested in a circumscribed
period. The division in respect of time must be connected
with the division of the material. The former is not dependent
upon the arbitrary will of the historian, but it is determined
partly by this, that the Church institution {Kirchenthum) of
one period is distinguished from that of another period by
some strongly marked peculiarity, partly by this, that in the
course of history events occur which are so important that
their effects extend into the following period. Thus three
great periods are first of all to be distinguished, in which the
Church institution is developed in a characteristicaUy varied
manner. The first period extends from the founding of the

188 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Church down to the year 800, — Catholicism under the influ
ence of the Jewish and the Grseco-Eoman spirit. The second
period extends from Charlemagne down to the Eeformation, —
Eoman - Germanic Catholicism. The third period extends
from the Eeformation to the present time, — the opposition of
Protestantism and Catholicism. These three periods are sub
divided into shorter periods by means of important occurrences.
The first period is thus subdivided by the adoption under
Constantine of Christianity as the State reUgion. The second
period is subdivided by the attainment on the part of the
papal power of its highest development under Pope Inno
cent III. in 1216. The third period is subdivided by the
admission of Protestantism and Catholicism to political equality
in the Peace of Westphalia in 1648.
Thus Church history with its three periods falls into six
divisions, a division according to time that deserves to be pre
ferred to any other.^ In each period the material has to be
treated according to the division of subjects. This, however,
must be done in such a way that the particular departments
will be prominent or otherwise according to the importance
which they have for that period. The Encyclopsedia must
confine itself to the characterizing of the three periods accord
ing to the points of chief importance in their development.

' Karl Hase, Kirchengeschichte. 10 Aufl. Leipzig 1877. P. 4 ff. [English
translation from the seventh German edition of 1854 : History of the Christian
Church. Transl. by Blumenthal and Wing. New York 1855. P. 5. Rabiger's
division as to periods is an exact reproduction of that of Hase.]

THE THREE PERIODS OF CHURCH HISTORY. 189

§ 35. THE THREE PERIODS OF CHURCH HISTORY.
(a) First Period. The Catholicism of the Ancient Time.
The community founded by Christ, so soon as it had in
some measure been consolidated, developed from Jerusalem a
stirring missionary activity, which extended from the churches
established in the neighbourhood to the farthest regions.
The universal Eoman world afforded it wide scope, and a
field in many ways prepared beforehand, while Judaism in the
dispersion presented favourable points of contact. The oppo
sition, on the one hand, of a nationaUy restricted tendency,
and, on the other hand, of one that declared for freedom from
the law, existing within the primitive Christian community,
was overcome by means of the universalism inherent in the
Christian principle ; but the general Judaistic form, in which
the faith in the Messiah was introduced into the early Church,
was also carried down along with its further extension.
Christianity, destined as the religion of the spirit and love to
be the universal religion, with its hope in the nearness of the
kingdom of God, entered into the most uncompromising
opposition to the world as the first phase of its world-
conquest, and only after a severe struggle could it win its
place in the world. The enmity of the Jews against the
apostates was soon eclipsed by the hatred of the heathen
against the new religion. The political interest, with which
the private interest of many citizens coincided, was inevitably
directed against those who contested and repudiated belief in
the gods sanctioned by the State, openly showed their dis
regard of the course of life represented by the State with
its laws and ordinances, its customs and its culture.
Nevertheless, in spite of Jewish persecutions and calumnies,

190 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
in spite of Gentile hatred, in spite of the violent imperial
laws, and also in spite of the intellectual regeneration of
Hellenism by means of Neo-Platonism, Christianity forced its
way more and more among all classes of society, so that after
two centuries its victory was complete, and the insignificant
community had become a spiritual power in the Eoman
Empire, from which the civil power could no longer withhold
its recognition. With the elevation of Christianity to the
rank of the State religion by Constantine in the year 323,
and with the baptism of the emperor in the year of his
death a.d. 337, the struggle was brought to a close, and the
wide extension of the Church in a peaceful manner commenced.
The same political interest that had led Constantino's pre
decessors to endeavour to extirpate Christianity, led his
successors to extirpate paganism, and to restore to the empire
in Christianity a universally recognised form of worship.
The reaction which set in in favour of Hellenism under the
Emperor Julian the Apostate from 361 to 363, is, in its
failure to produce any abiding result, only a proof that even
imperial opposition could no longer endanger the stability of
Christianity. In the Eastern and Western Empires, during
the fifth and sixth centuries, by the application of imperial
measures, the last vestige of paganism was destroyed, and
Christianity was raised to undivided sway.
Various causes co-operated in bringing the struggle, in a
comparatively short time, to this result. What most perfectly
affords an explanation of this is to be found, on the one hand,
in the nature of Christianity itself, and, on the other hand,
in the decay of the heathen national reUgion. The super
naturalism of Christianity not only offered opposition to the
Eoman civil power, but also overcame the worldly-mindedness
of the heathen people. Even the last extremity, the martyr
death which Christians had suffered during the persecutions,
appeared to them insignificant in comparison with the suffer
ings of their example Christ, and in view of the kingdom of

CAUSES OF EAPID SPEEAD OF CHEISTIANITY. 191
God, the gates of which wiU open before every martyr. Over
an enthusiasm, which regarded the things of the world and
life itself as of no account, the civil power with all its
engines of compulsion was powerless. The national religion,
too, which it endeavoured to justify and support in opposition
to Christianity, had no longer any hold upon the hearts of
the people. In contrast to the emptiness and unsupported
character of heathen unbelief and superstition, Christianity
appeared as the divine truth, which compelled respect, as well
by the fidelity of its confessors to the one God and Father,
even to the despising of death, as by the love which bound
Christians together as children of God into one family, the
members of which supported and furthered one another amid
all tribulations and sufferings by mutual help. In no small
measure must the God-estranged mind of paganism have
been won to the new faith by the declaration that, through
the objective fact of the death of Christ, a universal and
eternal reconciliation between God and man was established,
and that aU who advanced through faith into the fellowship of
this death, are certainly made partakers of the kingdom of
God, before which all the glories of the world will vanish
away. As faith in Christ was originally a free confession, so,
during the times before Constantine, Christianity won the
hearts and minds of men only by its manifold indications of
Ufe, and laid the foundation of an ethical revolution among
the vairious races which were embraced in the Eoman Empire.
Although in the seventh century it was locally restricted in
consequence of the advance of Mohammedanism in the East,
it still remained through all time superior to an abstract
monotheism, which made its conquest by the power of the
sword, which, calculating as it did upon one particular
nationality, could never have alongside of Christianity the
significance of a religion of universal human culture.
Durino' the struggle with paganism, continued through three
centuries, the Christian community was led to give itself an

192 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
enduring stabiUty externally by means of inward seclusion.
To this end also was directed the impulse inherent in every
communion, apart from the condition of any particular age, to
have its members bound together in unity, and especially the
idea of the kingdom of God, as well as the corresponding
attitude assumed by Christianity toward all nationalities and
toward the worldly life generally, which by the Christians
was regarded and prescribed as a mode of existence doomed
to destruction and governed by the principalities of evil.
After the separate congregations had constituted themselves
according to the model of the Jewish synagogal congrega
tions by the appointment of elders, irpea-^vrepoi or i-n-iaKoiroi,
and had very soon transferred the supreme government of the
congregation to one whose personality was prominent among
the elders with the name i-iriffKoiro<; as a title of rank, they
gradually gathered together into larger associations. Even in
the second half of the second century neighbouring congrega
tions met together in the nearest city in a synod for the common
management of their affairs, and the consequence of this was
that the city bishops obtained a superiority over the bishops of
country congregations, the 'xatpeirlaKo-iroi,. As early as the
beginning of the third century the same need led to provincial
synods, in which the assembly of the whole of the bishops of
the province represented the unity of the provincial Church.
The spontaneous result of this was the elevation in rank of the
bishops of provincial capitals, who now obtained over against
the other city and country bishops of the province, in recogni
tion of their higher position, the title of /^ijT/soTroXtVet?. In the
course of this development, which advanced so naturally and
in ever enlarging circles bound the congregations together into
a united association, there entered as early as the second
century, in accordance with Old Testament precedent, an
element which stood in direct contradiction to the Christian
idea of the priestly character of all the members of the congre
gation (1 Pet, ii. 9 ; Eev. i. 6), the distinction between clergy

GEOWTH OF THE ECCLESIASTICAL CONSTITUTION, 193
and laity, as tfie beginning of the complete hierarchy that in
consequence appears at the later stage. Thus the ecclesi
astical officers as a distinct class were elevated above the
general mass of believers, and the ecclesiastical privileges
which had hitherto been accorded to Christians generally, the
free election of their elders, the right of exhorting in public, par
ticipating in the exercise of Church discipline, were gradually
appropriated to themselves. Among the clergy themselves,
however, the highest rank was accorded to the bishops as
the successors of the apostles and vicegerents of Christ. In
the synods they exercised the right of making and administer
ing laws for their dioceses by the power of the Holy Spirit
which guided them. This distinction between members of
the congregation had already been completed when Christi
anity came to be recognised by Constantine as the State
religion. The Church made its appearance in the State as
already in respect of constitution divided into great united
circles — the Egyptian, the Palestinian, the Syrian, the Greek,
and the Eoman Churches. The connection which the Church
then formed with the State had a far-reaching influence
upon its further development. Eeleased from that hostile
attitude which it had hitherto assumed toward the State and
the worldly mode of life, it was now possible for it to exert an
influence in a Christian way upon the institutions of the State,
and to engraft Christian culture upon the heathen common
wealth. As the Church of the orbis romanus, it now reached
the full consciousness of its universal destination, its catho
licity, and was furthered in its efforts at wider extension and
organization by the help and the protection of the civil power.
Besides the regular Metropolitan Synods, there now appear the
(Ecumenical Synods, which are of decided importance for the
building up of the imperial Church. Even at the first (Ecu
menical Council at Nicsea, in the year 325, certain prerogatives
were granted to the bishops of the three most important imperial
cities, Alexandria, Antioch, and Eome, and besides these, at the
VOL. IL N

194 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
second Council at Constantinople, in the year ^81, to those
of Jerusalem and Constantinople, by means of which they
gained a pre-eminence over the Metropolitans of the smaller
imperial cities. Since the fifth century, in order to indicate their
superior rank, they assumed the title of Patriarchs. Among
these, again, the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Eome, in
consequence of the political importance of their residences,
gained a special prominence. Since that time, however, the
freedom of the Church began to be restricted by the imperial
authority. The Byzantine Emperors considered themselves,
afterwards as well as before, the pordifices maximi, who had
power alike over the State and over the Church, and made the
Church subserve their political designs. The Church, which
before Constantine was free, became, as an imperial Church,
the Church of the court, and as such was under the despotic
rule of the Byzantine Emperor. The longing for ecclesiastical
centralization, and the endeavours to free the Church from the
Byzantine dominion, led to the contest for ecclesiastical
supremacy between the Patriarchs of Eome and Constanti
nople. The past as well as the present favoured Eome.
Certain energetic bishops wrought, under favourable condi
tions, on behalf of the exaltation of Eome above Constanti
nople, as Leo I. in the fifth century, Symmachus at the
beginning of the sixth century, and Gregory the Great at the
end of the sixth century. While the Byzantine Patriarch, in
the immediate neighbourhood of the Emperor, could not
emancipate himself from court influence, the Eoman Patriarch,
after the overthrow of the Western Empire, amid the political
convulsions which Eome underwent from the Ostrogoths, the
Vandals, the Visigoths, the Longobards, and the Franks, was
able over against the political powers to aissume a free
attitude. While the Patriarch of Constantinople had his
authority restricted by the other Eastern Patriarchs, the
authority of the Eoman Patriarch was unconditionally
acknowledged in Italy, Gaul, and Britain. While the

BISHOP OF ROME BECOMES POPE. 195
Eastern Church, by reason of the conquests of Islam, was
confined within its own borders, a wide field was opened to
the Eoman Church, under circumstances that ensured success,
among the newly-founded German States. Various circum
stances contributed to secure sovereignty to the Eoman
Patriarch, — the fame of Eome as the capital of the Old World,
the authority of the Church of Eome on the ground of its
traditional founding by Peter and Paul, the cunning use
which the Eoman Church made of apostolic traditions, the
donative of landed property in Italy made over to the Eoman
bishops by the Prankish kings, and the coronation of Charle
magne as Eoman Emperor, at which the Bishop of Eome made
his appearance as already in fact Pope, who, as representative
of Christ, by consecration invested the civil princes with their
highest rights as defenders of the Church. Thus Christianity
gained at once its extension and its firmly-articulated organiza
tion. At the end of this period, the Bishop of Eome as Pope
stands at the head of the Church, the Church as the spiritual
State stands over against the earthly States, and although,
indeed, the Greek Church refuses to acknowledge this Eoman
Hegemony, it fails, in consequence of the overthrow of the
Byzantine Empire, to exercise any influence, either of a
doctrinal or administrative kind, upon the great ecclesiastical
development, which from the end of this period begins in the
West under the dominion of the Eoman Pope.
The bond of the constitution by which Christians within
the limits of the State were bound together into a great com
munion, could receive confirmation and continuance only if
the spirit of faith, whereby the Church overcame the world,
should continuously retain its living power. Together with
the organs of the constitution, the forms of worship were at
the same time developed which have bound the members of
the Church together in a spiritual communion. While the
Church by reason of its constitution, as a community directing
its course to heaven, withdrew from the worldly life, it

196 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
remained mindful of its task and final end in public devotion
and festival celebrations. What is present in the conscious
ness of the Church expresses itself in its sacred symbolic acts.
The centre of its worship is Christ. The celebration of the
Eedeemer's appearing is the proper preparation for His coming
again. By means of common prayer, and united singing, and
hearing the gospel preached, the community gave expression
to that repentance and regret which is indispensable to secure
an entrance into the kingdom of God. The same is expressed
in symbolical form by the two holy ordinances, baptism and
the Lord's Supper, — baptism in the name of Christ as the
earnest of the forgiveness of sius and the laver of regenera
tion ; the Lord's Supper, observed at the close of every meeting
for public worship, as the memorial feast pointing to the
sacrificial death of the Lord that atones for sin, and as the
pledge of the resurrection. Bread and wine, the symbols of
the sacrificial death, obtained soon a mysterious significance,
and came to be regarded as signs of the immediate presence
of Christ brought into supernatural connection with the body
and blood of the Lord. By means of the chief occurrences in
the life of Christ, common time was consecrated by the com
munity itself, and the year was arranged in a cycle of holy
days. The community, consisting of Gentiles and Jews,
adapted to its own uses pagan and Jewish festivals, but by
connecting them with Christ, elevated their natural or
national historic significance into a purely spiritual, uni
versally human significance. The Christmas festival as the
celebration of the birth of the Lord, the Easter festival as the
celebration of the death and resurrection of the Lord, the
feast of Pentecost as the celebration of His alighting upon the
Church through the Holy Spirit, are the principal festivals,
around which a multitude of feast days are grouped with
some reference to and bearing upon the principal festival.
After the persecutions, the anniversaries of the Martyrs
were treated by the Church with special consideration. The

DEVELOPMENT IN FORMS OF WORSHIP. 197
martyrs, who had suffered death for Christ's sake, were
regarded as patterns of the ideal Christian Ufe. At their
graves, for the encouragement of the Church, the day of their
death was celebrated as the birthday of their eternal life.
By means of visible remnants of Christ and these saints,
garments, bones, and such like, the so - called reUcs, an
endeavour was made to strengthen the remembrance of them
by associating it with something external, and the religious
imagination soon ascribed to them a supernatural, magical
influence. After Constantine, when the Church was allowed
to perform its devotions publicly, the forms of worship were
quickly perfected and surrounded with ever increasing
splendour. The congregational worship seems to be divided
into that of those on the threshold, the catechumens, and that
of the congregation proper and the clergy. The catechumens
were excluded from participation in the Lord's Supper, and
were required to quit the service before its administration.
The congregation stands passive in relation to the clergy.
In the exercise of worship the clergy assume the attitude of
priests, who alone can perform the holy actions, and, in their
priestly character placed in a nearer relationship to God
than the ordinary members, are mediators between God and
the members of the Church. The recognition of Christianity
by the State had a powerful influence upon the construction
of places for divine service. Art now enters into the service
of Christian worship. Architectural art changed the places
of assembly of the citizens, in which previously kings had
given forth their judgments, the so-called Basilicas, into local
churches, or heathen temples into Christian houses of God.
Sculpture and painting filled the churches with representa
tions of the saints, who were dear to the Christian community,
and raised the grossly sensual worship of relics, which fostered
superstition, to the consideration of ideal Christian personalities.
As, however, even by the creations of art assistance was given
to an injurious worship of images, the zeal of image-breakers,

198 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
the so-called Iconoclasts, was excited against art productions.
Nevertheless, the Empress Irene succeeded, at the (Ecumenical
Council held at Nicsea in the year 787, in having the worship
of images recognised as a constituent part of ecclesiastical
orthodoxy. While by its worship the Church was raised above the
worldly life, and was prepared for the approach of the kingdom
of God, in its life also it shows its heavenly-mindedness. The
first phase of Christian morality is, generally speaking, the
contempt of the world. The rule of life under which faith
places itself, the law of the spirit and of love, was the source
of a Christian virtue and morality, which commanded the
respect even of heathenism, enveloped as it was in worldliness,
and introduced into the pagan life a truly ethical element of
culture. Its deepest foundation lay in the Christian hope
which transcends the bounds of the present world and lays
hold upon the hereafter, and this has constituted the life of
the Christian a life of conflict with a world that is perishing
and under demoniacal influences. The holiness which
warrants the admission of the individual into the kingdom of
God, and the holiness of the Church, by means of which the
coming of the kingdom of God is conditioned, must be
endangered by intercourse with the world, and only by the
most thorough separation from the world does it seem attain
able. What the world values and strives after, possessions,
riches, enjoyment of life, secular art and science, all these by
reason of their transitoriness appear to the Christian not only
worthless, but pernicious, since they divert attention from the
purely spiritual life, by means of which they should be
acquiring for themselves citizenship in the kingdom of God.
Out of this manner of viewing the Christian hope and the
confidence with which it was entertained, there sprang that
enthusiasm and moral heroism with which, during the perse
cutions, the most exquisite tortures and the most excruciating
death were endured, with which the Anchorites and Hermits,

CHUECH DISCIPLINE : MONTANISM AND THE MONKS. 199
who since the third century had appeared in Egypt and Syria,
endured a constant martyrdom of self-denial in their absolute
separation from the world. From this mode of viewing
things there arose also that discipline strictly administered, at
first by the congregation itself, afterwards more particularly
by the priesthood, which kept watch against every relapse
into the worldly life, and by excommunication excluded the
impenitent from the Church, a punishment which was the
more terrible as exclusion from the Church meant likewise
exclusion from the kingdom of God. In a more highly
developed form this tendency appears in Montanism and
Novatianism, which held that only saints and spiritual men
had a place in the community, and excluded from it every
one at all guilty in reference to morals. In spite of the
exaggeration and one-sidedness of this ascetical morality of
early Christianity, there lies in it a commencement of the
idealizing, which the natural sensuous life was to experience
under the Spirit of God, which consists not in cursing the
world and renouncing the world, but in the transfiguring of
the world. When, after Constantine, the Church became
more and more involved in politics and its conditions, the
new relations soon led to the lowering somewhat of the high-
strung demands that had been made of the spiritual life, and
in order still rightly to maintain the value of these, to the
distinguishing between a lower and a higher ascetical morality.
This higher form of ascetical practice perfected itself in the
cloister life of the monks. The same endeavour led recluses
to form themselves into associations. From the Egyptian
hermits, from Antony, Pachomius, and Paul of Thebes, sprang
the monkish institutions of the Eastern and the Western
Church, where, in the sixth century, by means of Benedict of
Nursia, the Order of the Benedictines was founded in accord
ance with a definite and strict rule of the order. By means
of the monkish institution, the moral system of absolute self-
denial and renunciation of the world was set forth under the

200 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
rules of obedience, chastity, and poverty. Every bond, which
binds to the world, must be sundered, in order that the soul
may prepare itself for the heavenly life, and render itself
worthy of its eternal inheritance.
While Christianity pressed itself forward in ever-increasing
circles of heathenism, and after long struggles with the civil
power of Eome reached the position of the national Church, the
spiritual activity begun in the primitive Church, by which an
objective expression was given to the content of the faith, owed
its uninterrupted success to the most various causes. In the
second century, the Apology in presence of heathenism takes
the place of the Apology which the primitive Church had to
conduct in presence of Judaism. It took the form of grand
systems in the Gnosticism which, in the way of a Jewish-
Alexandrian philosophy of religion represented by Philo, from
a universal standpoint, blends together the dicta of Oriental
philosophy and the ideas of Greek philosophy with Chris
tianity, and as a Christian philosophy of religion seeks to
settle the conflict of these different intellectual and spiritual
tendencies by showing that absolute truth is contained in the
Christian , theory of the world. As from the beginning the
person of Christ occupied the foreground of the Christian
consciousness, a high place was also assigned to it in the
Gnostic systems. In the series of the essences proceeding
from God, the so-called .^ons, which constituted the media of
communication between the divine world and the earthly and
visible world, Christ comes forward as the particular Mon,
who became man in Jesus, assuming, however, as the heavenly
being merely the appearance of a human body (Bocetism).
By Gnosticism, however, Christianity was put in danger of
losing hold of its historical foundations, and of volatilizing
the consciousness of the Church into a superficial idealism.
A reaction therefore set in against it on the basis of the oral
and written tradition of the apostles. The theological germs
already recognisable in the New Testament were gradually

THE CATHOLIC FAITH : EARLY CHEISTOLOGIES. 201
developed into a Church theology, which, represented in the
West by Irenaeus, TertulUan, and Cyprian, asserted, over
against the fantastic, speculative systems of Gnosticism, his
torical Christianity from the standpoint of faith in accordance
with the historical legal tendency of the primitive Church ;
while in the East the most distinguished teachers of the
Alexandrian Church, Clement of Alexandria and Origen,
prosecuted the practical Pauline-Johannean tendency in specu
lation, and without falling into the fantasticalness of Gnosticism,
sought by means of the gnosis to conceive of Christianity in
accordance with the historical revelation. The consciousness of
the Church gave expression to the essential content of faith
in opposition to Gnosticism in numerous regulce fidei, which
gradually assumed a permanent form in the symbolum apos-
tolicum} Diverse as these are in modes of expression, they
are yet all agreed upon fundamental points. They all insist
upon faith in the one Almighty God, in His Son Jesus Christ,
who appeared as true man and ascended into heaven, and in
the Holy Spirit ; and they contain important evidence that
the mind of the Church had been directed pre-eminently to
the exalted Christ and to His coming again to judgment.
The differences, however, which prevailed already in the
earliest Church communions in regard to the conception of
Christ as the Son of God must now be overcome. To a
theology which had the refinements of Gnosticism to look
back upon, no satisfaction could be given by a Christ who
was conceived of in accordance with the Old Testament
Messianic idea as a mere man endowed with the Spirit of God,
as Son of God in the theocratic sense. The theological and
churchly interest directed its attention rather to Christ, the
Son of God, in the metaphysical sense, so that in the Church
the earlier view, which was that of Ebionism, more and more
' Compare A. Hahn, Bibliothek der Symbole und Glaubensregeln der aposto-
lisch-katholischen Kirche. Breslau 1842. 2 vermehrte Ausgabe von G. L.
Hahn. 1877.

202 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
fell into the background. It was important, therefore, to deter
mine the relation of the metaphysical Son of God to God the
Father, and the relation to both of the Spirit of God operating
in the Church. The difficulty of the task also led here to the
introduction of diverse views. There was imminent danger
of confusing the idea of the one God through the co-ordinating
of a Son. The speculative Greek spirit, however, which had
found its way into the Church, has to maintain the meta
physical mystery, and to endeavour the removal of the danger.
While some saw in Christ a mere divine revelation (Monar-
chians), others regarded Christ as indeed a divine nature, but
still, as Son, subordinate to the Father (Subordinationists), and,
especially in the Alexandrian theology, the idea was brought
forward that Christ as the Son of God is of the same sub
stance with the Father. After the Church, as the national
Church, had attained unto a consciousness of its catholicity, it
thought to be able to give currency to one form of faith for
the universal Church, and felt under obligation especially to
settle the difference of opinions in reference to the foundation
of faith, the person of Christ. For this purpose (Ecumenical
Councils were now convened, at which, under imperial autho
rity, the bishops of the empire, as representatives of the
Church, reached their conclusions under the supposed opera
tion of the Holy Spirit, and rendered valid the doctrines laid
down by them, and sanctioned by the civil power, as ecclesias
tical ordinances, unto which the faith of the Church was
bound. From this time forth we have in the Church the
contrast between orthodoxy and heresy. The freedom pre
viously enjoyed in theology was now endangered, partly by
the decrees of Councils, partly by the imperial favour or
disfavour, and the faith of the Church was placed under the
dominion of the episcopate of the State Church. At the first
(Ecumenical Council at, Nicsea (325), the divinity of Christ as
the Son witnessed to by the Father, and of the same substance.
with Him, was established ; and at the second Council in

COUNCILS OF CONSTANTINOPLE, EPHESUS, AND CIIALCEDON. 203
Constantinople (381), the divinity likewise of the Holy Spirit
proceeding from the Father was affirmed ; and this doctrine
of the Trinity was adopted, as the doctrine of the universal
Church, in the second ecclesiastical symbol, the so-called
Symbolum Nicceno-Constantinopolitanum. After Ebionism and
the subordinationism in Arianism, which could not raise itself
to the elevation of the speculative idea, had been by this
means excluded from the Church, it was necessary next to
repel the gnostic-docetic view. If Christ was to be a true
redeemer of mankind, He must not merely have adopted the
appearance of a human form, but must be a real man. The
question therefore was, How are the two natures of Christ, the
human and the dogmatically-established divine, to be united
with one another ? This question, too, in regard to which the
Byophysites and the Monophysites stand diametrically opposed
to each other, was finally resolved, after the most excited
ecclesiastical and political conflicts,, at the subsequent (Ecu
menical Councils. At the third (Ecumenical Council at Ephesus
(431), the doctrine of Nestorius regarding the separation of
the two natures in Christ was condemned, so that the Nes-
torians, being expelled from the Church as Dyophysites, formed
themselves into a separate Church communion in Persia under
the name of Chaldsean Christians. At the fourth (Ecumenical
Council at Chalcedon (451), the doctrine of Eutyches regard
ing the one nature of Christ was condemned, and it was
declared to be the doctrine of the Church that in Christ there
is a twofold nature, the divine and human, united in one
person ; and this doctrine was put into a more perfect form at
the sixth (Ecumenical Council at Constantinople (6 8 0), where
it was declared that, in regard to the two natures of Christ, the
two wills also, the divine and the human, were assumed, and
that these were in Christ united in the one actual personality.
The consequence was, that the Monophysites in Syria and
Mesopotamia separated themselves under the name of Jacobites,
and the Monotheletes under the name of Maronites, and con-

204 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
stituted themselves a sect apart from the universal Church.
From the first this dogma, so soon as it was put forth as an
ecclesiastical law, instead of furthering Church union, led
rather to a division of the Church. Even at the end of the
fifth century the Church doctrine, as it had been previously
established at the Councils in regard to Father, Son, and Spirit,
was expressed in its perfect form as the doctrine of the Trinity
in the Symbolum Pseudo-Athanasianum, and as such had
been raised into an absolute condition of salvation.
WhUe in the Eastern Church the metaphysical content of
the faith, the idea of God and the Christology, was dogmatically
determined, the practical spirit of the Western Church appUed
itself to the discussion of the anthropological contents of the
faith. The question was, whether man himself could do any
thing toward his salvation by his own powers, or whether he
has to look for everything from the divine operation ? The
relation of human freedom to divine grace was the subject of
inquiry. Here, too, the discussion ran off into a contradic
tion, the contradiction of Pelagianism and Augustinianism.
About the beginning of the fifth century the monk Pelagius
appeared at Eome, asserting the doctrine of man's free will,
•which is only assisted by the grace of God. Against him
there arose the African bishop Augustine, who denied that
man since the fall of Adam had the power of free self-deter
mination toward what is good. Not by his own power could
man come into the kingdom of God, and only those who are
destined from eternity unto salvation by God's absolute decree
can do good, and become heirs of salvation. An attempted
compromise, the so-called semi-Pelagianism, was proposed by
the monk Cassianus in Gaul. In this first period, however,
the conflict did not reach any theological issue, nor did the
Church arrive at any oecumenical decision in the matter.
The fundamental idea, which is present through all these
doctrinal conflicts of the Church, and which, in spite of all
vacillations, had expression given to it involving important

EASTERN SCHOOLS OF THEOLOGY : JOHN OF DAMASCUS. 205
consequences, is the spiritual fellowship with God, which was
embodied in the historical Christ, and was to become the
property of all mankind. What was present in the eschato
logical and poetic view of the Church regarding the corning
again of Christ, the fellowship of man with God, that was to
be elevated into the sphere of actual knowledge, anthropologi
cally, in the doctrine of the determination of the human will
by the grace of God, and metaphysically, according to the
deepest conviction of the whole Church, in the doctrine of the
Son of God with the divine and human natures personally
united. Alongside of the establishment of the doctrine of the Church,
there arose in the Eastern and Western Church a richly-
developed theology, which with great zeal took part in the
ecclesiastical doctrinal conflicts, but has produced essentially
nothing which transcends the ecclesiastical ends which it
served. In the East the theological speculative tendency of
Origen was continued in the Alexandrian school by Athanasius,
Gregory of Nyssa, Basil the Great, Gregory Nazianzen, and
others ; while in the Antiochean school a rational exegetical
tendency more dependent upon history was represented by
Cyril of Jerusalem, Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theodorus of
Mopsuestia, Epiphanius, and others. A spirit quite peculiar
is shown in the writings of the pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite,
which, composed in the fifth century, by a blending of Neo-
Platonic philosophy with the essential contents of Christian
doctrine, teach a mysticism which had an important influence
upon the later mysticism of the Middle Ages. In the eighth
century, John of Damascus in his Trriyrj yvaxreo)^ collected the
results of the doctrinal development for the Greek Church.
To the doctrine here laid down the Greek Church has
unwaveringly adhered, and has therefore assumed to itself the
honoured name of the orthodox Church Kar e^oxn"- In the
Western Church theological study was pursued in the spirit of
the positive faith, and has for its most distinguished repre-

206 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
sentatives Hilary of Poitiers, Ambrose of Milan, Jerome of
Stridon, Eufinus, Augustine, Gregory the Great, and Isidore
of Hispalis. In the East theology had exhausted its strength.
The Greek Church fell into a lasting stagnation, while the
Western Church pre-eminently occupied itself with practical
tasks. In the course of this first period, the Christian community had
raised itself from that mean condition in which it made its
appearance in Jerusalem, first by means of the Spirit of God
bestowed upon it, then under the favour and surveiUance of
the State, to the rank of a powerful, united, organized national
Church, which, by the mediation of a clerical priesthood and
a doctrinal code supported by Church and State, offers to act
as guide from the sinful world to the kingdom of God.

THE THEEE PERIODS OF CHURCH HISTOEY. 207

§ 86. THE THREE PERIODS OF CHURCH HISTORY.
(b) Second Period. The Eoman Catholicism of. the Middle Ages.
The form which the Church assumed during the Middle
Ages as Eoman Catholicism was reared, by a process of his
torical continuity, on foundations laid in the first period. The
bishops of Eome, free from, the restricting influence of the
Byzantine court, stretched the power which they had already
won over the whole West, and especially the nations of
German origin, which had sprung up since the beginning of
the ninth century. During the time of the migration of races
the German tribes had been converted to Christianity, but had
been at the same time involved in the doctrinal contests of the
Church. Visigoths, Ostrogoths, Vandals, and Longobards were
attached to Arianism. As the Church had persecuted the
Arians, so the Vandals in Africa under Genseric persecuted, in
the spirit of wild fanaticism and with barbaric cruelty, those
who professed the doctrine of the Church. The Franks, the
Anglo-Saxons, and the Germans under Eoman influence were
won over to orthodox Christianity. After the overthrow of
the empire of the Visigoths in Spain by the Arabs, and of the
empire of the Longobards by Charlemagne in the eighth
century, the mission of the Eoman Church lay in affording a
firmer spiritual foundation to the Churches already established,
especially those in the great French Empire and in Britain.
Charlemagne from reUgious and political motives readUy lent
a hand in this, and did not hesitate, as imperial guardian of
the Church, to compel the resisting Saxons to embrace Chris
tianity by the power of the sword. In the ninth, tenth, and
eleventh centuries, the mission pushed its way on beyond the
Normans, ever farther and farther toward the North, to

208 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, From Scandinavia Chris
tianity was introduced into Iceland and Greenland. During
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries it was spread in Finland,
Livonia, and Esthonia. From the ninth to the eleventh cen
tury the mission was prosecuting its work among the Slavic
tribes, the Moravians, Bohemians, Wends, and Poles, as also
in Hungary and Transylvania. In the thirteenth and four
teenth centuries the work was carried on in Prussia and
Lithuania. Thus the Eomish Church extended over a vast
region which was inhabited by races which, different as they
were from one another, had yet this in common, that all of
them as races living in a state of nature were votaries of the
religion of nature, although they did not, like the Grseco-
Eoman world, succeed in attaining an intellectual culture
from another direction apart from religion. All these German
and Slavic tribes would not have been qualified to receive
Christianity in its ideal truth as a real ethical power, which
from within had to elevate them above the stage of the life of
nature. It was rather in accordance, with the position of these
peoples in respect of culture, that Christianity should come to
them as an ecclesiastical institution already firmly established
in constitution, worship, discipline, and doctrine, and in the
wilderness of their natural-sensuous life make its appearance
as the divine law which first of all from without was to give
shape to and spiritualize the crude material. In the accom
plishment of this task, which had been assigned it from the
peculiarity of the converted races, the mediseval Church has
furthered its own development, and appropriated to itself more
and more the forms which were indispensable for the exercise
of its legitimate authority. Of special importance for the
maintenance of its power was the change which had gradually
taken place in the consciousness of the Church in reference to
the hope of the second coming of Christ, which was enter
tained in early Christian times, and had received very definite
expression in the Symbolum Apostolicum. The high-strung

MEDIEVAL VIEW OF THE FUTURE WOELD. 209
expectation, that the exalted Christ would shortly return from
heaven to earth, had not been established by history. It had
therefore now become customary to transfer to an indefinitely
distant future the eschatological incidents, the second coming
of Christ, the establishment of the Messianic kingdom, the
final judgment of the world. What in the early Christian
age had exercised the most direct influence upon the life,
passed now more and more into the background of the Chris
tian consciousness, and became the subject of an abstract
faith. From the eschatological Christ, attention was turned
rather to the Christ exalted and enthroned at God's right hand.
The heavenly world to come, the kingdom of the Father and
the Son, is the place of absolute perfection, of paradisaical
blessedness and glory. Around the Son of God in heaven is
the kingdom of the consummation, unto which the whole long
ing of believers is now directed. Judgment again wUl be for
ever executed in hell. Hell is the place of punishment and
eternal tortures, unto believers the most awful subject of
horror. Over against heaven and hell stands the earth as the
place of incompleteness, of sin and suffering, as the vale of
tears through which the Christian wanders, until death con
ducts him either into heaven or into hell. This sharp
antithesis of the future world, heaven and hell, and the
present world, the earth, dominates the Christianity of the
Middle Ages, but the Church appears as the omnipotent and
only mediator between them, and in the exercise of this func
tion principally, it wins the solid foundation of its authority.
From the beginning of this period the endeavours of the
Popes were directed toward the confirming of that superiority
which they had already gained over the Byzantine Patriarchs
and Emperor. The resistance, which even yet the Greek
Church offered, led to the bitter animosities, which even in the
ninth century were shown by the Patriarch Photius toward
Eome, and which, in the eleventh century, by the co-operation
of political and doctrinal motives, brought about a complete
VOL. IL 0

210 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
rupture. The two Churches from this time set up rival claims
to cathoUcity, and the Popes now endeavoured effectually
to make up in the West what they had irretrievably lost in
the East. It was of importance that the newly-formed
German feudal States and the Churches existing in them
should be subjected to the papal jurisdiction, and rendered
unconditionally obedient to the Eomish curia. This end
could not be gained without a struggle. Upon the rude,
untamed and sensuous life, to which the people as a whole
had abandoned themselves, as well as upon civU legislation,
administration of justice and government, the higher and
lower clergy by means of their education exercised a powerful
and wholesome influence. The consideration which they thus
won from the laity was in an eminent degree conducive to
the hierarchical tendencies of the Bishop of Eome. The
subordination of the bishops in the several States under the
Eoman bishop caused little difficulty. It was from Eome
that Christianity had come to most of these States, so that the
provincial Churches were from the beginning in a relation of
dependence upon the Pope, which, under cunning management,
was very easily converted into a relation of complete sub
ordination. It proved a far more difficult matter to secure
the assertion of papal supremacy over the States, and to dis
engage from civil and worldly influences the clergy, who,
in consequence of the feudal relations prevaiUng in the
German States, were deeply involved in political affairs and
were in danger of complete secularization, and to render the
Church what, according to the opinion of the Pope, it ought
to be, a perfectly independent hierarchical State.^ An impor
tant step toward the accomplishment of this task was taken
by means of the Canon law. Making use of earlier laws
originating in the Eastern Church, the Canon law was arranged
in a more systematic form in the ninth century, making its
appearance then as a collection of decretals named after
' Compare Rothe, Kirchengeschichte, ii, 204 ff.

HIEEAECHICAL DEVELOPMENT UNDEE GEEGORY VII. 211
Isidore, and again, yet more completely ih the twelfth century,
as the so-called decretum Ch-atiani. The principle from which
all particular laws are derived is the sovereignty of the
Bishop of Eome. The Canon law has had an incalculable
influence in the grounding of this in the practice of the
Church, since new claims of the Eomish curia were frequently
carried through in the form of pretended old decisions.
The Pope who was most powerfully possessed by the idea
of the Papacy and of the hierarchical Church, and who was
most energetic in realizing his idea, was Gregory VIL, who
ruled from 1073 to 1085. According to him, the Church as
the type of the kingdom of heaven exactly represents the
kingdom of God upon earth, and it is the Pope who administers
its affairs as the vicegerent of God. As such he has absolute
power as weU over the kingdoms of the world as over the
Church. In the name of God he delivers an infallible decision
in regard to things temporal and spiritual. He is not only
the chief bishop, belonging to the same order as the other
bishops, but the universal bishop, from whom all episcopal
power proceeds, and consecration to office must come from
him. The States, of human origin and serviceable only for
huinan and earthly interests, have a value merely in so far as
they place themselves in the service of the Church. The
civil princes, therefore, are subordinate to the vicegerent of
God, and receive from him their princely office as defenders
of the Church. Any subordination of the Church to the State
stands in direct contradiction to the idea of the Church and
of the Papacy which governs it. The Church must repudiate
every form of dependence on the civil power, and must free
itself from the State, if it is to rule over it. To attain for the
Church those two positions, freedom and lordship, was the life-
work of Gregory, which he pursued with restless consistency.
By subjecting the clergy to the rule of ceUbacy, he freed
the clerical order from all ties to the worldly and national
Ufe, and raised it out of all these party interests into the

212 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
universal region of its destination in the kingdom of God.
By means of his struggle against simony, he sought to deprive
the State of all influence in the appointment to ecclesiastical
offices, and thus, over against the State, to confirm to the
spiritual order its ecclesiastical independence. Gregory did
not succeed in carrying out completely his idea of forming
the Church into a purely theocratic kingdom upon earth, but,
as in the conflict against the Hohenstaufen family in regard
to the investiture, the Papacy came out victorious, Gregory's
idea continued to be for his successors the guiding star of
their papistical endeavours. In the Crusades, which began
in the year 1095, the- opportunity was given them to
employ the Christian enthusiasm for the advancement of
their authority. Under Innocent III., reigning from 1198
tiU 1216, the Papacy came to be recognised as the highest
decisive, legislative, and judicial authority on earth, to which
the earthly rulers, as servants of the kingdom of God, were
subjected. Under him, by means of the Spaniard Dominicus,
and the Italian Franciscus, the two orders of mendicant
friars, the Dominicans and the Franciscans, were instituted,
which as a spiritual army wrought among the people on
behalf of the papal power. These orders in this way gained
such an influence that they did not merely perform their
monkish vows behind the cloister walls, but took an active
share in public life as preachers and spiritual advisers of the
people, as inquisitors, as professors at the universities, and as
politicians at royal courts. Confederates as they were, they still
were dangerous to the papacy. Not seldom did the mendicant
friars, by their power over the laity, by their quarrels with
other monkish orders, and their dissensions among themselves,
notwithstanding all their loyalty to the Church, prejudice the
authority of the Church's head. Boniface VIIL, who reigned
from 1294 till 1303, was the last great Pope who governed
in the spirit of Gregory. During the so-called Babylonian
captivity of the Popes at Avignon from 1305 tiU. 1377, the

OPPOSITION OF CURLALISM AND EPISCOPALISM. 213
period of the anti-Popes, the authority of the Papacy was
endangered, the unity of the Church threatened, the in
fallibility of the papal government caUed in question. The
schism in the Papacy led to a schism of the hierarchy.
For the salvation of the Church the Episcopate felt itself
obliged to claim a place superior to the Papacy. At the
CouncUs of the fifteenth century at Pisa, Constance, and
Basel, the bishops asserted their episcopal rights in opposi
tion to papal absolutism, and demanded, with a reformation
of the Church in its head and members, the subordination
of the head under the Episcopate represented in the Council.
The opposition of Curialism and Episcopalism was thus
brought to a head. The representatives of these two systems
reproached one another as the supporters of the deadUest
errors. In this both were right, for the one party was as
untrue as the other. But there was this iu favour of the
former — ^its practical value and the force of historical con
sistency. Already at the Council of Florence in 1437,
adverse to the Papacy, the conclusions of Basel were con
demned, and at the end of the period, the papal authority, in
spite of the shaking which it suffered for the most part from
the personal guilt of the Popes, remained undisputedly
superior to the episcopal aristocracy.
In the contest of the bishops of Eome against every State-
Church institution, the Church constituted itself an absolute
Church-State, in which spirituaUties are administered in the
same way as temporalities are under an absolute monarchy.
The Church is a hierarchy, and its head is the Pope as the
vicegerent of God on earth. It alone is in possession of
Christian salvation, and has heaven and hell at its disposal.
Toward the active Church the laity occupy the purely passive
attitude of subjects, and for the salvation of their souls are
pointed to the exclusive mediation of the Church. The
Christian doctrine which the Church, in accordance with oral
and written tradition, sets down as incontestable divine truth,

214 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA,
and has in its keeping, the ordinances sanctioned by the hier
archy, and the utterances of the infallible divine representative,
are to be reverenced by the laity as divine laws, to which
they have to yield unquestioning obedience, if they are not to
forfeit eternal salvation, or to fall under the compulsory power
of the Church. In this way had the antichristian elements,
which already in the first period made their appearance in
the Church constitution, experienced a development, beyond
which it was impossible to take another Step. The endeavour
to become free from the State, and to exalt itself over it, had
resulted in securing for the Church an absolute supremacy
over the nations, a conception which suited the requirements
of the age, and raised to the throne a spiritual power such
as was absolutely indispensable for the education of mediseval
nationalities. The constitution attained its full practical significance in
worship. The forms of worship were transferred from the
first period into the mediseval Church, only it was necessary
to modify these in accordance with the idea of the Church
now prevaiUng. The hierarchical Church is the holder of all
divine treasures, the administration of which lies in the hands
of the priesthood, so that the laity can become partakers
thereof only through priestly mediation. Worship consists,
chiefly in the celebration of the sacraments, which is modified
by the idea of the priestly function, while, on the other hand,
it contributes to the establishing of that idea, to the confirming
and supporting of its divine authority. After a long period of
vacillation the number of the sacraments was fixed in the twelfth
century at the stated number seven : Baptism, Confirmation,
the Lord's Supper, Penance, Extreme Unction, Ordination,
Marriage. The whole course of human Ufe is placed under the
consecration of the sacraments, and by this means under the
supreme direction of the Church. Divine grace is bound up
with the sacrament, and the dispensation of the sacrament by
the priests ordained of God converts its efficacy into an imme-

SACRAMENTARIANISM IN THE MEDIEVAL CHUECH. 215.
diately divine efficacy. In the sacrament the Church dispenses
the immediate operations of divine grace. The sacramental
efficacy is independent of the subjective act of the laity
receiving it. It takes place in a miraculous, supernatural-
magical manner. When the laity receive the sacrament, it
acts as an opus operatum. The reconciliation of the Christian
with God, which should come about in a spiritual manner, is
reduced to an outward operation mediated by the priesthood.
The conception of the several sacraments was also thereby
affected, as is seen especially in the sacraments of Ordination,
the Lord's Supper, and Penance. The superiority of the priests
to the laity is now dogmatically fixed. By sacramental conse
cration the priests receive a divine power, by means of which
they are enabled to perform supernatural acts, and obtain a
character indelebilis, which qualitatively distinguishes them
from the laity. In the Lord's Supper the elements, bread and
wine, are by priestly consecration converted into the substance
of the body and blood of Christ (the doctrine of Transubstan
tiation), the exalted Christ is present in the visible signs, and
the Lord's Supper is converted into a sacrifice. In the sacri
fice of the Mass Christ is daily offered anew by the priests,
and thereby from day to day the sin of the Church is expiated.
Instead of being brought into the heart of believers, Christ is
brought into the outward elements : the act of reconciliation
is reduced to a magical clerical operation. In the sacrament
of Penance the Church officiates, by means of auricular con
fession, sanctioned by the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, as
director of the Christian conscience, and places the forgiveness
of sins, which in God's name it bestows, at the disposal of the
priests, and makes it dependent upon the rendering of particular
satisfactions, such as almsgiving, prayers, fastings. In this
way it was degraded into an outward compact with the Church,
in the carrying out of which the priests assumed the gracious
office of God Himself, and the laity were only too easily
carried away with the thought that by means of satisfactions

216 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
it was possible to meet the demands of repentance for sin.
Yea, the Church went yet farther, inasmuch as out of the
treasury of good works, thesaurus bonorum operum, which it
dispensed for the benefit of the members of the Church, the
surplus good works of Christ and the saints, the opera superero-
gatoria, it made grants to sinners in return for money, or
special performances, such as pilgrimages, building of churches,
donations to cloisters, etc. Out of this arose the so-called
Indulgences, the remission, which was given not only for past
sins, but also for possible sins of the future, a system of usury
with respect to the religious life, of which also the natural
consequence was to set outward acts above inner convictions.
Thus, on the one hand, the worship of the Church com
munity as a whole assumes the aspect of a work-service
leading to a work-holiness ; whUe, on the other hand, it bears
the appearance of a purely ceremonial exercise of devotion.
The sacramental activity of the priest which occupied the
foreground of divine service and soon completely over
shadowed the preaching, the pomp of celebration with which
the mysterious sacred actions were more and more enveloped,
besides the expression of the Uturgical formulse in an un
known language, — aU this indicated a form of devotion
which consisted not in spiritual edification and advancement
in the faith, but in an outward display that occupied the
fancy, and in intellectual passivity of astonishment at the
mysteries dispensed by the priests. It was, in altogether a
special manner, fitted to keep constantly in the view of the
Christian people the majesty of the Church, representing it as
dispensing or withholding divine grace, admitting to heaven or
casting down into hell, and thus confirming over their minds the
power of the Church.^ From the piety of the age with this
outward tendency, there now arose a worship of the Virgin
and the saints that tended always to increase. The further
Christ, as the Son of God enthroned in heaven, was with-
' Compare Rothe, Kirchengeschichte, ii. 286 ff.

SUPEESTITION IN FAITH AND EXTEENALISM IN WOESHIP. 2l7
drawn from the consciousness of believers, the more eagerly
was the religious need asserted for human mediators, whose
life had been marked by evident intercourse with divine
powers, whose intercession with God would be availing for all
inward and outward needs of the life. The worship of saints
was accompanied by a fantastic superstition and faith in
miracles, which soon called forth its counterpart, faith in
magic, in covenants of men with hellish, Satanic powers, a
delusion which was rather confirmed by the Church through
its judicial prosecution of witches. The worship of the Virgin
and the saints received ecclesiastical sanction by the addition
to the holy seasons, which had come down from the practice
of the early Church, of days for the Virgin and feast-days
for the saints. Among the new festivals an especially hearty
recognition was given to the festival of Corpus Christi, corre
sponding to the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, the festum
corporis Christi, not of His Spirit. In harmony with the
character of the worship were the ecclesiastical structures in
which it was celebrated. Out of the Byzantine-Eoman style
of ecclesiastical architecture there was developed in the
Middle Ages the German, the Gothic, which in the inward
construction of the building calculated not upon the edifica
tion of the people through the preached word of the gospel,
but upon the pomp of the priestly administration of mysteries
impressing the fancy and attracting the eye. The structure
of their cathedrals as a whole symbolically represented the
striving of the members of the Church directed toward
heaven. Sculpture, for the most part, devoted itself to
ecclesiastical architecture, and decorated the cathedrals with
an endless profusion of ornaments, which, with a symbolical
meaning, it borrowed from the animal and plant world. More
independently, painting wrought at the glorifying of the
earthly by means of the heavenly, which it represented pre
eminently in Madonnas and pictures of saints.
. The dominion which the Church exercised over Christian

2.18 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
piety extended in like measure over the whole Christian life.^
As the State is the sum-total of the merely human, so the
Church is, on the other hand, the representative of the divine
upon earth. Hence all manifestations of life in the sphere of
the State are subject to the supreme control and oversight of
the Church, and have to acquiesce in its judicial sentence as
final. What is true of public Ufe is true also of the affairs of
the individual. Emperor and princes, as well as the humblest
peasant, are subject to ecclesiastical laws, and have to render
an account of their conduct to the Church. As the form of
piety here recognised was not rooted in the heart, so also the
moral life was determined, not in accordance with the inward
standard of the conscience, but in accordance with the outward
standard of the commandment of the Church. Morality was
made to consist essentially in obedience to the Church, and is
represented as having as such a special worth in the sight of
God. That was moral which was regarded as moral by the
Church. EesponsibiUty to one's own conscience was so
shifted that the Church took the place of conscience. The
conscience of the Church discharged the duties of the personal
conscience. Christian morality thus assumed the character
of Old Testament legalism, and, like that, was determined by
the same motives, by the motives of reward and fear.. In all
ranks the rudest outbursts of sensuality were seen side by
side with the profoundest penitence and compunction, which,
through longing for heaven and fear of hell, would yield to
any humiliation, in order to obtain from the Church for
giveness of sin, or even, unsatisfied with this, would seek to
render atonement by self-inflicted penances, a penitential
exercise which, in the thirteenth century, assumed in the case
of the Flagellants the character of an epidemic. The Church
according to its scheme of discipline offered the appropriate
remedy for aU sins, if sinners penitently sought its help.
On the other hand, every act of rebellion against its supre-
' Compare the corresponding paragraphs in Eothe's Kirchengeschichte, Bd. ii,

GEOWTH OF ASCETICISM IN THE MEDIEVAL CHUECH. 219
macy was treated as high treason ; but, even for the subduing
of this, the Church was in possession of an effectual instru
ment in the anathema and excommunication, the most dreadful
weapon in the hands of the hierarchy, so long as faith in it
endured. During the period of the Middle Ages, the strict
discipline which the Church exercised had, in an eminent
degree, a civilising influence, and restrained within the
necessary limits the rude primitive impulses of a natural
instinct, which tended to the wildest excesses and the most
horrible cruelties.
Superior to the vulgar legalistic morality, with a conscious
ness of higher merit, stood the ascetical life, whether as
clerical life, it rendered direct service to the Church, or as
monkish life, was devoted to the higher practice of virtue.
In the mediseval Church, too, the notion prevalent in the
ancient Church was continued, according to which the divine
was regarded as the negation of the world, and that was
thought to be the highest moral life which withdrew from all
contact with the world, and, by fleeing from the world, pre
pared for heaven. The clergy were, by means of their office,
and then especiaUy by the rule of celibacy, put under obliga
tion to withdraw from the concerns of the world. The monks
occupied a higher stage, as they of their own .free will
repudiated all worldly intercourse. These two orders, the
clergy and the monks, represent in the Middle Ages the
highest forms of life in Christian morality; but even they
could not dispense with outward legalistic aids. The life of
the clergy was bound in accordance with the prescriptions of
the vita canonica ; that of the monks was determined by the
rules of their orders ; and thus they were involved in the
mechanicalness and formalism of custom. Their mutual
interests now led to a closer association of the monkish
orders with the Papacy. The importance which the monkish
orders had already won among the people could no longer be
overlooked by the Popes. When, therefore, they took them

220 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
under their protection, they secured a popular power, and
when the orders ranked themselves directly under papal
authority, ¦ they gained for themselves independence of the
episcopal jurisdiction, and had their importance in the eyes
of the people raised above that of the clergy. For the laity
the monkish life was the only way upon which they could
earn greater merit in the sight of God and a higher degree
in heaven. Hence there was an active and uninterrupted
rush into those orders. From the beginning of this second
period, cloisters without number were spread over the countries
of the West. While they satisfied the religious longings of
the age, they also sent all around them influences favourable
to civiUsation. Among the German races particularly, they
performed uo slight service on behalf of the cultivation of the
people and the land. Experience showed that the monkish
institution rested upon the delugion that one could escape the
attractions of the world by flight from the world. Never
theless, notwithstanding the moral wilderness to which,
especially in the tenth and eleventh centuries, the cloisters
were reduced, the monkish order did not, any more than
that of the clergy, which likewise became secularized, and,
especially in consequence of its unspiritual mode of life in
regard to the rule of celibacy, was not unfrequently exposed
to the reproaches of the laity, sustain in general any loss of
consideration and respect. The decay of one led immediately
to new foundations, and to the laying down of various rules
of orders so as by repeated attempts to carry forward the
ascetic life to higher perfection. (Benedictines, Brethren of
Clugny, Orders of Camaldoli, of Vallombrosa, Carthusians,
Cistercians, Premonstratensians, Carmelites, Trinitarians,
Franciscans, Dominicans, etc.) After the founding of new
orders had been forbidden by the Fourth Lateran CouncU,
the ascetical enthusiasm lost its earlier strength. The old
orders partly conducted learned studies, partly led a vegetative
existence, partly so feU into all conceivable baseness, that the

THE OEDEE OF KNIGHTHOOD : THE CEUSADES. 221
Councils of the flfteenth century were obliged to insist, upon
a reform of the cloisters.
Next to the clergy and the monks the order of knighthood
took a prominent place in the national Ufe, and was also
brought, as well as the monkish institution, into the service
of the Church. From the time of its rise, in the ninth
century, the Church exercised an ennobling influence upon
the rude bravery by which it was characterized, and impressed
on it a Christian character by assigning to it the protection of
innocence, justice, and the Church. Out of it wag developed
in the season fif its bloom a poetry of noble love and ideal
devotion to women, which must have had even on the masses
of the people a reflning influence. In the Crusades the noble
order of Knights of the West provided an army to the Popes
for battle against the unbelievers for the conquest of the Holy
Land. The enthusiasm which this ideal excited throughout
Western Christendom, aroused by that which was external,
and directed to that which was external, did not lead to any
moral deepening. The Christian heroism of the martyrs was
exchanged for the heroism of the knightly Crusaders : but
while with the martyrs it was . fqr. their faith in Christ as
something holy that they faced death, with the Crusaders it
was for the possession of the Holy Land that in a fantastic
excitement they consecrated their life. The conflict, too, was
only a great work which the Church demanded of the age, in
the merit of which all who- took part in it would claim their
share ; but under cover of service rendered to the cross, the
most revolting acts of violence and cruelty were perpetrated
by the heroes of the Papacy. There was of necessity no doubt
awakened in the combatant a Christian sentiment, and he was
led to form knightly societies, which first of all devoted them
selves to the care of the sick, but soon, in addition to the
duty of fighting against infidels, adopted the - three monastic
vows. (Knights of St. John, Knights Templars, and Teutonic
Knic^hts.) These spiritual orders of knights, by their far

222 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
and high-reaching connections, and by the estimation in which
they were held, contributed valuable assistance to the papal
power ; but after the Crusades they lost their infiuence, and
had to some extent the same fortune as the monkish institu
tion, inasmuch as they set aside their ascetical aims, and fell
into luxurious and licentious worldliness. The secular knight
hood threw off more and more the ecclesiastical discipline, or
else bore it only quite externally, and unbridled valour, with
out inward moral restraint, degenerated into a mere robber-
knighthood. Christianity in its mediseval-Eomish form affected negatively
the life of the peoples, whom it dominated, and wrought a
moral improvement and purification upon it, without, however,
attaining unto any general positive result, or morally remodell
ing the inner life of the people. The ethical power originaUy
belonging to Christianity, which, working upon the conscience,
created a new life, had to keep aloof from a morality which,
under the guardianship of the Church, occupied the stage of
mere legalism. Hence the very orders which, according to the
vocation and resolution of their age, ought to have served as a
pattern of the Christian life, the clerical, the monkish, and the
knightly orders, did not set themselves against the moral
decay; whUe the lower strata of the people, in spite of all
ecclesiastical discipline, gave loose reins to their passions, so
that alongside of unconditional obedience to the Church, scenes
of the extremest savagery and corruption excite no surprise.^
In the second half of this period, however, those facts increase
by means of which the ecclesiastical absolutism, which had
estabUshed its authority over the political, social, and moral
life, was broken down, and instead was erected that freedom
which Christianity demands for the realization of its ethical
purposes. The extreme activity directed to the upbuilding of the
practical life of the Church, which became in the Eomish
' Compare Rothe, Kirchengeschichte, ii. 282 ff.

DOGMATIC EIGIDNESS OF THE MEDIEVAL CHUECH. 223
Church a necessity, owing to the condition in respect of culture
of the peoples belonging to it, had for its foundation the
doctrinal system formulated by the theology of the first period.
The doctrine that came down from it, sanctioned by the
authority of revelation and the Councils, was accepted by the
hierarchical Church as absolute divine truth, and therefore, of
obligation in the practice of the Church, as the divine law,
which has unchallengeable authority over believers, and claims
from them unconditional subjection. But this impulse of the
Christian spirit, which in the ancient Church led to the con
struction of dogma, now also in the mediseval Church directed
itself to the traditional dogma, only with this difference, that,
in the former case, there was the freest productivity, while, in
the latter case, theological activity was confined to the positive
belief of the Church. A somewhat freer mode of treatment
was allowed only in reference to the ecclesiastical, yet not
rigidly fixed, anthropological dogma, and in reference to the
doctrine of the .sacraments closely allied thereto. On the
other hand, the two principal doctrines, the Trinitarian and
Christological, demanded, by the authority with which they
were invested, unquestioning acceptance. Hence in general
during the mediseval period, there could not be a material
development, but only a formal recognition of positive data,
and perhaps, in particular instances, a more perfect expression
of what had already been present in germ. But the subjective
acknowledgment of a dogma, which had been objectively
accepted as a standard, might be made in one of two ways,
either in the theoretical way of rational dialectic cognition in
the interests of science, or in the psychological way of feeling
in the interests of the immediate pious consciousness and life.
The learned culture, which was the presupposition of this
theological activity, was, from the time of Gregory the Great,
carried over from Eome into the British Church, and from
thence by Charlemagne into France. In his Schola palatinu,
and the cloister seminaries founded under Alcuin's direction,

224 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
the scientific requirements of ancient times were conserved,
and the branches of study included in the Trivium and Quad-
rivium were further developed, and particular stress was laid
upon the study of dialectics, which gave the impress of a
special character to medieval theology. Far in advance of
his age in learning and in philosophical spirit, stands Johannes
Scotus Erigena, who died at Oxford about the end of the ninth
century, just as the mediseval theology was beginning. Com
bining the Greek philosophy with the mysticism of Dionysius
the Areopagite, whose writings he translated, he has in his
profound work Be Bivisione Miturce produced a phUosophico-
theological system, which, unhampered by the supernatural
authority of the positive Christian faith, seeks from a panthe
istic idea of God, to ^ve a rational exposition of doctrine, and
to set forth the unity of philosophy and theology. The work
of Erigena exerted a wide influence on the theology of the
succeeding age in regard to the treatment of particular
doctrines, and it kept up acquaintance with early mysticism.
His standpoint, however, according to which phUosophy was
made the basis of theology, was so directly in contradiction to
the prevailing belief authoritatively given, that it could not be
accepted by theology as the standpoint for its regular scientific
treatment. Least of all were his contemporaries, on account
of their slender culture, qualified to take advantage of his
labours. Wholly engrossed in the authorized system of belief,
they turned their attention rather to particular doctrines, and
specially to such of those as had an immediately practical
significance for worship, and endeavoured by dialectical subtilty
to prove the truth of the traditional system of doctrine. Thus
in the ninth century, the doctrine of the Lord's Supper was
made the subject of discussion, and as a result of the contro
versy between Paschasius Eadbertus and Eatramnus in the
ninth, and then between Lanfranc and Berengar in the eleventh
century, the doctrine of Transubstantiation received ecclesiasti
cal sanction, instead of the symbolical conception of the bread

ANSELM AND THE BEGINNING OF SCHOLASTICISM. 225
and wine. In the ninth century, too, the anthropological
discussion was reawakened, when the monk Gottschalk repre
sented an extreme Augustinianism with the affirmation of a
twofold predestination, and Hincmar of Eheims represented
semi-Pelagianism. The discussion, however, did not lead to any
settlement of the controversy. It rather only promoted " that
indeterminateness in doctrinal expression which has since
then become more and more prevalent, in accordance with
which the name of Augustinian orthodoxy is always assumed,
although in reality what is taught is not Augustinian but
semi-Pelagian." ^
At the same time as the Papacy had triumphantly estab
lished its divine authority, theology also took a higher flight,
and sought on its part to prove scientifically the absolute
truth of the Church doctrine, There is only one truth, the
positive faith of the Church, and theology is the science
thereof. Unsatisfied by belief on mere authority, and impelled
by a scientific impulse like the Alexandrian theology of the
ancient Church, the scholastic theology has given utterance in
comprehensive works to the products of its thinking, and
from the time of its origin has proved itself to be the truest
confederate and servant of the hierarchical Church. The
founder of scholasticism, Anselm of Canterbury (d. 1109),
has in his Monologium given expression to the principle on
which it rests in the brief, classical phrase, credo, ut intdligam.
The credere, faith in the doctrine of the Church, is the pre
supposition ; the intelligere is its formal aim. Faith and
knowledge, revelation and reason, do not here present a con
tradiction, but only a distinction, which is now removed by
the dialectical process of theology, so that faith actuaUy passes
over into knowledge. In his Proslogium, he has elaborated
an ontological proof of the being of God from the idea of the
most perfect substance, and laid the basis of a scientific
dogmatic, and in his treatise cur Deus homo, quite in the
' Compare Baur, Vorlesungen ueber Dogmengeschichte, ii. 149 f.
VOL. IL P

226 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
spirit of the Church, he has given a rational exposition of the
central Christological doctrine of redemption as a legal com
pact between God and man. It is further characteristic of
the scholastic theology, that it subjected to its dialectical
treatment, not only particular doctrines, but the whole
circle of the dogmatic system of the Church, and took for its
leader, as the highest authority in formal thinking, Aristotle,
whose writings had become known to Christian theologians
for the most part through intercourse with the Arabians in
Spain. When all the arguments for and against a doctrine
had been brought forth and discussed in accordance with
the rules of Aristotelian dialectics, the truth of the doctrine
was held to be proved before the tribunal of the highest
philosophy. In accordance with this method, especially
Petrus Lombardus, in the twelfth century, treated the whole
range of ecclesiastical dogmatics in his libri quatuor senten-
tiarum, and his most distinguished successors, in the
thirteenth century, were the Franciscan Alexander Hales, the
Dominicans Albertus Magnus and Thomas Aquinas, and the
Franciscan Duns Scotus. The scholastic theology attained
unto universal acceptance mainly by this, that from the
beginning of the twelfth century it had possession of the
University of Paris, which was the most famous seat of
learning at that time, and from it its teachers spread all
over the West. Moreover, the two great monkish orders of
the age, the Dominicans and Franciscans, exercised a great
practical influence on the Church life, and they supplied the
most distinguished teachers of scholasticism, Thomas and
Duns Scotus, who formed sects and made the theology
thereof the business of their respective orders. From the
beginning of the thirteenth century, the two orders stand
opposed to one another as the scholastic sects of Thomists
and Scotists. The differences between them, so far as
determined by their leaders, consisted mainly in this, that
the former professed a modified Augustinianism, while the

NOMINALISM UNDERMINES SCHOLASTICISM: 227
latter advocated a decided Pelagianism. Thus the Pelagian-
izing tendency prevalent at the time found its scientific
defence in the order of the Franciscans. By the doctrinal
controversies in which the two parties engaged, the over
throw of the scholastic theology itself was promoted. The
bold attempt of scholasticism to prove the Church doctrine to
be absolute truth, and to raise theology into a science of
divinity which has to subordinate to itself all human know
ledge, must necessarily be wrecked on account of the inner
bondage, under which scholasticism had placed itself, by the
distinction which it made between dogma and philosophy.
Historically, however, its overthrow was occasioned by the
doubt which arose within itself in regard to the legitimacy of
its whole procedure, and in consequence of the contradictory
theories of knowledge advanced by realism and nominalism,
the history of which is coterminous with that of scholasticism.
Even Duns Scotus himself, then more decidedly the Fran
ciscans William Occam in the fourteenth century, and Gabriel
Biel in the fifteenth century, were the supporters of nominal
ism, and called in question the objective reality of ideas, on
the presupposition of which the procedure of scholasticism
fundamentally rested. As nominaUsts they relegated ideas to
the region of mere subjective impressions. The scepticism
to which scholasticism had surrendered itself could be over
come only by grasping again the simple faith which it had
endeavoured to transcend, and thus, without any result, it
reached at last the point from which it started. Scholasticism
suffered a loss of prestige especially in consequence of the
increasing opposition which, after the style of the old Latin
theology of the positive faith resting on authority, saw in the
attempt of scholasticism generaUy an illegitimate endeavour of
the human reason, or then, in opposition to its formaUsm,
which was becoming more and more estranged from reality
and truth, fell back upon the simple original in Holy Scripture.
Beginning early in the twelfth century with the Cistercian

228 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Bernard of Clairvaux, in his conflict with Abelard, the
greatest dialectician of his time, who, by the inversion of the
scholastic principle laid down by Anselm, fell into heresy, the
opposition was continued by Walter St. Victor, John of Salis
bury in the twelfth century, by Eoger Bacon in the thirteenth
century, by Peter D'AUly, Gerson, Nicolaus de Clamengis,
and Erasmus in the fifteenth century.^
A movement which produced an important result, aimed
not directly but indirectly against scholasticism, was called
forth by mysticism. Eepelled by the abstract intellectualism
of the scholastic theology the Mystics sought, without putting
themselves into a negative position in regard to the specula
tive tendency of scholasticism, to lay hold upon the object of
faith rather by feeling, and in this way to enter into immediate
spiritual intercourse with God. In opposition to Abelard,
William of Champeaux, who had retired into the chapel of
St. Victor in Paris, developed, in the beginning of the twelfth
century, a theology which sought to blend scholasticism and
mysticism, intellectual knowledge and spiritual faith, and
during the following age it afforded a practical counterpoise
to the one-sided scholasticism. It gained its most perfect
form in the works of Hugo and Eichard St. Victor, and had
for its chief representatives in the thirteenth century Bona-
ventura, in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, with a more
practical tendency, Eckhart, Tauler, Euysbroek, Thomas k
Kempis. While scholasticism and mysticism in general kept
themselves within the range of the positive faith of the Church,
and bore the character of churchliness, under cover of the
anti-scholastic movement there grew up a peculiar theology,
which, from the standpoint of biblical mysticism, assumed a
free attitude toward the positive dogma, and did not shun an
open conflict with the Church. Among these non-scholastic
theologians were Wiclif, Hus, Eaymond de Sabunde, John of
Goch, John Wessel, John of Wesel, Savonarola. The scien-
' Compare § 3 of the present work. [Vol. i. pp. 31-37.]

ANTI-ECCLESIASTICAL MOVEMENTS IN THE MIDDLE AGES. 229
tific opposition against the Church which made its appearance
during the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, had been pre
ceded by another which, growing out of the pious sentiment
of the people, lived on through all the centuries of the Middle
Ages, and, notwithstanding its extravagances and the impure
elements which here and there got mixed up with it, gave
evidence that the holy spirit of Christianity was not confined
to the hierarchical priestly office, but was regularly, by its
reUgious power, operating upon the hearts of the laity. The
most important representatives of this tendency were the
Paulicians, the Catharists, the Waldensians, the Albigensians,
the Spiritualists, the Beghards and LoUards, the Stedingers,
the Brothers and Sisters of the free Spirit, the order of
Apostles. Different as they were from one another, they
for the most part agreed in this, that they rejected the
Outward hierarchical Church institution with its doctrines
and practices, and, attaching themselves to Holy Scripture
and the -apostolic age, demanded a pious life in faith and
in the Christian activity of good works.
Over all these anti-ecclesiastical movements, however, as
well as over the whole course of scientific activity, the hier
archical Church stood in the enjoyment of absolute supremacy.
While it firmly held all scientific movements within the
limits of the Church doctrine, and at its synods condemned
every doctrine contrary to the orthodox faith, it manifested
its strictly consistent character as a Church of legalized
dogmatism, when it treated direct rejection of its teaching
as ecclesiastical high treason, and exterminated by fire and
sword the traitors who refused to recant. Against im
penitent sinners the anathema and excommunication were
thundered : for the extermination of heretics Innocent III.
instituted the Inquisition, and the State, which as the pro
tecting power compelled obedience to the Church, was called
in to execute the ecclesiastical death sentence.
During the Middle Ages, the Church of the West, under the

230 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
dominion of the Popes, gained a position of great outward
glory as a theocratic kingdom, not, however, as a theocracy in
the spirit of Christianity, but in the spirit of the Old Testa
ment. In contradiction to the Christian idea, the form of
the State was imposed upon the Church, the form of the law
upon Christianity. The hierarchical Church had its historical
mission in respect of the Middle Ages, but at the close of
the period an end was put to its dominion. The overthrow
of the papal government, the division in the bosom of the
hierarchy itself, the decline in the reputation of the Papacy,
notwithstanding its externally restored authority, the demand
for reform in head and members raised within the Church
itself, the disintegration of the theology of the Church, the
anti-ecclesiastical movements issuing from science and from
common life, the anti-papal demonstrations of particular
national Churches, the intensified national and political self-
consciousness, the rise of free civil corporations, the reluctance
of nations to pay the papal dues, the popular hatred of
inquisitional tribunals, the taste for art and the scientific
spirit awakened by the newly revived study of classical
literature and ancient philosophy, — all these facts show that
the Papal Church had outlived its vigour, and under the altered
circumstances must make way for a new construction of the
Church.

CHURCH HISTOEY. 231

§ 37. CHURCH HISTORY.
(c) Third Period. Protestantism and Catholicism,
The facts that have been referred to caused a movement in
favour of the Eeformation, but they did not call it forth, nor
did they lead to its accompUshment. The occasion and justi
fication of the Eeformation are to be found in the nature of
Eoman Catholicism; its success was the result of the Chris
tian truth which it maintained in its conflict with Eome.
Throughout the whole of the Middle Ages a reaction had been
setting in, but owing partly to its own peculiar form, partly
to the power of the hierarchy, it was prevented from attaining
any historical importance. It was only when all real life had
ceased in the Eomish Church, and the fulness of the times
had thus come again, that men endued with the spirit of
Christian prophecy were found who scrupled not, upon the
lines historically prepared, to advance against and shake to
its very foundations the proud structure of the Church of
Eome. The Eeformers directed their attacks, not against the
ecclesiastically sanctioned doctrine of antiquity which was
professed by the Eomish Church, but against the whole
Christian life and practices which characterized the Church
of the Papacy. Above all, their Christian conscience had
been profoundly impressed in regard to the secularization of
the Church and the consequent perversion of Christianity
into law. In the consciousness of their Christian freedom
resulting from this impression they protested against the
violence done to conscience by the Papal Church, and over
against the law they set up the gospel. If Christianity had
originally overcome Judaistic legaUsm, it would have thereby
also gained the victory over the Papacy. The contradiction broke

232 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
out first of all at the point at which most clearly the principle
of the Eomish Church came into view. Luther in Germany,
and Zwingli in Switzerland, began their conflict against the
Church with a condemnation of indulgences, by which the
reconciliation of the Christian with God had been converted
into a matter of commerce, and demanded, in opposition to
any such mere external reconciliation effected by the per
formance of something prescribed by the Church, the recon
cdiation effected according to the gospel in the heart of the
Christian. The more formally, the more externaUy and
superficially the Church dealt with the needs of the religious
life, the deeper must be the wounds inflicted upon the Chris
tian conscience. From the liveUest consciousness of sin and
the deep feeling of the need of redemption the Eeformation
took its origin, and sought with the rejection of all meri-
toriousness of human actions to reach rest and peace in faith
in the grace of God, which, on the ground of Christ's merit,
forgives man's sin. This fides salvifica, this saving faith, it
opposes to the faith of the Eomish Church, as its so-called
material principle. Guided by it, Luther, who already appre
hended the true and proper seat of the evU, the fundamental
doctrine on which the ecclesiastical system rested, the doctrine
of the sacraments, showed up and lashed the papal tyranny,
which with its laws held the Christian life in Babylonian
captivity. In the faith, however, was also implied Christian
freedom, the idea of the free Christian man, who by reason of
his kingship prevaUs over all things, and by reason of his
priesthood prevails with God. All believers have priestly rank
and free access to God. The ecclesiastical priesthood, which
arrogates to itself mediation between God and the Christian,
has no place in the faith. The one Mediator and Prifest is
Christ, and the faith, which ' bears Christ into the heart, is
immediately certain of the divine grace and reconcUiation
with God. But faith is of divine origin, inasmuch as it has
its ground in the word of God, and recognises no higher

EEFORMATION OVERTHROWS SACERDOTALISM. 233
authority than God's word. Hence the second principle,
which the Eeformation joined with the principle of faith, its
so-called formal principle, was the principle of Scripture. Its
negative side was principally turned against the ecclesiastical
hierarchy. In his address to the Christian nobility of the
German nation, with a decision at once patriotic and religious,
Luther proved that the distinction between the clergy, as a
separate spiritual order, and the order of the laity was
thoroughly unscriptural, and likewise, on the basis of Scrip
ture, he explained the divine authority which the Papacy
assumed as the highest power in the Church, and superior to
the State, as a merely human assumption. All authority,
which the hierarchical Church attributed to the Papacy, is by
the Eeformation referred to Holy Scripture. Not the papal
decrees, not the papal exposition of the Scripture, not the
findings of papal Councils, constitute a rule of faith, but
Holy Scripture alone can determine what is Christian. The
Christian must submit himself to the revelation which it con
tains, and Scripture exposition is not a papal privilege, but is
the right of every believer who seeks truth and salvation in
the Scriptures. " It is base and unreasonable servility," says
Luther, " for a Christian man, who is therefore free, to be sub
ject to other traditions than those that are heavenly and divine."
By means of the two principles of the Eeformation, the
Eomish priesthood and the Eomish hierarchy, that is, the
Eomish idea of the Church, was as a whole overturned. The
Church is not the hierarchy, and is not to be distinguished
into clerical and lay, but it embraces the whole community,
as the priestly people of God, according to its idea the
fellowship of believers scattered throughout the whole world,
all of them occupying a position of equality before
God. With the faith which the Eeformation insisted upon,
although in respect of its content it was not altogether
free from a Judaistic - dogmatic element, the Eeformation
nevertheless returned essentially to the idea of Christianity,

234 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDLA.
and made the acknowledgment that Christianity, while it
originally entered into history as a new principle of life, must
also continue as such in history. From this point of view it
justified its negative attitude toward Eomish ecclesiasticism,
when it distinguished between idea and manifestation, between
the invisible and the visible Church. The Eomish Church
regarded itself, in the reality of its manifestation, as the per
fect realization of the kingdom of God on earth ; but the
visible Church, says the Eeformation, is always only an imper
fect expression of the invisible, and the merely historical
instrument whereby the idea of the Church is carried on to
its accomplishment. While the Eomish Church says of itself:
extra ecclesiam nulla salus ; the Eeformation says : extra
Christum nulla salus ; the external churchly form is no con
dition of salvation, yea, it must be overthrown if it bars the
way to salvation in Christ. The Church of the Eeformation
was therefore, according to its principles, under obligation to
exercise continually a criticism on itself, in order to realize
more and more its ideal task.
The rapid spread of the Eeformation in Germany and
Switzerland constituted its historical justification. If, however,
the Eeformed ideas were to lead to a reconstruction of the
Church, the Christian doctrine would have to be set forth on
the ground of well-established principles. This was necessary
in order that the Christian people should be emancipated
from the rejected ecclesiastical system and made ripe for the
new, and also in order that the departure from the existing
Church might be justified before the civil power, the defender
of the Church, and that, where it was possible, the civil
power itself should be won over to the new doctrine. Thus
did the Eeformed Christian confessions originate, by means
of which the beginning was made of a many-sided doctrinal
development and an incessant theological activity. For the
instruction of the people, Luther composed his two cate
chisms ; for the Emperor and nation, Melanchthon composed

CONSEEVATIVE CHAEACTER OF THE REFORMATION. 235
the Augsburg Confession and its Apology ; and Luther
composed the Articles of Schmalkald. All of these taken
together are regarded by Lutherans in and beyond Germany
as the exposition of their faith. In the various countries
in which the Swiss Eeformation prevailed, no general
acknowledgment of any one confession was arrived at. The
different countries rather produced their separate confessions.
Hence we have the Swiss Confessions, the French, the Dutch,
the English, the Scotch, the Hungarian, and the German-
Eeformed in the Heidelberg Catechism. The drawing up of
these symbols, by means of which the separation from the
Eomish Church was completed, was not done in any narrow
sectarian spirit, as though the object only was to secure a
denominational existence for the newly-constructed Church
alongside of the Church of Eome, but the consciousness of
the Eeformation movement was rather a Catholic one. The
opposition was only directed against the Antichrist in the
Eomish Church, not against the Catholic Church generally.
After the removal from it of all the impure elements by
which, in the Eomish Church, it had been disfigured, the
Eeformed Church should only be the restoration and con
tinuation of the old Catholic Church. Not only poUtical,
but especially churchly, motives led the Eeformers to recognise
the Church doctrine of the first seven centuries, as laid down
in the (Ecumenical Symbols, and in this way to prove their
connection with the old CathoUc Church. They would by
no means acknowledge any departure from its principles ; for
they did not receive the cecumenical doctrine on the
authority of ecclesiastical tradition, but were guided by the
conviction that it has its divine warrant in Holy Scripture.
The Protestant symbols, therefore, agree essentially in their
Trinitarian and Christological doctrine with the ancient and
the Eomish Church. The doctrinal development in which
they take a course pecuUar to themselves is rather in the
domain of anthropology. In this department they have their

236 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA
negative significance in reference to the Eomish Church, and
their positive significance in reference to their own Church.^
Against the Pelagianizing tendency of the Eomish Church, by
which the trust in works prevaUing in it was favoured, the
German and Swiss Eeformation returned to Augustinianism,
in the doctrine of original sin, and the relation of divine
grace to human freedom. Nevertheless in the statement of
this doctrine, although both contested the Eomish positions
by the same principles, wide diversities appeared among them
selves. The Lutherans were led by purely religious motives
and adopted a modified Augustinianism ; the two sacraments
of Scripture, Baptism and the Lord's Supper, were maintained
as means of grace, and their efficacy was made dependent on
faith, but was not altogether freed from the magical concep
tion of the Eomish Church. In the construction of the
Eeformed system a theoretical interest beside the religious
was introduced even by Zwingli, but yet more fully by
Calvin. From the idea of God, Augustinianism was carried
to its furthest consequences, to the absolute divine predestina
tion, either to salvation or to condemnation, and the cer
tainty of salvation was placed in the actual possession of
faith. Consequently, both in the Zwinglian and in the
Calvinistic conception of the sacraments, only a symbolical
significance was allowed to them. Here, then, already the
principle of Scripture recognised by both sides, shows itself
insufficient for the establishment of doctrine. While this
was not able to prevent a doctrinal difference, the differences
which sprang up were not healed by the word of Scripture.
Thus, although Lutherans and Eeformed acknowledged in the
oecumenical dogmas ecclesiastical authority, and consequently,
also, accorded to the views set forth in them the same bind
ing obligation, the result now, notwithstanding the principles
they had in common, in consequence of which the Christian
idea had been raised again into a living element in the
' Compare Confessio Augustana.

EARLY CONTROVERSIES WITHIN THE LUTHERAN CHUECH. 237
Church, was the division of the Church over a question of
doctrine. After the Lutheran and Eeformed Churches had defined
their positions, and indicated their differences by their symbols,
both Churches were disturbed within their own borders by
those same differences which had brought about the separation.
The subjectivity delivered from ecclesiastical constraint, and
claiming the right of Christian freedom, refused again to be
bound down to an objective dogmatic law, and Holy Scripture
did not prove itself to be such an objective rule, that different
doctrinal convictions could not find in it the ground of their
establishment. The young Lutheran Church especially was
agitated by various controversies, for the most part of an
anthropological nature, which were concentrated in the
opposition of strict Lutheranism and Philippism. In the
Eeformed Church an opposition was raised against its funda
mental doctrine, against the Calvinistic theory of pre
destination, and led in the Netherlands, about the beginning
of the seventeenth century, to the Arminian schism. Besides
these there appeared the Anabaptists, who in their subjec
tivity went so far as really to regard themselves superior to
Holy Scripture, and to subordinate its doctrines to immediate
divine illumination. They were foUowed in 1555 by the
Socinians or Unitarians, who subjected to criticism even the
cecumenical dogmas, the Trinitarian and the Christological,
and by their rationalizing treatment of Scripture caUed in
question its normative significance. In opposition to all
these subjective endeavours, by which the new Churches were
threatened from within and without, it was seen to be neces
sary to emphasize the objectivity of Holy Scripture, and to
insist upon the strict adoption of the established doctrines
of the Church. Thus in the Lutheran Church, in the year
] 5 7 7, in the monastery of Berg at Magdeburg, the so-called
Form of Concord was produced, which was directed not so
much against the Eomish Church as against the subjective

238 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
views of doctrine in their own Church, and against the
Calvinistic doctrine. So, too, in the Eeformed Church, the
Calvinistic system was maintained against the Arminians or
Eemonstrants in the year 1618, by the Decrees of the Synod
of Dort. By means of these two symbols, the ecclesiastical
doctrinal system of the two confessions was clearly defined.
In them the principle of Scripture in its rigid objectivity is
insisted on, and, in order to make a departure from Scripture
impossible, in both cases a normative significance similar to
that of Scripture is assigned to the symbolical books. In
doing so they were not disturbed by the thought, that just
by the difference of the two Churches, which equally appealed
to Holy Scripture, its normative significance was shaken.
Even for the Protestantism of this time, there was no other
objective authority on which it could support itself. In
order, over against the Eomish Church, not to lose all firm
ground and foundation, and in order firmly to establish its
doctrine, the word of Scripture must be maintained, and must
be preserved against subjective treatment by definite exposi
tion. The theology of the two confessions attached itself to
the Form of Concord and to the Decrees of the Synod of
Dort, and began to work upon the systematic elaboration of
the Church doctrine. The Protestant theology which pre
vailed in the seventeenth century was oi-thodox - Lutheran
and orthodox- Calvinistic scholasticism, related, in respect of
its one-sided doctrinal character, to that of the Middle Ages.
By it the authority of Scripture was made to rest upon a
theory of divine inspiration, most rigidly conceived in re
spect of contents and form, and the acknowledgment of the
doctrine of the Church, which rests upon this Scripture foun
dation, was raised into a condition of salvation. After a
century had passed. Protestantism had thus faUen away from
the spirit of the Eeformation. The saving word of Scripture
was regarded as a theological test word, and simple living faith
was exchanged for the confession of a dogmatic system.

TEIDENTINE EEFOEM IN THE EOMISH CHUECH. 239
While the Eeformation was securing ecclesiastical consolida
tion, the Eomish Church could not remain inactive. From
within its own borders a loud cry for reform was raised, but
a reformation from the bottom, undertaken and carried on
without its consent, must by all means be resisted. The
papal anti-Eeformation began with the concilium Tridentinum
called by Paul III., in the year 1545, and with the Order of
Jesuits instituted by the same Pope in the year 1540. The
Papal Church believed that the danger of being overpowered
by the Eeformation could be averted only by its bringing forth
against it in new armour its mediseval Church system. In
opposition to the Eeformed doctrines, it laid down at the
Council, for the first time in a collected form, its system of
belief, and made it the foundation of the hierarchical Church,
whose power is concentrated in the papal authority. The
doctrine, as laid down in the Decrees of the Council, in the
professio fidei Tridentince and in the catechismus romanus, has,
down to the present day, unchallengeable validity as Church
law, and the Pope, universally acknowledged as infallible, is its
supreme defender. Since that time, the Jesuits have devoted
themselves to the interests of this Papal Church, and, with
their hierarchical organization borrowed from the Church itself,
they have exerted all their powers for the extirpation of the
heresy of Church reform. By means of the mediaeval scholastic
theology revived by them, and by means of that secular
scholarship which they had acquired in order to obtain control
over the higher and the primary schools, they have for two
centuries dominated the whole realm of Eoman Catholic life,
and with these intellectual weapons, as well as by political
intrigue, they have waged war with Protestantism. In the
three Churches we find now three theological systems, agreed
in this, that they made the very existence of the Church
dependent on the legal validity of doctrine, agreed also in the
assertion of the infallibility of their principles, and even in the
grounding of these principles, inasmuch as the Lutheran and

240 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Eeformed Churches rest the infallibility of their principle of
Scripture, just as the Eoman Catholics do that of their papal
principle, upon divine inspiration. But just out of this
formal agreement arose the keenness of the material disagree
ment, which found expression in the controversial theology,
the theologia polemica, in which the theologians of the three
Churches contended for their doctrine and ecclesiastical system,
in the second half of the sixteenth, and during the seventeenth
century. By means of this conflict, Christian doctrine gained
an extraordinarily rich development, but, in consequence of
confusion as to the standpoint around which the conflict was
carried on, no agreement could be reached, and in consequence
of the false opposition of principles, it could lead to no
scientific result. The infaUibility of the Papacy had been
already disproved by history ; the infalUbUity of Scripture had
been disproved by the divergence of the two Churches that
had made it their support. In the Eomish Church itself
Christian piety was moving in a reforming direction against
the external scholasticism of the Jesuits. Nevertheless,
although Jansenism gained a footing in Port Eoyal, and a
communion was formed separate from Eome with an arch
bishop at Utrecht in the Netherlands, this reformatory move
ment, overmastered by the power of the Jesuits in the^
Church, was not able to secure any lasting influence over the
constitution of the Eomish Church. On the other hand, in
the Protestant Church, the deep religious tendencies of the
spirit of the Eeformation itself occasioned a reaction against a
theological scholasticism, which in its polemical zeal lost itself
in the service of the letter and of dogma, a;nd had neither
taste for, nor appreciation of, the obligations of the religious
life of Christian society. As in the case of the opposition
to mediseval scholasticism, so also now again, the reaction
was carried out by mysticism. Mystical tendencies were
represented, toward the end of the sixteenth century, by
Schwenckfeld and the Swiss physician Theophrastus Paracelsus,

PIETISTIC MOVEMENTS WITHIN THE CHUECH. 241
and during the seventeenth century by Valentin Weigel and
Jacob Bohme, and subsequently by Arndt, Heinrich MiiUer,
and Johann Val. Andrese. Weigel and Bohme developed a
theoretical mysticism in the form of a theosophy ; Arndt,
MuUer, and Andrese developed a practical mysticism as a
spiritual Christianity in opposition to the torpidity of doctrinal
formularies. This practical mysticism obtained a lasting
influence over the whole domain of Lutheran Church Ufe by
means of the Pietism inspired by it, which, at the end of the
seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century, had as
its chief representatives PhiUp Jacob Spener and August
Hermann Fran eke, and was, by Ludwig von Zinzendorf from
the year 1727, constituted a separate sect as Moravianism.
The theosophical mysticism, again, was from the year 1743
adopted by the Swedish naturalist Emanuel Swedenborg, and
made the foundation of the Church of the New Jerusalem.
SimUar phenomena to those in the Lutheran Church made
their appearance in the Eeformed Church of England in
opposition to a rigid dogmatic ecclesiasticism. At the end of
the seventeenth century, the Society of Quakers or Friends of
Light was founded by the shoemaker George Fox, and about
the beginning of the eighteenth century, the denomination of
Methodists, allied to the German Pietists, was founded by
John Wesley.
Those various movements directed against the objective-
positive Christianity were less hurtful to it, because they
either rested upon so one-sided and narrow a subjectivism
that they could never become a power in the life of men
generally, or continued in essential agreement with the Church
occupying the same standpoint of revealed Christianity. More
severe was the attack directed against it by the phUosophy
which, since the Eeformation, had been diligently prosecuted.
The old antithesis of faith and knowledge, revelation and
reason, comes now more and more into the foreground of the
philosophical consciousness. Called forth by the empirical
VOL. IL Q

242 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
philosophy of Bacon of Verulam, the English Deism of the
seventeenth and eighteenth centuries sets the independent
human reason, not only over against the objectivity of the
Church doctrine and of Hdly Scripture, but also over against
Christianity generally, and seeks its satisfaction in a merely
natural, ethicaUy effective religion, or even rids itself of all
religion. To this extreme result the empirical philosophy of
the understanding attained in France, where it degenerated
into pure materialism and atheism. Even in Germany such
negative tendencies asserted themselves, but the conflict, that
was here entered on with profound scientific earnestness,
was very soon enlisted on behalf of Christianity. From the
time of Descartes, Protestant theology could no longer retire
for defence behind the barriers of an ecclesiastical system.
The Protestant doctrine and the principles upon which it
rests were swept away before the stream of philosophical,
historical, and phUological research, and theology found itself
obliged to reconstruct its system under the influence of the
general scientific movement. The development ran on in the
stirring conflict inspired by the spirit of the Eeformation,
through which, in the various stages of its course, the
orthodox, rationalistic, supernaturaUstic, Schleiermacherian,
and speculative theology had to pass. The conflict has
made a most profound impression on the nature of Pro-
testanism, and has left two enduring results in Church
history. Theology, freed from untenable authorities, attained
to the independence of a theological science, and the Church
system, delivered from a dogmatism foreign to it, already
repudiated by repeated protests, was raised by means of the
union of the two Protestant confessions to the higher form of
the Evangelical Church. In both cases, we have simply the
historical fulfilment of that which was implied in the Protes
tant principles. Hence the conflict between opposites did
not result, as opponents expected, in the overthrow, but in
the establishment of Protestantism. Protestant theology as

IDEALISTIC MOVEMENT IN MODEEN EOMANISM. 243
the science of the Christian religion serves, but in no slavish
spirit, the Evangelical Church, and represents the religious
truth, of which the Church makes confession, in the closest
connection with the progress of society in general scientific
culture. After the removal of the Jesuits, the theology of the
Eomish Church entered on a more liberal course. As
noble opponents exert an ennobling influence on those
they oppose, so Protestantism had influenced Catholicism.
Under the influence of Protestant philosophy and theology.
Catholic theology took a higher scientific flight, and sought
to surround the Catholic Church system with the glory of a
pure idealism. This idealistic tendency, however, was driven
back, so soon as the Jesuits had been restored in 1814 by
Pius VII. Since that time the Jesuits, true to their original
anti-Protestant spirit, have withdrawn Catholic theology from
all Protestant influences, and have again turned it back into
the course of the strictly hierarchical system. At their
instigation, for the protection of its immutability, the papal
infaUibility has been raised to the rank of a Church article
of faith, and thus too Catholic theology has been reduced to
the position of the serving-maid of the Papacy. Absolute
authority has ever since, in Catholic doctrine and Catholic
morals, been given to the Pope. As by the dogma he is himself
bound to the ecclesiastical past, he has, with absolute sove
reign power, to maintain the njediseval Church system as laid
down in the Tridentine Decrees. With yet greater pre
sumption, this rigid mediseval Church system is thrust upon
the present. Under the constant assumption that the Papal
Church alone is the Church, and alone represents Christianity
and Church, the whole scientific advance made by the
Eeformation is placed under the papal ban. The starting-
point for the general history of the Church is, on the
side of Eomanism, papal absolutism in the service of
tradition and legal doctrine ; on the side of Protestantism,

:244 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
it is the free theological service of the gospel and the
Christian spirit.^
The inner or spiritual reform carried out in the Eomish
Church led to a breach with the outer organization which the
Church, during its historical course, had maintained.
The Eeformation rejected the domination of the State over
the Church which characterized the first period, as well as
the domination of the Church over the State which charac
terized Eoman Catholicism, and, in place of this, sought to set
up an independent Church system. Under their actual
historical conditions, it was a most praiseworthy act on the
part of the Eeformers to lay down, from the very idea of the
Church, the doctrine of the Church's inward, and outward
freedom, and its consequent relation to the State. From the
Church itself, and also from the State, all hierarchical power
must be withdrawn, but also all encroachment on the Church
by the State must be resisted. The Church, delivered from
the hierarchical power, stands toward the State in a relation,
neither of super-ordination, nor of subordination, but in that
of mutual recognition. These two. Church and State, have
different spheres of action; the one the spiritual, the other
the temporal. This distinction, however, does not place them
in opposition to one another,.but both are gifts of God to man,
and have to be respected as ordinances of God. They ought,
therefore, not to encroach upon the separate spheres of each
other's activity, but the State should afford free scope to the
Church in its spiritual sphere, and the Church within the
State should observe aU civil ordinances, and render obedience
to its laws. These fundamental principles of organization,
which the Eeformation has given expression to in its Con
fessions,^ embrace all the conditions required in order that
the Eeformed Church might construct for itself a united and
independent ecclesiastical system. But partly the circum-
1 Compare § 4-6 and 16-19. [Vol. i. pp. 38-157, and pp. 205-296.]
2 Compare Confessio Augustana, xvi. and P. II. art. vii.

EELATION OF REFORMED CHURCHES TO THE STATE. 245
stances of the age, partly the division of the young Church
into a Lutheran and a Eeformed communion, partly the
tendency of the Eeformation to attend preponderatingly to the
inner elaboration of the Church life, prevented the carrying
out of such an external organization of the Protestant Church
system. A longer battle had to be fought before Protestantism
would be wholly freed from the hierarchical dominion, and
be recognised in its independence of the ancient Church and
of the civil power. First the Thirty Years' War led, in the
Westphalian Peace, to a lasting decision guaranteed by the
political powers, by which the freedom of the Protestant
Church, in respect of its doctrine and worship, was secured.
The period of this struggle was in a high degree unfavourable
to the construction of an ecclesiastical constitution. For pro
tection against the Eomish Church, Protestantism was under
obligation to the civil power. Especially in Germany, the princes
who had adopted Protestant doctrines were also the natural
defenders of the Church. It was thereby certainly preserved
from outward injury, but, at the same time, it was dragged
into the organism of the State. The constitutions of the States,
in which the Lutheran Church spread, were throughout quite
adverse to the development of an ecclesiastical constitution to
be constructed in accordance with the Eeformation principle.
The constitution of a State under an absolute monarchy could
not suffer alongside of it an independent constitution for an
ecclesiastical communion. And now, instead of Lutherans
and Eeformed, in view of their common principle and their
common danger from the side of Eome, asserting their agree
ment in the elaboration of a Church constitution, and coming
to a mutual understanding in regard to their various differ
ences, they added outward separation to their already existing
inward division. Thus they lost outward ecclesiastical unity,
each going its own way, not only forming two great divisions,
but each of these again, faUing into smaller divisions. The Ee
formed Church that had sprung up in the Swiss Eepublic made,

¦246 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
indeed, an attempt at a Church organization in its Presbyterian
constitution, by which the Church would assert its right to
self-administration, but this did not create a constitutional
bond of union for the whole Eeformed Church. This con
stitution itself was constructed very difi'erently in different
lands, so that while in Geneva there was for a time a Eeformed
hierarchical Church system of moral terrorism, in England the
Church was whoUy incorporated in the civil organism. The
Lutheran Church has not once made an attempt at such an
external organization. In Germany, broken up into numerous
provincial Churches, it fell, as in Sweden and Denmark, into com
plete dependence upon the State, — the supremacy of its prince,
also, as the summus episcopus of the Church of that State, being
recognised. This was thoroughly antagonistic to the nature
of the Protestant Church, and, only in consequence of the
circumstances of the times, was the subordination urged upon
it justified by the Protestant jurisprudence by means of three
different systems, the Episcopal, the CoUegial, and the Terri
torial systems, — all three, viewed from the standpoint of
history and of the idea of the Church, being equally untenable.
In consequence of this rent in the Protestant Church, in con
sequence of its division into distinct communions in the
separate States, and the general want of Church union, the
consciousness of the idea of the Church, and of Church cohesion
revived by the Eeformers, must have been wholly lost, and
instead thereof a complete indifference sprang up on the part
of the Churches in different States toward one another. First
the union of Lutheran and Eeformed Churches in the Evan
gelical Church reawakened the Church-consciousness in the
domain of Protestantism, and aided in bringing under notice
the nature of the Church itself for the accomplishment of the
practical tasks that anew presented themselves. Although,
indeed, the thought of a united EvangeUcal Church system,
even if for Germany only, could not be realized, yet in the
Churches of the several German States the demand was more

OUTWARD SPLENDOUR OF ROMAN CATHOLICISM. 247
and more insisted upon, that the Evangelical Church in its
relation to the State should have its right of independent
existence admitted. Since then, under favourable political
conjunctures, this demand has for the most part been re- ¦
sponded to, and a constitution has been given which frees the
Churches more or less from their earlier subordination to the
State. It was, indeed, impracticable and unadvisable all at
once completely to dissolve the old connection, and, laying
aside aU practical considerations, to fix, on purely theoretical
grounds, the limits of the ecclesiastical and civil jurisdiction.
However defective the separate constitutions may have been,
by means of them, the way was prepared for the Church of
each State making a demand for its full rights, in accordance
with the Eeformation principle, in close connection with the
State and with the recognition of its national character. Thus,
for Germany at least, in harmony with the empire, a united
organized Evangelical Church system might be restored.
While outward insignificance was the lot of the Protestant
Church, the Eomish Church was surrounded by the glittering
blaze of its outward glory. With slight interruptions it has
continued, during the whole period, not only to maintain its
mediseval hierarchical imposing form, but even to carry out its
hierarchical constitutions to a definite conclusion. Jesuitism
restored concentrated its whole energies upon the conflict
with Protestantism. Without understanding the inner power
of the Protestant spirit, it regarded the outward divisions of
Protestantism as favourable to its plans. Against the chief
Protestant States, against England, and in Germany, against
Prussia, it directed its attacks. The success which Jesuitism
has gained in England, through numerous perversions in high
social circles, shows the widespread defectiveness of culture
and judgment among the English aristocracy. The English
people have hitherto offered a sturdy resistance. In Prussia
the decided complaisance of the Government from political
motives has been favourable to those Jesuitical schemes.

248 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
For the furtherance of their plans the Jesuits knew how to
draw the papal authority into their service. The syllabus
errorum, sketched by them and published by Pius IX. in
1864, under the usual assumption that the Eomish Church
alone is the custodier of divine truth, ventured to repudiate the
authority of all other Churches, and the jurisdiction of the State,
and to condemn aU modern civilisation which exists as a result
of the Eeformation. In order to give to their project a solid
foundation, the Jesuits advanced so far as to elevate, at the
Vatican Council, on the 18th July 1870, the divine sovereign
power of the Pope into an article of the Church faith. Now,
however, after attempts at the political humiliation of Pro
testant Prussia had been twice defeated, the German Empire
has been re-established under a Protestant Emperor, and the
Jesuits were driven from the realm; Prussia, by the May
Laws of the year 1873, asserted its jurisdiction and civil rights
in opposition to Vatican Catholicism ; and the Jesuits, to their
great chagrin, have seen, in Protestant Prussia, their plans
crossed and baffied. In opposition, therefore, to the Prussian
supremacy, in the most reckless manner and regardless of
aU Church piety, they here advanced their hierarchical pre
tensions. Yielding on the part of the Church should be
cautiously but firmly enforced by the State ; for by a Church
constitution, like that of the Vatican, and so long as Jesuitism
lasts, these same schemes will be always "renewed. The opposi
tion which has risen up in the bosom of the Eomish Church
itself, expressed with scientific and moral energy, against the
Vatican Decree, and which has led to the formation of the
Old Catholic communion, will be scarcely hurtful to the Curia,
unless the Old Catholics resolve to break with the principles
of the hierarchical Church system, and, regardless of con
sequences, to witness for the truth.
As to the hierarchical constitution, so also to the sa'cerdotal
worship of the Eomish Church, the Eeformation assumes a
directly negative attitude. In the department of worship,

SIMPLE WORSHIP OF REFORMED CHURCHES. 249
however, the Eeformation principle gave forth an immediately
positive utterance. The distinction which forms the presup
position of the Eomish ritual, the distinction of priests and
laymen, was utterly abolished. Faith brings the Christian
into an immediate relation with God and Christ, in con
sequence of which there is no need of any mediation by a
special priesthood. It is not the priest who, by means of his
action, has to dispense divine grace to the Church, but the
believing Christian acting for himself appropriates that grace ;
and not the priest, but the believing community, is the acting
subject in worship. From the manifold forms of sacerdotal
worship, which contribute to the externalization of the faith,
and appeal only to the senses and imagination, Protestant
worship withdrew itself to attend to the spiritual element,
and made spiritual instruction in the faith its one and only aim.
This has for its foundation the divine means of grace, the
word of God and the sacraments, which are restricted in
number to those instituted by Christ, Baptism and the Lord's
Supper. The principal parts of the worship are, therefore,
preaching and the dispensation of the sacraments. For the
sake of order both are committed to the clerical office, which
as a service, on the part of those who bear it, to the members
of the Church, cannot presuppose any rank superior to that of
Church membership. To the word of God which the clergy
man preached, and the sacraments, which he dispensed, an
objective power was attributed : this, however, was not a
magical power, communicated by a priestly act, but a spiritual
saving power conditioned by faith. Preaching, which in
Eoman Catholic worship had been crushed almost out of
sight by the sacramental actions, became the central-point
in the Protestant service, and in spite of the arrest which it
suffered during the period of dominant dogmatism and the
illumination, it has been this pre-eminently which has regularly
nourished the Christian piety of the community, and has
maintained stedfastly the evangelical faith amid oppression

250 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
and persecution. Besides preaching, the spiritual song also
exercised no slight influence upon the edification of the com
munity, which, springing out of the reawakened life of faith,
became, especially in the Lutheran communion, a rich source
of encouragement and comfort in public and private devotion.
The Church festivals were restricted to the seasons hallowed
by occurrences in the life of Jesus, while the numerous
Catholic festivals of the saints were excluded from the Pro
testant • festival -cycle. But notwithstanding the thorough
going transformation, which the Eeformation wrought upon the
mode of worship formerly prevailing, the Lutheran Church
at least proceeded very moderately and in a conservative spirit.
Neither has it ever denied the value of art in relation to
Christian worship. As it made sacred poetry and music
contribute their aid, it also did not despise the decoration of
its churches with the creations of statuary and painting.
Ecclesiastical architecture did not so soon succeed in finding
an architectural style which would be in keeping with the
character of Protestant wbrsMp. Its simplicity and spirituality
were opposed to the Gothic style with its magnificent cathedrals,
and first in modern times, after many unsuccessful attempts,
the Protestant spirit produced the forms, which satisfy the
sesthetic requirements, as well as those of the worshippers.
The Eeformed Church has dealt with the Eoman Catholic
forms of worship far more rigorously than the Lutheran
Church. Inasmuch as it has abandoned all historical de
velopment of ritual, and in the ordaining of forms of worship
keeps strictly to Holy Scripture, it completely banished
art from the ritual, and satisfied itself with the simplest
church buildings, having within them merely an altar, and in
public worship, besides preaching and prayer, having only a
simple psalmodic service.
The Eomish Church, during the whole period, sought to
surround the mediseval ritual, to which it stedfastly adhered,
with every access of external pomp, and to edify its members by

INFLUENCE OF REFORMATION ON THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. 251
processions, pilgrimages, and jubilee indulgences. Instructed by
Protestantism as to the value of preaching, it has not neglected
to adopt this as an integral part of its worship. The Jesuits
particularly have laid themselves out as itinerant preachers
among Catholic nations, and as the Propaganda among Pro
testants. The Eomish Church is under obligation to the
Jesuits for a special enrichment of its ritual, inasmuch as they
with skilful calculation have raised the worship of the Virgin
to its utmost supernatural height. Moved by the Jesuits,
Pius'IX., on 8th December 1854, proclaimed, as a divinely
revealed dogma, the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin
Mother of God. Since then the Jesuits have managed, by
means of this dogma, to foster the superstition of the Eoman
Catholic masses (Lourdes, Marpingen, Dittrichswalde), and
have set in view appearances of the Virgin Mary in the form
of a child, in order to support the miracle of infallibility in
the head of the Church by means of the Catholic people's
belief in the Marian miracles, and to outshine the simple
evangeUcal form of worship of Christian piety by the glitter
of heavenly manifestations.
By means of the Eeformation principle of faith the Christian
Ufe was restored to that ethical freedom which has its ground
and origin in faith. The one-sided over-estimation of believing
piety, and the torpidity of belief in dogma, afforded for a time
^n excuse for asserting moral quietism and indifferentism. The
subjection of the Church, especially the Lutheran Church, to the
State, in consequence of which the consciousness of the Chris
tian community got no sufficient expression, also restrained the
manifestations of moral life, both in individual members and
in the Church as a whole. Nevertheless, by means of the
evangelical form of worship, which brings continually to
believers fresh vigour from the fountain of Christian truth, a
Christian independence was, for the most part, brought to
maturity among evangelical people, an earnest moral sense,
which determines its moral, attitude, not by the rule of an

252

THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

external authority, but by the Christian conscience, and
assumes to its own conscience the responsibility for its pro
cedure. The Eeformation had given abundant scope for its
practical exemplification, by the position which it assigned to
the Church in relation to the State. Inasmuch as the Ee
formation abolished the Eoman Catholic opposition of Church
and State, Protestant ethics sought to avoid the monkish
withdrawal from civil life, and rather to prove the worth of its
Christian character, by attaching itself in a patriotic spirit to
the highest interests of the State, and devoting itself to whatever
it might be called to do in all spheres of public life. In the
domain of Protestantism the conviction has become more and
more firmly rooted, that Church and State stand in the closest
ethical connection with one another, that the Church has to
realize its moral ideals in the civil life, and the State the surest
basis of its existence and advancement in the religious moral
sense of its citizens. By means of the freedom from every
external hierarchical authority which the Eeformation secured
for the State, a way has been prepared for the uninterrupted
development of the spirit which animated the Eeformation.
The free investigation of nature, of history, and of the human
mind, after the old classical model, has by the Eeformation
been restored. Political freedom, industry, art, the exact
sciences, and phUosophy have to thank the breach with
Eoman Catholicism for their rapid advance in modern times.
Licence is the caricature of freedom, and makes its appearance,
leading to wild destructive dreamings, to materialistic and
atheistic aberrations. But the spirit of Protestantism is a
spirit of religious moral obligation, and will conquer, with the
weapons of this spirit, whatever rises in opposition against it.
A comparison between Protestant and Catholic nations proves
the elevatory infiuence, which has been exerted upon the life
of the former, by their Protestant Confession. Besting on this
fact, Protestantism endeavours to carry out its principles of
life in their full ideality, in order that from its spiritual

ABSOLUTIST CLAIMS OF MODERN CATHOLICISM. 253
•elevation it might be able to remove the antithesis prevailing
in practical Ufe between culture and Christianity, human and
divine truth, secular science and theology, and to construct a
single national life penetrated by Christian truth.
Catholicism, by means of the dogma of the papal infaUibility,
has constituted the conscience of the Pope the conscience of
the Catholic beUevers, and has reduced its members to a state
of bondage, which can express itself only in the form of uncon
ditional obedience, not in that of Christian morality. To the
mediseval ascetic view of life, it has remained faithful. Less
with a view to ascetic elevation than for the ends of the Pro
paganda, the Jesuits have, in recent times, encouraged monas-
ticism, and have fostered it, especially in England and Germany,
by the founding of cloisters. With the State, especially in
the case of Protestant States, the Papal Church, by reason of
its principles, cannot but come into conflict. It has at least
resumed the mediseval conflict with the German Empire in its
onslaught upon the Protestant German Empire, since now,
just as then, it gives out its human ordinances to be divine,
and consequently, superior to those of the civil power.
The State had no intention to step over into the reUgious
domain of the Eomish Church, or to strip the Catholics of
freedom, and place them under restraint in ecclesiastical mat
ters. It was, however, its duty to assert its own divine right
over against a human-hierarchical absolutism, which, by the
absolute obedience of its members, threatens the civil life.
The Jesuits have not hesitated to excite the Catholic people
by various means to opposition, and to represent their depriva
tion of the power to persecute others as a persecution of the
Church. By the Curia itself, rebeUion against the ecclesias
tical laws imposed by the State was recommended as a good
Catholic act. The advances in culture which, in the region of
national life, have been made since the Eeformation without
the approval or sanction of the Papal Church, have by repeated
decrees been condemned by the Papacy, but in spite of that

254 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
divine authority which it arrogates to itself, it has not yet
succeeded in accomplishing their reversal.
Missionary agencies were also developed during this third
period. Missions now were sent to the farthest regions.
Eastern Asia, Australia, Africa, and America, but they did not
produce such great and enduring results as in the first and
second periods. Notwithstanding the ecclesiastical division,
by which its energies were called to deal with its own inner
condition, the Eomish Church itself, even in the sixteenth
century, did not abandon the task of extending the Catholic
faith. The Jesuits, guided by the tendencies of their order,
undertook missionary work with great zeal. By the estab
lishment of the congregation de propaganda fide in the year
1662, a centre was formed from which the Eomish Church,
abundantly furnished with means, sent its message of faith
into all parts of the world. Protestantism, so soon as it was
assured of its victory in the conflict with Eome, proved its
truly evangelical spirit by self-sacrificing devotion to mis
sionary work. Owing, however, to the ecclesiastical disintegra
tion and defective organization in the realm of Protestantism,
missions could not be an affair of the Church ; yet in the
two Churches, in the Lutheran and the Eeformed, distinguished
men and separate societies undertook the Church's duty, and
called forth, in ever-widening circles of the community. Chris
tian love for the heathen world. Confessional and political
interests have in many ways interfered with the mission work
of this period. Hostility toward missions, as well as want of
experience in the practical conduct and conjunct management
of them, must bear the blame principally of so many unsuccess
ful attempts, and such small results, as the history of missions
during the last century can show, notwithstanding the great
sacrifices that have been made. A vast field of labour still
lies before Christian missions. Of the thirteen hundred
millions of the world's inhabitants only four hundred milUons
are Christians.

PRESENT OPPOSITION OF PROTESTANTISM AND CATHOLICISM. 255
Church history is the history, according to its development
in time, of the visible Church or of the kingdom of God, to
which man is called through Christ. The course of the Church
Ufe lay through the midst of various disturbances and checks,
but it always rose above these troubles by means of the idea
which it contained. Throughout its past career, the Church
has been hastening to its ideal aim, the realization of which
is to be attained in the future. For the present. Church his
tory closes with the opposition of Catholicism and Protestantism.
During the ages past, the Eomish Church has been, for the
nations which it embraces, a richly-endowed administrator of
Christian salvation, and to the faithful, appears still the old
venerable institute, on which they hang with child-like confi
dence ; but as at the Eeformation, so now even more, it is a
historical anachronism. Both Churches, the Eomish and the
Evangelical, in spite of the Christian elements they have in
common, wiU have to maintain a long conflict with one
another, the Eomish as the Church of hierarchical lordship and
absolute obedience, the Evangelical as the Church of Christ
administered in His spirit. In the former, there is a standing
still, in the latter, the fulfilment of the saying of the Lord in
the power of the Spirit of truth who leads into all truth (John
xvi. 13).
The following works are the most important modern helps
for the study of Church history : —
J. C. L. Gieseler, Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte. Bd. i.
Bd. ii., Abth. 1-4. Bd. Ui., Abth. 1, 2. Bonn 1824-1853.
Bd. i. ii. in several editions. Bd. iv.-vi. from Gieseler's
manuscript, edited by E. E. Eedepenning. Bonn 1852, 1853.
Bd. vi. Die Dogmengeschichte. [English translation : Com
pendium of Ecclesiastical History. 5 vols. Edinburgh:
T. & T. Clark, 1846-1856.] J. A. W. Neander, AUgemeine
Geschichte der ChristUchen EeUgion und Kirche. Hamburg
1825-1852. 6 Bde. (down to the CouncU of Basel). 4 Aufl.

256 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
9 Bde. 1866. [English translation: Neander's Church History.
9 vols. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. In Bohn's Standard
Library in 1 0 vols.] C. A. Hase, Kirchengeschichte. Leipzig
1833. 10 Aufl. 1877. [EngUsh translation : History of the
Christian Church. From the 7th German ed. New York
1855.] H. E. F. Guericke, Handbuch der allgemeinen
Kirchengeschichte. BerUn 1833. 9 Aufl. Leipzig 1866,
1867. [Engl, transl. : Manual of Church History : First Six
Centuries. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark.] Ch. W. Niedner,
Lehrbuch der ChristUchen Kirchengeschichte von der altesten
Zeit bis auf die Gegenwart. Neueste Aufl. Berlin 1866.
C. E. Hagenbach, Kirchengeschichte von der altesten Zeit bis
zum 19 Jahrhundert. Leipzig 1869-1872. F. C. Baur,
Geschichte der ChristUchen Kirche. 5 Bde. Tiibingen 1863,
1864. Bd. 5. Kirchengeschichte des 19 Jahrhunderts.
Herausgeg. von E. Zeller. 2 Aufl. Leipzig 1877. Also the
Manuals of Church History by J. E. Chr. Schmidt, W.
Miinscher, Ph. Marheineke, E. F. StaudUn, J. T. L. Danz,
J. G. V. Engelhardt, F. Schleiermacher, W. B. Lindner, J. H.
Kurtz [English translation : Church History. 2 vols. Edin. :
T. & T. Clark], G. A. Fricke, J. L. Jacobi, H. Schmid, J. P.
Lange, F. A. Hasse. The Eoman Catholic historians of the
century are : Stolberg, Katerkamp, Eitter, Locherer, Eutten-
stock, Hortig, DolUnger, Eeichlin — Meldegg, Mohler, Alzog,
Kraus, Annegarn.-^ [Eobertson, History of Christian Church
from Apostolic Age to Eeformation. 8 vols. London, 2nd
ed. 1874. MUman, Latin Christianity. 9 vols. London.
C. Hardwick, History of the Christian Church during the
Middle Ages. Also by same author : History of the Christian
Church during the Eeformation.]
^ Compare the literature and its characterization by Hase, Kirchengeschichte.
10 Aufl. Pp. 7-14. [Engl, transl. pp. 7-12.]

SUBORDINATE BRANCHES OF CHUECH HISTOEY. 257

§ 38. SUBORDINATE BRANCHES OF CHURCH HISTORY.
1. The History of Missions. 2. History of the Constitution.
3. History of Worship. 4. History of Culture.
The representation, which Church history renders of the life
of the Church as a whole, has to be supplemented and com
pleted by means of special branches dealing with the details.
It is required of Church history that, in the treatment of the
separate departments of the Church life, certain limits be
observed, and that the materials of each of these be adopted
only so far as is necessary. This rule is prescribed in order
that, on the one hand, the course of history in its totality may
be set forth, and that, on the other hand, the interconnection
of all the departments may be recognised. The separate
branches ought to disregard these limitations, and here we
should have a comprehensive and complete treatment of the
several departments, according as their significance for theology
demands. As branches, however, of Church history they must
avoid the complete isolating of the different departments, and
with the separate treatment of each one, we must, at the same
time, keep in view the inner connection in which as a whole
they stand with one another.
1. HiSTOEY OF Missions. — Since its establishment at Jeru
salem, through all the centuries down to the present time, the
Christian Church has carried on its missionary activity, and
has been always enlarging the area of its labours for the
kingdom of God. The history of missions has the task of
describing the course of the Christian missionary activity,
according to its entire historical extent. But it cannot be
satisfied with merely indicating the outward extension of
Christianity in respect of space, but must indicate its scientific
VOL. II. E

258 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
character by clearly laying down the historical conditions,
under which this extension has taken place. For this purpose
there have to be taken into account the two living forces
which come into contact with one another, Christianity on the
one hand, and on the other hand, the nationality by which
Christianity has been adopted. However, the history of missions,
as such, has to confine itself to the beginnings of Church life
and to new formations. It is not, therefore, to . be identified
with the history of Christian culture, but simply constitutes a
preparatory work for this ; neither should it embrace a complete
Church history, as Hagenbach (Encyclop. S. 276, Eng. Transl.
p. 354), in objecting to a separate treatment of the history of
missions, supposes that it must. It ought rather to pay atten
tion to the general form of the Christian Church institution
characteristic of each period, in order historically to understand
the motives, and the furthering, or hindering, or perhaps even
objectionable, nature of all the influences proceeding from
Christianity which have affected a foreign nationality. Indi
vidual missionaries, whose labours have had a central import
ance in the missionary department, demand special attention.
As Christian characters full of enthusiasm, love, and energy,
and also as representatives of their own special Church system,
the story of their work affords to the history of missions a
source of the richest historical experience. But if thus the
history of missions must be accompanied by a precise know
ledge of Church history, it has also to prosecute as thorough
an investigation as possible of all the nationalities in which
Christianity has got, or at least, has attempted to get, a footing,
in order to indicate the elements in the religious and general
culture of these races which were favourable or unfavourable
to the reception of Christianity. On both sides, especiaUy
during the later centuries, in which missionary activity has
been carried on by very different ecclesiastical denominations,
and has been extended to the most diverse races, the task of
the history of missions has become an exceedingly difficult one,

LITEEATUEE OF THE HISTOEY OF MISSIONS. 259
but also, in its results, so much the more fruitful. In describing
and characterizing the missionary activity, which has issued
from the greater, and especially from the smaller, sects that
have sprung up since the Eeformation, it will have to shed
light upon the peculiarly Christian character of that activity,
as well as upon the higher or lower degree of Christian
energy present therein, and since it gives information regard
ing the culture - life of the various races affected by the
missionary activity of recent times, it affords valuable material
for the general history of religion. It is not, however,
required of the history of missions that it should turn aside
from its main object to detail the history of the conflict of
Christianity with the non-Christian religions, in its successes
and reverses, viewed from the ideal standpoint of Church
history. The distribution of its abundant materials is to be
determined according to the races which were the subject of
the mission, and accordingly, the division into periods will
correspond to that which is most suitable for the division of
the materials. The periods of Church history are not to be
without more ado transferred to the history of missions, but are
to be modified in accordance with the requirements of the case.
The comprehensive history of missions is still an unfulfilled
task of Church history, but there are numerous works in
which the materials are to be found.
Die Missionsgesehichte spaterer Zeiten oder gesammelte
Briefe der katholischen Missionarien aus alien Theilen der
Welt. 6 Thle. Augsburg 1794-1798. Henrion, AUgemeine
Geschichte der Missionen. From the French by Wittmann.
3 Bde. Schaffhausen 1847 ff. B. Ziegenbalg, AusftthrUche
Berichte, wie er und seine Collegen das Werk des Evangelii
unter den Heiden gefiihrt haben. 9 Bde. in 4. Halle
1705-1769. Continuation: Neuere Geschichte der evange-
lischen Missions — Anstalten zu Bekehrung der Heiden in
Ostindien. Herausgeg. von G. C. Knapp. 6 Bde. in 4.

260 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Halle 1770-1825. J. E. Th. Wiltsch, Handbuch der
kirchlichen Geographic und Statistik von den Zeiten der
Apostel bis zu Anfang des 1 6 Jahrhunderts. 2 Bde. Berlin
1846. Nachrichten von der Ausbreitung des Eeiches Jesu
liberhaupt und durch Missionarien unter den Heiden insbeson-
dere. 5 Bde. Elberfeld 1805-1818. Magazin fiir die
neueste Geschichte der protestantischen Missions = und Bibel-
gesellschaften. Herausgeg. von Blumhardt und Hoffmann.
1816 ff. Neue Folge. Herausgeg. von Ostertag. 1857 ff.
Jahresbericht der Gesellschaft zur Beforderung der evange
lischen Mission unter den Heiden. Berlin 1825 ff. Missions-
blatt, herausgeg. von der Missionsgesellschaft zu Barmen.
Barmen 1826 ff. C. G. A. Oldendorf, Geschichte der
Missionen der evangelischen Briider auf den caraibisehen
Inseln. Barby 1777. G. H. Loskiel, Geschichte der Mission
der evangelischen Briider unter den Indianern in Nordamerika.
Barby 1789. Die Missionen der evangelischen Briider in
Gronland und Labrador. 2 Thle. Gnadau 1831. C. G.
Blumhardt, Versuch einer allgemeinen Missionsgesehichte
der Kirche Christi. 2 Bde. Basel 1828-1829. H. G.
Tschirner, der Fall des Heidenthums. Leipzig 1829. , J. L.
Ebner, Eeise nach Slid Afrika und Darstellung meiner
wahrend acht Jahren dasselbst ais Missionar unter den
Hottentotten gemachten Erfahrungen. Berlin 1829. W.
Brown, History of the Propagation of Christianity among the
Heathen since the Eeformation. 2 vols. London 1814.
[3rd ed. 3 vols. 1853.] E. Huie, History of Christian
Missions since the Eeformation to the Present Time. Edin
burgh 1842. B. St. Steger, Die Protestantische Missionen.
Neue Ausg. Halle 1857. [G. Warneck, Outline of the
History of Protestant Missions. Transl. from 3rd German
ed. by Dr. Thomas Smith. Edinburgh 1884. By same
author and translator : Modern Missions and Culture : their
Mutual Eelations. Edinburgh 1883. Dr. Thomas Smith,
Mediseval Missions. Edinburgh 1882.]

ANCIENT AND REFORMATION CHUECH CONSTITUTION. 261
2. HiSTOEY OF THE CONSTITUTION. — As Christianity spread,
the constitution of the Church was more and more carefully
formulated. The separate organized congregations were the
foundation from which ever enlarging circles rose into con-
stitutional combinations, by means of fixed offices and regular
Synods. By the division of the community into clergy and
laity, the foundation of a hierarchical constitution of the
Church was laid. Its development was interrupted by the
establishment of Constantino's State-Church system, which
has left its characteristic impress upon the Orthodox Gree'?
Church in the supremacy of the Eussian Emperor, but ulti
mately in the Western Church it reached its historical con
summation in the Eomish-papal sovereignty of the Church
over the State. By the abolition of the antichristian dis
tinction of lay and clerical, the Eeformation eliminated the
hierarchical element from the ecclesiastical constitution, but
was prevented from practically carrying out its Church
principle, and giving to the Eeformed Church the organization
of one united ecclesiastical whole. Instead of this, for the
most part, an ecclesiastical disorganization makes its appear
ance. Protestantism was split up into several provincial
Churches having no bond of union with one another, and into
little sects, some of which in their own Church practice had
retained certain constitutional forms of the old Church, others
of which had submitted to the State-Church system of the
prince in whose domain they existed. In consequence of the
constitution which the ancient Church, and afterwards the
separate sects, had assumed, certain formulse have arisen, by
means of which the order within the Church itself, as well as
the relation in which the Churches stand to the States in
which they are, may be laid down in the form of law. The
most intimate connection exists between the spread of the
Church constitution and the rise of the Canon Law, according
to its intra — and extra — ecclesiastical significance. The
history of the constitution of the Church has the task of

262 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
giving a historical representation of the ecclesiastical organism
from the primitive Christian era, down through the various
Stages of its development, to the present time, in connection
with the development of the Canon Law. It has Church
history for its presupposition. It must likewise satisfy the
same requirements as are made of the science of Church
history, and must, guided by the idea of the Church, set forth
the ecclesiastical constitution in respect of the interaction
between this and the other departments of Church life with
reference to the external influence of civil politics. Its con
tents, too, will be most suitably arranged according to the
periods adopted in Church history. In consequence of the
influence which the constitution at all times exercises over
the general life of the Church, its separate treatment as one
of the separate branches under Church history is justified.
The practice of joining the history of the constitution with
that of worship has its foundation in the fact, that the
development of the two is closely connected. This, however,
leads to a one - sided view of the constitution as simply
concerned with worship, and prevents one from appreciating
the independent significance of the history of the constitution.
The following works contain the materials for a general
history of the Church constitution: — W. K. L. Ziegler,
Versuch einer pragmatischen Geschichte der kirchlichen
Verfassungsformen in den ersten 6 Jahrhunderten der Kirche.
Leipzig 1798. G. J. Planck, Geschichte der Entstehung und
Ausbildung der christlich-kirchlichen Gesellschaftsverfassung.
5 Bde. Hannover 1803-1808. J. H. M. Ernesti, Der
Kirchenstaat, oder die christliche Verfassung und Gemeinschaft
der drei ersten Jahrhunderte. Nurnberg 1830. E. Eothe,
Die Anfange der christUchen kirche und ihrer Verfassung.
Wittenberg 1837. A. Eitschl, Die Entstehung der altkatho-
lischen Kirche. Bonn 1850. 2 Aufl. 1857. S. Sugenheim,
Geschichte der Entstehung und Ausbildung des Kirchenstaates.

BEGINNINGS OF EEGULAR CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 263
Leipzig 1854. Aem. L. Eichter, Geschichte der evangelischen
Kirchenverfassung in Deutschland. Leipzig 1851. G. V.
Lechler, Geschichte der Presbyterial- und Synodalverfassung
zeit der Eeformation. Leyden 1854. K. E. Hundeshagen,
Beitrage zur Kirchenverfassungsgeschichte. Wiesbaden 1864
[W. Cunningham, Discussions on Church Principles. Edin
burgh 1863. J. Bannerman, The Church of Christ. 2 vols.
Edinburgh 1868. J. B. Lightfoot, Epistle to the Philippians.
Dissertation on the Christian Ministry. 6th edition. London
1881. Pp; 181-269. E. Hatch, The Organization of the
Early Christian Churches. Bampton Lecture for 1880.
London 1881. C. Hodge, The Church and its Polity.
London 1879. W. D. Killen, The Ancient Church. Edin.
1859. By the same writer. The Old Catholic Church.
Edin. 1871. G. A. Jacob, The Ecclesiastical Polity of the
New Testament. London 1871. E. de Pressens^, Early
Years of Christianity. Vol. iv. Life and Practice of the
Early Church. Especially pp. 37-118. London 1879.
Of the older literature, the following are still eminently
deserving to be consulted : — Hooker, Ecclesiastical Polity.
2 vols. Oxford 1843, and various editions. Sir Peter King,
Inquiry into the Constitution of the Primitive Church.
George GUlespie, Aaron's Eod Blossoming. Also : Assertion
of the Government of the Church of Scotland.]
3. The History of Worship. — The inner bond, by which
the organized Christian community was held together, was its
form of worship. So soon as the Christian communities had
sprang up, they created for themselves forms by means of
which they gave expression to their common faith, and were
bound to the celebration of a common service. The produc
tive activity of the Christian spirit in the department of
worship continues through thewhole course of Church history ^
and is determined by the fundamental views of Christianity
prevailing during each period. The history of the worship of

264 theological encyclopedia.
Christian antiquity is of quite peculiar interest, as in it the
Christian faith with perfect originality created forms of
worship suitable for it, or moulded to its service the forms
which it met with in Judaism and heathenism. During the
Middle Ages the Eastern Church, and especially the Eoman
Church, imprinted their special characteristics upon their
ritual. By the Eeformation a complete revolution was effected
in the department of worship, and the two principal Eeformed
Churches, the Lutheran and Calvinistic, again constructed
their forms of worship differently. The smaller Protestant
sects also in part consistently carried out their special dog
matic standpoint in the ordering of their forms of worship.
Thus, after the Eeformation, there appeared a great freedom
and diversity in the construction of the Church service.
In accordance with all this, the task of the history of
worship is determined. It must, in connection with the three
periods of Church history, represent the development of the
Christian worship from the earliest times down to the present.
As a preparative it has ecclesiastical archseology, out of
which it arises. From various confessional considerations,
ecclesiastical archseology restricted itself in its researches on
the history of worship to the ecclesiastical antiquity closing
with the end of the sixth century, or at farthest, reached
down to the Eeformation. Nevertheless, important as ecclesi
astical antiquity is, as the period of the beginning, the limits
imposed have no historical justification. If this department
is to maintain its significance and its value for theological
science, it must extend beyond ecclesiastical antiquity and the
Middle Ages down to the present, and exchange the name of
ecclesiastical archseology for that of the history of Christian
worship. This enlargement of the idea of this branch has
been already insisted on in their EncyclopSedias by Eosen
kranz, Pelt, and Hagenbach. While it thus avoids the limits
of time fixed by archseology, it has nevertheless, on its part,
to determine the proper limits for the matter treated of in

METHODS OF CHRISTIAN ARCHEOLOGY. 265
archseology. As archseology began to take shape in the
seventeenth century, it was simply a collection of the most
diverse materials from Christian antiquity. As the archaeo
logists of that period were wholly dominated by their regard
for Christian antiquity, they believed that everything which
had possessed significance and authority in it, must be received
into the science of Christian antiquity, and hence they dragged
in all that had a bearing upon the Christian life, constitution,
worship, customs, and also what belongs to the history of
doctrine. Archseology was gradually freed from this form
lessness by the scientific treatment of Church history and the
separate handling of its principal divisions, and was restricted
to the department of worship. It still remained undecided
whether with the history of worship that of the constitution
should be combined. That the two were closely interwoven
with one another must be readily admitted, but this also is
true of the spread of Christianity, of Christian ethics, and
Christian doctrine. From these last, as well as from the
Church constitution, various infiuences proceed which affect
the development of the worship. The history of worship will
have equaUy to attend to all these as far as is necessary,
without giving a pre-eminence to the constitution ; while the
latter, just as well as missions, ethics, and doctrine, lays claim
to independent treatment separate from the history of worship.
The wealth of ritual forms which the Eomish Church
possesses is calculated to foster in it an interest in their
origin. The most important archseologists of the Eoman
Catholic Church during the seventeenth century are J. B.
Casalius, Bona, Claude, Fleury ; during the eighteenth cen
tury, Martene, Mamachi, Selvaggio. Alex. Pellicia nearly
approached the idea of archseology as the history of worship,
in his work, de christiance ecclesice primce, medice et novissimce
cctatis notitia, which appeared at Naples 1777, and in a new
edition under the care of J. J. Eitter. 3 vols. Colonise 1829-

266 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
1838. The following are further elaborations of this work:
— J. A. Binterim's vorziigliche Denkwiirdigkeiten der christ-
katholischen Kirche aus der ersten, mittleren und letzten Zeit.
7 Bde. Mainz 1825 ff. 2 Aufl. 1830-1840. F. A. Staud-
enmaier, Geist des Christenthums, dargesteUt in den heUigen
Zeiten, den heiligen Handlungen und der heiligen kunst.
7 Aufl. Mainz 1866.
The Anglican Church, whose worship is for the most part
related to the Eomish, has for its archseological standard work
— Joseph Bingham, Origines s. antiquitates ecclesiasticse. It
appeared in English — Antiquities of the Christian Church —
in 1710 : in Latin translation by J. H. Grischow in 11 vols.
4to. Hal. ed. 2, 1761-1781. An abridgment of Bingham
was made by Blackmore, and was translated into German by
Eambach in 1792.
In the Protestant Church of Germany archseological works
were published by Quenstedt and Hildebrand in the seven
teenth century, and by Spangenberg, S. J. Baumgarten, and
Simonis, in the eighteenth. It was only in the present
century that special attention was paid to the history of
worship. J. Ch. W. Augusti, Denkwiirdigkeiten aus der
christliche Archaiologie. 12 Bde. Leipzig 1817-1831. An
abridgment of this : Handbuch der qhristUchen Archseologie.
3 Bde. Leipzig 1836, 1837. K. Schone, Geschichtsforse-
hungen liber die kirchlichen Gebrauche und Einrichtungen
der Christen. 3 Bde. Berlin 1819-1822. F. H. Ehein-
wald. Die Kirchliche Archseologie. Berlin 1830. W. Bbhmer,
ChristUch - kirchliche Alterthumswissenschaft theologisch-
kritisch bearbeitet. 2 Bde. Breslau 1836-1839. H. G. F.
Guericke, Lehrbuch der christlich - kirchlichen Archseologie.
Berlin 1847. 2 Aufl. 1859. F. Piper, Mythologie und
Symbolik der christUchen kunst, von der altesten Zeit bis
in's 16 Jahrhundert. Weimar 1847-1851. [Dictionary
of Christian Antiquities. Edited by Smith and Cheetham.
2 vols. London 1876-1880.]

INFLUENCE OF CHEISTIANITY ON SOCIETY. , 267
4. The History of Culture. — Christianity, which enters
into history, not as a doctrine, but as a principle of life, has
approved itself as such by effecting a moral regeneration, not
only upon its individual confessors, but also upon the races
among which it secured an entrance. In the Christian com
munity there was developed out of its faith a Christian
morality ; among Christian races there was developed a Chris
tian culture. This moral change, which was always preparing
the way for the kingdom of God, completed itself in an
unremitting conflict of the Christian spirit with the forces of
life that opposed it. Wherever Christianity spread, it met
with some special form of national life, as pre-eminently the
Greek, Eoman and German, a set of national customs firmly
established by history, civil regulations, religion, art and
science, tendencies and modes of life deeply rooted in the
national consciousness. If now and again Christianity has
adopted homogeneous elements from the culture life of the
people among whom it spread, it has generally, and that
scarcely designedly, destroyed the foundations of the heathen
culture by acquiring gradually an influence, and by means of
its inherent divine power it has transformed the natural-
sensuous national life into a new spiritual creation. But as
the Christian consciousness passes through historically diverse
stages of development, so also does the ethical effect proceed
ing from it. Christian morality, as well as Christian culture
generally, was conditioned by the peculiar character belonging
to the general aspects of the Church life in each particular
period. The history of Christian culture has the task of
setting forth, according to the three periods of Church history,
the ethical development of the Christian spirit In executing
this task, it has to treat in an introduction the characteristic
Church principle by which each period was dominated, and
from this to show in detail the influence which the Christian
spirit has exercised upon the individual moral life and the
manifold moral relations of life, on marriage, family life.

268 theological encyclopedia.
education, on social life, love, friendship, social intercourse, on
popular festivals, plays, theatres, on the various ranks in
society and their relation to one another, on industry, com
merce, trade, on the education and instruction of the people.
It has further to set forth the influences which have been
exerted by Christianity upon art and science, especially upon
philosophy, and on civic life, on the constitution, administra
tion, and legislation, on war and peace, on politics and
international law.
The history of Christian culture should, therefore, make it
its special business to observe and give expression to what is
beneath the surface of history, the most secret occurrences in
the life of nations. Its task is a difficult one, inasmuch as it
is brought into contact with many other sciences, and wiU
readily be liable to the danger of losing itself in generality and
vagueness, a danger which it can avoid only by keeping this
steadily in view, that it is simply the influence in each period
of the Christian spirit upon the various spheres of life referred
to, that has to be set forth. It has for its presupposition the
history of general culture ; while for the latter, the history of
Christian culture affords most valuable materials. Up to the
present time, the history of Christian culture is an unsolved
problem for historical theology. There are not wanting, how
ever, works which furnish material for its accomplishment, and
remind us that this is a need of Church history.
Tyge Eothe, Wirkungen des Christenthums auf den Zustand
der Volker in Europa. Danish, 1774 ff. German, Kopen-
hagen 1775 bis 1783. 4 Bde. A. Ch. Bartels, Ueber den
Worth und die Wirkungen der Sittenlehre Jesu. 2 Thle.
Hamburg 1788, 1789. J. A. H. Tittmann, Ueber das
Verhaltniss des Christenthums zur Entwickelung des
Menschengeschlechts. Leipzig 1817. H. Gr^goire, De
I'influence du christianisme sur la condition des femmes.
Paris 1821. K. F. Staudlin's geschichtUche Monographien

LITEE.A.TUEE OF CHEISTIAN CULTURE. 269
Tiber das Ge wissen, das Gebet, die Ehe, den Fid, den
Selbstmord, die Sittlichkeit des Schauspiels, die Freundschaft.
Leipzig 1822-1826. A. Neander, Denkwiirdigkeiten aus
der Geschichte des Christenthums und des christUchen Lebens.
Berlin 1822, 1823. .Neue Aufl. 1825, 1827. 3 Bde.
[English translation : Memorials of Christian Life in the Eariy
and Middle Ages. London : Bohn.] F. Miinter, Die Christin
im heidnischen Hause vor den Zeiten Constantin's des Grossen.
Kopenhagen 1828. W. Wachsmuth, Europaische Sitten-
geschichte, vom Ursprunge volksthlimlicher Gestaltung bis
auf unsere Zeit. 5 Bde. Leipzig 1831-1838. By the
same author : AUgemeine Culturgeschichte. 3 Bde. Leipzig
1850-1852. G. Klemm, AUgemeine Culturgeschichte der
Menschheit. 10 Bde. Leipzig 1843 ff. H. Etickert,
Culturgeschichte des deutschen Volks in der Zeit des Ueber-
gangs aus dem Heidenthum in das Christenthura. 2 Bde.
Leipzig 1853, 1854. C. Schmidt, Essai historique sur la
socit^t^ civile dans la monde remain et sur sa transformation
par le christianisme. Paris 1853. E. Chastel, Etudes
historique sur I'influence de la charite durant les premiers
siecles chr^tiens. Paris 1853. 0. Zockler, Kritische
Geschichte der Askese, ein Beitrag zur Geschichte christlicher
Sitte und Cultur. Frankfurt 1863. J. J. Honegger,
Grundsteine einer allgemeinen Culturgeschichte der Neuesten
Zeit. 4 Bde. Leipzig 1868-1872. [W. E. H. Lecky,
Historj' of European Morals from Augustus to Charlemagne.
3rd ed. 2 vols. London 1877. J. B. Lightfoot, Epistle to
Philippians. 6th ed. London 1881. Dissertation on Paul
and Seneca, pp. 270-328. B. F. Westcott, Epistles of St.
John. London 1883. Essay on the Church and the World,
pp. 237-269. E. W. Church, On some Influences of
Christianity upon National Character. London 1873.
Uhlhorn, Christian Charity in the Ancient Church. Trans
lated from the German. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1883.
By the same author, a more extensive work : Die Christliche

270 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Liebesthatigkeit. 1 u. 2 Bd. Stuttgart 1884. E. de
Pressens^, Life and Practice in the Early Church. Book III.
The Moral Life of the Christians of the Third and Fourth
Centuries. London 1879. Pp. 345-477. C. L. Brace,
Gesta Christi : a History of Human Progress under Christi
anity. London 1883. G. Matheson, Growth of the Spirit of
Christianity from the First Century to the Dawn of the
Lutheran Era. 2 vols. Edinburgh 1877-]

SUBORDINATE BRANCHES OF CHUECH HISTOEY. 271

§ 39. SUBORDINATE BRANCHES OF CHURCH HISTORY—
Continuation.
5. History of Boctrines. 6. Symbolics. 7. Patristics.
8. Statistics.
The practical Church system, which the four branches
treated in the preceding paragraphs have for their subject, is
the domain in which the theoretical development of the
Christian faith is carried on. With this theoretical develop
ment the three first named branches under the present section
have to do ; while statistics, as the last branch of historical
theology, has to state the result of the whole course of Church
history. 5. Histoey OF DocTEiNES. — That aspect of the Christian
life, which makes its appearance in Church history as Christian
doctrine, forms the subject of the history of doctrines. The
Christian idea, the very soul of the great Church body, and the
presupposition of all that emerges in the whole ecclesiastical
domain, enters at the very beginning upon a course of develop
ment which continues, through all the centuries, down to the
present. Faith, as the immediate harmony of the spirit with
the Christian idea adopted by it, cannot remain in this imme-
diateness. The constant impulse toward knowledge inherent
in man's nature, and the varying historical motives which affect
it from without, render it necessary that faith should, over and
over again, make its own contents the subject of its considera
tion and reflection, in order to find the most suitable form for its
expression, and to become ever more fully conscious of its own
truth. Each period has given utterance to the results of this
intellectual labour in definite doctrinal propositions or dogmas,
whether they be produced by free theological activity, or be
established by ecclesiastical ordinances. These dogmas taken

272 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
together form the sum-total of all the conclusions which the
Christian spirit down to a particular period has deduced from
its originally inherent religious idea. The history of doctrines
has the task of following the development process of the
Christian idea, according to the various historical stages
through which it passed from the beginning down to the
present. It is, therefore, the scientific exposition of the
development into self-consciousness of the Christian spirit, or,
with reference to the form of its expression, the scientific
exposition of the historical development of Christian doctrine.
It has for its supposition Church history, not only because
under this the history of the development of doctrine is also
embraced, but because it supplies to the history of doctrine
the other aspects of Church life, the infiuence of which upon
the construction of dogma demands attention. On the other
hand, the history of doctrine as compared with Church history
is a thorough and detailed investigation, in so far as its
exposition of the development of doctrine is distinguished from
that given in Church history. While Church history treats
the history of dogmas in connection with outward events con
ditioned by it, and considers only those dogmas which have
had a general importance for Church history, and indeed even
these only if they have won significance as a powerful convic
tion in the Church, the history of doctrines is guided solely
by an interest in dogma, and has to attend, not merely to this
or that dogma, according to its influence upon the general life
of the Church, but also to all those dogmas which had not
such an influence, and at the same time to proceed genetically,
so that it reaches back to the earliest germs of dogma, and
brings into view all the spiritual potencies which co-operate
in the further development and final establishment thereof, in
order to afford historical insight into the original significance
of a dogma, and thus lead generally to its right understanding.
This is the procedure enjoined upon the history of doctrines
by that very method, which, for its scientific execution, it has

periods of the HISTOEY OF DOCTEINES. 273
in common with Church history. The history of doctrines
must particularly vindicate its theological character by making
the Christian idea its foundation, and from it showing the
religious contents of the particular dogmas, as well as esti
mating the final dogmatic result. Thus, for its foundation, it,
as well as Church history, has to fall back upon the biblical
history of religion, and to adopt from it the idea of Christianity,
which is the operative element in the development of the
history of doctrines.^
The history of doctrines has its general distribution, as
well as its method, given it by Church history. The special
view of the Church, peculiar to each of the three great periods
of Church history, influences also the doctrinal consciousness
of the period, and determines the direction of its. doctrinal
development. The history of doctrines must, therefore, attach
itself to the three periods of Church history. Within these,
however, shorter periods may need to be distinguished, not
coterminous with those of Church history, since the develop
ment of doctrine may take windings of its own, which do not
correspond to- the principal events which determine the
arrangement of periods in Church history. In the fixing of
its periods the history of doctrines must be guided partly by
material, partly by. formal, considerations, according as the
division into periods is determined by the doctrines which
appear in the foreground during a particular period, or by the
special treatment given them during a period. Only by follow
ing the division determined by the contents themselves, will the
history of doctrines be able to fulfil its task, in giving a clear
representation of doctrinal development in each epoch. At the
' Fr. Nitzsch (Grundriss der ChristUchen Dogmengeschichte. Erster Theil.
Die patristische Periode. Berlin 1870. S. 8 ff. ) rightly requires the historian
of doctrine to lay down a fundamental proposition, " from which the whole
Christian doctrine may be developed, and which penetrates the whole develop
ment thereof as an identical subsumption. " Only Nitzsch seems to understand
this proposition, for the purpose in view, too externally, when he finds it in
the fundamental dogma " that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, and as such has
laid the fonndation of the salvation of the world."
VOL. IL S

'274 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
same time, it follows from this, that it must describe the several
doctrines of each period, not according to an external principle
of arrangement borrowed perhaps from modern dogmatics, but
rather, according to their greater or less significance for their
own age. It will, therefore, be most convenient to prefix to
every period, and every division of a period, an introduction in
which, first of all, the general aspect of the Church during the
period, and then, the peculiar doctrinal character of each
division of the period, are laid down, and thereafter, in the
order of periods, the doctrines in which the whole interest
of. the period centred, or the intellectual and spiritual ten
dencies which prevaUed in their treatment, have a prominence
given to them, while others, which are only of secondary
importance for the period, receive a less thorough treatment.
It has also to be remembered, that the construction of dogma
does not proceed systematically according to a fixed plan, but
goes on in connection with the whole life of the Church.
According to the spirit prevailing in a period, this or that
aspect of the Christian idea, this or that doctrine, comes into
prominence, and constitutes the special theological question
of that age. Upon such a doctrine, a decision is come to
from the depth of the Christian consciousness, and though
further reflection may indeed have to correct much therein,
yet there will always remain a religious core, an enduring
possession of the Christian spirit. The history of doctrines
must trace the course of development of this central dogma
from its origin in the Christian spirit, and must make this
prominent in its distribution and arrangement. In this way it
will most speedily reach a position from which it may combat
the erroneous notion, according to which in the history of
doctrines there is to be discovered only a labyrinth of human
opinions, or at most, a collection of curiosities, which might
indeed have had a value in a past age, but are without signi-
flcance for the present. Against such a superficial conception,
the history of doctrines should, by the whole course of its

LITEEATUEE OF THE HISTOEY OF DOCTEINES. 275
procedure, make it evident that the general historical develop
ment of doctrine is one grand spiritual organism, into which
the Christian idea, in the process of time, has grown, — an
organism with which the theologian has to deal, just as the
naturalist has to deal with any department of nature, in which
he meets with, not only malformations and distortions, but
also configurations, which had been called forth, and are
retained, by the necessary laws oi organic structure. It is
now generally admitted that limits are not arbitrarily to be
assigned to the history of doctrines, as though it were to be
confined to the first six centuries, as the properly patristic
period, or to the era of the Eeformation. It is rather acknow
ledged that it ought to extend down to the present, and to
embrace within its range every doctrinal system of the
present. Only when thus conceived of in a comprehensive
manner can it serve as a scientific preparation for systematic
theology. Elementary attempts at histories of doctrines were made in
the earliest times, by Irenseus, TertulUan, and Hippolytus ;
but as a distinct branch, separate from Church history, the
history of doctrines makes its appearance first in modern
times. The materials for a history of doctrines were formerly
included in works on Church history and dogmatics, and in
polemical treatises. The separate treatment thereof was
undertaken in the Eoman Catholic Church, in the seventeenth
century, by Dionys. Petavius, and Ludov. Thomassin, and at
the beginning of the eighteenth century by Ludov. Dumesnil.
The history of doctrines was treated of in the Protestant
Church, in the seventeenth century, by the Scotsman John
Forbes of Corse [Instructiones historico - theologicse de
doctrina Christiana. .Amstelodam. 1645]; and in the
eighteenth century, by Georg Walch, Geschichte der Streitig-
keiten innerhalt und ausser der protestantischen Kirche. 10
Bde. 1730-1739. Franz Walch, Entwurf einer voUstandiger

276 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Historie der Ketzereien, Spaltungen und Eeligionsstreitig-
keiten bis auf die Zeiten der Eeformation. 2 Thle. Leipzig
1762-1785. (Unfinished; reaches only to the middle of
the ninth century.)
After the movement originating with Ernesti and Semler,
the history of doctrines first received a scientific form in W,
Miinscher, Handbuch der christUchen Dogmengeschichte. 4
Bde. Marburg 1797-1809. By the same author : Lehrbuch
der christUchen Dogmengeschichte. Marburg 1811 3rd
ed. enlarged and continued to the latest times by D. von
Colin, Hupfeld and Neudecker. Cassel 1832-1838. Baum
garten - Crusius, Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte, Jena
1832, Besides these may be mentioned the Handbooks of
Augusti, Bertholdt, Euperti, Lentz, Engelhardt, Meier, Hagen
bach [English translation : History of Christian Doctrines, 3
vols, T, & T, Clark, Edinr. 1880, 1881], Beck, Marheineke,
Noack, Gieseler, Neander [English translation : History of
Christian Dogmas, 2 vols, London], Schmid, The most service
able works for the scientific construction of the history of
doctrines are those of Baur and Nitzsch, F. Ch, Baur, Lehrbuch
der christUchen Dogmengeschichte, Tiibingen 1847, 3 Aufl.
1867. By the same author : Vorlesungen fiber die christliche
Dogmengeschichte. Herausgegeben von Ferd. Fr. Baur. Bd. 1.
Abth. 1, 2. Bd. 2, 3. Leipzig 1865-1867. Fried. Nitzsch,
Grundriss der christUchen Dogmengeschichte. 1 Theil.
Patristische Periode. Berlin 1870. [W. Cunningham,
Historical Theology. 2 vols. Edinburgh 1870. W. G.
T. Shedd, A History of Christian Doctrine, 2 vols, Edin
burgh 1869, J, Donaldson, A Critical History of Christian
Literature and Doctrine. 3 vols. London 1864-1866.
T. G. Crippen, Popular Introduction to the History of
Christian Doctrine. Edinburgh 1883.]
The most important monographs in the department of the
history of doctrines are the following: — F. Ch. Baur, Die
christliche Gnosis oder die christliche EeligionsphUosophie in

EAELIEST CEEEDS OF CHRISTENDOM. 277
ihrer geschichtlichen Entwickelung. Tubingen 1835. By
the same author : Die christliche Lehre von der Versohnung
in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwickelung. Tubingen 1838.
By the same author: Die christliche Lehre von der
Dreieinigkeit und Menschwerdung Gottes in ihrer geschicht
lichen Entwickelung. 3 Bde. Tubingen 1841-1843. J.
A. Dorner, Entwickelungsgeschichte der Lehre von der Person
Christi von der altesten Zeiten bis auf die neueste. Stuttgart
1839. 2 Aufl. 2 Bde. Berlin 1851, [English transla
tion : History of the Doctrine of the Person of Christ. 5
vols. Edinburgh 1862-1864.] A. Eitschl, Die christliche
Lehre von der Eechtfertigung und Versohnung. 3 Bde.
Bonn 1870-1874. [English transl. of vol. i. : History of
the Christian Doctrine of Justification and EeconciUation.
Edinburgh 1872.]
6. Symbolics. — Just as the development of faith into
dogma rested upon an inner necessity, so historical circum
stances rendered it necessary that the Church of the first age
should, in the presence of Judaism and paganism, gather up
into brief statements the sum-total of its faith, by the con
fession of which, any one would be distinguished from Jews
and pagans, and would have himself recognised as a Christian.
Such a short confessional formulary of the Christian faith
received, even in the earliest age, the name of Symbolon, an
expression which was evidently transferred from the vocabu
lary of the Greek mysteries to the vocabulary of the Church,
with the meaning " token or sign of recognition." The most
ancient is that derived from the baptismal formula and
gradually reduced to a definite shape in the so-called symbolum
apostolicum. By the further elaboration of Christian doctrinal
tenets into dogma, certain principal doctrines were raised by
the Church, now united with the State and in possession of
external authority, to the rank of ecclesiastically sanctioned
dogmas, and the confession of these was made the condition.

278 'THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
not only of Church communion, but even of eternal salvation.
The symbolum apostolicum was dogmatically perfected in the
symbolum Nicceno-Constantinopolitanum and Athanasianum,
and in these three so-called Qilcumenical Confessions, the faith
of the Church was canonically fixed. These ecclesiastical acts
of doctrinal legislation may have a historical justification, but
in themselves they rest upon a misunderstanding of the
Christian revelation, as well as of the character of dogma;
Dogma is always simply a mere human reflection upon the
eternal foundation of the faith, and, as the product of a
particular period and its characteristic intellectual tendency,
has in it an element of contingency, instability, and transitori
ness. But the Christian spirit acknowledges itself bound only
to divine truth to which it has given free assent, and to all
external dogmatic constraint, it opposes the right of its own
private dogmatic judgment. So soon, then, as that ecclesiastico-
legal dogmatism appeared, the Church also, which, according to
its idea, ought to be one, began on account of dogma to break
up. into divisions, and this breach, under the domination of
dogmatism, continued always to increase. Those who diverged
from the doctrinal canon of the Church were .branded, in
distinction from the orthodox, as heterodox or heretics, and
were driven out from the dominant Church. If, however,
their doctrinal view possessed the necessary vitality, they took
their stand over against the existing Church, and sometimes
expressed their dogma in a symbol, which then became the
basis of their ecclesiastical communion separate from the
dominant Church, and was reckoned by it heretical and
schismatical. As before against Jews and pagans, so now
against one another. Christians prepared their Confessions, in
which they gave expression to their doctrinal differences as a
ground of ecclesiastical separation. For the most part, these
were the outcome of the most violent doctrinal conflicts.
What was for a long time matter of controversy, occasioning
the expenditure of intellectual power in the highest degree,

DOCTRINAL DIFFERENCES INTENSIFIED BY THE CREEDS. 279
and enlisting the hearty co-operation of the Church, becomes
in the Symbols a definite dogmatic formula, and is thus
brought to a conclusion. Symbolics has for its subject those
various Symbols or Confessions, by which the existing Chris
tian denominations are distinguished from one another, and its
historical task is to set forth their origin and contents. The
arrangement of its material is given it, partly by the order of
succession in which the Churches appeared in history, partly
by the historical importance of the different Churches. General
Symbolics has to go back to the time at which first the
canonical imprimatur was given to the dogma by ecclesiastical
authority, and the foundation of the division of the Churches
was laid. This took place in the Old Catholic Church, which,
at its (Ecumenical Synods, canonically fixed its system of belief
in regard to the Christological and Trinitarian dogmas, as
it is laid down in the three mutually supplementary CEcu-
menical Confessions. By the ecclesiastical decision of the
controversies, which agitated the Church in reference to those
dogmas, the Church sects were called into existence which,
though scattered and enfeebled, are to be found in the East
down to the present, — the Nestorians who are Dyophysites,
the Jacobites who are Monophysites, and the Maronites who
are Monotheletes. Differences in regard to the Trinitarian
dogma occasioned the great schism between the Eastern and
Western Churches, which, as the Greek-Orthodox and Eoman
Catholic Churches, have, since the eleventh century, been
irreconcilably opposed to one another. Over against the
Eomish Churchism which had declined toward legaUsm, the
Eeformation set down its principle of faith, and made member
ship of the Church dependent, not upon the confession of a
doctrinal code, but upon spiritual surrender to Christ. Eome
and the Eeformation were concerned, not about a doctrinal
difference, but about the inmost essence of Christianity and
the deepest and most vital question of the Church. Never
theless, the Eeformation, in consequence of the historical

280 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
conditions amid which it arose and had to struggle for existence,
has not only not been able to free itself from the traditional-
ecclesiastical dogmatism, but very soon again got itself deeply
immersed therein. In order to maintain its connection with
the ancient Church, it felt under obligation to adopt the
Church doctrine sanctioned in the three Glcumenical Con
fessions, and in respect of the Trinitarian and Christological
doctrines, it put itself under the same canonical yoke as the
Eomish Church. The special opposition to Eome was carried
out in the department of Christian anthropology. The
anthropological doctrine had, indeed, already had its develop
ment in the Western Church, during the fifth century, in the
controvers}' between Augustine and Pelagius, but during the
Middle Ages the Eomish Church had not arrived at any
symboUc decision regarding it. In the practice of the
Church, therefore, a Pelagianizing tendency had gained the
ascendancy, and in it principally Were rooted those ecclesias
tical defects and irregularities, which the Eeformation had to
combat by its principle of faith. In order to establish this
theologically, and to carry it out according to its fuU negative
and positive import, the anthropological dogma had to be
subjected to a new investigation, and to have given it the
most definite expression possible. This theological labour,
however, did not suffice, but, under the dominating influence
of the notion derived from the ancient Church, that a dogmatic
code and strictly formulated doctrine formed the basis of the
Church, ecclesiastical sanction was given to the conclusions
arrived at, and they were clothed with canonical authority.
The consequence here again was another division. The Swiss
and German Eeformation, closely bound together by common
principles, fell apart, in consequence of doctrinal differences,
into the two great factions of the Lutheran and Calvinistic-
Eeformed Churches. In order to mark their distinction from
one another and from the Eomish Church, both now put forth
very complete and comprehensive Confessions, which are usually

RELATION OF SYMBOLICS TO HISTOEY OF DOCTRINES. 281
called Symbolical Writings or Books. In an equally com
prehensive style, the Eomish Church answered them. In the
Tridentine Decrees and the catechismus romanus, it published
for the first time its system of doctrine in a systematic form,
and, as the unalterable faith of the Church, placed it under
the protection of the hierarchy and the Papacy. In the
Churches of the Eeformation which were not in possession of
any such supreme tribunal, a further split was always called
forth by the prevailing doctrinal constraint. The differences
which separated the smaller Eeformed denominations from the
two principal Churches, are partly of a fundamental nature,
partly in reference to the anthropological dogma. While the
Lutheran Church mslintained a modified Augustinianism, and
the Eeformed Church, on the other hand, set forth Augus
tinianism in the form of the strictest Predestinationism, the
smaUer sects generally went over to semi-Pelagianism. They
issued for the most part from the Eeformed Church, as the
Mennonites (Anabaptists), Arminians, Quakers, Methodists ;
but also from the ' Lutheran Church, we have the Moravians
and Swedenborgians. Contemporaneously with the Eeforma
tion arose the sect of the Unitarians or Socinians, whose
protest was directed against the Old Catholic doctrine of the
Trinity and also against the Christology, acknowledged by the
Protestant Churches, as set forth in the three (Ecumenical
Symbols. Inasmuch as Symbolics sets forth the origin and the
doctrine of the symbols of these different Churches, the con
nection in which it stands to the history of doctrines is self-
evident. Symbolics is essentially a complement of the history
of doctrines. The latter must certainly embrace in its domain
the contents of the Church Confessions, but, in consequence of
the wide range of the task assigned it, it cannot estimate the
doctrines of those Confessions according to their ecclesiastical
importance, and according to the connection which, in a
Church system of belief, they bear to one another, but only

282 TifEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
according to the importance, which, in the general course of
the history of doctrines, they have won. On the other hand,
Symbolics is distinctly restricted to dealing with those almost
crystalline formulse, in which the dogmatico-historical develop
ment of the centuries makes its contributions to the Church
Confessions, and has to represent the doctrines of those Con^
fessions according to the importance which they have for a
particular Church system, and according to the more or less
systematic connection by which they are bound together in
each system of belief. In numerous symbols, the Christian
faith has unfolded its wealth of contents in the most diverse
forms, and each doctrinal formula, to which a Church gave its
adhesion, is a special expression of that faith, which has to'
evidence its power in Church construction. Inasmuch as
Symbolics brings out to view this doctrinal wealth, and those
various ecclesiastical parties, into which the Church has split
up, it is, next to the history of doctrines, the most important
preparation for systematic theology. For the scientific
accomplishment of the task of Symbolics, systematic theology
is indispensable, as affording, not only generally the knowledge
of the historical construction of doctrines, but also specially,
the knowledge of the views prevalent in the different Churches
about Christianity as a whole, and about its several dogmas.
The ecclesiastico-theological standpoint, which the symbolist
has adopted, is of importance for the scientific treatment of
Symbolics. The question is asked, What attitude should he
assume toward the doctrinal system of his own Church, and
toward that of the other Churches ? History here also affords
the answer, that only after complete and comprehensive
confessional writings had been issued in the period of the
Eeformation, could that branch of theology now known as
Symbolics begin to take shape. It was originally developed
from a purely subjective interest of the separate Churches,
inasmuch as each of the three principal Churches, the Eomish,
the Lutheran, and the Eeformed, maintained that the doctrinal

ORIGIN OF LUTHERAN AND EEFOEMED SYMBOLS. 283
system laid down in its symbols was the absolute doctrinal
truth, and from this ground contested the symbolical system of
doctrine of the other Churches, in order that, by the refutation
of the contrary doctrine, the success of its own might be
secured. Thus the Protestant Churches attack the Catholic ;
and so again, the Catholic Church attacks the Protestant ; and
so too, the Protestant sects attack one another. This con
troversial theology, the so-called theologia polemica or elenchtica,
which chiefly engaged the attention of theology during the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and called forth a multi
tude of writings in the three principal Churches, is to be
regarded as the real mother of the Symbolics of the present.
Very soon, indeed, especially in the Lutheran Church, there
arose the necessity for elaborating the symbolical system of
doctrine, not in an immediately polemical direction, but in a
more positive form, for the purposes of ecclesiastical dogmatics.
The dogmatics of the Protestant Churches was required to rest
upon Holy Scripture and upon the symbols acknowledged by
the Church. As now, in consequence of the elaboration of
dogmatics, it became evident that the doctrinal proof passages
must be treated separately (the beginnings of biblical theology),
so also the symbolical system of doctrine had to be treated
separately, as a preparative to dogmatics. From the Lutheran
and Eeformed Churches we have numerous writings, whose
task it is to expound, partly in a historical way the origin,
partly the doctrine, of the symbols of the one Church or the
other. The tendency in these is always a specifically churchly
one. Even if there be no direct polemic levelled at the other
Churches, still the Church system of doctrine is maintained as
absolute truth, and, after being quite identified with Chris
tianity, it is offered as a support for the Church dogmatics.
As, however, since thfe middle of the eighteenth century,
opinion in the Church has been withdrawn more and more
from the symbolical dogma, theology has come to maintain a
freer attitude toward the doctrinal system of its own particular

284 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Church. The desire had now arisen to obtain an insight upon
historical lines into the significance of the doctrines which
distinguish the Churches from one another, and to make use
of this insight for theological science and Church life. The
immediately ecclesiastical interest in the symbolical system of
doctrine was exchanged for a historical interest. At this
standpoint one gains the conviction that the symbolical system
of doctrine of his own particular Church has itself many
defects and imperfections. It is thus in a purely historical
way placed alongside of the doctrinal system of other Churches,
so that in this way it may be made easier for dogmatics to
decide upon the doctrinal differences laid out to view. Thus,
since the end of the last century, the so-called comparative
"View of Symbolics came into shape. The use of this method,
however, does not aim at the development of the symboUcal
doctrine in its universality, but rather only those doctrines in
which the principal Christian Churches, the Eomish, the
Lutheran, and the Eeformed, differ from each other.
J. G. Planck, Abriss einer historischen und vergleichenden
Darstellung der dogmatischen systeme unserer verschiedeuen
christUchen Hauptparteien, nach ihren Grundbegriffen, Unter-
scheidungslehren und practischen Folgen. Gottingen 1796.
3 Aufl. 1822. Ph. Marheineke, Christliche symbolik oder
historisch-kritische und dogmatisch-comparative Darstellung,
des katholischen, lutherischen, reformirten und socinianischen
Lehrbegriffs. Th. 1. Bd. 1-3. Heidelberg 1810-1813.
(System des Katholicismus.) By the same author : Institu-
tiones symboUcse. Berol. 1812. Ed. 3, 1830. By the
same author : Theologische Vorlesungen. Bd. 3. Christ
liche symbolik. Berlin 1848. G. B. Winer, Comparative
Darstellung des Lehrbegriffs der verschiedeuen christUchen
Kirchenparteien ; nebst voUstandigen Belegen aus den symbol-
ischen Schriften derselben in der Ursprache. Leipzig 1824.
3 Aufl. bes. von Preuss. Berlin 1866. 4to. [English

LITEEATUEE OF SYMBOLICS. 285
translation : Confessions of Christendom. A Comparative
View of the Doctrines and Confessions of the various Com
munities of Christendom, with Illustrations from their original
standards. With Introduction by W. B. Pope. Edinburgh :
T. & T. Clark, 1873.] Ed. KoUner, Symbolik aller christ
Uchen Gonfessionen. Bd. 1. Symbolik der lutherischen
Kirche. Hamburg 1837. Bd. 2. Symbolik der kathol
ischen Kirche, 1844, [Ph. Schaff, The Creeds of Christen
dom, 3 vols, London and New York 1877.]
This historical standpoint which was adopted for the exposi
tion of Symbolics was irreconcilable with the standpoint of the
Churches which emphasized doctrine, pre-eminently the Eoman
Catholic, whose symbolists could assume toward the doctrinal
system of the other Churches only an attitude that was
essentially polemical. Hence when in recent times, in conse
quence of the Union and the controversies occasioned by it,
the confessional differences were again made prominent.
Symbolics also assumed a confessional character. From the
Eoman Catholic side, it was put forth in the form of polemics
against Protestantism. J. A. Mohler, Symbolik oder Darstel
lung der dogmatischen Gegensatze der Katholiken und
Protestanten. Mainz 1832. 7 Aufl. 1864, B. J. Hilgers,
SymboUsche Theologie oder die Lehrgegensatze des Katholicis
mus und Protestantismus. Bonn 1841. From the Lutheran
side, the same tendency has been expressed. H. E. F.
Guericke, AUgemeine Christliche Symbolik, vom lutherisch-
kirchlichen Standpunkte, Leipzig 1839, 3 Aufl. 1861.
A. G. Eudelbach, Eeformation, Lutherthum und Union, eine
historisch-dogmatische Apologie der lutherischen Kirche und
ihres Lehrbegriffs. Leipzig 1839. In a more moderate con-
fessionial form : K. Matthes, Comparative Symbolik aller
ChristUchen Gonfessionen vom Standpunkt der evangelisch-
lutherischen Confession. Leipzig 1854. G. Fr, Oehler,
Lehrbuch der Symbolik, Herausgeg, von Joh, Delitzsch.
Tubingen 1876.

286 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
The scientific treatment of Symbolics' is only possible in
the United Evangelical Church, into which Protestantism
has been developed. By means of Protestant theology
the Christian doctrines have been resolved into the form
which has been given them in the symbols of the Church.
Scientific Symbolics, therefore, cannot adopt the narrow con
fessional standpoint of a particular sect, but places itself in
regard to doctrine at the standpoint of evangelical Christianity,
and, inasmuch as the idea thereof agrees with the principles
of the Eeformation, at the Protestant standpoint. Hence it is
neither indifferent to Church interests, nor indifferent to
Church doctrine. Over against the doctrinal system of the
non-Protestant Churches, it represents the universal Christian,
Protestant idea, and takes a special interest in the Protestant
doctrines; so far as they are the outcome of this idea, but it
also, in a purely historical way, places the doctrinal tenets of
the Confessions of the Eeformation in their doctrinal form
alongside of the doctrines of the other Churches. By means
of this comparative statement, it just proves its interest in
doctrine generally, since it supplies the rich doctrinal contents
of the Church symbols to dogmatics, which has to maintain a
steady connection between the doctrines given forth in a more
spirituaUzed form and the life of the Church, and to present
this for practical realization.
In the history of the treatment of Symbolics, we find two
methods employed. According to the one method, the
symbolical system of doctrine of each Church is treated
separately ; according to the other, the several doctrines of
the various Churches are compared together. Each of those
methods has its advantages and its disadvantages. It is
desirable that the two should be combined, so that, after in
the first division the origin of the symbols has been treated
historically, the second doctrinal division may fall into two
subdivisions, in the first of which the several doctrines may
be treated comparatively, and in the second, the doctrinal

RECENT WORKS ON COMPARATIVE SYMBOLICS. 287
systems of the principal Churches may be laid down systemati
cally in a brief outline.
The most important works of recent times on Symbolics are
free from confessionalism, and are conceived in the spirit of
Protestantism and the Union.
D. Schenkel, Das Wesen des Protestantismus, aus den
Quellen des Eeformationszeitalters dargesteUt. 3 Bde.
Schaffhausen 1846-1851. 2 Aufi. 2 Bde. 1862. A.
Schweizer, Die protestantischen Centraldogmen in ihrer
Entwickelung innerhalb der reformirten Kirche. 2 Thle.
Zurich 1854, 1856. M. Schneckenburger, Vergleichende
Darstellung des lutherischen und reformirten Lehrbegriffs, aus
dessen handschriftlichen Nachlass zusammengestellt von E.
Glider. 2 Thle. Stuttgart 1855. By the same author:
Vorlesungen iiber die Lehrbegriffe der kleinern protestantischen
Kirchenparteien, herausgeg. von K. B. Hundeshagen. Frank
furt 1863. H. Heppe, Dogmatik des deutschen Protestantis
mus un 16 Jahrhundert. 2 Bde. Gotha 1857. E.
Hoffmann, Symbolik oder systematische Darstellung des
symbolischen Lehrbegriffs der verschiedenen ChristUchen
Kirchen und namhaften Secten. Leipzig 1857. W. Bohmer,
Die Lehrunterschiede der katholischen und evangelischen
Kirchen. 2 Bde. Breslau 1857, 1863. K. Hase, Handbuch
der protestantischen Polemik gegen die romisch - kathoUsche
Kirche. Leipzig 1862. 3 Aufl. 1871. 4 Aufl. 1878. A.
Neander, Katholicismus und Protestantismus, herausgeg. von
H. Messner. Berlin 1863. W. Gass, Symbolik der
grieohischen Kirche. Berlin 1872.
7. Patristics. — There have been in all the centuries pro
minent men in the Church, who represented the highest
ecclesiastical culture of their age, and exercised a com
manding influence upon the construction of the Church
institutions of their times. The History of Doctrines and

288 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Symbolics, which proceed genetically, and ought to take
into consideration all the spiritual agencies which co-operate
in the formation of a dogma or its definite symbolical elabora
tion, have a special interest in seeking to acquire a more
exact Jcnowledge of the life, the studies, the system, and the
writings of such men as have won an important place in
Church history. To impart this knowledge is the task of the
so-called Patristics. This branch of study is, therefore, first
of all, an important auxiliary science to the History of
Doctrines and Symbolics. At the same time, however, it is
of importance for Church history generally, and so should be
regarded as an auxiliary science to Church history as a whole.
But in order to perform what it should, it must be eman
cipated from the limits within which it has hitherto been
confined. This study gets the name Patristics from the patres
ecclesice. Among these, a threefold distinction is made. The
patres apostolici are those who, in the first and second cen
turies, stand in close proximity to the apostolic age. In
immediately following centuries, there are the Church Fathers
proper, the patres, who have directly contributed to the
construction of the Church doctrine, and whose orthodoxy has
never been questioned in the Catholic Church. Then finally,
we have the mere Church writers, scriptores ecclesiastici, who
indeed have also secured a reputation for themselves in the
Church by their theological writings, but have incurred
suspicion as to their orthodoxy. In regard to the period to
which the authority of Church Fathers extends, the Catholic
and Protestant Churches differ. The latter, generally speak
ing, acknowledge only the first six centuries as the period of
the construction of doctrine ; after this time the deterioration
of the ecclesiastical system begins through Eomish-papistical
influence. Protestantism, therefore, concludes the series of
Church Fathers with the sixth century. The Eoman Catholic
Church, on the other hand, extends the period down to the
thirteenth century, but distinguishes the scholastic theologians

WIDE RANGE OF SCIENTIFIC PATEISTICS. 289
as mere Church teachers, doctores ecclesice, from the Fathers
proper, the patres ecclesice. In accordance with the principle
of tradition, which the Eoman Catholic Church professes, the
patres assume in it an extraordinarily high position. They
are described as luminaria, primates, sancti, patres ecclesice, and
a normative significance is assigned to the exegetical and
dogmatical consensus pafrum. Even the Protestant Church,
although it repudiates the Eoman Catholic notion of tradition,
recognised in the Church Fathers, by whose elaboration the
pure Catholic doctrine originated, the ecclesiastical classics so
to say, to whom there should be ascribed, if not a normative,
yet at least a historical, authority. Thus Patristics sprang
up, and in both Churches w.as limited to the patres ecclesice.
The Eoman Catholic Church may by its principles be obliged
to observe those limits, but according to the Protestant
principle, Christian theology should here take up, instead of
the dogmatical, the purely historical, point of view. To the
Fathers, as men of creative productivity, a certain churchly
classic dignity can be properly ascribed, but even after the
patristic age the Christian spirit has uninterruptedly continued
working in the Church, and in every century men arise,
whose writings for their age may raise a claim to the dignity
of Church classics. At the historical standpoint no reason
can be given why Luther and Calvin should not stand along
side of Augustine, why Schleiermacher should be less esteemed
than Origen and Chrysostom. Scientific Patristics, therefore,
cannot limit itself to the patres ecclesice of one period, say
down to the end of the sixth century, but must extend its
treatment proportionally to all patres ecclesice. It must treat
of the life, doctrine, and writings of aU theologians who have
had a determining influence on the configuration of the
Church and the construction of doctrine, and must thus
expand itself into a general history of theology.^ It wUl be
1 Pelt in his Encyclopadie, p. 356 ff., and also J. P. Lange in his Encyclo-
padie, insist upon this wide conception of Patristics.
VOL. IL T

290 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
necessary to limit the vast range which this branch embraces,
by confining attention to the leading representatives of a
particular century, who have ordinarily been regarded as the
founders and leaders of certain theological schools or ten
dencies. Hence, while Patristics takes its general distribution
from the three great periods of Church history, it will also
have, within the limits of each of those periods, its own
special division according to time and contents. Conducted
in accordance with this method, Patristics will be able to
present a vivid picture of the theological efforts and labours of
each period, and will in this way assist the Church historian in
his work, while in a special way it will make it possible for
the historian of doctrines and the symbolist to obtain as it
were a fundamental view of the development of the doctrines.
When particular aspects of Patristics are attended to, as the
life of the patres, we have ecclesiastical biography, to which
the name Patrology has been given by some theologians. In
recent times, numerous biographical monographs on particular
Church Fathers have been produced. Neander and his school
have rendered special service in this department. The history
of theological literature has its origin in the pecuUar interest
taken in the writings of the Church Fathers. Hitherto this
has been connected almost exclusively with the patristic age,
and has expended its energies, partly in the critical examina
tion and editing of the writings of the Church Fathers, partly
in the publication of extracts from them, the so-called patristic
Chrestomathies, which serve as an introduction to the study
of the Church Fathers. This field has been most zealously
wrought in the Catholic Church, especially by the Bene
dictines, and most laboriously by the congregatio S. Mauri.
Both ecclesiastical biography and the history of theological
Uterature must contribute to Patristics, if it be understood in
the wide sense that has been assigned to it.
The following are complete editions and extracts : — Maxima

LITEEATUEE OF PATEISTICS. 291
bibliotheca vett. patrum. Lugd. 1677 sq. 28 T. f. And.
GallandU bibliotheca vett. patrum. Venet. 1765-1781. 14
T. f. J, B. Migne, Patrologise cursus completus s. bibliotheca
universalis ss. patrum scriptorumque eccl. Paris 1844-1857.
Corpus scriptorum eccl. latinorum ed. consilio et impensis
academise literarum Csesarese Vindobon, Vols, 1—4. Vindo-
bonse 1866-1875. G. F. Eosler, BibUothek der Kirchenvater
in Uebersetzungen und Auszugen aus ihren vorhehmsten,
besonders dogmatischen Schriften. 10 Bde. Leipzig 1776-
1786. J. Ch. W. Augusti, Chrestomathia patristica ad usum
eorum, qui historiam christianam accuratius dicere cupiunt.
2 voll. Lips. 1812. J. C. Thilo, Bibliotheca patrum
grsecorum dogmatica. 2 voll. Lips. 1854, 1855. Fr.
Oehler, Bibliothek der Kirchenvater, eine Auswahl aus deren
Werken. Bd. 1-4. Leipzig 1859. [Ante-Nicene Christian
Library. A Collection of all the Works of the Fathers of the
Christian Church prior to the Council of Nicsea. 24 vols.
T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1867-1872.] Corpus reforma-
torum ed. C. G. Bretschneider. Vols. 1-28. Melancthon.
0pp. Vols. 29-47. J.Calvini 0pp. Halis et Brunsv. 1834-
1879. Leben und ausgewahlte Schriften der Vater und
Begriinder der reformirten Kirche. Eingeleitet von K. E,
Hagenbach. Bd. 1-10. Elberfeld 1857-1862. Leben
und ausgewahlte Schriften der Vater und Begrunder der
lutherischen Kirche. Eingeleitet von K. J. Nitzsch. Th.
1-8. Elberfeld 1861-1875.
The foUowing are contributions to a general system of
Patristics : — J. G. Walch, Bibliotheca patristica. Jense 1770.
Ed. n. cur. J. T. L. Danz. Jense 1834. G. Lumper,
Historia theologico-critica de vita, scriptis atque doctrina s.
patrum aUorumque script, eccles. trium prim, ssecul. 13 T.
8. Aug. 1784-1797. C. T. G. Schonemann, BibUotheca
historico-literaria patrum latin. 2 voll. Lips. 1792-
1794. V. A, Winter, Patrologie, Munchen 1815. J.
G. B. Engelhardt, Literarischer Leitfaden zu Vorlesungen

292 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
ueber die Patristik. Erlangen 1823. F. W. Goldwitzer,
Bibliographie der Kirchenvater und Kirchenlehrer vom 1 bis
zum 13 Jahrhundert. Landshut 1828. J. A. Mohler,
Patrologie, herausgeg. von Eeithmayr. Eegensburg 1839.
J. Fessler, Institutiones patrologicse. Oenip. 1850. J. Alzog,
Grundriss der Patrologie oder der altesten christUchen
Literargeschichte. Freiburg 1866. 2 Aufl. 1869. [3 Aufl.
1876.] F. Bohringer, Die Kirche Christi und ihre Zeugen,
oder die Kirchengeschichte in Biographien. 2 Bde. Zurich
1842-1858. Neue Aufl. 1861-1869. Ch. W. Flugge,
Versuch einer Geschichte der theologischen Wissenschaften.
3 Bde. Halle 1796-1798. C. F. StaudUn, Geschichte der
theologischen Wissenschaften seit der Verbreitung der alten
Literatur. 2 Bde. Gottingen 1810, 1811. [J. Donaldson,
A Critical History of Christian Literature and Doctrine, from
the Death of the Apostles to the Nicene Council. 3 vols.
London 1864-1866.] The works referred to under § 18 by
Gass, Frank, and Dorner should be consulted here ; also K.
Werner, Geschichte der katholischen Theologie. Munchen
1866. 8. Statistics. — From those branches of Church history
hitherto discussed, which have for their subject particular
aspects of the life of the Church, Statistics is distinguished by
its contemplating the Church system in its totality, while it
is also distinguished from Church history, by presenting to
view the aspect which the Church wears in the present, in
consequence of the historical development through which it
has passed. Ecclesiastical Statistics is the representation of
the present condition of the Church. It therefore comes in at
the close of Church history, and seeks to gather together in
one picture, what Church history presents separately. Church
history does not present to Statistics the Church condition in
one comprehensive aspect, but in the manifold and various
formations, in which the Christian life has given itself a

METHOD AND AREANGEMENT OF STATISTICS. 293
characteristic expression. Therefore the various denomina
tions, into which up to the present time Christianity has
developed, constitute the subject of ecclesiastical Statistics.
Each one of these has wrought out in its own peculiar way
the particular aspects of the Church life. Statistics will,
therefore, be obUged to consider each of them according
to that which is characteristic of it, in order to reach a general
result in regard to the development of the Church down to
the present. As ecclesiastical Statistics, it is the statistics of
a spiritual organism, which in its historical expansion has
been determined, by various outward influences indeed, but
essentially by its own inherent idea. It is not, therefore, to
be satisfied with a mere external report, but, just as the Church
historian views the whole course of the Church's development
from the idea of the Church, and all the aspects of Church
life in their organic co-action, so must also the statistician
represent each Church as an organic whole from an ideal
standpoint, and take as his standard the idea of the Church,
in order, from the consideration of the several Churches, to
gain the result in reference to the present condition of the
Church in its totality.
As the most recent branch of theological science, imported
into theology by Schleiermacher, Statistics has scarcely as yet
secured to itself any fixed method. In accordance with its
task, it seems to be required to treat its materials under a
special and a general division. And further, inasmuch as the
general results can be won only by a consideration of the
separate denominations, it will be necessary to treat first of
the special part, and afterwards of the general part. The
distribution of the special part, however, is not a geographical
scheme external to the subject, but has the confessional
diversity as its basis. From this point of view, two groups of
Churches present themselves for the distribution of the
materials : the Eastern Church, as the Greek, Constantinopoli
tan, and Eussian Orthodox Church, together with the smaller

294 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
communities that have come down to the present from the old
Eastern Church ; and the Western Church, as the Eoman
Catholic and Protestant Churches, the latter, as the Lutheran,
Eeformed, and United Evangelical Churches, together with
the smaUer Church sects existing before the Eeformation,
related to Protestantism, and issuing from the principal
Protestant Churches. Each of these Churches is to be
described according to its geographical extension, with
reference to the local and national conditions of its existence,
according to the relation in which it stands to its original
system of doctrine, and according to the particular cast of its
theology, according to its constitution in relation to the Church
and' the State, according to its form of worship, as that affects
the Church life in respect of the position and culture of the
clergy, and according to the state of Christian morality, and
the attitude assumed toward general and secular culture.
From this comprehensive characterization of all particular
Churches, and the comparison of the various Church systems,
the statistical results in regard to the general condition of the
Church in the present, are to be drawn in the second part from
an ideal-churchly point of view. The spread of Christianity
from place to place, the interest taken by the several Churches
in missionary activity, the relation of Christianity to non-
Christian religious communities, the attitude of the different
Churches to one another, whether in respect of growing
estrangement or of mutual approximation, the present vaUdity
of the symbolical doctrine in the various Churches, the forma
tion of theological science, the construction of the constitution
and forms of worship, Christian culture as a general historical
fact in relation to the Ufe of culture outside of the Churches,
— all these particulars, as conditions actually existing, have
to be gathered together by Statistics into one comprehensive
picture, showing the present condition of the Church as a
whole. As its highest result, Statistics has vividly to show in
how far, by means of the previous development of Church

LITEEATUEE OF ECCLESIASTICAL STATISTICS. 295
history, the kingdom of God has attained extensively and
intensively unto historical reaUzation.
While Statistics receives its materials chiefly from Church
history, it is itself again (since the ecclesiastical present, which
it describes, is always in the course of becoming the past) a
preparation for the Church history of the latest period.
Statistics, however, as a scientific representation of the present
condition of the Church, is of still greater importance for
practical theology, as, from its record of the actual condition
of the Church, the most valuable information for the theory of
practical theology is obtained. Besides general Statistics, the
separate confessional and national Churches may also be
statistically described. These special Statistics form an im
portant aid to general Statistics. Especially those records of
travel, in which particular attention is paid to the ecclesiasti
cal condition of the several countries, as well as Church
newspapers and theological journals, which are issued by most
of the Churches, are useful for this purpose.
The following works on the Eastern Church deserve to be
mentioned; — Neueste Nachrichten aus dem Morgenlande,
herausgeg. von W. Hoffmann und F. A. Strauss. Berlin
1857-1867. Silbernagel, Verfassung und gegenwartiger
Bestand sammtlicher Kirchen des Orients. 1865.
On the Western Church consult the foUowing works: —
Karl von H. Aloys, Statistisches Jahrbuch der Kirche oder
gegenwartiger Bestand des gesammten Katholischen Erdkreises.
Eegensburg 1860. St. J. Neher, Kirchliche Geographic und
Statistik, oder Darstellung des heutigen Zustandes der
Katholischen Kirche mit steter Eucksicht auf die fruhern
Zeiten und im Hinblick auf die Andern Eeligionsgemein-
schaften. Abth. 1. Die europaischen Kirchenprovinzen.
Eegensburg 1,864.
On the EvangeUcal Church there are the following: — J.
C. W. Augusti, Beitrage zur Geschichte und Statistik der

296 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
evangelischen Kirche. Leipzig 1837, 1838. D. Schenkel,
Die gegenwartige Lage der protestantischen Kirche in
Preussen und Deutschland. Mannheim 1867. H. Kritzler,
Die deutsche evangelische Kirche der Gegenwart. Gotha
1869. Eecords of travels by Niemeyer, Fleck, FUedner, Kniewel.
Statistical reports on the ecclesiastical condition of various
countries ; by Pflanz, Eeuchlin, and Gelzer, on France ; by
Witte on Italy ; by Finsler on Switzerland ; by Hornyanski
on the Evangelical Church of Austria ; by Augusti and Kohler
on the Netherlands ; by Sack, Uhden, Sydow, Gemberg,
Kostlin, Eudloff, on England ; by Schubert on Sweden ;
by Haxthausen on Eussia; by Baird, Loher, Wimmer, Busch,
Eey, and Schaff, on North America.
General Statistics has hitherto had little attention paid it.
C. F. StaudUn, Kirchliche Geographic und Statistik. 2 Bde.
Tubingen 1804. J. Wiggers, Kirchliche Statistik oder Dar
stellung der gesammten ChristUchen Kirche nach ihrem
gegenwartigen aussern und innern Zustande. 2 Bde. Ham
burg 1842, 1843. A. de Mestral, Tableaux de I'^glise
chr^tienne au dix-huiti^me si^cle. Lausanne 1870.

THIRD DIVISIOK
SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY.

§ 40. INTRODUCTION TO AND DISTRIBUTION OF SYSTEMATIC
THEOLOGY.
|YSTEMATIC theology, the actual product of the
ecclesiastical present, has for its foundation the
results of exegetical theology and Church history.
Next to exiegetical theology, the history of biblical
religion is of principal importance for systematics, which has
to derive from this history, not only special pieces of informa
tion, but its very subject-matter. Christianity in its historical
originality, as it is set forth in the history of a biblical religion,
is the idea of Christianity, — objectively, spiritual and living
fellowship with God realized in Christ ; subjectively, the faith
which has appropriated Christ or the religious idea realized in
Him. This positive idea of religion, not the idea of religion
in a philosophical system, or in a subjective Church experience,
forms the essential contents of systematic theology. It stands,
therefore, throughout on Church ground ; for faith, which it
has for its subject, is the principle of life from which all
Church formation proceeds. In the Church development of
faith, the endeavour after deeper insight and certainty in
resard to the content of its faith asserts itself from the first in
the interest of the Christian spirit, along with the other mani
festations thereof. Out of iri<Trt,<i was born yv&<yi<;, which with

298 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
its reflections dived deeper into the contents of faith, and gave
expression to its acquirements in the form of dogmatic pro
positions or doctrines systematically arranged. This spiritual
activity makes its appearance already in apostolic Christianity,
and was continued in apologetics, in Gnosticism, in the
doctrinal writings of the Church Fathers, and in the sym
bolical formularies of the Church, so that, in a multitude of
definitions, the Christian faith was developed into a regular
dogmatic system. On account of the different conceptions of
doctrine, the one Christian Church was broken up into
different ecclesiastical communions ; and these, again, in their
separation gave to the content of faith a many-sided elabora
tion, which has been laid down, partly in complete confessional
writings, partly in systematic treatises. This dogmatic
Christianity, in the impression which it makes upon history,
is of the greatest importance for systematic theology. From
Church history, therefore, systematic theology has to take the
history of doctrines and symbolics, as sciences pre-eminently
helpful. The historical dogma embraces a complete circle of
acquirements which have been won by means of spiritual work
continued during centuries, and contributes to systematic
theology a spiritual experience on its subject, by means of
which it will be essentially furthered in its own treatment
thereof. This relationship with the historical treatment of
doctrines into which systematic theology has entered, inasmuch
as these doctrines, while they issue from faith, are yet always
only historically determined reflections on faith, shows imme
diately that faith and dogmatic Christianity are not to be
confounded, that rather between the two there is an essential
distinction, and that only faith in its ideality, and not dogma,
constitutes the essence of Christianity. To emphasize this dis
tinction is not superfluous at a time when some are inclined,
to the disadvantage of Christianity, to identify dogmatic Chris
tianity with the Christian faith, a proceeding which, if excusable
in the philosopher, Hartmann, is scarcely so in the theologian

THE IDEA OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY. 299
Strauss. Systematic theology has thus for its subject, not a
complex of dogmas, such as the symbolical system of any
particular denomination, but rather, in systematic theology,
the Christian faith turns from its historical development back
upon itself. It alone forms itself the subject of systematic
theology, while the historical dogma can be turned to account
by it only as the criticism of an underlying object of
experience. On the basis of the historical dogma, systematic
theology has to acknowledge the Christian faith as its religio-
ethical content, and has to prove itself, by means of the
execution of this task, to be the scientiflcally grounded
Christian self-consciousness of the ' present. It does not win
its systematic character by giving a didactic form and logical
connection to the utterances of the believing consciousness,
and, by means of this formal treatment, leading to subjective
knowledge ; nor yet does it win this character from the fact
that what it expounds is Christian, but rather from this, that
from an empirical manifoldness, in which faith appears as a
doctrinal system, it rises to the consideration of the Christian
idea as such, and expounds the whole content of that idea
according to a definite principle, in a strictly connected
manner and in its objective truth, that is, systematically. It
should not only point out what is Christian, but should
advance proof to show that what is Christian is also
objectively true. In systematic theology, speculative think
ing, which penetrates into the very nature of the subject itself
and seeks to know it in its rationality and universal validity,
must be joined with the formal logical process of thought, by
means of which exegetical theology and Church history win
their knowledge. In so far as systematic theology, or better,
speculative theology, by means of a rational process of thought,
proves the Christian faith to be absolute religious truth, the
highest end aimed at by theology is reached, which is nothing
else than to give to the Christian spirit the full assurance of
its faith, and generally, at once to legitimize Christianity

300 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
before the tribunal of the reason, and to ground the absolute
right of the position assigned it in the Church over against all
the other sciences. Systematic theology is the completion of
theological science. Its theoretical significance answers to its
practical significance for the Church. While it represents the
Christian faith in its ideality, living influences will issue from
it unto all spheres of Church life. Through its demonstration
of the truths of faith, it emphatically raises to a scientifically
effected certainty, the immediate assurance that the Church
possesses in its faith the most perfect religion. Upon that
presupposition, indeed, the Church as such might be at ease ;
but, from within and from without, by the members of the
Church itself as well as by other religious communities find
philosophical schools, the presupposition is contested. Against
such attaclcs systematic theology brings forward the authori
tative decisions of the Church : it composes the differences
which within its own domain have arisen in regard to its
continuance, and also outwardly establishes its authority.
Theology as a whole, with all its principal divisions, has
indeed to afford a demonstration of the truth of the faith of
the Church, but the demonstrations of exegetical, historical, and
practical theology, obtain their demonstrative power from the
demonstration, which systematic theology has elaborated by a
rational process from the nature of the human mind itself.
The Christian religion is the absolutely true religion, because
it alone is the religion which answers to the demands of the
human spirit, and only because it is this, has it on its first
appearance obtained the victory over the other religions,
historically penetrated the life of many nations, and gained for
itself, in all coming time, the firmest footing in everyday Ufe.
In its general and in its special forms, the division of
systematic theology is determined by its subject. Inasmuch
as systematic theology has Christianity according to its
essential contents, that is, as religion, for its subject, its task
embraces religion in general. The treatment of the particular

FIEST DIVISION: THE THEOEY OF EELIGION. 301
religion must extend to reUgion in general, since the Christian
religion has part in the general idea of reUgion, and in its
speciality can be rightly known only if it be considered upon
the general domain of religion. Hence we have as the first
branch of systematic theology a general view of the nature of
religion, in which the various manifestations of religion, the
historical religions in their relation to one another, and the
Christian religion as such according to the principal phases
of its development, are set forth. This first branch of
systematic theology is to be entitled in respect of its subject —
The Theory of Eeligion. Under this section we have to treat
what was formerly known as Introduction or Prolegomena to
dogmatics. In these Prolegomena, reUgion, the various forms
of religion, the Christian revelation, the criteria of revelation,
Holy Scripture, the relation of reason to revelation, and such
like questions, were discussed, but in a more sporadic fashion
after a merely consuetudinary method, without any clear
consciousness of the systematic importance of these prelimi
naries to dogmatics, and without a strictly scientific reference
to ultimate principles.^ Eosenkranz, Pelt, and Hagenbach, in
their Encyclopsedias, insist upon having, in place of this
Introduction, a distinct branch, which should precede dog
matics. The Theogonic Phenomenology, however, which
Eosenkranz prefixes to dogmatics, as a branch of the philo
sophy of religion, does not belong to the positive science of
theology. The Fundamental Doctrine of Pelt, which as
apologetics or the sj'stem of theological principles, has to
prove the truth of Christianity, — the task which Hagenbach
too assigns to apologetics, — is not a system of principles for
dogmatics, but assumes the task of dogmatics itself. The
theory of religion, as a fundamental branch of systematic
' L. F. 0. Baumgarten-Crusius, Einleitung in das Studium der Dogmatik.
Leipzig 1820. F. Fischer, Zur Einleitung in die Dogmatik der evangelisch-
protestantischen Kirche. Tiibingen 1828. F. H. Th. Alihn, Einleitung in
das Studium der Dogmatik nach den neuesten wissenschaftlichen Forsohungen.
Leipzig 1837,

302 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
theology, has to bring into a scientific form, according to a
definite plan, the scattered and unconnected matters • pre
liminary to dogmatics, and has to set for itself the task of
psychologically establishing the historical facts of religion,
exhibiting Christianity as the ideal in relation to the other
religions, and, on the basis of its historical development, laying
down the principles of dogmatics and ethics. It should be
a system of principles, like that which Biedermann and
Lipsius have prefixed to their dogmatics as a first part. If
the admission of this branch into the organism of theology be
scientifically justified by the fact that it is demanded by the
very subject of systematic theology, the importance and
necessity thereof come yet more evidently into view, if
certain phenomena of the present be taken into consideration.
In the general part of this work, § 1 8, attention was called to
the deep-rooted destructive tendencies which have made their
appearance in the most recent times, and are concentrated in
the so-called Pananthropologism, and the Socialism and
Materialism springing out of it. This doctrine of the
autonomy of man maintains a negative attitude toward
religion generally, since it proscribes reUgion as a mere
delusion of human life, a negation, in which also the most
radical negation of Christianity and of the Christian Church
is included. In the face of those movements of the age,
systematic theology must necessarily fall back upon ultimate
principles. The more radical, on the other hand, the negation
is, the deeper must the roots of its system be grounded and
the more vigorously must systematic theology emphasize its
subject. This it does in its first branch, in the theory of
religion, in which it shows that religion is not an illusion from
which mankind has to be emancipated, but the fundamental
element of human nature, which must continue approved by
men, if they are not to fall under the grossest superstition and
the most degraded sensuality. If this foundation be estab
lished, then the Christian religion rests upon it, and objections

SECOND AND THIRD DIVISIONS: DOGMATICS AND ETHICS. 303
to Christianity will become mere phantom objections. By its
further leading of proof, systematic theology demonstrates that
these objections do not and cannot affect the being of the
Christian religion, but always only particular formations of
Christianity, separate religions or ecclesiastical aberrations,
which can and must be contested, without thereby destroying
Christianity and the Christian Church. Hence, while the
theory of religion, viewed from a purely scientific point and
apart from all fortuitous phenomena, is the peculiarly funda
mental branch of systematic theology, it is of supreme
importance as supplying principles for the checking of those
destructive tendencies.
The idea of Christianity established in the theory of religion
is the subject of the subsequent branches of systematic
theology, the distribution of which is determined by the
developed conception of religion. Eeligion is an immediate
expression of man's spiritual Ufe, and as such is a function
both of knowledge and of will. Those two elements, the
theoretical and the practical, are combined in religion in un-
distinguishable unity. As the religious man knows, so also he
acts. The content of his knowledge impresses itself in a
purely immediate way upon his actions, so that there is no
chasm, no separation between the two caused by refiection.
This is true of the Christian religion. It also is an immediate
expression of the spiritual life. Those two formal charac
teristics are in Christianity most intimately bound together,
inasmuch as it is fellowship of spirit and Ufe with God. But
if religion is to be made the subject of reflection and scientific
knowledge, these two elements must be sundered, and each
separately must be made the subject of scientific treatment.
If, therefore, the Christian religion is to be understood accord
ing to the full range of its idea, its theoretical side, or the
peculiar content of Christian knowledge, must first be con
sidered. This is done in dogmatics. It is the scientific
exposition of fellowship with God in the spirit, or of the

304 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
relation in which the Christian knows himself to stand toward
God, and has to develop all the endlessly rich references which
lie in the reciprocity of this relationship. The other principal
element, the practical side of the Christian religion, pertains
to ethics. It is the scientific exposition of fellowship with
God in the Ufe, or of the Christian determination of the will
according to its manifold influences upon personal morality
and all the institutions of human life from the family to the
State, and the relation of States to one another.
While then science separates and treats apart from one
another the two elements, which in religion are inseparably
united together, the unity of the two elements present in
religion as in actual life must also necessarily be shown in the
scientific treatment. Dogmatics and ethics stand in the
closest connection with one another. The latter is essentially
embraced in the former. The consciousness which the Chris
tian has of his relationship to God forms also the basis for his
determinations of will : his Christian knowledge is the norm of
his Christian conduct. Although now it is customary in
theology to treat dogmatics and ethics separately, ethics was
formerly almost wholly discussed under dogmatics. The
Churches specially interested in doctrine had less concern
about the moral content of Christianity, than about dogma.
While the dogmas were elaborated with the greatest subtilty
and tenaciously adhered to as ecclesiastical statutes, it was
only casually, at places where opportunity was afforded, that
care was taken in dogmatics to indicate the connection in
which a dogma stands to Christian conduct. In this there
was at least this advantage, that the ethical department was
not dominated, as the dogmatic was, by the legal spirit.
Ethics, however, could never, under such treatment, have full
justice done to it. In the Protestant Church, Lambert
Danseus, in the sixteenth century, was the first in the Eeformed
Church, and George Calixtus, in the seventeenth century, was
the first in the Lutheran Church, who discussed ethics

EELATION OF APOLOGETICS, ETC., TO SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY. 305
systematically apart from dogmatics. Proper and necessary
as this was, if ethics were to receive scientific elaboration, still
the separation now led sometimes to the severing of the con
nection between Christian ethics and dogmatics, and to the
substitution of a general system of ' philosophical ethics.
The most decided opposition must be offered to such a pro
cedure, and it must be remembered, that between dogmatics
and ethics that connection has to be maintained, which they
had originally with one another. It is, therefore, very help
ful to the retaining in theology the consciousness of this
connection, when the two are sometimes regarded as one
mutually inclusive whole, as in recent times has been declared
desirable by Schleiermacher in his Encyclopadie, § 231, and as
Nitzsch and Beck have wrought out, each in his own special
way.^ To the psychological foundation of religion, which the
first branch of systematic theology yields, the metaphysical
substructure has to be added in dogmatics from the idea of
Christianity. But inasmuch as the Christian faith as religion
is an immediate spiritual life, systematic theology with aU its
demonstrations cannot prove it, but can only confirm it, and
certify it as objective religious truth or the ideal religion.
Besides the three branches of systematic theology that have
been enumerated, there are other three branches, apologetics,
polemics, ironies, and in regard to their relationship to
systematic theology considerable uncertainty even yet prevails.
While Pelt (Encyclop. S. 377 ff.) and Hagenbach (Encyclop.
S. 320, Engl, transl. p. 403) view apologetics as the branch
of systematic theology in which the foundations are laid, and
J. P. Lange (Encyclop. S. 170) assigns it its place under his
philosophical dogmatics. Pelt quite overlooks polemics and
^ C. J. Nitzsch, System der christliohen Lehre, fiir akademische Vorlesungen.
Bonn 1831. 6 Aufl. 1851. [English translation : System of Christian Doctrine.
T. & T. Clark, Edinburgh, 1849. From 5th German edition.] J. T. Beck,
Einleitung in das System der christliohen Lehre. Stuttgart 1838. By same
author : Die christliche Lehrwissenschaft nach den biblischen Urkunden.
Stuttgart 1840.
VOL. II. U

306 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
ironies; Hagenbach, on the other hand (S. 328. Engl.
transl. p. 414), refuses to regard them as separate branches
of theological study, but considers them simply special
adjuncts to dogmatic science, and J. P. Lange (S. 188)
reckons them as constituent parts of his Applied Bogmatics.
If now the task of systematic theology with its three branches
is conceived of in the way indicated, the relation of apolo
getics, polemics, and irenics to systematic theology may also
be determined. All these three branches are directed, not to
the Christian faith as such for the purpose of attaining a
theoretical acquaintance therewith, but generally to the whole
institution of the Church. They employ the theoretical
knowledge for practical ends, which are marked out for them
by the varying occurrences of history. Now systematic
theology, with its three branches, as the pure theory of the
Christian faith, is at once in principle apologetical, polemical,
and ironical. Hence these three branches have to take their
principles from systematic theology, and to make application
of these to particular historical circumstances. Their task,
therefore, is not so much theoretical, as practical. They
cannot be regarded, either as branches of systematic theology,
or even as independent theological branches, and must find
their place under practical theology.

THE THEORY OF RELIGION, 307

§ 41. THE THEORY OF RELIGION.
The history of religion represents religion as a universal
historical fact in the life of the nations, and even in the life
of the several nations, not only as an isolated phenomenon
coming to light here and there, but as a force penetrating and
perpetually determining the whole life of the people. In
accordance with this historical treatment of religion, Chris
tianity is also included in this fact. For theology, which
consists in the faith of the Church, and for the recognition of
religion and Christianity, the- universality of the fact and the
circumstance that Christianity appears in relation to the othef
religions the most perfect, and by its historical development
approves itself as such, are of the highest importance. Facts,
however, cannot on the sole ground of their being historical, ad
vance an absolute claim to recognition. As science theology has
to answer the question, whether the historical religious pheno
menon is merely fortuitous, whether religion is simply a dark
shadow that falls upon the life of the nations, which must be
overcome by proper enlightenment, therefore a merely transi
tory appearance, or a necessary element in the historical life
of mankind. The answer to this question is given by the
theory of religion. It has to discuss (1) The Nature of
Eeligion, and (2) The Historical Development of Eeligion,
First Division — The Nature of Eeligion. — Eeligion
makes its appearance historically as an utterance of man's
spiritual life. In order to come to know about the nature
of religion, we must proceed genetically, that is, we must
go back to the origin of religion. Some have sought to
derive religion from a contrivance of the priests, or a subtle
device of statesmen, in order to secure the credulous multi
tude to their own purposes, or to get a hold upon the

308 theological encyclopedia,
ungovernable masses by means of certain terrors, or else from
immediate external revelations which impose supernatural
limits upon rude sensuality. If in such a way, by deceit,
persuasion, constraint, or any mere external communication,
religion has come to mankind, then would those be right who
regard it as a human illusion, a historical abnormaUty or
aberration, and they would have prospect of success in their
exterminating war against religion. However, apart from the
fact that those derivations are by no means historically proved,
they are discredited chiefly by the universality of religion as
a historical fact. More in accordance with the truth, is the
view of those who derive religion from the fear of man in the
presence of the mighty forces of nature surrounding him, or
from his admiration and astonishment at the beauty, magnifi
cence, and harmony of the universe around him. In this
view, there is at least adopted a principle derived from man's
own inner life, with which he comes to meet the force
operating upon him from without. Nevertheless this does
not explain the origin of religion. That man is capable of
such impressions, that those feelings of fear, astonishment, and
admiration assume in him the character of reUgious feelings,
requires the presupposition of a religious disposition already
belonging to him. We have, therefore, to fall back upon the
nature of man himself, and to show therein the birthplace of
the religious life of mankind. If, then, religion has not come
to man from without and in a merely fortuitous manner, but
is grounded in what is innermost in his nature, so that he
cannot rid himself of it without giving up what is most
essential to his own being, the struggle against it is a struggle
against human nature itself, and the attempt to banish religion
from human life is d, priori doomed to failure.
The psychological discussion, which the theory of religion
demands, is not of a religio-philosophical character. WhUe
the philosophy of religion seeks by the psychological estab
lishment of religion to attain at the same time unto the idea

A PURELY GENEEAL CONCEPTION OF RELIGION. 309
of reUgion,^ the theory of reUgion occupies purely historical
ground. The whole of the historical religions are the medium
through which the conception of religion is conveyed to it.
From the many particular religions, it has to abstract the
universal notion of religion, which in its uuiversaUty must be
appUcable to aU the particular religions. According to its
historical conception, religion is generally a relation of recipro
city between man and God or a mutual connection between
man and God. The idea of God has in it yet no special
character, but only that general one, which it receives by
being distinguished from the idea of man. It describes God
generaUy as superior to man, as the superhuman power. The
task of the theory of religion, therefore, amounts to this, the
representing of religion, according to this general conception
of it derived from its history, as grounded in human nature
itself, and theu further, the developing psychologically of the
principal elements, which are peculiar to each historical
religion. Inasmuch, then, as the theory of reUgion has to
expound the general nature of reUgion, which appears again
in each particular religion, it must not adopt in its treatment
the standpoint of a philosophical idea of religion, or that of a
particular religion, even the Christian, and it must watch
against being influenced in its exposition by philosophical
or Christian theories, which do not belong to the universal
essence of reUgion, such as are indicated by the terms, —
the Absolute, the Universe, the Infinite, the Eternal, final
Causality, Theory of the World.^
It is now generally acknowledged from the theological and
^ So quite properly 0. Pfleiderer proceeds in his Religionsphilosophie auf
geschichtlicher Grundlage, Berlin 1878, S. 255 ff., and marks out the way
upon which theology and philosophy must meet together, inasmuch as the
philosophy of religion reaches the result, that it can find nothing higher than
the Christian religion. [Compare also, Fairbairn, Studies in the Philosophy of
Religion and History. London 1876. Caird, Introduction to the Philosophy
of Religion. Glasgow 1880. Especially p. 314 ff.]
' The excellent psychological part in the Dogmatik of Lipsius, § 16 ff., would
have been clearer had the author paid more attention to this.

310 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
from the philosophical side, that it is the task of the philo
sophy of religion to exhibit psychologically the origin of
religion. Biedermann and Lipsius in their Dogmatics, and
Pfleiderer in his PhUosophy of Eeligion, proceed, in the part
that treats of principles, from the psychological grounding of
religion. Practically too they are agreed, inasmuch as they
explain the origin of religion from the antithesis of freedom
and necessity. The essential nature of man, says Pfleiderer
(EeligionsphUosophie, S. 256), consists in this, that his con
sciousness parts into two in the antithesis of self-consciousness
and world-consciousness. Therewith arises for man the anti
thesis of freedom and necessity, a contradiction for which,
neither in himself nor in the world, he can find reconcUiation,
so that he must rise to a third being, higher than self and the
world, as the unity of the antithesis, that is, to God.
Looking away from the substantial definition which is given
of the relation of man to God, and contemplating this relation
only in the abstract, its origin, of which alone we here treat,
does not seem to be sufficiently explained. If it be the
world -limit, with which man comes in contact, and which
forces him to rise to the idea of dependence upon God, in
order that he may assert his freedom over against the world,
then the relation to God, instead of being derived, from man's
Own nature, is rather impressed on him from without. A
principle which would thus determine man to betake himself
to dependence upon a higher power is not to be admitted,
because, on the contrary, the self-conscious free man, that is
presupposed, must find in the consciousness of his freedom
the occasion for seeking help against the world-limit, not in
some third being, but rather in himself. Whence then, it
must be asked, is the longing of the heart after the highest
and uninterruptedly free existence to be derived ? (Comp.
Pfleiderer, EeligionsphUosophie, S. 322.) Further, it is not to
be overlooked that man, although he has risen to the concep
tion of God as his saviour and deliverer from the world-

PSYCHOLOGICAL ORIGIN OF RELIGION. 311
necessity, has reached this only to enter into opposition with
this God, In so far as religion is concerned, far more
importance is attached to the reality and reconciliation of
this opposition, than to the opposition of world and man, and
its reconcUiation.'
If the origin of Christianity is to be psychologicaUy
explained, there must be a careful examination of the essential
basis of human nature.^ The special characteristic of man is
the Ego-consciousness, that is, the consciousness of the unity
of all the elements and functions of his spiritual and intel
lectual life. This, as an immediate feeling, never altogether
lost, rests in the depths of the heart of every man. What
ever oppositions and contradictions may enter into and agitate
the human spirit, whatever conflicts man has to undergo with
himself and with the outer world, always and everywhere the
consciousness of the unity of his spiritual life, or his Ego-
consciousness, accompanies him. But, at the same time, with
this there is immediately joined the consciousness that it is
not he himself who is the principle of his personaUty, of the
unity of his spiritual life, that rather a higher power has
constituted the various elements of his life into a spiritual
unity. The immediate feeling of his personality is also
immediately a religious feeling, and rests as such in the
depths of the human heart. The form for this feeling is the
religious conscience, which, as religious, has for its contents
the immediate certainty of a divine destination. The con
science is not a special organ for religion, but a product of
religion, which never abandons man any more than the feeUng
of his personality. Upon the firm relationship into which
' Very excellently Lipsius remarks, Dogmatik, S. 163 : "An inner necessity
of his own spiritual life leads man to God, and only because he finds God in
himself does he find Him also in the outward world. " But at S. 20 f. he derives
the origin of religion from the conflict of necessity and freedom, and religion
itself from a complicated reflection thereon. Therefore man does not find God
in himself, but is led to Him through the outer world. But it just amounts to
this, that we have to explain the necessary idea of causality psychologically.
" Compare Noack, Die speculative Religionwissenschaft, S. 73 ff.

312 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
the human Ego brings the unity of his nature with its divine
principle, the harmony of the spiritual life of man rests. Thus,
psychologically considered, religion points back to a revelation
of God in the human Ego, and to a free relation of man to
God. The innate feeling in man of dependence upon a higher
being transcending him is the objective and subjective ground
of religion. In respect of its origin, religion is a relation of
man to God implanted by God in human nature. The
historical universaUty of the belief in God is thereby explained,
and also the circumstance that all historical religions have the
consciousness that they owe their origin, not to a human, but
to a divine operation. The revelation of God is not merely a
human imagination, but a reality in human nature, and creates
in it not merely an inclination toward religion, but a germ of
divine Ufe which as a real power develops itself out from and
in the spiritual life of man. This presence of God seated in
the heart of man and necessary to the actual existence of the
Ego, this innate being of God in the Ego, is the eternal and
universal fact of the divine revelation in mankind, and on this
fact is reUgion eternally established. The orthodox dogmatic,
the outward and mechanically conceived notion of revelation
and of the positivity of religion is to be led back to this :
God the eternal principle of religion, human nature the
ground of its development. The inner revelation is man's
latent consciousness of God, which, in close contact with the
equally real outward revelation of God in nature and history,
is developed into conscious clearness. Hence man regarded
as a mere existence is religious. In a state of utter rudeness
and savagery, he can never altogether sink to a level with the
beasts, and he can never, by the highest culture in the direc
tion of a free personality, become independent of religion.
There are among men no atheists, taking the word in the
widest sense, as it is here to be taken. The godless, notwith
standing their wish to be free from God, occupy a position of
dependence upon a higher power, who rules them, and whom

PSYCHOLOGICAL OEIGIN OF EELIGION. 313
they serve. The gods of the lower forms of religion die not ;
they live on stiU in the higher. These are the gods under
whose dominion atheists place themselves. They are not, as
they would have it, emancipated from religion, only their
reUgion is a worship of idols.
Eeligion, inasmuch as it is innate to human nature, is sub
ject to the conditions of psychological development. It is
seen in its original form as the basis of the real harmony of
human nature in the child and in the primitive state of man
kind. So soon as man out of a state of indeterminateness
awakens to consciousness, distinguishes between himself and
the outer world, attains unto self- consciousness and to con
sciousness of his non-ego, he makes his appearance, as a free
self-conscious man, over against the outer world, and asserts
his freedom over against the necessity of nature. But he
conquers the limitations, which the powers of nature place
upon his freedom, by means of the religious feeling present
within him. He conceives religiously of the powers of nature,
which threaten to destroy his human Ego, and finds, and
reverences in them, the objectively divine, upon which sub
jectively in his own spirit he feels himself dependent. The
subjective feeling of dependence passes over into the objective
feeling of dependence on the higher powers of nature, which
can now appear in the most varied psychological forms, as
fear and trust, awe and reverence, humility and exaltation,
hope and thankfulness. But human freedom with its wilful
ness does not rise to this feeling of dependence. As against
the powers of. nature, so too against the objectively divine, it
reacts, and brings man into opposition with God. But the
opposition is immediately perceived by him to be disunion, a
psychological fact which can be explained only on the sup
position of an original consciousness of his unity with God.
In this we find the reason why man torn away from God
cannot continue in disunion with God, in a separation which
disorders his innermost being. From his religious conscience

314 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
the impulse to win again the unity with God, which was lost,
breaks forth, and attains its end in the bUssful feeling of
actual reunion or reconciliation with God. Those charac
teristics, too, which constitute the essence of reUgion, are
found imprinted upon all the historical religions. Wherever
historical religion is, there is to be found, not only estrange
ment from God, but the longing after reconciliation with God.
Eeligion, comprehensively viewed in respect of the funda
mental elements of essence, is a central life in man's spirit.
All the functions thereof have their own proper religious end
assigned to them in the psychological course of the religious
consciousness. It is now generally acknowledged that Schleier
macher and Hegel conceived of religion in a one-sided manner,
the former as feeling, the latter as mental impression ( Vorstel-
lung) of the absolute. It is now seen that, on the contrary,
all the utterances of the spiritual life are concentrated in reli
gion, and have their part in religion.'' EeUgion is neither mere
feeling, nor mere knowledge, nor mere doing, but, as an actual
life of the spirit of man, it is the immediate interlacing of
feeling, knowledge, and will, in which equally, though under
varying, forms, relationship to God is expressed.^ It is not
therefore by chance, but psychologically conditioned by the
character of religion, that a form of worship is connected with
every religion. The religious man does not continue in a
mystical feeling, nor is it with a mere knowledge of God that
^ Compare on Sohleiermacher's view of religion the works referred to under
§ 17. On Hegel's idea of religion, compare H. Holtzmann, Die Entwickelung
des Religionsbegriffs in der Sohule Hegel's, in Hilgenfeld's Zeitschrift fiir
Wissensohaftliche Theologie, 1878, H. 2, 3. The discussion of the idea of
religion was continued, after Hegel and Schleiermacher, chiefly by Braniss,
Reiff, L. Noack, Fichte, Weisse, Chalybaeus, Ritter, ' SoheUing in his latest
philosophical works, C. Schwarz, Das Wesen der Eeligion. Halle 1847. 0.
Pfleiderer, Die Religion, ihr Wesen und ihre Geschichte. 2 Bde. Leipzig 1869;
and Religionsphilosophie, S. 255 ff. Biedermann, Dogmatik, § 8 ff. Lipsius,
Dogmatik, § 16 ff.
2 For excellent popular exposition of these three elements in religion, see
Liddon, Some Elements of Religion (London 1881), pp. 8-21. See also Marten-
sen, Christian Dogmatics (Edinburgh 1866), pp. 7-12.— Ed.

FUNDAMENTAL ELEMENTS IN HISTOEICAL EELIGION. 315
he has to do, but his innermost being constrains him uninter
ruptedly to maintain a proper relation to God. The religiously
determined will first of aU shows itself as an inclination to the
construction of a ritual, which creates the forms in which
worship can be expressed. Worship has, therefore, a com
munity-forming power. Every religious man has the same
interest in the worship. Wherever there is religion, a wor
shipping community is also found. In the worship, however,
nothing else than what belongs to the very essence of religion
can have expression given it. Varied as the rituals of the
historical reUgions are, the essential elements of the religious
consciousness are impressed alike upon them all. The common
elementary forms of all worship are prayer, sacrifice, and
praise, and in each of these forms, variously blended, the
fundamental religious feeling of union, disunion, and reconcilia
tion with God, are manifested.
Second Division — The Natuee of Eeligion in its
Historical Development. — Having now in the First Division
determined psychologically the nature of religion, the Second
Division has to show how the general idea of religion attains
historically unto its special end. It has to show that the
religiously exercised spirit of man, from which those special
forms of religion proceed, does not rest from its activity until
it has reached the highest stage of reUgious consciousness
attainable by it, or, what is the same thing, until its originaUy
innate revelation of God has become perfectly manifest. The
theory of religion proceeds here on purely historical ground.
It is not, however, incumbent upon it to give a history of
religion, but it has that as its presupposition, and takes from
it only the fundamental principles, by the combination of
which a particular religion has been constructed historically.
From the outline of the history of religion in § 32, we can,
therefore, here only refer to the most general points. The
relation of man to God, the universal idea of religion, retains

316 theological encyclopedia.
its definiteness in respect of contents by means of-the thought
of God. The historical religions have, accordingly, arranged
themselves into the three groups — the religion of nature, the
Hebrew religion, and Christianity ; and, on the basis of the
exposition given in § 3 2, these three groups may be considered
as forming simply two stages in religious development — the
religion of immanence, embracing the religions of nature, and
the religion of transcendence, embracing Hebraism and
Christianity.'' The characteristic of all the religions of nature is, that they
conceive of the finite as divine, and in their thought of God
do not rise above the realm of finitude. Nature, including
man, is the sphere in which the religious consciousness at this
stage finds its gods. It is not, however, nature as a whole, as
the universe, that is the object of reverence, but particular
natural objects, the heavens, the sun, the moon, and the
stars, and the earth, fire, water, sea, streams, fountains, trees,
beasts, and, at higher stages of culture, particular ideal
powers of human society. Hence the innumerabiUty of the
heavenly and earthly, the higher and the lower gods. But
the theory of nature, upon which the religion of nature
rests, must likewise vary among nations according to differ
ences of geographical situation, history, and culture. Hence
we find a great variety of kinds of religions of nature, and
thus their limitation to particular nations is accounted for.
The more highly cultured nations have this in common, that
the popular imagination personifies the divine powers of
nature, and makes objective for the contemplation of the
people gods formed somewhat after the fashion of man.
' Pfleiderer, in his Religionsphilosophie, S. 725, distinguishes the historical
religions under two classes as the religion of nature and the historical religions.
This distinction does not appear to me to be suitable, and rests only on a formal
difference. But if it be justifiable to group together, as Pfleiderer does, the
religions of Zoroaster and Confucius with Mosaism as religions of law, and
Buddhism with Christianity as a religion of redemption, then this should be
the principle of division in the history of religion.

characteristic ELEMENTS IN RELIGIONS OF NATURE. 31 7
Myths, legends, and miracles are the forms in which
faith in the gods gives expression to its contents. In myths,
so far as they have a religious character, the people behold
the nature and actings of their humanly formed gods bound
by the finite limitations of space and time. But as repre
sentatives of higher superhuman powers they are at the
same time free from those limitations which are laid upon
mortals. In their intercourse with men they exercise an
immediate influence upon human affairs and conduct, and
manifest their superhuman elevation above the natural con
ditions of space and time. In this sense, the miracle has
its proper home in the sphere of the religion of nature.
The legend is the expansion of the myth, and adds to the
mythical gods of nature the gods of human fable. In the
legend the people fall back upon their own primitive his
tory, and bring the heroes of antiquity, to whom tradition
assigns the original construction of their national life, into
immediate fellowship with the gods, through whose favour
they themselves have been endowed with divine power and
miracle-working skill, so that, as inferior gods, they are
sharers in aU but the highest divine rank and veneration.
Myths, legends, and miracles are, nevertheless, not the
peculiar property of the religion of nature, but the common
property of aU religion. To the religious view the divine
operation in nature and man generally is an immediate
one, as in myth and legend it is represented, and as in
miracle the human longing after freedom from finite limita
tions generaUy expresses itself. Myth, legend, and miracle
are the poetry of religion. They, therefore, pass over from
the religion of nature into the religion of transcendence,
into the Hebrew and the Christian religions. They have,
however, a different significance in these last from what
they have in the former. While in the reUgion of nature
the divine being and operation come forth in the event
which is reported as a myth or miracle, in the religion of

318 theological encyclopedia.
transcendence the divine stands superior to history, which
forms only the case that covers an ideal content. Adher
ence to a history constructed on the foundation of myth
and miracle, rather than to its ideal content, is, in the sphere
of spiritual religion, superstition.
The origin of the religions of nature is partly hidden in
what may be called the elementary Ufe of the nation. The
national consciousness, however, grounds its faith, in so far
as that is to be known from myth and legend, or at least
from the form of worship, upon an immediately divine com
munication. If popular tradition has not retained the story
of a historical person who introduced , the religion, such a
one is yet presupposed in the earliest beginnings of the nation.
As the nation in its historical existence points back to
family and tribe, there wUl also have been in its pre-
historical condition a patriarch or tribal chief who was the
revealer of the beginnings of the later national faith. Among
other nations such personalities appear in history as founders
of religion, or at least reformers of the religion of the
people. The creative influence, which proceeds from them to
the people, is explained from the act of revelation having
attained perfection in them. Historically these productive
spirits in the sphere of religion are to be conceived of as
personalities, whose consciousness of God was the dominating
power of their spiritual life, and made itself felt as such
upon the kindred spirit of their nation. But for the national
consciousness the overpowering impression, which was made
by the founder of the religion, became the occasion for con
sidering the spiritual act of revelation on the part of such a
one, a superhuman operation effected by an immediately out
ward divine communication. Like the heroes of antiquity,
the founders of religion were regarded in sacred legend as
having intercourse with the divine, whence they obtained
higher insight and higher power than belong to ordinary men,
so that the doctrines taught and the acts done by them before

forms of worship UNDEE EELIGIONS OF NATUEE. 319
the people were regarded as divine doctrines and miraculous
acts. In order to prevent these being forgotten, and to
preserve them to all coming generations, they were set down
in writing. In this way there sprang up a sacred literature,
which contains the divine revelation, and has for the people
an authoritative and normative significance. This was the
form which the real act of revelation, in the spirit ofsthe
founder who preceded it, assumed. This view is present also
to the founders of the Hebrew and the Christian religions, and
must in the one case as well as in the other, be divested of its
subjectivity, and reduced to its real ground.
The revealed faith is the centre around which the nation
as a cultured community is grouped together. The character
of the worship is determined by the contents of its belief con
cerning God. As in the religion of nature the idea of God is
restricted to the finite sphere, in its worship it is the finite
that is the subject of consideration, at most something merely
sensible, only sporadically anything of an ethical kind.
Fortune and misfortune keep the consciousness on the alert
for the favour and disfavour, the goodness and wrath of the
gods. The religious feelings, which are thereby awakened,
find their expression in prayer and sacrifice. Prayer is thanks
for benefits received and petition for further favour, or for the
turning away of anger and for forbearance ; in the lowest form
it is magic, which, by particular forms and machinations, seeks
to obtain human wishes from the gods by importunity, or in
this way to avert the divine wrath. Sacrifices are really only
an intensified prayer. In token of gratitude, or as an expia
tion, the pious man brings forth from his possessions the best
gifts, food, drink, animals, in order to retain or win back the
favour of the gods. The greater the divine goodness or the
divine wrath, the more costly and abundant are the gifts. In
order to appease anger, the dearest possession, even a human
life, will be given as a sacrifice. If the favour bestowed by
the gods be a general and national one, a victory, an abundant

320 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA,
harvest, or if the calamity be a national one, the festival must
be conceived on a scale of proportionate magnificence, the
sacrifice that is rendered must be correspondingly massive and
valuable. The performance of divine service lies in the hand of the
priests, who are distinguished from the mass of the people, not
only by their insight into sacred doctrine, but also by the
possession of gifts for searching out the will of the gods, and
for working miracles through their priestly relation to the
gods. Above all it belongs to them to guard the reUgious
institutions, which are held sacred by the gods, and cannot be
infringed or neglected with impunity. By means of worship
a religious spirit takes its rise among the people, which affects
the Ufe of the whole race, its customs, its morals, the public
arrangements, and the national culture. Poets* and artists,
who appear among the people, are exponents of the national
spirit, and bring the histories and the figures of the gods before
the people's view ia the fair forms of poetry and the plastic
arts. This does not prevent particular personalities rising
above this platform of the popular spiritual Ufe, since the
spirit can never be bound by the fetters of traditional autho
rity. In the range of particular national religions we meet
with surprising spiritual utterances which far transcend the
finite point of view of the national religion, but just for
that reason are not to , be regarded as historical documents
of that religion, but as evidence of the philosophical or
higher religious elevation which is possible for the individual
spirit within the range of national limits. So long as such
phenomena appear in a nation only here and there, the
national religion is unaffected thereby ; but as soon as they
have been developed into a general power among the people,
the national religion must suffer dissolution and overthrow.
The significance of the religions of nature for the history
of religion consists in this, that they, even if only after an
external manner, and in respect simply of individuals, elevate

TEANSCENDENCE AND IMMANENCE IN HEBEAISM. 321
the faith of the nations into the recognition of a divine
dispensation in nature and man; but the finite standpoint,
which they occupy, succumbs before advancing culture. The
wish to return to, or universalize this standpoint, whether it
be philosophically or poeticaUy expressed, is a paralogism as
well as an anachronism.
In the history of religion the standpoint of immanence was
overstepped by Hebraism. For the Hebrew consciousness
there is but one God, and this one and only God, the Creator
of heaven and earth, is elevated above nature and man, and
rules over both with unrestricted power. But the national
consciousness does not leave the Supreme in an absolute
transcendence. As He by creation has descended within the
Umits of time, so also He has brought Himself within the
limits of space, when He entered into personal intercourse
with the first man whom He created and with his posterity.
All men and races stand under His dominion, and among
them all He has condescended to the one people, Israel,
whose ancestors He had already distinguished by special
revelations, until by Moses, the chosen mediator, He estab
lished His eternal covenant with the nation. The weal and
woe of the nation and of its several members are dependent
upon its attitude toward the law, in which the will of God is
completely set forth. By means of the idea of the divine
covenant, the sonship of Israel obtains a thoroughly ethical
character. As in the ritual of the reUgions of nature, so in
that of Israel, sacrifices form a principal constituent ; but they
have with God no value as mere outward tokens of respect ;
only if they are presented in a spirit of resignation to the
divine wUl, and of attachment to the law, and in sincere
repentance for the breaking of the law, are they well-pleasing
to God, and incUne Him to be favourable, to forgive sin, and
withdraw His displeasure. As the law points back to a
divine revelation, the ordinance of worship also points back
to a divine appointment, Jehovah enthroned in heaven is
VOL. II, X

322 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
present with His people in the temple. The structure and
arrangement thereof, the sacrificial rites, the sacred festival
seasons, are appointed by God. The ceremonial of worship,
as well as the law, is commanded. For His service God
separated to Himself from the people a particular sacerdotal
class, which is required to appear before Jehovah pure and
blameless in respect of the law. The chief of the priests, the
high priest, holds a place of preference before God, and can,
by means of the Urim and Thummim upon his breast, discover
the divine counsels. The people of Israel, which orders its
whole national life according to the will of God, and in
worship bends its will to the will of the Divine Lawgiver, is
the people of God, and forms on a thoroughly ethical basis the
theocratic State, which, under the protection of the Almighty
God, maintains this standard of His righteousness. The
ethical consciousness of the people is penetrated by the idea
of the divine retribution. The fortunes and misfortunes of
the whole nation, as well as of the individual, are conceived
of from the point of view of divine reward and divine
punishment. As rewarder, God manifests Himself in His
unlimited omnipotence. Miracles are the mighty works of
Jehovah, by which He authenticates Moses as the founder of
the divine State, delivers the people from bondage, and leads
them into the Holy Land, by which He continually interferes
in the affairs of the nation and of individuals to apportion
reward or punishment, and will also in the future raise the
divine State to a position of glorious perfection. The spirit
of the nation, inspired by divine revelation, expressed itself
in a rich and fruitful literature, through national historians,
poets, prophets, and sages. The writings published by them
were in later ages collected together. The foundation of the
collection, the law, was attributed to Moses himself; the
other writings are regarded as the immediate or mediate
product of the Divine Spirit, the whole collection, as an
inspired document expressing the divine will, which God

LIMITATIONS AND DEFECTS IN HEBEAISM. 323
has revealed to His own chosen people alone among aU the
nations. The Hebrew reUgion is a national religion, like the religions
of nature. This relationship shows that only the covenant
idea, not the covenant itself, could be of eternal continuance.
The Hebrew consciousness of God was agitated by the con
tradiction of idea and reality. God is thought of in absolute
transcendence as the one infinite God. When in free love He
comes down to the one people, and concludes the covenant
with it. He steps, indeed, over the limits of absolute tran
scendence, but the restriction of His worship to one people
does not harmonize with the idea of His infinity ; and when
He reveals His will to this one people, He raises it, indeed,
above the sphere of the natural life into an ethical common
wealth, but the restriction of the kingdom of God to one
people is just as little in unison with the absolute idea of
God. But the law itself, in which God is present (immanent)
among His people, is set over against the people as the out
wardly revealed wUl of God, which they indeed obey, not for
God's sake, but for their own sake. Neither the nation nor
individuals yield obedience to the law and observe the worship
of Jehovah with its eternal interests ; the fulfilment of the
law and rendering of divine service are rather only the
means whereby the national and personal interests are pre
served. Under the rule of Eabbinism and Pharisaism, this
legal righteousness showed itself as a mere external piety, or
as a demand which man in his weakness despaired of ever
realizing. The law, instead of leading man into fellowship
and reconcUiation with God, rather brought to light the
consciousness of estrangement, by which under the dominion
of the law he is separated from God. Hebrew writers
have themselves taken note of the defects which are current
in the national reUgion, and have sought to free themselves
from them. Even the prophets, however, are not altogether
free from the national particularism, for they aUow the theo-

324 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
cratic State and the law to continue their existence in the
future, but the contradiction that the one God should be the
God of one nation is overcome by them in their Messianic
hope, with which they point forward to a time when all
nations with Israel shall worship the one God. Thus, too,
they pass over the gulf which M'as made by the law between
God and the nation, when they proclaim a kingdom of the
iuture, whose citizens shall all be fiUed with the Spirit of
Jehovah, and out of love to Jehovah shall fulfil His law. In
the way of philosophy, Alexandrian Judaism freed itself from
the Umitation of the national religion. While the Greek
philosophy dissolved the heathen national religion, it was for
the Jews the means of reconstructing their idea of God, and
erecting on Old Testament foundations a universal religion of
humanity. But as the Greek philosophy could not supply a
national religion to the Greeks and Eomans, so too the Alex
andrians' philosophical theory of religion could not afford a
national religion to the Jews.
The Old Testament religion receives its religious fulfilment
in Christianity. God in His absolute transcendence, as the God
of mankind, who is really immanent in the spirit of man,
is the religious consciousness which in Christ enters into
history as a personal life, and which He Himself has given
expression to in the most impressive form, under the figure of
the fatherly relationship. The personal fellowship; in which
He Himself as Son stood with God the Father, is a universally
human one : God is the Father of all men, and all men are
His children. The reUgion of Christ is the religion of
humanity, and as communion between father and children, it
is a religion of the spirit. The faith in His person, which
Christ requires, is not a faith in this or that fact, but, accord
ing to its idea, it is the appropriating of the divine spiritual
life, as it was realized in Christ. Men penetrated by such a
faith form the Church of God, which is caUed to found in the
world the kingdom of God, for the glorifying of the life of

IDEAL CHAEACTEEISTICS IN CHEISTIANITY. 325
the world through the Spirit of God. The Christian religious
consciousness transcends all the limits which were drawn around
the pre-Christian religions. Everything of a particularist and
external kind is removed. Christianity is a relationship be
tween God and man, and this relationship is a purely spiritual
one, a relationship of spirit to spirit. God is a Spirit and is to be
worshipped in spirit. His worship is not restricted in respect
of place and time. Its place is the heart of man, and to all
times it must prove its reaUty. The surrender of the whole
inner man to God, and ordering one's life according to a God
fearing mind, is the only sacrifice that can be presented with
acceptance to God. EeUgion in its ideality is the conclusion
of its history. In it mankind has reached the spiritual
elevation which was the aim of its religious development.
Chrisfi is the historical personaUty by whom the original
revelation of God in the human spirit has attained its most
perfect expression. As Christ is the true Eevealer of the
divine and human nature, so is He the Eedeemer who
deUvers man from all finite bonds and powers, and the
Saviour who raises His own beUeving followers into a fellow
ship with God, which reaches beyond death into eternity.
The document, from which alone the idea of Christianity
can be obtained, is Holy Scripture. In it the early Christian
Church has expressed its faith in the Messiah. In its founder
it worshipped the Sent of God, the Eedeemer, and Saviour ;
but it has conceived of Him, not after a historical, but rather
after a religious manner. The first Christian believers have, in
accordance with their national views, surrounded their Christ,
as other religious communities surrounded their founders,
with divine glory. The Sent of God is glorified by miracles
and confirmed in His divine mission. The revelation, which
is perfected in the depths of the Spirit of Christ, is attributed
to outward metaphysical influences. The redemption which He
wrought, and the salvation which He procured, are viewed as
supernatural transactions. Nevertheless, the national wrapping

326 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
with which, according to the New Testament, the primitive
Christian Church clothed its faith in the Messiah, is not so
thick that the historical truth of the Ufe and spiritual power
of Christ, and consequently the idea of the religion founded
by Him, cannot be perceived from under it. The ancient
Church has not mistaken the fundamental signiflcance of the
writings of the apostolic age. The writings obtained from
that age, bound together as one whole, it has ascribed to the
apostles themselves, and it has derived them, as weU as the
Old Testament, from divine inspiration. The two Testaments
were regarded by it as the most authentic document of the
divine revelation proceeding from Moses and Christ.
WhUe Christianity as religion has a share in the psycho
logical grounding of religion generally, which systematic
theology in its first division has to afford, and while already,
in the importance which is assigned to Christianity as com
pared with the other religions in the history of religion, the
Church obtains security for its faith, systematic theology has
for its further task to prove, by means of a scientific elabora
tion of the Christian faith, that religion as positive Christianity,
or Christianity as the religion of the spirit, rightly advances
the claim to be regarded and acknowledged as the absolutely
true religion. The Christian thinker, in order to attain clear
ness and insight in regard to the content of his faith, has
proceeded at different times in accordance with- different
principles and motives. The results of the labour thus
expended are found in that complex of historical dogmas
which the systematic theology of the present has to regard as
its most important preparative. Even the principles of its
own scientific activity, it has to borrow from the development
of Church history. Church history closes with the opposition
of Eoman Catholicism and Evangelical Protestantism. Over
against the hierarchical authority which determined the faith
of the Church in accordance with Scripture and tradition, but
reaUy set itself above Scripture and tradition, and the legalism

EELATION OF SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY TO SCEIPTUEE. 327
to which Christianity had been reduced in the Eoman Church,
the Eeformation set Holy Scripture, whose word in its truth is
witnessed to in the believer's heart by the Holy Spirit, and
faith in the biblical sense, that is, religious faith, by which
alone the justification of man before God can be won, as the
formal and material principles of the Eeformed Church.
Very soon, however, reUgious faith was changed again by
Protestant theology into a dogmatic faith, and the Confession
of the Church dogma laid down as a condition of salvation,
while Holy Scripture, by means of the doctrine of inspiration,
was exalted into an absolutely divine document, by the state
ments of which, theology proved the truth of the Church
doctrine. That it was a mistake to attribute such an authority
to Holy Scripture, exegetical theology, in the course of Pro
testant scientific investigation, has shown beyond dispute.
And, as continued investigation of the Church doctrine after
long theological conflicts showed, this doctrine, regarded as a
standard of truth, is not such that salvation should be made
dependent thereon. This conviction led to the union of the
two separated Protestant Churches and to the founding of the
Evangelical Protestant Church, the historical significance of
which lies in this, that, just as the Eeformation made an end
of the domination of hierarchical ecclesiasticism, this made an
end of the domination of dogmatic ecclesiasticism, and set up,
in place of a Church of the theologians, a truly national
Church. On the basis of this historical development, systematic
theology has to establish its proper standpoint for the scientific
understanding of Christianity. As the result of exegetical
theology it recognises in Holy Scripture divine revelation, but
revelation under the limitations and conditions of national
and historical influences. Scripture, therefore, is perceived
by it to be, not only a revealed document, but also a religious
document, an expression which calls attention to its divine
and human character. A distinction is, therefore, to be made

328 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
between the ecclesiastical and the theological use of Holy
Scripture. For the Church Scripture is of significance as the
word of God, has normative authority for the faith and life of
the Christian community, and commends itself to believers by
the witness of the Holy Spirit in its saving power. All the
attributes, which the old orthodox theology ascribed to Holy
Scripture, auctoritas, divina Veritas, perfectio, perspicuitas,
efficacia divina, necessitas, integritas et perennitas, puritas et
sinceritas fontium, authentica, dignitas, — are in the ecclesi
astical use of Scripture, unconditionally fitted for the purpose
of edification ; in the theological use of Scripture, they are only
conditionaUy suited thereto. On the ground of its historical
knowledge of Scripture, systematic theology must refuse to
adopt Holy Scripture as its formal principle, in the sense of
making agreement with Scripture a proof of truth. The
historical human character of Scripture contradicts this
position. On the other hand, as the vehicle of revelation,
Holy Scripture is for systematic theology the source of instruc
tion, from which, by means of exegesis, it derives the idea of
Christianity, and therewith its real principle. The material
principle of the Eeformation, Christian faith, conceived of in
its ideality as fellowship of spirit and life with God, is the
real principle, which forms the positive foundation and
content of the following branches of systematic theology.
This principle, borrowed from Holy Scripti^re, has for syste
matic theology normative authority. It supplies it with the
standard by which it is in all cases enabled to decide as to
what is essentially Christian. While now in ecclesiastical
usage, the formal and material principles are equally authori
tative and placed together, systematic theology has to prove
the truth of what is Christian, that is to say, what is embraced
in its real principle, and what, in the sphere of history, it
finds in agreement therewith, and has to raise the subjective
conviction of truth, which for believers the word of Scripture
bears in itself, into an objective demonstration of truth. But

OFFICE OF CEITICISM IN SYSTEMATIC THEOLOGY. 329
since Holy Scripture is not suited to this theological purpose,
systematic theology must affirm the principle, which is
common to all sciences, and is employed by all for the objec
tive grounding of their subject, the principle of rational
thinking. What is demanded by the idea of religion in
general, and by that of the Christian faith in particular, the
rational knowledge of faith, was brought into full prominence
by the history of Protestant theology. By means of the
conflict of the theological antitheses of supernaturalism and
rationalism, of Schleiermacher's theology and speculative
theology, the conviction was confirmed, that the truth of the
Christian faith is to be established, not by any sort of external
evidence, but by rational demonstration. (Compare §§ 16—
18.) On the ground of this historical fact, systematic
theology takes for its formal principle rational thinking, and
thereby comes into direct, absolutely negative contradiction
with Eoman Catholicism, which, in accordance with its dogma
of infallibility, has made the miracle of divine inspiration,
.which is realized in the human Pope, its formal principle.
The two principles referred to are the norm for the further
scientific task of systematic theology, according to which it
may determime, both what is Christian, and also, that what is
Christian, is true. The whole doctrinal tradition, which for
systematic theology is of great historical value, but has by no
means a normative significance, is overturned by the criticism
of those principles.

330 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

§ 42. DOGMATICS.
Christian faith, fellowship of spirit and life with God, is
the immediate unity of God and man, or of infinite and finite
spirit. Dogmatics has the theoretical contents thereof for its
subject, and is to be treated in accordance with its historicaUy
postulated principles. It is according to its idea the scientific
exposition of spiritual feUowship with God or of the relation
ship with God, of which the Christian is conscious. As a
division of systematic theology, it has to vindicate its scientific
character by leading through the mediation of thought to
knowledge, and by grounding in the Christian consciousness
of God the highest ideal and real form of the life of the
human spirit. In the theological system there can be only
one dogmatics. The distinction made by J. P. Lange
(Encyclop. S. 166) of three forms of dogmatics, philosophical,
positive, and applied dogmatics, affords no inner principle
of demarcation, and can lead only to confusion. In the idea
of dogmatics here adopted the phUosophical element as well
as the positive is embraced ; but applied dogmatics does not
in any case belong to systematic theology. It is not
even allowable, with A. Schweizer (Christi. Glaubenslehre, i.
S. 5), to distinguish between the system of faith and
dogmatics as the science of Church doctrine ; for it would be
unscientific to expound the system of faith without reference
to the Church doctrine, and dogmatics does not, by this
reference, become a science of Church doctrines. The idea
of dogmatics in the above definition is to be historically
justified aud established. The history of dogmatics has its
place here.^ In regard to the idea, division and method
^ Comp. Hagenbach, Encyclop. S. 352-356 [Engl, transl. p. 442-448];
and Pelt, Encyclop. S. 469-496.

DEFINITIONS OF DOGMATICS AS SCIENCE OF DOGMA. 331
of dogmatics, opinions have been and still are very diverse.
The most prevalent view has been that dogmatics, as a scientific
exposition of Christian doctrines, could at most be set forth
for one particular Church : and so there arose a Catholic, a
Lutheran, a Eeformed, dogmatics. Even dogmatists of recent
times, certainly in very different ways, bring this branch of
theology into direct relation to dogma. Eothe (in his Ethik,
i. S. 62) defines dogmatics as the science of dogmas, and
only in so far as there are dogmas, that is, ecclesiastically
authorized doctrinal positions, is there, according to him,
dogmatics. It is, therefore, a system grouping into one
the dogmas of a particular Church, a science of Church
doctrines, and is reckoned by Eothe, as by Schleiermacher, a
branch of historical theology. Biedermann adopts an ultra-
confessional standpoint. According to his Dogmatik, § 1,
Christian dogmatics has for its task the scientific elabora
tion of Christian dogma; but since Christian dogma has
for its only content the real principle of Christianity,
§ 3, so it has, according to § 4, for its true subject a
religious real principle, and consequently it has the task
not only of seeking this out from the empirical historical
material of the sum of dogmas lying before it, but of
putting its own impress upon it, and by the expenditure
of thought giving a more adequately rational expression of
its contents. According to Lipsius (Dogmatik, § 1), Christian
dogmatics is the scientific exposition of the Christian faith.
Although this commonly met with definition is partly only
formal, and partly too general, since the ethical content of
faith is not taken into consideration in dogmatics, it is
nevertheless recommended by its general character. But
Lipsius goes with Schleiermacher. According to § 2, its
special theological character is given to dogmatics by its
practical aim to serve the ecclesiastical communion, and by
the method of treating the material that is hereby demanded.
Thus Lipsius, turning to Biedermann and Schleiermacher,

332 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
prepares his way for the historical and confessional conception
of dogmatics, according to which it is the scientific elabora
tion of dogma, or the scientific development of doctrine,
which in the Christian Church (whichever Church the dog
matist serves) has to commend itself as the universally valid
expression of its common faith. Dogmatics, as the science
of ecclesiastical doctrinal conclusions, in the strictest sense
of the word is now possible only in the Eomish Church.
Church dogma is with the Eoman Catholic dogmatist a
constant quantity. He is allowed to collect the dogmas
into one comprehensive system, but he is not aUowed to
devise any alteration in them. This privUege is reserved to
the Pope. Such a conception of dogmatics and its history is
irreconcilable with the principles of Protestantism. Were
Protestant orthodox dogmatists to understand their science in
this way, the three dogmatists named would be completely
left behind. They are all convinced of the variability of
dogma in general, and of that of their own particular Church,
and do not hesitate to deal with it as a variable quantity.
That the dogmatics of Eothe's definition is not satisfactory to
Protestantism, Eothe himself acknowledges, when he places
alongside of dogmatics his speculative theology, which is not
tied down to the dogma of the Church. In like manner,
according to the historical notion of dogmatics proposed by
Lipsius, the Church doctrine is subject to change with the
age ; and Biedermann, by his definition of dogmatics, tran
scends the limitations of Church dogma. In keeping with
this, moreover, is the fact that the conclusions of speculative
theology also are characterized by this want of finality, a sure
sign with Eothe that the form of the Church which is
inadequate for the expression of Christianity must be over
thrown (Ethik, i. S. 50). The conclusions of the dogmatics
of Lipsius, too, pretend only to a temporary validity ; whUe
Biedermann strives constantly after one end, namely, the
extricating from the mass of historical dogma the real

FEEE CEITICAL TEEATMENT OF DOGMA. 333
Christian principle. If now, on the other hand, these dog
matists agree in this, that they derive the dogma from the
common Christian religious consciousness, and regard the
Christian religious principle as the one and only content
ofthe dogma, and Biedermann besides, at § 99, for his own
purposes, derives the religious principle of Christianity, the
mutual relationship between the infinite and the finite
spirit, from its historical source, the person of Jesus, they
do themselves thereby show that for the dogmatics of
variable dogma must be substituted the constant quantity,
from which all dogmas spring, and which is the abiding
foundation of the Church. This, as Biedermann says, § 4,
must be regarded as the true subject of dogmatics. With
Biedermann the task is assigned to dogmatics of searching
out this Christian religious real-principle in the mass of
historical dogma, and then further, by means of its own
refiective activity, giving utterance to this as the adequate
rational expression of its contents. This is in agreement with
Schenkel, inasmuch as he, both in his Dogmatik and in his
Grundlehren des Christenthums, represents dogmatics as the
product of faith, and makes the Christian redemption its
subject. Compare Dogmatik, i. S. 65, and Grundlehren, S.
2 2 ff. As ethics has not an ecclesiastical system of morals
for its subject, but the ethical content of the Christian faith,
so also dogmatics has to be reduced to the consciousness
of faith in Christ, that is, to the idea of Christianity, and
has to take for its subject the theoretical content of that idea.
It has not even to lay down again the credenda, but to give
a scientific proof of the truth of those dogmas in which the
Christian reUgious faith has been already historicaUy un
folded. The statement of Eothe, that, if no ecclesiastical
dogmas had been previously estabUshed there would have
been no dogmatics, is thoroughly unhistorical. If this were
so, then too there could have been no ethics. If theology
itself, as ordinarUy treated, places dogmas in the foreground.

334 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
there need be no wonder that, on the part of opponents,
Christianity is identified with the Church dogmas, and that,
because an end can be easily made of them, it is thought
that Christianity itself can be overthrown. From what has
been said, it follows that Christian dogmatics is not con
fessional (comp. Schenkel, Dogmatik, i. S. 12), and that its
task cannot be defined as the explanation of the dogmas of
a particular Church, in order to restore a dogmatic system
which shall find general acceptance with the believing
members of the Church. This would be an irrational as
well as an unpractical beginning, for the newly-constructed
system would be immediately subject to the same criticism
to which the dogmatist subjected his dogmatic material.
Christian dogmatics has a confessional character, only in
so far as it finds in Protestantism and its history the prin
ciples which distinguish it as a department of theological
science, and as it has to pay special attention to those
Protestant dogmas which lie at the foundation of those
principles. However, as it has from the scientific stand
point to subject the Protestant principles themselves to its
criticism, it also assumes a critical attitude toward the
Protestant dogmas, and rejects what is false in them ; while,
on the other hand, it must be ready to recognise truth even
in non-Protestant symbols, if it actually finds any in them.
In this way is won the true theological freedom from pre
judice, which transcends that lower style of polemics which
combats anything simply because it is, for example, Eoman
Catholic, whereas the Eomish is only to be contested in so
far as it contradicts the Christian idea, while anything that
is in accordance with Christian truth, even if it be Eoman
Catholic, deserves to be acknowledged. In consequence of
its essential and historical connection with Protestantism,
Christian dogmatics may entertain the hope that its labours
will afford the greatest assistance to the evangelical Church,
and will thus contribute to the protecting, strengthening, and

THE LOCAL METHOD IN DOGMATICS. 335
establishing in the heart of the great evangelical community
that reUgious faith which rests upon the person of Christ, and
has been uninterruptedly maintained in the Christian Church,
though often obscured and repressed, and was taken by the
Church of the Eeformation as its vital principle. Christian
dogmatics will also contribute to winning over members of
other Churches, as well as opponents of Christianity, to
refining and clarifying the dogmatic faith, not only of the
evangelical Church, but also of the other Churches, and in
this way setting the minds of men free from superstition.
The division of dogmatics must continue uncertain and
vacillating so long as dogma is taken for its subject. To one
dogmatist this dogma, to another that, seems of supreme
importance, and to the dogma thus regarded all others are
made subordinate. According to this scheme of arrangement
each dogma has its place, its own particular locus, in
the dogmatic system. This method of distribution was
called the local method. The whole system was viewed
organicaUy as a corpus dogmaticum, and under this certain
capita were distinguished, among which the several dogmas
were distributed as articuli fidei, dpOpa t^s iria-reo)^.
Down to the time of John of Damascus, it was customary,
according to the local method, to divide dogmatics into four
parts, theology, anthropology, soteriology or Christology,
and eschatology, but the order of succession was varied by
different dogmatists. It cannot be denied that this division
has its foundations in the very essence of the Christian
faith, and is so far justifiable : nevertheless it favoured also
the idea of a mere external and formal connection of the
dogmas with one another, in which there was little trace of
an organic treatment. It seemed enough, if the several
dogmas were arranged according to the scheme of the method
applied, and the claims of scholarship were supposed to be
satisfied, if the most complete apparatus possible, borrowed
from exegesis and the history of doctrines, were furnished

336 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
to each dogma. No one as yet seemed to have any thought
of going back to the sources of spiritual life, out of which
the dogmas sprang, and seeking to recognise the inner
spiritual connection, by means of which they were bound
together. An endeavour was made, especially in the
Eeformed Church, to get free from this traditional method.
In the seventeenth century, Cocceiug and Witsius introduced,
instead of the local method, the so-called Fcederal Method,
methodus foederalis, the covenant scheme, and divided dog
matics according to the different covenant engagements into
which God entered with man. They thus distinguished
fcedus naturce et operum, and fcedus gratice, with its three
economies, ante legem, sub lege, et post legem} Even within
the Eeformed Church this method found only temporary
acceptance, while in other communions it received no favour,
although it is not to be denied that it rests upon a profound
conception of the religious life. Much, however, is by it
dragged into Christian dogmatics which should rather belong
to the general history of reUgion. An earlier attempted
division, from a comparatively much more abstract point of
view, taking the Trinity as the principle of distribution,
was revived by Hegel. In his Philosophy of Eeligion,
Hegel treats first of all of the eternal idea of God in and
for Himself, the kingdom of the Father, then the eternal
idea of God in the element of the represented past (creation
of the world, and the incarnation), the kingdom of the Son,
and thirdly, the idea of God in the element of the subjective
self-consciousness of the present, or the reUgious community,
the kingdom of the Spirit. This distribution was also adopted
by Marheineke, Martensen, and Strauss, in their dogmatics.
By the latter, however, it was so far modified that he
divided dogmatics only into two principal parts, and treated
in the first, of the Absolute as subject of abstract repre
sentation, or in the element of eternity, as divine essence,
^ Comp. A. Schweizer, Eeformirte Dogmatik, S. 103 ff.

CEITICISM OF SCHLEIEEMACHER'S DIVISION. 337
in the second, of the Absolute as subject of empirical re
presentation, or in the element of time, and from the point
of view of past, present, and future. In Hegel's Philosophy
of Eeligion the Trinitarian division resulted from his con
ception of religion, in which the idea of the Absolute stands
in the foreground. In dogmatics, it has the disadvantage
of giving an undue prominence to its metaphysical element,
while restricting the anthropological element. The old familiar
method of division employed by Schleiermacher is likewise
very anomalous. Schleiermacher makes the Christian believ
ing consciousness the principle for the division of his dogmatic
material. He starts from the antithesis of sin and grace, and
with reference to this cardinal point of the Christian conscious
ness, divides dogmatics into two parts : 1. The pious feeling
of dependence without reference to the antithesis of man's own
inability and the ability imparted ; and 2. The pious feeling
of dependence with essential reference to this antithesis. In
this arrangement full justice is done to the anthropological
and especially to the christological element, inasmuch as
Christ appears in Schleiermacher's dogmatics as the middle
point, from which the Christian consciousness in all its
relations is determined. Here again, however, on the one
side, the metaphysical element is put too much in the
background, and on the other side, the first part, which
contains a philosophical exposition of the universal human
feeling of dependence upon God, does not, according to
Schleiermacher's general conception, belong to dogmatics.^
As a positive science. Christian dogmatics has nothing to
do with anything which does not properly belong to the
essential content of the Christian consciousness. It is not
man's dependence upon God, as Schleiermacher the philo
sopher conceives it, that is to be discussed, but dependence
upon God, as it is conceived according to the idea of
Christianity. Eothe, evidently influenced by Schleiermacher,
^ Comp. Bender, Sohleiermacher's Theologie, S. 404 i., 415 f., 419.
VOL. II. Y

338 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
distributes in his dogmatics the whole dogmatic material
under two divisions : the consciousness of sin and the con-
sciousness of grace. In a similar way Schenkel, who derives
dogmatics from the immediate consciousness of Christian
experience, divides it in his dogmatics into three parts ;
Sin, Eedemption, and Eestoration, giving the three funda
mental doctrines ; 1. Man in contradiction to his own
nature ; 2. Man in the fulfilling of his nature and destiny ;
and 3. Man in the enjoyment of salvation. , Against the
divisions of Eothe and Schenkel it may be said generally,
that sin has always as its presupposition a positive relation,
and hence dogmatics cannot make a beginning with it.
Biedermann and Lipsius have again returned to the local
method of distribution, without, however, being thereby
prevented from giving a thoroughly profound psychological
and metaphysical foundation to dogma. In the speculative
part of his dogmatics, Biedermann retains the division into
theology, anthropology, christology, soteriology, and escha
tology. Lipsius admits only three divisions: 1. The doctrine
of God ; 2. The doctrine of the world and of man ; and 3. The
doctrine of the redemption manifested in Christ. Alexander
Schweizer combines the Trinitarian division with the foederal
method. He arranges his dogmatics under two parts: 1.
theologia naturalis as foederis gratice ceconomice priores ante
legem et sub lege; 2. theologia revelata as fcederis gratice
ceconomia post legem s. evangelica, and this again is divided
into (a) the dispensation of the Father, (&) of the Son, (c) of
the Holy Spirit.
In the presence of these varied plans of division, it becomes
imperative to search out some objectively grounded scheme*
Such a one is formed when, not dogma, but the idea of
Christianity or the idea of reUgion, is made the subject of
dogmatics and ethics. As in § 40 we had to determine the
distribution of systematic theology generally according to the
formal conception of religion, so now dogmatics and ethics are

THEEEFOLD DIVISION OF DOGMATICS. 339
to be distributed in accordance with its material conception.
Thus, for dogmatics and its whole contents defined as
Christian, there are three parts, and each part brings into
prominence the mutual relationship between God and man,
which is contained in the general conception of religion.
Hence dogmatics has to set forth in its first part, the revelation
of God to man ; in the second, the separation between man
and God ; and in the third, the reconciliation of man with
God. The three parts are related together as thesis, antithesis,
and synthesis, and correspond to the theology, anthropology,
and soteriology of the old local method. Eschatology is
included in the third part under reconciliation.
Various methods for the detailed treatment of dogmatics
have found favour. The proper methods are those which
result from the very conception of dogmatics. In order to
obtain the original positive content of the Christian idea,
dogmatics must proceed in its three divisions from Holy
Scripture, and then subject to the criticism of its real and
formal principle, both the Scripture doctrine, in so far as it is
dogmatically determined, and also the historical dogma,
especially the Church doctrines, in order, by means of criti
cism, to set forth the Christian idea as the absolute religious
truth. FiEST Division — The Eevelation of God to Man. —
According to the Old Testament, God, as creator of heaven
and earth, is the supramundane God, who issues forth from
His transcendence, when He chooses one nation as His own
covenant people, and reveals to them His wUl as law. This
limitation and exclusiveness is removed by the New Testa
ment idea of God. God is a Spirit, who worketh all in all
(John iv. 24 ; 1 Cor. xU. 6) ; and, by reason of His revelation
of Himself in the human spirit. He is the God of mankind
(1 Cor. U. 10-13). As Christ Himself,' in consequence of the
Spirit of God dwelUng in Him, bears to God the relation of

340 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Son (Eom. i. 4 ; 2 Cor. .iii. 1 7), all believers in Christ, by
means of their faith, through which they enter into fellowship
{Kovvwia) with the Son (1 Cor. i. 9), receive the Spirit of
God, who makes their bodies temples of God, and brings
about their filial relationship with God the Father (yloOeaia).
1 Cor. vi. 17 ; Eom. viii, 9, 14-16 ; Gal. iii, 26, iv, 5, 6 ;
1 Cor. V. 16, vi. 19 ; 2 Cor. vi. 16. The supramundane,
transcendent God is the Father of all men, and, as Spirit, is
immanent in the human , spirit. Notwithstanding this un
doubtedly fundamental view represented in the New Testa
ment, which passed over from the religious consciousness of
Christ into that of the early Christian community, and bridged
the gulf, by which God and man at the Old Testament stand
point were separated, the theological product elaborated
both by rationalistic and by supernaturalistic theology, was
a doctrine of God, according to which God assumes an
attitude of absolute transcendence toward the world created
by Him, so that this, when once created, works on ever
lastingly like a machine, or perhaps, at special periods, is
determined in its course from without by means of a super
natural interference, especially by means of supernatural
revelations of God. In opposition to this abstract theism of
theology, and the abstract - dualism of God and the world
connected therewith, philosophy advanced her pantheistic
theory of the world, and sought to escape the theological
dualism by completely losing God in the world, whether
conceiving of God, as Spinoza did, as the Absolute, or, as
Jlegel did, as the Absolute Idea. God has no being outside
of and beyond the universe, but the universe itself is His
being. Abstract transcendence and abstract immanence form
the contradiction, with which theology and philosophy con
front one another. The Christian dogmatics of the present
finds the resolution of this contradiction its hardest problem.
Its solution is found in the Christian idea of God as the
Absolute Spirit. What is represented to reflection as contra.-

THE CHEISTIAN DOCTEINE OF THE TEINITY. 341
diction, appears in the history of religion as a historical
process, in the religions of nature as the immanence of God,
in Hebraism and Christianity as the transcendence of God.
In the purely spiritual monotheism of Christianity, however,
the process reaches its conclusion. The immanence of God
in the religions of nature is finiteness. Christianity as the
religion of transcendence rises above this finiteness, and
spiritualizes immanence, inasmuch as it makes the absolutely
supramundane God immanent in the finite world by His
Spirit. It is the part of dogmatics to bring together in the
idea of God the two principal elements in the historical
development of religion, and, over against abstract theological
theism and philosophical pantheism, to vindicate a spiritual
theism. The Church doctrine has set forth the idea of God
in the dogma of the Trinity. The notions of God the Father
and the Holy Spirit, which in the New Testament are to be
taken in a religious-ethical sense, and the notion of the Son
of God, which already in the New Testament has a meta
physical significance, have been employed so as to determine
the nature of God in a purely metaphysical sense. God the
Father, the Son, and the Spirit, — the Father unbegotten, the
Son begotten of the Father, the Spirit proceeding from the
Father and the Son, — these three persons, distinguished from
one another, but of the same divine essence, are the one God,
the one God is triune, trinitas in unitate, unitas in trinitate
(Symbolum Athanasianum). The dogma of the Trinity is no
mystery ; since it has been elaborated by man, it must have
some meaning or none. From the history of its origin, the
latter alternative is not to be entertained ; hence the question
simply is, what was historically the sense in which it was
laid down ? The most diverse explanations have been
attempted in order to make it inteUigible.^ With reference,
however, to the fundamental elements from the Hebrew
doctrine of Wisdom, and the New Testament metaphysical
' Compare Lipsius, Dogmatik, S. 275 f..

342 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
ideas springing therefrom, as also from the Greek philosophy,
which have contributed to the construction of the dogma, it
can scarcely be doubted, that the Christian spirit sought to
give definite expression in this dogma to the idea of God
given it, as the idea of the Absolute Spirit, and that the
interpretation of the Trinity ofl'ered by Augustine in the
phrases esse, nosse, and velle, is correct. Objection can be taken
to the dogma only if the form thereof be rigidly adhered to ;
but the answer is ready, that the notions borrowed from finite
relationships — Father, Son, Person, — are to be taken in
reference to the dogma, neither in an essential, nor in a
reUgious, but in a purely metaphysical sense, and should be
used to express in this sensible- form the universal nature of
God, that is, the nature of the Absolute Spirit, as God is
conceived to be. Spirit, conceived of absolutely, is absolute'
Being, ultimate source of His own existence, causa sui, aseitas
(Father), and then, since the object of His Imowledge is His
own Being, absolute self-consciousness (Son), and again, pro
ceeding from His Being and self-consciousness, only self-
determining Absolute Will (Spirit). Thus God, as Father,
Son, and Spirit, is the one Absolute Divine Essence, the
Absolute Spirit, and all attributes which belong to Him as
such, belong, in a like absolute manner, to His Being, His
Self-consciousness, and His Will. God is therefore conceived
of as Absolute Personality, an expression, which indeed the
dogma itself has not, but which results from it, and which
cannot be further explained than by saying, that the Absolute
Spirit is a personality, whose absoluteness consists in this,
that it is free from the mode of existence of finite personality,
under which the human spirit is represented.^ If theology
keeps firm hold of this idea of God, there will be no danger
of falling into a mythological idea of God. It resigns to
^ In this sense the expression could be quite well allowed by Biedermann.
Compare his profound discussion of the idea of the divine personality. Dog
matik, S. 638-647.

THE CHEISTIAN THEOEY OF THE WORLD. 343
speculative philosophy the investigation of the Trinity as a real,
antetemporal, immanent process of development in the divine
essence. What it maintains is only this, that the idea of the
Absolute Spirit is the idea of God which is most consonant
with the human reason, without thereby affirming that with
this idea we have fathomed the divine essence in its objective
depths. It is not the doctrine of the Trinity, but the idea of
God itself, that is the mystery ; and that is, indeed, a mystery
for philosophy, as well as for theology.^
The essential Trinity is the Trinity of revelation. God,
as the Absolute Spirit, reveals Himself in the necessity of
His essence, which for Himself is absolute freedom, in the
creation, upholding, and governing of the world (Eom. xi.
36). God, the eternal, is omnipotence and wisdom, omni
presence and omniscience, love and goodness, holiness and
righteousness. The universe, the entire circle of finite being,
nature and man, has for its end the revelation of God. A
divine teleology pervades nature and man, and has for its
bearer and channel of communication the human spirit. As
nature is a revelation of God to man, man's consciousness of
God points back to an original revelation of God in the finite
Spirit. Man as a natural being is subject to the necessity of
nature, but as a spiritual being, he is related to God, and, in
contrast to nature, he is free. By means of his innate con
sciousness of God, he transcends the bounds of finitude,
although natural necessity makes a breach upon his human
freedom. Had it not been imprinted at creation on the
nature of man, that, so soon as he should issue from his
preconscious condition, his consciousness of God, the feeling
of dependence on a higher divine power, should make its
appearance alongside of his self-consciousness, man could not
have risen above the animal stage and the domain of nature
into the sphere of the spiritual life. The religious life of
mankind can be explained only from an original, eternal, and
* Compare Pfleiderer, Religionsphilosophie, S. 249.

344 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
uninterruptedly continued revelation of God in the spirit of
man. This metaphysical basis is the presupposition of the
history of religion, by means of which the religious spirit, in
the exercise of its freedom' in connection with nature and
history, is led on to higher stages in the consciousness of God,
untU in Christ the revelation is completed, and the idea of
God in its absolute truth is revealed. The higher power,
the consciousness of which is innate in the human spirit, is the
Absolute Spirit, and the highest stage of religiosity is the
communion of the finite spirit with the Absolute Spirit, by
means of which man first attains unto true freedom, to freedom
in God, and to the consciousness of His full ideal destiny.
This is the divine providence, which shows itself as the power
of the Spirit of God in the history of mankind, as well as of the
individual, and serves as an organ for the realizing of the
kingdom of God on earth, and for the spiritualizing and
ennobling of man's life through the Spirit of God.
Already in the Old Testament (Gen. i. 26, 27, ii. 7),
expression was given to man's longing after relationship with
God, and, in accordance therewith, the Church doctrine has
formulated its dogma of the divine image. The Protestant
Church has regarded the divine image as belonging to man in
creation. Therein lies the truth of the Church doctrine ; but,
inasmuch as it conceives of the divine image as spiritual and
physical completeness, and represents this as the actual con
dition of the first man {status integritatis), it identifies, in an
unhistorical way, idea and reality. The idea is the final end,
and the innate divine image in man belongs to his essence,
not merely as the beginning, but as the potential foundation,
from which the spiritual life of man must be developed. The
dogma of the Eoman Catholic Church is superficial. It dis
tinguishes between imago and similitudo Bei, and considers
that only the former, as reason and free will, is innate in
man, whereas the divine principle of life in man, the divine
likeness belonging to his inmost being, the similitudo Bei, is

VALUE OF PROOFS FOE THE BEING OF GOD. 345
regarded as a donum supernatxirale, as a donum superadditum,
as a gift bestowed by God on human nature. This idea of
the divine likeness in man lies also at the foundation of the
Church dogma of the Person of Christ. What was realized
in Christ, the perfect revelation of God, what the Church
doctrine conceives of as the incarnation of God in Christ,
points back to an original and uninterruptedly continued
revelation of God in the spirit of man. The Logos, who was
from eternity with God, has also from eternity become man.
What in the New Testament is said of Christ, that the Logos
was made flesh in Him, is a statement regarding man in
general, inasmuch as the divine is innate in every man (Acts
xvii, 27, 28). This original consciousness of God, innate in
human nature, is the paradise, in which the child is surrounded
by the streams of the divine love, a condition, which the
Church doctrine represents as that of the first man ; which,
however, was not only the condition of the first man, but is
the first condition of all men.
Proofs of the existence of God have for their presupposition
the consciousness of the infinite innate in the human spirit.
The more importance they have for science, the less have they
for the believing consciousness. All those proofs, the cosmo-
logical, the physico-theological, the historical, the moral, the
ontological, cannot lead to a mathematical proof of the exist
ence of God, nor even to a proof of the existence of God as an
object of empirical knowledge, but are valid only as a proof,
that the human spirit, by its consideration of the whole range
of empirical being, is necessitated, in accordance with the
laws of its very nature, to assume an absolute intelligent
author of the world, a spiritual ultimate ground of the
natural and spiritual universe. Man, therefore, must assume,
not only that God is, but also that He is not the Absolute, the
Infinite, the Universal, which is identical with the universe,
but the Absolute Spirit, at once transcending the world and
immanent in it. The mode of creation, however, is, like the

346 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
idea of God itself, a mystery to human reason, and here the
word of the apostle (1 Cor. xiii. 12) applies to theology and
to philosophy. Dogmatics accepts and must adopt this positive standpoint
of ideal theism. From this it proceeds, maintaining a free
and independent attitude toward natural science and philo
sophy. Exact natural science has nothing to do with God,
and the religious consciousness has nothing to do with
natural science. Owing to its direct reference to God, the
Christian faith is independent of any theory of nature and
the world. The Old Testament view of nature passed over
into Christianity, and faith was associated with it, and it is
said in Scripture, heaven and earth shall pass away, but my
words shall not pass away (Matt. xxiv. 3 5). For theology,
on the other hand, which, in its dogmatics, has to reach a
universal theory of the world from religious foundations,
the generally admitted results of the investigation of nature
are of the utmost significance. They are to be thankfully
accepted, and employed in the scientific construction of theo
logy. Instead of assuming an attitude of hostUity toward
natural science, theology has rather the assurance in itself,
that the more comprehensive and thorough the investigation
of the life of nature is, the more profound wiU be the know
ledge of God and of His creation. Theology admits phUosophy
into its spiritual realm for the freest investigation. But if
a materialist philosophy appears which operates upon the
mere results of natural science, and, resting on these, proclaims
atheism as the highest truth, dogmatics must bring Christian
idealism into the conflict against such false philosophy, and
must, likewise, oppose its theistic metaphysics to a pantheistic
philosophy, which concludes at the point where speculative
thinking has to begin. How far it is right in this proceeding,
philosophy itself may decide. At its positive standpoint
theology feels confident, that those tendencies contested by it
will not be able to maintain their ground before the tribunal

THE UNIVEESALlTY OF SIN. 347
of philosophy itself, and it can entertain this assurance all the
more confidently, since in the present time a philosophy gains
currency, which coincides with theology in maintaining an
ideal theism.-*
Second Division — The Separation between Man and
God. — Human freedom as a psychological fact, and one
ordained of God, is joined with man's original close connection
with God, or his essential destination to divine fellowship.
Man is a natural and a spiritual being. As a spiritual being
he is related to God, and by reason of his freedom is superior
to nature ; his development is not under the law of natural
necessity, but is conditioned by his own self-determination.
As compared with God, he is a finite spirit, whose finiteness
consists in his formal freedom, by means of which it is made
possible for him to dissolve his original connection with God,
and to free himself from the divine fellowship immanent in
him. This possibility, according to the Scripture doctrine, has
become a universal fact. Man is found in a condition of
estrangement from God and enmity toward God. Sin has
obtained dominion over him, and has broken the bond that
should bind God and man together. This is already expressed
in the fieravoelre, the call to repentance, with which Christ
begins His preaching to man, and, by numerous passages, is
shown to be the fundamental doctrine of the Bible (1 Kings
viii. 46; Job xv. 14; Ps. xiv. 2, cxvi. 11, cxliii. 3; Prov.
XX. 9 ; Eccles. vii. 20 ; Eom. iii. 23, v. 12 ff., vi. 17, vii. 14,

^ J. H. Fichte, Ueber die Bedingungen eines speculativen Theismus. Elber
feld 1835. By the same author : Die theistische Weltansicht nnd ihre Berech-
tigung. Leipzig 1873. By the same : Fragen und Bedenken fiber die nachste
ForthUdung deutscher Speculation. Leipzig 1876. H. Ulrici, Gott und die
Natur. 2 Ausg. Leipzig 1866. By the same : Gott nnd der Mensch. 2
Bde. Leipzig 1863-1873. — H. Lotze, Mikrokosmos. 3 Bde. Leipzig 1856-
1864. [Engl, transl. announced by T. & T. Clark.] H. Lotze, System der
Philosophie. 2 Thle. Leipzig 1874-1879. H. Spath, Gott und Welt. Gnmd-
zuge einer die Gegensatze der Nenzeit in sich verarbeitenden theistischen Welt
anschauung. Berlin 1867.

348 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
20 ; Gal. iii. 22 ; Eph. ii. 3 ; Heb. xn. 1 ; 1 John i. 8, etc.).
The Church doctrine derives the universality of the fact from
the fall of the first man, from the fall of Adam, The punish
ment of this was the loss of the divine image. The
Protestant Church doctrine considers that the divine image,
which belonged to the first man in creation, the original
spiritual and physical completeness, was lost in consequence
of the fall, so that in this way the essence of human nature
itself was corrupted. According to the Eoman Catholic
Church doctrine, too, the divine likeness, as similitudo Bei, was
lost ; nothing remains to Adam after the fall but the imago
Bei, the rational freedom of will. The sin committed by our
first parent became the heritage of all his descendants, so that
they, as affected with original sin, have to suffer the same
punishment with Adam, the loss of the divine likeness, and
are found, according to the Protestant doctrine, in a condition
of complete ungodliness, living in sin and spiritual darkness
{status corruptionis). The truth, which lies in the Church
dogma, amounts only to that which Holy Scripture also main
tains, that all men are sinners. But the proof, which the
dogma offers of it, has no foundation. Even apart from the
fact, that Adam's possession of the divine image presupposed
by it does not explain how it became possible for Adam
himself to fall, the dogma puts in place of sin, the univer
sality of which has to be proved, a conception, by means of
which the idea of sin itself is destroyed. Original sin
(inherited sin) is a contradictio in adjecto. Sin is an act of
the human will (causa peccati est voluntas malorum. Conf.
Aug. 1 9), and as such cannot descend by physical communi
cation to others, but only as an act of will can arise in others.
The universality of sin, therefore, is not to be derived as an
inheritance from Adam, but as a determination of human
nature and freedom of will. The paradisaical condition of
childhood is at an end, so soon as man enters upon a life of
self-consciousness. As man asserts his freedom over against

THE NATUEE OF HUMAN SIN. 349
nature, and seeks to affirm his natural self over against the
forces of nature, his self-love and his self-will lead him also
to oppose God, of whom he has become conscious as a being
existing outside of him, and, forgetful of his essential destina
tion to fellowship with God, he sets himself, in the interest
of his natural self, in antagonism to the divine ordinances,
and to the decrees and determinations of the divine wUl.
By means of his freedom, which has selfishness for its con
tent, man falls into sin, into separation from God, and thereby
comes into opposition to his own innermost nature. The
connection with God immanent in him, he has, in the exercise
of his freedom, exchanged for separation from God. The rela
tion between God and man is reversed by sin. The will of
God absolutely opposes sin, and so the sinful act of the
human will runs directly counter to the divine wiU and calls
forth the divine wrath. This is a separation between God
and man which, so soon as man becomes conscious of it,
produces an anguish of soul that gnaws the inmost marrow
of his spiritual life, and drives the man, who allows sin to
gain dominion over him, to despair of himself. This separa
tion finds expression in aU reUgions. The history of religion
is the most satisfactory witness to the universality of the fact.
The more developed the consciousness of God is, the more
developed also is the consciousness of sin, and the more keen
the religious conscience has become, by means of this develop
ment, the more .tormenting and distracting is the anguish of
soul, which is awakened by sin. That man, in his empirical
existence, is found in a state of sin, as Holy Scripture affirms,
is a fact of experience, which is to be explained from the
natural condition of man and is witnessed to by history.
Neither theology nor philosophy can prove that every man
must actuaUy sin. This much only can be proved from the
nature of his being, that sin approaches him as temptation,
and that at least as temptation he has to conquer it. The
proof of the universality of sin can only fall back upon the

350 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
testimony of the individual self-consciousness. What the
Church doctrine says of Adam, what it regards as happening
at a particular time in one man, and from him descending
physically as a heritage to all his posterity, is a universally
human act. Not inherited sin, but actual sinning, has passed
from Adam to all his posterity, though yet it cannot be
proved that every man must sin. Every one, however, who
sins, has, with his consciousness of sin, at the same time, the
consciousness that, in accordance with his innermost essence,
he ought to have acted differently, and that he might have
acted differently, if he had actually wished. The conscious
ness of guilt, which is always associated with the conscious
ness of sin, proves that sin is an act of the human will. But
the religious conscience, the relation to God immanent in
human nature, is the presupposition of both the consciousness
of sin and the consciousness of guilt. Before his own con
science man knows himself to be a sinner and guilty in the
sight of God. Hence even by sin, conscience is not effaced
in man. He may be ever so far lost in sin, he may in the
exercise of his freedom have strayed ever so far away from
God (Acts xvU, 27, 28), but he has not burst the bands that
bind him to God, Even in the most depraved sinner, there is
still existing, in the reUgious conscience, an affinity to God,
though slumbering and overlaid by human passions. The
Protestant Church doctrine is inconsequent, and at the same
time untrue, inasmuch as it supposes the divine likeness,
which according to it belongs in creation to human nature,
to be lost by Adam's fall.*
Thied Division — The Eeconciliation of Man with God.
— The opposition against God' into which man was brought by

' For a treatment of the doctrine of sin, more in accordance with orthodox
views, compare Julius Miiller, Doctrine of Sin. 2 vols. Edin. 1868. Especially
vol. ii. pp. 307-401, on the doctrine of Hereditary Sin and the Origin of Inborn
Sinfulness. Also, Laidlaw, Bible Doctrine of Man. Edin, 1879. — Ed,

THE CHEISTOLOGY OF THE SCEIPTUEE AND THE CHUECH. 351
sin led to the disturbance of man's original spiritual life.
For his self-preservation, man must overcome this opposition
in his own inner being. As the consciousness of sin and .
guilt proceeds from the religious conscience, so also there
issues from it the longing and desire to rise out of estrange
ment from God into reunion and reconciliation with God. If
the Protestant Church doctrine regards this presupposed
psychological postulate as irreconcilable with its dogma of
human nature corrupted by original sin, it destroys the
capacity for redemption as weU as the feeling of the need
of redemption, and must reduce conversion to a merely
supernatural operation, working upon man from without.
(P'ormula Concordise, I. II.)
According to the New Testament Christology, Christ is the
p.e<jirri<;, the mediator between God and sinful man, and the
(TcoT'^p, who delivers sinful man from sin, and works out his
reconciliation with God. He is the Man begotten of the
Holy Ghost, the Sinless One, who conquered sin in temptation,
the incarnate Logos, and, as such, the Son of God, whom God
in His infinite love sent into the world for man's redemption,
who lived in absolute oneness with the Father, and, in accord
ance with the divine purpose, surrendered Himself to death,
in free self-sacrifice, for the sins of man, and by this vicarious
sacrificial death accomplished the reconciliation of man with
God. (Compare § 32.) The Church doctrine has dogmatically
systematized those Christological outlines contained in the
New Testament. According to it Christ is the Son of God,
inasmuch as in Him the second person of the Godhead
assumed the human form, so that He unites in Himself in one
person God and man, a double nature, the divine and the
human. Since man in his state of original sin can do nothing
toward his reconciUation with God, God has Himself had
compassion on man in Christ, and pointed him out the way
to reconciliation with Him and to eternal life. Christ, who as
man felt the whole burden of man's sin, while Himself free

352 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
from sin, was alone able, by His sacrificial death, to offer to
the divine righteousness, the satisfaction which God must
demand, if He is to forgive men their sins and reconcile them
to Himself. As through Adam sin entered the world, so
again, at a particular time, through the second spiritual Adam,
sin is destroyed and reconciliation with God is secured. Man,
therefore, has to appropriate to himself the merits of Christ by
faith, and can be assured of the grace of God, which accepts
the sacrificial death of Christ as satisfaction for sins, and
regards men, on the ground of their faith, as righteous before
God. According to this Church dogma, which has its roots in
the New Testament, Christianity appears as a divine con
trivance external to man. Christ stands apart from man, as
the Son of God, in a metaphysical sense. By means, too, of
the objective fact of His sacrificial death, also external to man.
He delivers man from the guilt and power of sin, and effects
his reconciliation with God. But Christianity in its original
essence, that is, according to the religious self-consciousness of
Christ and the idea of God revealed by Him, is not such an
external contrivance, and the reconciliation is not such an
external fact accomplished at a particular moment in time,
but the most profound and inward experience of the human
spirit, constantly repeating itself; and in respect of this
experience Christ is the true redeemer of man, and the
spiritual mediator between him and God. As the individual
man, be he ever so sinful, is yet never forsaken of God, so also
is it with mankind in its totality. By reason of the original
divine revelation, in which the essential divine destination of
man has its ground, the religious life proceeds through history
constantly alongside of the sinful life ; but since in the pre-
Christian religions the divine never came completely into
consciousness, in them, too, the might of sin was not broken.
The world-wide significance of Christ consists iu this, that the
eternal revelation of God in Him reaches perfection, that

THE CHEISTOLOGY OF SCEIPTUEE AND THE CHURCH. 353
what had lain from eternity in the spirit of man as a religious
potentiality, was fuUy realized in the Ufe of Christ. In His
self-consciousness, the idea of God is present in its spiritual
truth, and as He brought it into consciousness, it is also the
element of His will. His whole existence. His life and death,
is a personal living out of absolute divine truth. Inasmuch
as Christ, as a historical person, is begotten of the Holy
Spirit, and is the manifested divine Logos, and the Son of
God, in so far are the divine and human natures united in
Him in one person, and Christ is among men the One, above
whom none can rise.
The meaning of the christology of the Church has light
shed upon it from its Old Testament sources, and from the
various forms of christological doctrine in the New Testament.
(Compare § 32.) In the latter we see clearly, that amid all
the diversity the tendency of the primitive Christian com
munity was to give prominence to the principle of the divine
life, in which Christ's spiritual life consisted. Hence the
truth of the christological metaphysics in the Church doctrine
amounts to this, that it sets forth the idea of reUgion in its
absolute fulfilment in Christ, as the divine-human life, and the
idea of man as the possession of the divine likeness, which,
however, it unhistoricaUy regards as realized in the first man,
and also unhistoricaUy conceives of as lost to man in the fall
of Adam. In this ideal conception the historical Christ is in
truth the Eedeemer of mankind. Inasmuch as He has realized
in His person the idea of religion, the ideal divine-human life,
it is by feUowship with Him that man must gain deliverance
from sin and rise to the ideality of the divine-human life.
The Church doctrine of the vicarious and expiatory sacrificial
death of Christ has its origin in the early Christian com
munity. The idea of sacrifice is common to all reUgions. In
all pre-Christian religions it is conceived of in a purely
external manner; sacrifice appears here as the surrender of
an earthly possession, of animal or human life. This external
VOL. IL z

354 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
way of viewing sacrifice passed over from the religions of
nature into Hebraism, and from that into the primitive
Christian Church. (Compare § 32.) This pagan- Judaistic
conception of the death of Christ, as a sacrifice presented to
God for the sins of man, is irreconcilable with the Christian
idea of God and Christianity as a spiritual religion. What
the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews (chap. x. 4) says :
" it is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats can
take away, sins," applies equaUy to the physical blood of
Christ. In the New Covenant, concerning which the author
(chap. viii. 8-12) calls the prophet Jeremiah as witness, a
bleeding sacrifice has, according to Jeremiah, no longer place.
By Christ Himself the outward sacrifices of the pre-Christian
religions are exchanged for the true, inward sacrifice, the
surrender of the human life to God, with all its sensuous,
selfish, and worldly desires. Therefore, not by the outward
fact of the bloody sacrificial death of Christ is a sinful man
reconciled to God, but by making the inner divine Ufe of
Christ his own, by putting on Christ, as the Scripture says
(Eom. xiii. 1 4 ; Gal. Ui. 2 7), that is, entering into perfect
fellowship of life with Christ. Thus out of the old man there
comes a new man, out of the man of sin there comes a man
endued with the Spirit of God. Eedemption and reconcilia
tion with God through Christ is not a single fact in respect
of time, but something happening continuously in the spirit
of man. Inasmuch as sinful man beholds in Christ the
divine-human life in its perfection, the consciousness of God
which, notwithstanding sin, is yet not effaced from his
conscience, is again awakened. In the Ught of the divine
truth, which was rekindled by Christ, he not only beholds
the vanity and corruption of his earlier sinful life, but is also
attracted with iiTcsistible power to the perfect divine life in
Christ. This is the enlightenment of the sinner proceeding
from Christ. By means of this he is led immediately to
repentance, which implies an insight into the blameableness

FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD RESTORED IN CHRIST. 355
of his earlier sinful life, as weU as inward longing after
reconciliation with God. In repentance the power of God
proves itself superior to human wilfulness, and enables man
to resolve to withdraw himself with abhorrence from his
sinful courses, and to surrender himself to the divine life
revealed in Christ. Out of repentance springs faith, the
unconditional surrender of the human heart to Christ, and
through Christ to God. By means of faith the lost union
with God is won again, inasmuch as the consciousness of the
forgiveness of sins and of reconciliation with God is imme
diately connected with the spiritual sacrifice of faith. The
divine life of Christ now becomes more and more the
possession of the believer justified before God, so that no
longer his own human wilfulness, but the Spirit of Christ,
which is the Spirit of God, or the Holy Spirit, has dominion
over him. The life of him that is spiritually born again is a
life in God, and a growing sanctification, by means of which
the believer is made free from his selfishness and the power
of the finite over him, and is made partaker of the real divine-
human freedom. This freedom is the freedom of the children
of God won by Christ, by means of which all beUevers are
sons of God in association with Christ, who is the only-
begotten Son of God. Through Christ, they are raised into
the ideal fellowship of spirit and life with God, out of that
estrangement from God, into which they had been brought by
sin. This fellowship, the highest end of the development of
man's life, is the salvation wrought by Christ for believers,
which, begun in the present world, finds in the Christian
hope its completion as the eternal life of blessedness in the
world to come.
Christ is thus as a historical person Eevealer, Eedeemer,
and Saviour of man. {Munus propheticum cannot be fitly
conferred on Christ, since He is more than a prophet, munus
sacerdotale and munus regium.)
Eising out of the sinful condition to the ideal height of

356 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
human life, the appropriation of salvation proves to be a
co-operating of human freedom and the Spirit of God.
{Gratia resistibilis and amissibilis.) The co-operation of
man does not first begin after conversion (Form. Gone. ii.
17), but even before conversion appears as the free deter
mination of the man to separate himself from sin. At the
same time, however, for the Christian consciousness and
objectively the appropriation of salvation in its beginning
and in its course is the work of divine love and grace.
The appropriation of salvation is at the same time the
imputation of salvation. It is by God remaining in man
in spite of sin, and by God meeting the sinner in Christ,
that man is delivered from sin, sanctified in heart, and
made an heir of eternal salvation. God unceasingly pities
the sinner, and man has to thank, not his own doings and
deserts, but only the grace of God, for raising him again,
in spite of his sin, into fellowship with God. In this lies
the infinite comfort and the infinite confidence of the
Christian consciousness. The Christian religious conscience,
which among the saved is the immediate consciousness of
spiritual boundenness to God and of spiritual freedom in
God, counteracts the opposition to divine grace and to the
Holy Spirit on the part of human freedom not yet wholly
overcome even in the regenerate. The great doctrinal contro
versy of the Western Church, the controversy of Augustinian
ism, Pelagianism, and semi-Pelagianism, is to be estimated
in accordance with these principles. Protestantism, with
profound insight into the religious life, has advanced against
the Eoman CathoUc doctrine of human merit the doctrine
of the grace of God. It has, however, overlooked the element
of human freedom which appears in the appropriation of
salvation as the resolution to break with sin, and turn
beUevingly to Christ, an element which has been properly
made prominent by semi-Pelagianism.
With reference to the divine grace, the instrumentalities

THE KINGDOM OF GOD OR THE CHUECH. 357
by which man is led to salvation, are quite fitly styled
means of grace. These, as indeed the Protestant Church
teaches, can only be the word of God, which is contained
in Holy Scripture, and the sacraments of baptism and the
Lord's Supper : — the word of God which sets forth Christ
as the Eevealer, Eedeemer, and Saviour of men, baptism
as the sacrament of incorporation into the Christian fellow
ship under the assurance of the redemption wrought by
Christ, and the Lord's Supper as the sacrament of spiritual
communion with Christ, whose death forms the cUmax of
His devoted Ufe.
The application of salvation is completed in the Church.
The common religious consciousness leads, in the case of
every religion, to the formation of a religious community,
in which the inner religious life gives itself an outward
form in worship. Christianity, however, is distinguished
from all the pre-Christian religions, as being destined, not
for a particular race, but for humanity. The highest ideal
has been revealed by Christ in the idea of the kingdom of
God, and aU mankind is called to share in its realization.
The kingdom of God is, according to its idea, humanity
penetrated by the Spirit of God, and determined in its .life
by the Spirit of God, or called to a real spiritual and living
fellowship with God. The historical organ for its manifesta
tion is the Church, the institution ordained by God for the
dispensing of salvation, which is defined as the fellowship
of all believers in Christ, and is bound together, inwardly
by faith and the common Christian spirit produced by it,
and outwardly by certain organic forms and functions.
Historically the Church has broken up into numerous
sects, but each of these is a communion of believers in
Christ bound together by such inward and outward con
ditions of life. Against Eoman Catholicism, which identifies
its own particular Church with the kingdom of God, the
Eeformation has exhibited the proper relation between idea

358 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
and reality, by its distinction of the invisible and the visible
Church. The invisible Church stands over against the visible,
as the idea of the Church, the kingdom of God, which tran
scends the existing visible Churches, but is active in all
these as the idea, and makes the particular Churches more
or less quaUfied organs of the kingdom of God. Hence, the
separate Churches are all only parts of the great ecclesi
astical organism in the service of the kingdom of God, and
that denomination wiU most nearly approach the idfea, which
aims at nothing else than building up in the faith required
by Christ, and employs for this end no other means than
the word and sacraments as means of grace ordained by
God and dispensed in the Spirit of Christ, while it arranges
the outward organism according to the idea of Church
fellowship, without ascribing thereto an absolute significance
for the obtaining of salvation. The Church of the Eeforma
tion in its original form comes nearest to this idea, while the
Eoman Catholic Church stands farthest from it, inasmuch
as, instead of making salvation aud eternal blessedness de
pendent on the efficacy of the means of grace, it makes them
dependent upon the mediation of the priesthood and obedience
to an outward Church organism.
WhUe the kingdom of God, as the invisible Church, is
a subject of Christian faith, its completion in the future
is a subject of Christian hope. The early Christian Church
expected this completion to be soon accomplished, to be
realized at definite periods in an outward act, which begins
with the resurrection of Christ and closes with the final
judgment. In the Church doctrine, these eschatological
theories assumed the national-Jewish form, in which the
early Church expressed its hopes, and in the Church, as
weU as in the primitive community, came to be regarded
universally as historical realities. Toward no dogma does
Church orthodoxy assume so wilful an attitude as toward
the eschatological. Its constituent parts stand in close

CHEISTIAN ESCHATOLOGY. 359
relation to one another, so that one cannot be taken out
at pleasure, and all the rest retained. If the resurrection
of Christ be maintained as a leading article of the faith,
by denying which the foundations of the Church itself are
shaken, to pretend that all the other articles of the dogma,
the ascension of Christ, His sitting at God's right hand,
the visible coming again of Christ, the thousand years'
reign, the first and second resurrections, the final judgment
of good and bad, the destruction of Satan and all antichristian
powers, the creation of a new heaven and a new earth, and
tlie founding of a new Jerusalem with its glorious surround
ings, are entitled to the same belief as the resurrection of
Christ, especially the declaration, that they are the foundation
of the Church, is historically quite untenable. Nevertheless,
history itself, which passed lightly over the expectations of
the early Christian Church, without fulfilling them in the
way looked for, and also the origin of those expectations in
prophetical and apocalyptical views of Judaism, prove that
the eschatological pictures have their truth, not in their
historicity, but in their ideal contents, that thej' are therefore
to be conceived of, not dogmatically as historical realities, but
as a sacred drama, in which the early Christian community
gives expression to the substance of the Christian hope. In
this lies their significance for the Christian consciousness, and
therefore they are rightly adopted and authenticated by the
Church doctrine. But theology has here to make good a
great neglect, and to obviate in the future the mischief, which
the peculiar conception of the eschatological pictures has
wrought in the history of the Church, by assisting the laity
especially to a right understanding of them. The glorified
Christ is the ideal Christ. The real personal union with
Him, unto which the early Christian Church aspired, is the
symbol of spiritual communion with Him. The second
coming of Christ is the symbol of the abtual presence of
His Spirit in the Church. The life of the first Christians in

360 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA. «
view of the second coming is the symbol of the life of the
Church in the Spirit in its present state. The final judgment
is the symbol of the judgment which His Spirit is uninter
ruptedly passing in His Church upon the good and evU
(Matt. XXV. 31-46; John Ui. 19-21, xvi. 7-11). The
destruction of Satan and of all antichristian powers signifies
the final victory over the world broken away from God and
opposing His Spirit. The woes, which precede the return of
Christ, are the conflicts and sufferings which, in the life of the
individual and of the race, prepare the way for the Spirit of
Christ. The new heavens, the new earth, and the new
Jerusalem, represent humanity glorified by the Spirit of God.
What sacred poetry describes as occurring outwardly at a
particular period, and reaching a conclusion, is an occurrence
continually taking place in humanity, the gradual and regu
larly continued realization of the kingdom of God in the
world. The Christian, by reason of his consciousness of God, is
raised above this temporal scene to the hope of an eternal
spiritual fellowship with God. The usual proofs, which are
advanced on behalf of immortality, the ontological, moral,
teleological, and historical, have no mathematical demonstra
tive force, but they aU support the proof, which is derived
from the nature of religion, of the continuance of the human
spirit after physical death. The divine destination which
belongs essentially to the human spirit, according to which
it was created for communion with God, is the basis upon
which the idea of an eternally continued existence of the
human spirit rests. The idea of immortality stands and
falls with the idea of God. Courage to deny immortality
dies away under the consciousness that the means at the
disposal of science are not sufficient for this purpose.* But,
on the other hand, human thinking too must be content with
aiming at some sort of definition of the idea. All sensible
' This applies to Biedermann, Dogmatik, S. 743.

LITERATURE OF DOGMATICS. 361
representations and all spiritualistic superstition regarding
the future are to be regarded as dreams of an unregulated
fancy. Human thinking has its limits just here. The mode
of the existence of God and the mode of the creation of
the world, as well as the mode of eternal life, are incom
prehensible to the finite spirit of man. But the idea itself
he cannot surrender. On the part of the religious conscious
ness, the development of the kingdom of God transcends the
limits and the conditions of the finite and embraces eternity.
In dogmatics, the ecclesiastical and theological contradic
tions appear in their most determined form. For a thorough
study of these, the dogmatic systems of diverse tendencies
must be referred to. In recent times, dogmatics has been
treated from the supernaturalistic standpoint by Storr, Eein-
hard, Knapp, Hahn, Steudel, W. Bohmer, Ebrard, Thomasius,
Liebner, Philippi, Kahnis, Hoffmann, Luthardt (Hodge and
Oosterzee) ; from the rationalistic standpoint by Wegscheider,
Bretschneider, Eiickert ; in an original manner, or, at least, free
from the onesidedness of those two tendencies, by Schleier
macher, de Wette, Hase, Twesten, Nitzsch [Engl, transl. :
System of Chr. Doctrine. Edin. 1849], J. P. Lange, Mar
tensen [Engl. transL : Chr. Dogmatics. Edin. 1866], Schenkel,
Lipsius, Eothe, Dorner [Engl, transl. : System of Christian
Doctrine. 4 vols. Edin. 1880-1882] ; from the speculative
standpoint by Daub, Marheineke, Strauss, Weisse, H. Lang,
Biedermann. The Eeformed Church doctrine has been ex
pounded by Alex. Schweizer ; that of the Eoman Catholic
Church by Hermes, Fr. Baader, Klee, Staudenmaier, Gunther,
Peronne.

362 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

§ 43. ETHICS.
Ethics is the complement of dogmatics. The idea of
religion, which is set forth by dogmatics as the contents of
the Christian self-consciousness, forms likewise the contents of
the Christian self-determination and the norm of the Christian
Ufe. The spiritual fellowship with God which the Christian
enjoys has to be realized in practical life by free human action.
Ethics is the science of the Christian life and fellowship with
God, or the moral life determined by the Spirit of God. Inas
much as the idea of religion, as a fellowship of spirit and life with
God, was perfectly realized in Christ, ethics may also be defined
as the science of the human life in imitation of Christ. Inas
much as it shows how the divine-human life of Christ is to be
realized by free human conduct in all the spheres of man's life^
it may also be regarded as the science of the realization of the
kingdom of God on earth. Diverse as the conceptions of
theological ethics are, every one perceives the connection
which subsists between ethics and dogmatics. The connec
tion between the two branches is so close, that a separation of
them can only result in loss to ethics. The relation is, gene
rally speaking, this : Ethics rests upon a dogmatic foundation,
and has to borrow its principles from dogmatics, so that its
essential task amounts to this, that it points out how those
dogmatic principles have to construct for themselves universal
laws dominating the human life. Hence, the relation between
the two branches is not to be conceived of as though dogmatics
treated of man in his dependence upon God, to the exclusion
of freedom, and ethics treated of man in his freedom to the
exclusion of his dependence. Eather the purely religious and
the ethical are blended together in both branches. As in
dogmatics, the appropriation of salvation presupposes an opera-

eothe's conception of ETHICS. 363
tion of the human will ; in ethics, human freedom presupposes
subjection unto God. Christianity as spiritual religion is at
no stage of its psychological development an exercise of con
straint, but free subjection and subject freedom. What is true
of the Christian faith is also true of the practical life. In this
sense the relation is accurately expressed in the attitude which
ethics bears to dogmatics, as it appears in the actual Ufe of
faith, inasmuch as in this life the two sides, the theoretical
and practical, are most directly bound together, the beUever, as
the truly religious man, immediately converts the contents of
his reUgious consciousness into action.
In consequence of the connection subsisting between ethics
and dogmatics, both are to be equally regarded as positive
sciences, and as such theological ethics is distinguished from
philosophical ethics. Eothe has wrenched theological ethics
completely away from dogmatics. Still more decidedly than
Schleiermacher, he assigns dogmatics its place under historical
theology, and treats of theological ethics in the first part of
theology, in speculative theology. But speculative theology,
in Eothe's use of the term, is a contradictio in adjecto. Eothe
himself defines speculation as pure thinking, and demands of
the speculatist that he proceed from the primary datum of pure
thought, " from the human consciousness in its absolute purity,
that is, thoroughly abstracted from all particular contents, from
the pure function of consciousness." But he himself carries
the idea of God into the pure thmking from the pious con
sciousness, and from this standpoint reaches his speculative
theology. In this way he overturns the idea of speculation
which he had himself laid down, and the theology, which he
calls speculative, is in reality not speculative. Theology
relegates speculation from pure thought to phUosophy, and from
it demands a speculative philosophy of religion and speculative
ethics, but theology will have to construct dogmatics and
ethics, as positive sciences, with the aid of rational thought
common to all the sciences. Theological ethics, therefore, is

364 theological encyclopedia.
distinguished from philosophical ethics, inasmuch as it bases
its principles upon dogmatic presuppositions, whereas philo
sophical ethics has to discover and expound its principles and
moral laws purely from the human personal consciousness.
But, since theological ethics has for its foundation the univer
sally human idea of religion, and pursues no other end than
the discovery of the truly human in the Christian, and the
Christian in the truly human, its moral law, as well as that
of philosophical ethics, lays claim to universal validity and to
a binding obligation upon all men. Upon this ground, too, the
hope is entertained, that philosophical and theological ethics,
although, like the philosophy of religion and dogmatics, they
proceed from different starting-points, will nevertheless agree
in their essential results. Theological ethics, however, has
always this advantage over philosophical ethics, that it requires
not, as that does, to search out the moral life, and to lay down
a mere theory regarding it, but has the moral idea given it in
Christ, as a historical reUgious fact, and can set forth Christ, as
a pattern, as the reaUzed ideal of the moral life of man.
Theological ethics, therefore, as a system of essentially reUgious
morality, excludes also a great portion of the material of
phUosophical ethics, and deals with only the highest ideal
sphere of morality, which approves itself as the absolute
realization of the moral idea in the kingdom of God.
In regard to the method of treatment, the ethicist, as well
as the dogmatist, must start from Holy Scripture, and especially
from the life of Jesus, and must estimate the rich ethical
contents of the Old and New Testaments in the light of the
Christian idea. Further, just as the dogmatist has to give
his attention to the development of doctrine, the ethicist has
to consider the various forms of the moral life, which Church
history represents the Christian as having given shape to
under special temporal influences, and particularly, in special
Church communities, as diverse phases of the development of
Christian morality. While dogmatics presupposes the history

NEGLECT OF ETHICS IN THE PAST. 365
of doctrines, ethics has the history of Christian culture for its
presupposition. Previous treatises on Christian ethics are
specially to be used by the ethicist. The literature of ethics
is much poorer than that of dogmatics. Many-sided and
interesting as the historical development of the Christian
life has been, the Christian intellect has always concerned
itself more with dogmatic, than with ethical problems. Even
the Eeformation, although in its principle of faith it restored
again the basis for the construction of ethics, and took, as its
foundation, Holy Scripture, which in the most emphatic way
makes the ethical element in religion prominent, has shown
less interest in this aspect of the religious Ufe than might
have been expected. Obliged by the conflict with Eoman
Catholicism to emphasize faith's immediate reference to God,
it gave attention chiefly to the construction of a dogmatic
system, and, especially in the seventeenth century, when the
dominion of dogmatism was at its height, the consciousness
of the importance of ethics fell more and more into the back
ground. Pietism, however, with its one-sided and world-
forsaking devoutness, was equally unable to lead to a proper
estimate and recognition of the moral contents, of Christianity.
Eationalism, and the systems in which philosophy was
blended with theology, deserve the credit of having first led
to the clearer recognition of the ethical importance of Chris
tianity, and of having secured a special prominence in modern
theology to Christian ethics.^
In consequence of the neglect shown toward ethics, as
compared with dogmatics, until recent times, ethics has not
attained the same systematic precision and the same exactness

1 Compare on the history of ethics, Hagenbach's Encyclopadie, S. 369 ff.
[EngL transl. p. 462 ff.] Eothe's Ethik, Bd. 4, S. xxii. ff. Dorner's article
"Ethik," in Herzog's Real-Encyclopadie. Bd. 4, 349-373. E. Feuerlein,
Die Sittenlehre des Christenthums in ihren geschichtlichen Hauptformen.
Tubingen 1855, [Wuttke, Christian Ethics, Edin. 1873. Vol. i. pp. 35-
378. Bestmann, Geschichte des christliohen Sitte. 2 Bde, Nordlingeu
1880, 1882.]

366 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA,
of definition as dogmatics, and in the domain of the former
far greater freedom prevails, but also far greater uncertainty,
and far greater vacillation, than in the domain of dogmatics ;
a circumstance which is highly unfavourable to the syste
matic construction of ethics, all the more that its material is
so rich and varied. This is seen in the great diversity which
prevails among ethicists in reference to the division of
ethics,* The division into a General Part which treats of
principles, and a Special Part which treats of the particular
manifestations of moral conduct, is rightly condemned by
Eothe (Ethik, Bd, 1, S, 406 f,). The threefold division of
Schleiermacher, founded upon his philosophical ethics, into
the doctrine of the Good, of Virtue, and of Duties, meets with
more general acceptance. Eothe, too (Bd. 1, S. 396 ff.), has
adopted this division in his theological Ethics. The remarks
made by Lange in his Encyclopadie, S. 202 f., and by
Martensen in his Ethics, General Part, pp, 52-58, against
this division, should not be overlooked by ethicists. Martensen
himself divides Ethics into a theoretical (General) part, and a
practical (Special) part. After an introduction on the notion
of Christian ethics, he treats in the first part of the theo
logical (or rather dogmatic) presuppositions of Christian
ethics, then of the fundamental conceptions of ethics, the
Highest Good, Virtue, and the Law ; in the second practical
part, he treats (1) of Individual Ethics, and (2) of Social
Ethics ; and so the end of the first part leads to the beginning
of the second, and the end of the second leads back to the
beginning of the first. The dogmatic postulates should be
treated in the introduction rather than in the first part. But
passing over that, the general point of view, which determines
this arrangement, may be heartUy accepted, yet in view of
the fact that the whole of ethics has a practical character,
the division does not commend itself. Just these funda
mental conceptions of ethics have an eminently practical
1 Compare on the various schemes of division, Pelt, Encyclopadie, S, 619,

EXPOSITION OF ETHICAL PEINCIPLES, 367
significance, and instead of being discussed in a general,
theoretical part, should rather be treated in a first part co
ordinated with the following parts. In its systematic elabora
tion ethics must begin with an introduction, in which the idea
of Christian ethics, its relations to dogmatics, its dogmatic postu
lates, its relations to philosophical ethics, and its history, are to
be discussed, and its distribution laid down. On the ground
of its connection with dogmatics, we divide ethics into three
parts, which, like the divisions of dogmatics, stand foi-mally in
relation to one another, as thesis, antithesis, and synthesis ;
the first has to expound the ethical principles, the second the
reign of sin, the third the reality of the ideal morality. ,
First Division — Exposition of Principles. — The kingdom
of God, the final aim of dogmatics, is, ethically considered,
the highest good of mankind. This is realized historically
by the Church. Therefore, the whole membership of the
Church has to serve this highest ethical purpose, and each
member ought personally to qualify himself for its realization.
Now the highest good, which is objectively represented iu the
kingdom of God as the chief end of man, coincides with the
highest good, which the individual believer has to appropriate
ethically in his own person. By doing this, he attains his
own highest destiny, and at the same time, co-operates with the
Church in accomplishing her chief end. The spiritual fellow
ship with God, which, according to dogmatics, the believer
enjoys, should become with him an actual life in God ; what
has been accomplished within him by means of the act of
regeneration, ought to be expressed in the whole course of his
conduct. Hence, the principle of the Christian life is the
Spirit of God. The religious conscience, which makes the
believer feel his dependence on God, and, at the same time,
his freedom in God, shows itself in an ethical form as the
immediate consciousness, that he should sanctify his spiritual
life by the Spirit of God, and subordinate his individual

368 theological encyclopedia.
human wUl to the divine will. The law which, along with
the gospel, is contained in Holy Scripture, leads the Christian,
not only to a knowledge of his sin, but, inasmuch as it is au
outflow from the idea of God, to real freedom in God. Iu
the conscience the Spirit of God operates as a power which
man can never cast off, but which he may resist. As man
may overcome the natural necessity, to which he is subject,
by means of his freedom, so too he can set his own will in
opposition to the divine will. Determinism and Indeter-
minism have both a relative truth. Obedience to the divine
will, as well as sin, is an act of human will. The power of
the divine will over the human is not compulsory. The
Christian obeys the divine will, because he finds in this
obedience his true ideal freedom. The law given him in the
very idea of God is the perfect law of liberty and of the
Spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Jas. i. 25 ; Eom, viii. 2).
The Christian fulfilment of the law is not an Old Testament
legal performance, but an ethical act; the theonomy of
Christian conduct is not a heteronomy but an autonomy.
The demand of conscience, that the human will should
subordinate and attach itself to the divine, is the idea of duty,
and the real harmony of mind and will with duty, as an inner
fact and habitual condition, is virtue. The ideal of Christian
morality is, therefore, the personal life constantly determined
by the Spirit of God, and in theological ethics, this ideal is
not given as an abstract and transcendent fact, but as a fact
realized in the historical life of Jesus. As Christ, dog
matically considered, is the Eevealer, the Eedeemer, and the
Saviour of man, He is, ethically considered, the ideal of man's
moral life, — the life of man as a life in accordance with the
example of the perfectly divine-human personality of Christ.
Second Division — The Eeign of Sin. — If sin has to be
treated dogmatically with direct reference to God, it has to
be treated ethically with direct reference to man. If, in the

THE POWEE OF SIN, AND CHECKS UPON IT. 369
former case, it be described as the derangement and disturb
ance of the original reUgious relation between God and man,
in the latter, it appears as the power which proves hostile to
the ethical destiny of the individual man and of the whole
human race. Sin, a universally human act, which, breaking
away from God, sets human wilfulness over the absolute
necessity of the divine will, springs from selfishness. Con
tinued from generation to generation, sin has developed in
historical progression into a power, which physically and
ethically corrupts human nature, and, if not checked by a
higher power, will, by means of sensuous and ungodly desires
and passions, which it awakens in sinful man, shatter the
Individual human Ufe and the life of mankind as a whole.
This dominion of sin in its objectivity is the kingdom of
Satan, which, as man's own work, forms a direct contradiction
to the idea of the Christian life and to the Christian idea of
the kingdom of God. Even from the natural sphere of
human life, certain bounds are, indeed, put upon sin, and
thus means of furthering morality are furnished. Among
these are experience, which instructs the individual as to the
vanity and transitoriness of the life of sense and self-will ;
marriage, in which selfishness is checked through the inter
communion of love ; social life, in which the wilfulness of one
is brought into contact with that of others ; the State, which
restrains the self-wUl of the individuals composing it by its
laws and penalties. But neither the teaching of experience,
nor the bond of the famUy, nor the ordinance of society, nor
the laws of the State, although they aU form a pathway to
morality, and necessitate the subordination of the individual
wiU to the general, nor even the moral laws of philosophical
ethics derived from human nature and social Ufe, afford an actual
power over sin. In spite of aU experience, the individual, by
reason of his weakness, falls ever anew into sin ; instead of
the loving bond, which should hold the family together, we
have the marriage law ; the habits and customs of social life
VOL. IL 2 A

370 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
exhibit a morality, which is only determined by selfishness,
and, when those artificial limits are broken through, threatens
to break out into a war of all against all; the laws of the
State restrain, but do not tame, the passions ; the moral laws
state their demands, but give not the power to obey them.
Experience and moral law, if they are to be morally effective,
must have at their foundation religious motives : family,
society, and State have, indeed, before and apart from Chris
tianity, assumed the form of moral organisms, but they can
become the channels of the moral life, only through the
religious-ethical principle of Christianity.
Third Division — The Eeality of the Ideal Moeality, oe
THE EeALIZATION OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD ON EaETH.  The
love of God, which is revealed in Christ, is the creative power
by which love to God is called forth in man (1 John iv. 1 9).
If dogmatically love to God is the immediate evidence of the
idea of God dweUing in the believer, it is ethicaUy for the
Christian conscience the highest duty as the source of all
other duties, and of all Christian virtues (Matt. xxii. 37-40).
The life of the Christian should be a life in the Spirit of God
and in love to God. The Spirit of God, whom the regenerate
receives in faith as the ground of his new life, enables him
not only to pass through the conflict with sin, which is
required of even the regenerate, but also to sanctify his whole
inner Ufe according to the standard of the idea of God, and,
by subordinating his individual human will and desire to the
absolute divine wUl, to attain unto freedom in God, for which
in his innermost nature he is destined. As, according to the
Old Testament, the eye of God is upon the holy land, and is
wounded by every wrong done by His people, so, according to
the New Testament, every human being is a holy land, from
which everything ungodly must disappear before the eye of
God. Yea, according as man forsakes his selfishness and wilful
ness, and places everything finite, after which he strives, for

ROMISH IDEAS OF ASCETICISM AND CASUISTRY UNTEUE. 371
which he works and lives, at the service of God and the
divine purposes, he secures his own blessedness. Life in
God, as the idea of Christian virtue, is the highest blessedness
of man, which cannot be reft from him by any outward mis
fortune: life in opposition to God, as a life of sin, is his
deepest misery, of which no outward good fortune can relieve
him. That man's ethical condition is, indeed, affected by the
outward circumstances of his life, experience shows ; but the
connection is not a necessary one. In this lies the truth and
untruth of the Old Testament doctrine of rewards. In that
same sphere of finiteness, moves also the opposition of optim
ism and pessimism, according to which the worth of human
life is estimated by the happiness it affords. It is surmounted
by Christian ethics, which subordinates the whole domain of
the finite to ideal ends. The life of the Christian, which
finds its goal in these, is maintained and furthered by the
example of Christ that is given him, and by prayer. Faith
fulness to that pattern, and prayer, in which, through struggle
against sin and striving and agonizing after inward holiness,
the Christian obtains the assistance and support of the Holy
Spirit, are the only true forms of asceticism, which Christian
ethics demands and allows. An asceticism, in the sense of
the Eoman Catholic Church, as a method of attaining to a
higher place in heaven by means of specially meritorious
works, it must utterly repudiate.
In the faithful imitation of Christ, the Christian does not
foUow particular moral commands, which he has to keep in
view in regard to each particular circumstance, but he acts
from a heart possessed of and resigned to God, so that all
collision of duties is resolved in the inmost sanctuary of his
conscience. Hence a special system of casuistry cannot be
admitted, as it is in the Eoman Catholic Church. In such
life and conduct in the Spirit of God, every individual Chris
tian, however diverse the influences of birth, education, culture,
and position in life may be, ought to mould himself into that

372 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
free Christian personality, which has to make itself felt in the
various spheres of life, as Christian character. Christian
moraUty is very far from regarding the family, society, and the
State, as the kingdom of the world, frOm which the Christian
must flee, in order to devote himself to a purely contempla
tive life, and in this way to prepare for the other world. On
the contrary, it acknowledges these as having been, even
before Christianity, existing organizations of the moral life,
which only need to be filled with the principle of the Chris
tian Ufe, in order that they may become what they ought to
be. In the family, in society, in the State, every aspect of
the godly life must be cultivated, in order that sin, human
suffering and misery may the more energetically be grappled
with, and mankind as a whole be ever brought nearer its
goal, — humanity penetrated by the Spirit of God. Love, the
natural bond of the family, has its ground and holding only
in the God-resigned temper of its members. From the family,
through education and the school, it should be transferred to
society, so that each individual should see in his neighbour
a fellow-creature equally precious in the sight of God and
destined to the same end of an eternal divine life, and do and
promoj;e all things in love to one another. The State, too,
with its law, has, for the foundation of its existence, the ideal-
moral disposition of its citizens, which subjects them to its
law, inasmuch as it obeys the law from a free impulse, and
does more than the law demands. By this Spirit, too, the
spiritual forces of civil and social Ufe, art, literature, and
science shbuld be penetrated, and they should set themselves
the task of rearing by its means the moral ideal in all the
spheres of human life. Outside of the limits of the State, Chris
tian ethics demands a confederation of nations, in which the
States will recognise each other without particularistic self-
seeking and jealousy, and each nation, according to its special
circumstances, will have its place determined by the standard
of divine law.

ETHICAL GOAL IN THE KINGDOM OF GOD. 373
In all these stages of development, we see the realization
of the kingdom of God on earth which proceeds uninter
ruptedly in history. The organization, by which the his
torical course is regularly maintained, from which it issues,
and from which it constantly receives its ideal impulses and
motives, is the Church. If dogmatically the Church is the
immediate result of the religious consciousness, it appears
here as an ethical requirement. As every individual has the
religious longing after attachment to a Church communion, he
has also the moral obligation to promote on his part the
organization, of which it is the chief aim to raise the whole
human race into a religious-moral communion, and to elevate
it above the limit of the finite, by means of the hope that
springs from faith, into an eternal kingdom of the Spirit.
The idea of immortality, which dogmatically rests upon the
idea of God, is, at the same time, an ethical postulate derived
from the deepest impulses of life, which is not directed to a
compensation hereafter for undeserved fortune or misfortune
on earth, but to the spiritual perfecting of life in God which
takes place in eternity, to which all men are destined and
called by the love of God.
The most recent Protestant treatises on ethics are those of
De Wette, Schwarz, Baumgarten-Crusius, Sartorius [Eng.
transl: The Doctrine of Divine Love. Edin. 1884], Merz,
Harless [Eng. transl. : System of Christian Ethics. Edin.
1868], Schleiermacher, Eothe, Marheineke, Bohme, Jager,
Wuttke [Eng. transl: Christian Ethics. 2 vols. Edin.
1873], Schmid, Palmer, Vilmar, Martensen [Eng. transl:
Christian Ethics (General, Individual, Social). 3 vols. Edin.
1873, 1881, 1882], Oettingen. The more prominent
Eoman Catholic writers on ethics in modern times are Sailer,
Schreiber, Vogelsang, Hirscher, Probst, Werner.

FOURTH DIVISION
PEACTICAL THEOLOGY.'

§ 44. INTRODUCTION TO AND DISTRIBUTION OF PRACTICAL
THEOLOGr.
[HE task of the philosopher ends with the phUosophy
of religion and philosophical ethics, but that of the
theologian does not end with systematic theology.
The philosopher must content himself with laying
down the theory, and cannot determine how it is to be carried
out and practically accomplished in the life. The theologian,
on the other hand, who stands with his science in the midst of
the Church, meets with the Church as an organized institution,
by means of which the Christian faith, as ideally set forth in
systematic theology, has to be wrought into the practical, every
day Ufe of the Christian community. Hence theology cannot
leave this organized institution unnoticed,. but has to perform its
last scientific task upon it. Christianity has been devel6ped from
the beginning down to the present as Church life, and as such
passes on from the present into the future. It is the business
of theology to establish the norms of the Church life. The
Church organization, which theology meets with, is not found
by it in one simple form. In consequence of diverse con
ceptions of faith, under the influence of national peculiarities
and special historical circumstances, each of the ecclesiastical
denominations has constructed that organization by which it
marks itself off as a separate Church. Those empiricaUy

GEEMS OF PEACTICAL THEOLOGY IN THE ANCIENT CHUECH. 375
existing various Church organizations form the historical basis
from which theology has to determine the scientific idea of
the Christian Church, and to indicate that form of it, which is
best fitted for the practical realization of the Christian faith.
This is, generally speaking, the task of practical theology.
Its scientific representatives differ widely from one another
regarding its idea and distribution ; but even here, the advance
of theological science has led to a conception, with regard to
which there may be by and by general agreement. In the
primitive Church there was no need for a practical theology.^
In a purely spontaneous way, out of the life of faith of the
first Christians, sprang the activities which prepared the way
for and consoUdated the ecclesiastical organization. Only
elementary contributions to practical theology from apostolic
times are found in the New Testament, hints about the
management of congregations, injunctions to their leaders and
presidents, to the Churches themselves in regard to their
poor, attention to their sick, and also, in the apostolic canones
and eonstitutiones, and in the decrees of particular Synods, and
in the old Church theology. In the ancient Church generally,
the theological sciences were placed under the practical-
churchly point of view, and brought into relation to the
various ecclesiastical orders, so that it was saved from giving
attention to a special practical theology. Soon, however, the
priestly order pressed into the foreground. The churchly
interest led to the tabulating of the acquirements and moral
attributes, which were requisite in the priest for the discharge
of his office. The writing of Chrysostom, de sacerdotio, and
that of Eabanus Maurus, de clericorum inMitutione, have more
of the character of a practical theology, than of a theological
encyclopsedia. (Compare § 2 and 3.) After the example of
Eabanus, several writings of the Middle Ages take for their
• On the history of practical theology, compare C. I. Nitzsch, Praktische
Theologie, Bd. i. S. 39-122 ; C. B. Moll, System der Praktischen Theologie,
S. 14 ff. ; and Harnack, Praktische Theologie, S. 29 ff.

376 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
subject the priestly, or specially, the episcopal office. After
wards when, in consequence of the Eeformation, the minis
terial ofi&ce had been put in place of the priestly, Protestant
theology, in opposition especially to the Eomish conception,
set about expounding the tasks of the pastoral office. From
this time forth, practical theology was identified with pastoral
theology, and, under the name of applied theology, theologia
applicata, was introduced into the circle of the theological
sciences as a distinct branch. This character practical
theology has maintained down to recent times; — in the
Eoman Catholic Church, as a guide for the instruction of
priests; in the Protestant Church, as a guide for the instruction
of ministers, who hold the pastoral office. Toward the end of
last century, however, it was perceived that practical theology,
conceived of in this way, could not be reckoned a theological
science. Planck, Nosselt, and Tittmann excluded practical
theology from the circle of the theological branches, and the
Eoman CathoUc Dobmayer relegated it to the theological
seminaries. (Compare § 5.) A higher conception of practical
theology than the ordinary one was, after the example of the
Eeformed theologians Hyperius and Alsted, introduced by
Schleiermacher. His merit consists in this, that he delivered ,
practical theology from the narrow reference to the ministerial
office, and associated it with the whole range of Church
guidance. While theoretical theology supplies the accomplish
ments necessary for Church guidance, practical theology has to
supply the directions required for the Church ministrations and
the Church government, into which Church guidance is divided.
With this exposition given in his Encyclopsedie Treatise, the
comprehensive exposition in his Lectures on Practical Theology
essentially agrees.'' But practical theology according to this
doctrine of Schleiermacher is infected throughout, in its
' Die Praktische Theologie nach den Grundsatzen der evangelischen Kirche
im Zusammenhang dargesteUt von Fr. Schleiermacher. Herausgegeben von
J. Frerichs. Berlin 1850. (Werke, i. Bd. 13.)

SCHLEIEEMACHER'S CONCEPTION OF PEACTICAL THEOLOGY. 377
derivation, its distribution, its subject and object, with the
character of fortuitousness. Of this, too, Schleiermacher
himself was fully conscious ; for he claims for it validity only
in the evangelical Church, and indeed only in the German
Evangelical Church, (Compare § 6.) He was able, indeed,
in accordance with his general conception of theology, to
regard practical theology as the crown of theology ;^ it is not,
however, a tree-crown grown from the stem, but an artificial
graft, which every one may treat as he pleases. Notwith
standing the enlarged conception of practical theology given
by Schleiermacher, and notwithstanding the rich material with
which he has filled up its various parts, even he has not
succeeded in bringing it into an inner organic connection
with scientific theology. The disciples of Schleiermacher
have applied themselves to the elaboration of practical
theology, starting from Schleiermacher's more elevated con
ception of the science, and, at the same time, seeking to
avoid its defects, and especially endeavouring to justify its
being ranked among the theological sciences. Among these
may be mentioned, the eucyclopsedists, Eosenkranz and
Hagenbach, and, as writers of monographs, Nitzsch,^ A.
Schweizer,^ Marheineke,* and Liebner.* The efforts of
Schleiermacher, and of the theologians just named, have been
subjected to criticism, partly appreciative, partly corrective,
on the Eoman Catholic side by Graf,* on the Protestant side
by Harnack.^ The conviction had gained ground and was
1 Compare Encyclopadische DarsteUung. 1 Ausg. § 31.
2 C. I. Nitzsch, Ad theologiam practicam felicius excolendam observationes.
Bonn 1831.
' A. Schweizer, Ueber Begriff und Eintheilung der praktischen Theologie.
Leipzig 1836.
* Ph. Marheineke, Entwurf der praktischen Theologie. Berlin 1837.
* Liebner, Die praktische Theologie. Abhandlung in den Stud. u. Krit.
Jahrg. 1843, Heft 3, and 1844, Heft 1.
' A. Graf, Kritische Darstellung des gegenwartigen Zustandes der praktischen
Theologie. Abth. 1. Tubingen 1841.
' Th. Harnack, De theologia practica recte definienda et adornanda. Dorpati
1847.

378 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
confirmed, especially by the two critics just named, that
practical theology could not have a place among the theological
sciences, either as a guide to ministerial practice, or as the
theory of an art of Church guidance ; that to secure such a
rank, it must be extended to the Church life generaUy, and
must be developed into a theory of Church activities. But
although Nitzsch {I.e. p. 12) had admirably expressed his
criticism in few words : ministerium etiam regit, regimen
ministrat, and had himself, in a more fundamental and a
more conservative way, distributed the Church activities,,
while Marheineke made the division according to a logical
construction descending from the Church universal, through
the special denominations down to the individual congregation,
and Eosenkranz, in the second edition of his Encyclopadie,
adopted the same distribution, merely reversing the order,
the division of Schleiermacher into a system of Church
government and Church ministrations, was generally retained,
even by Graf and Harnack. This answered precisely to the
Eoman Catholic Church guidance at the hands of ecclesiastical
superiors and ministers of the Church, but also, no less to the
evangelical system of members of consistories and pastors,
from Which directly Schleiermacher borrowed it. Drey,
evidently influenced by Schleiermacher, received practical
theology into the organism of theology as the system of the
Church in respect of worship and constitution, while, as a guide
to the clergy for their official duties, he excluded it from
theological science. So, too, Klee, Buchner, and Staudenmaier.
(Compare § 6.) Graf (S. 186) considered it specially credit
able to Schleiermacher, that he introduced the doctrine of
Church government into practical theology, and cannot restrain
his astonishment that this doctrine, so important for Catholic
theology, had been so long overlooked by it. He defines
practical theology as the science of ecclesiastical, divine-
human activities exercised by ecclesiastically ordained persons,
pre-eminently those of clerical rank, for the edification of the

GRAF, PELT, AND MARHEINEKE. 379
Church (S. 149); and divides it (S. 270) into the science of
Church government and the science of the Church minis
tration. The latter, he subdivides into (1) Church minis
tration for the individual congregation, (2) Church ministration
among unbelievers (Jews and pagans), and (3) Church
ministration to the officially-appointed teachers of theology.
The defects of the special division of Church ministration are
apparent. The chief defect is that Graf, from his Eoman
Catholic standpoint, distinguishes the Catholic practical theo
logy from the Protestant (S. 281), and adopts the Catholic
Church constitution as firmly established, so that, whUe he
always makes the express demand, that practical theology
should be raised out of the empirical domain, in the doctrine
of Church government he just falls into the realm of
empiricism. Graf's criticism has not been neglected by Protestant
theology, and it has not been without effect on the subsequent
treatment of practical theology. Pelt, in his Encyclopadie
(S. 560 ff.), defines practical theology "as a scientific know
ledge of the self-development of the Church, not merely of
certain activities of the clergymen for it," or " as the self-con
sciousness of the Church about the laws of its own proceeding
in the future." Practically it is with him the theory of an
action, which is not, Uke theoretical theology, knowledge for
the sake of knowledge, but, according to Marheineke, knowledge
for the sake of practice, " but still always a systematized know
ledge, not a mere sum-total of rules of art." He derives its
division from the self-unfolding of the existing Church, and
accordingly distinguishes, — (1) The Doctrine of Church
Organization, or Ecclesiastics, {a) Ecclesiastical Principles,
(6) Liturgies ; (2) The Doctrine of Church Government, (a)
Church Law, (6) Theory of Pastoral Care; and (3) The
doctrine of Church Ministration, {a) HomUetics, (&) Cate-
chetics, (c) Scientific Psedeutics. In its treatment, he assumes
the standpoint of the evangeUcal Church. According to

380 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
Gaupp,^ too, practical theology has to do, not with mere technical
rules, but with the Uving practice of the Church. Under the
guidance of the idea of theology, he defines practical theology
as " the theory of the activities of the Church, by means of
which it is continuously developed in accordance with its idea,
so as to reach its completion." He takes the idea of the
Church as his principle of distribution, and divides practical
theology into — (1) the Theory of Christian Worship or
Liturgies, (2) the Theory of the Church Ministrations or
Homiletics, Pastoral Theology and Catechetics, and (3) the
Theory of Church Government. (Th. 1, S. 1-40.) In
accordance with this conception, Gaupp, although himself
(according to his Preface, S. vi.) occupying a decided Lutheran
confessional standpoint, maintains, what is specially commend
able, that practical theology is not to be restricted within the
limits of a confessional system, but must have a universal
Christian standpoint. MoU,^ likewise, conceives of practical
theology as the theory of Church functions. After treating in
his first part of the Physiology of the Church, he deduces, in
the second part, the Church functions from the essential
nature of the Church, and divides them into the regulative,
teaching, and edifying activities. Nitzsch and Harnack have
given in their larger works a systematic exposition of the out
lines sketched in the programmes already referred to.^ The
former, following Schleiermacher, conceives of practical theo
logy as the theory of an art. Its subject is the Church
application of Christianity or the Church practice, and it is
itself to be defined as the theory of this practice. But while
Schleiermacher includes in his practical theology the tasks of

1 K. Fr. Gaupp, Praktische Theologie. TheU 1. Die Liturgik. TheU. 2.
Abth. 1. Die HomUetik. Berlin 1848, 1852.
^ C. B. Moll, Das System der praktischen Theologie im Grundriss dargesteUt.
Halle 1853.
' C. I. Nitzsch, Praktische Theologie. 2 Bde. in 3 Abth. Bonn 1847, 1848.
Neue Aufl. Bd. 1-3. 1846-1867. Th. Harnack, Praktische Theologie. Th.
1, 2. Erlangen 1877.

NITZSCH AND HARNACK ON PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. 381
Church government, Nitzsch will give them no place. The
task of practical theology is " on the basis of the idea of the
Christian Church and the Christian life, and by means of an
understanding and estimation of their actual condition, to
attain unto the ruling thoughts of all official Church functions."
(Bd. i. S. 31 f.) Hence, like Marheineke, he lays down in
his first Book (Bd, i.) the idea of the Church life, or its ideal
conception, in order to reach historically the evangelical
Church of the present, the Church functions of which are
divided into the edifying and the regulative, the former
including preaching, celebration of festivals, and care of soiUs,
the latter including internal and external Church law, objec
tively as legislation, subjectively as the establishment of a
form of government and constitution. In the second Book
(Bd. ii.) we have Church procedure or technology ; the
Ministry of the Word,; — Homiletics and Catechetics (Abth. 1),
the Evangelical Divine Service, — Liturgies (Abth. 2), the care
of souls with reference to the inner mission (Bd. UL Abth. 1),
and the evangelical Church order (Abth. 2), Nitzsch adopts
essentially Schleiermacher's distribution, although in his dis-
sertatio he had quite rightly indicated its defects. According
to Harnack (S. 22), practical theology is so called because it
has for its subject the practice of the Church, It is, therefore,
the science of Church practice or of the self-development of
the Church, abstractly expressed " the science of the evidence
given by the Church of its working out of its idea on the basis
of its past continuously in its future" (S, 23), But it can
accomplish its task only from a definite Church standpoint,
and in connection with a particular Church, One system of
practical theology cannot serve alike for Eomanism and Pro
testantism (S, 26 f.). It is a historical-ideal science, and has
" to criticize, rectify, and apply the standard to, the Church
practice" (S, 28), but, at the same time, too, shows itself
practical, " as it has to do with the proper method of procedure
in the exercise of the living functions of the Church," An

382 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
absolute division of practical theology has not been, and can
not be given (S. 47). "The proper division is to be won
only by the self-unfolding of the biblical idea of edification "
(S. 51). There are consequently two principal parts of the
system ; a constitutive part, which, starting from the idea of
the Church, treats of its universal historical development, and its
internal development ; and a constructive part, which treats of
the living functions of this self-developing Church, or of the
Church ministrations. This latter is subdivided into — (1) The
self-development of the Church as the congregation of saints
by means of worship and pastoral care ; (2) the self-develop
ment of the Church as an institution of grace by means of the
mission and catechizing ; and (3) the self-development of the
Church as an outwardly organized society, or Church govern
ment. Departing from his distribution in the programme,
Harnack here classifies the system of Church government
under that of Church ministrations.
J. P. Lange, in his Encyclopadie (S. 208 ff.), has placed
practical theology after dogmatics and ethics as the third
part of his didactic theology. He defines it as the doctrine
of the method for the fostering of the Christian life of faith, or
as the doctrine of Christian edification : and arranges it under
three parts, taken from the idea of edification in accordance
with 1 Cor. chap, xii., of which the first treats of Christian
charisms, the second of ecclesiastical offices, and the third of
ecclesiastical functions. These last are distinguished in regard
of Church government as legislation, dispensation and juris
diction, in regard of Church ministrations as acts of initiation
(haUeutics or missionary activities and catechetics), acts of
administration (worship, pastoral theology or pastoral wisdom,
and pastoral skill or the idea of the true pastor), and acts of
benediction. Of all the specialists von Zezschwitz ' has most correctly
' C. A. von Zezschvritz, System der praktischen Theologie. Paragraphen fiir
akademische Vorlesungen. Leipzig 1876.

ZEZSCHWITZ'S VIEW OF PEACTICAL THEOLOGY. 383
conceived the general character of practical theology. He
separates most distinctly practical theology as a scientific
system from practical theology as a technology. It is " the
theory of that practice which, in the form of essential vital
functions, flows from the nature of the Church, and is derived
from its idea, or more shortly, the theory of the continued
self-realization of the Church for the perfecting and manifesta
tion of the kingdom of God in the world," and has, as such,
a right to a place in the system of theological science. Only
after a systematic exposition of the essential vital functions of
the Church, as " a theory of its essence and nature," has been
given, can a practical theology as a technology be developed
alongside of it. Practical theology, therefore, maintains its
systematic unity, by deducing the vital Church functions from
the nature of the Church itself. After these fundamental
definitions have been laid down in the Introduction (S. 1-10),
the principles are discussed (S. 11 ff.), and the idea of the
Church and the kingdom of God are treated of as the funda
mental conceptions for the self-development of the Church.
The Church in its general notion is the communion of believers.
As such, as Christendom, it is the subject discussed. Against
the world it directs the mission, and gives itself a constitution.
In reference to its own inner life, it is worship, including
catechizing and care of souls. Church office is not given
positively, but is developed from the life of the community.
Now, inasmuch as practical theology finds its principle of
unity in the notion of the Church, it cannot be confessional,
that is, " the theory of Church practice for a particular con
fessional Church cannot, any more than dogmatics, be described
as Lutheran rather than Christian, unless it is to exchange its
speculative character for the historical." Inasmuch as it rests
on the absolutely valid notion of the Church corresponding
to the reaUty of scriptural Christianity, it should rather
" found thereupon, and set forth the operation of the Church
on the world as universaUy and simply normal" (S. 31 f.).

384 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
After the historical influence of the Church has been discussed
in chaps. 2 and 3, the essential vital functions of the Church
are dealt with in the order of the branches of practical
theology, in chap. 4, in order, on the basis of the idea of the
Church and the historical development of the Church, to reach
" the doctrine of the correct self-development of the Church in
all times " (S. 125 ff.). Worship, as congregational worship,
forms the centre ; and from this centre in the direction of the
worldly life are described the essential functions of missions
and the formation of the constitution. Genetically a beginning
is made, neither with the constitution, nor with worship, but
with missionary activity for the reception of those belonging to
no Church into the fellowship of the congregational worship.
Between missions and worship, however, au educating function
enters as a middle term, which has for its object the training
of those who are to become Church members. Worship forms
the cUmax : the term Liturgies is no longer to be employed in
its traditional sense, but is to be restricted to congregational
worship. On the other hand, from the same centre of worship
in relation to the world the activity that forms the constitution
is described. Between these two, however, there enters as a
middle term an educating function, that of the care of souls,
for keeping the congregation in order, for discipUne, and prac
tical love. In the last place comes the constitution, not as a
mere statutory form of the Church Ufe, nor as a mere legisla
tive form impressed from without, but as proof of the Spirit's
dominion in the determining of its relations to the world.
It is especially noteworthy in this system, that von Zezschwitz
conceives of practical theology as the theory of the essential
activity of the Church, not as a technology of Church pro
cedure, and that, Uke Gaupp, notwithstanding his own confes
sional Lutheran standpoint, he renounces its limitation to a
confession, and insists upon its significance for the universal
Church. As practical theology cannot be regarded as a part
of theological science, when conceived of as a guide to the

PEACTICAL THEOLOGY DEALS WITH THE CHURCH UNIVERSAL. 38 5
pastoral office, or as a technology, no more can it be so
reckoned when conceived of as the theory of the theological
practice of a confessional Church. When, on the other hand,
Harnack says that practical theology can accompUsh its task
only from the standpoint of a particular Church and on behalf
¦ of a particular Church, since no practical theology can be
thought of which would at once serve and satisfy Eomanism
and Protestantism, he is certainly correct ; but the purpose of
, satisfying one, or another, or even several Churches is not that
which is assigned to practical theology, for then it would be
confined to the sphere of particularism and its conclusions
would be robbed of universal vaUdity. Harnack rightly
characterizes practical theology as a historical-ideal science ;
but should it as such only criticize, rectify, and apply the
standard to the practice of one or another confessional Church,
or is its task not rather one of universal criticism ? Only if
it assumes this task, can it maintain its place in the theological
system, and also be in a position to render the one scientific
treatment of the subject, what Harnack regards as impossible,
serviceable as corrective and norm both for Eomanism and
Protestantism. This is the most important advance which,
since the time of Schleiermacher, has been made in the
scientific treatment of practical theology.
Except in thus giving a general reference to practical
theology, Zezschwitz agrees with many of his predecessors in
his notion of it as the theory of essential Church activities.
Since Schleiermacher, it has been quite common to say that
practical theology has for its subject the Church practice, and
is consequentiy to be defined as ' the theory of the Church
action or of vital Church activities. In this definition the
view, prevalent before Schleiermacher, and continued even in
that of Schleiermacher itself, appears. It does not perfectly
correspond to the reality. Christianity is historically repre
sented as Church Ufe. The Church is, therefore, an organiza
tion with internal and external conditions and manifestations
VOL. IL 2 B

386 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
of life. Its principle of life, the internal condition of life, is
faith and the common Christian spirit springing therefrom.
From it the Church develops its outward form. Particular
organs and functions are the external conditions of life of the
Church organization. Hence, practical theology has not only
the Church practice as Church action, but the whole outward
Church organization for its subject, and is, according to its
idea, the theory of the organs and functions of the Church
life. Empirically it meets with this organization in the most
varied forms, determined by special historical relations. As
exegetical theology sets forth Christianity in its origin,
historical theology in its ecclesiastical development, and
systematic theology in its idea, it is the task of practical
theology to set forth Christianity in its ideal-churchly realiza
tion. It has to borrow the idea of the Church from exegetical
and systematic theology. According to these the Church is
the feUowship of beUevers, founded on God's sending of Christ,
and maintained by His word and sacraments, for the reaUzation
of the kingdom of God on the earth. Under the guidance of
this idea, and with reference to the Church formations brought
before it by historical theology, practical theology has scien-
tificaUy to determine the Church organization, which for the
Church as an institution of salvation has a relative signifi
cance, and as the organ of the kingdom of God an absolute
significance, in a form universaUy valid, freed from the
fortuitousness of empiricism, in which the Church has to
realize in life its real and ideal aims. Hence practical
theology according to its idea is ecclesiastics or the theory of
the Church ; as such it is a constituent part of theological
science, and has the name practical theology inasmuch as it
is the doctrine of the Church organization in the realization
of its ideal life. In this way, too, the unsatisfactory con
nection in which practical theology has been usually placed
in regard to the other parts of theology is avoided. If, in a
one-sided manner, theoretical theology in respect of the first

THEORETICAL ELEMENT IN PRACTICAL THEOLOGY. 387
three divisions is conceived of as knowledge for the sake of
knowledge, it only remains to distinguish practical theology
from it as knowledge for the sake of practice (Marheineke,
Pelt). If, on the other hand, in an equally one-sided manner,
the whole of theology is regarded from the practical point of
view, practical theology is also consequently knowledge for
the sake of practice. In both cases, practical theology is
valuable only to the practical theologian, but is not proved to
be a necessary constituent part of theological science. Only
if theology is conceived of, on the one hand, purely as
science, and, on the other hand, in regard to all its parts, as
of practical significance for the Church, practical theology is
seen to be also a part of theology, pursuing knowledge for the
sake of knowledge, but also, like the three previous parts of
theology, affording its practical service to the Church. Though
' Harnack (I.e. S. 48) brings the charge of systematizing against
this treatment of practical theology by which the distinction
between theoretical and practical theology is obliterated, it
claims recognition as, in a proper way, securing for practical
theology a place in the theological system. As Zezschwitz
has already pointed out, this in no way affects practical
theology as a technology. This has only practical theology
as ecclesiastics for its presupposition, but must itself be
excluded from the system of theological science. The other
charge of ideaUsm which Harnack (S. 54) brings against our
conception may be turned into a recommendation. The
theories which ecclesiastics deduces from the idea of the
Church are ideal but not unpractical ; according as the exist
ing Churches approach empirically the idea of the Church,
they will be found to realize those theories. This is least to
be expected from the Eomish Church, but the evangeUcal
Church is pre-eminently fitted for this, inasmuch as the
Eeformation brought again the idea of the Church into pro
minence, and the evangeUcal Church rests on Eeformation
foundations.

388 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
The distribution of practical theology occasions the greatest
difficulty. Almost every theorist proposes his own pecuUar
distribution, and criticizes the divisions of his predecessors.
Since practical theology ceased to be a mere guide for the
official conduct of the clergy, which possibly made a division
easier, it has been customary to derive its division from the
guidance of the Church, or from the constructive idea of
edification, or from the nature of the Church. As concerns
the latter, from what has been already said, it must appear a
doubtful expedient to take an abstract idea as the principle of
division for a great department of life with its manifold
formations and vital manifestations ; and it is actuaUy found
that divisions attempted in this way suffer from undeniable
defects. They do not embrace the whole range, or they are
at fault in respect of the order in which the several branches
are introduced. Both objections may be brought against the
distribution given by Zezschwitz. There is no prominence
given in it to the ethical character of the Church life as a
whole, and to theological teaching in its practical significance
for the Church. In regard to the order of the several theo
logical branches, Zezschwitz demands a genetic procedure ;
nevertheless, indispensable as this is for a historical branch, it
is unsuitable for practical theology. Zezschwitz makes the
Church coming into being change places with the Church
actually existing : not the former, but the latter, is the subject
of practical theology. His position, therefore, seems without .
foundation, when he assigns the first place to missionary
activitj'', since this can be carried on with present and pro
spective success only by an organized Church, and the .last
place to the Church constitution, to which, in justification of
this arrangement, a significance is given which as constitution
it has not in fact, nor can have in itself. An objective dis
tribution corresponding accurately to the task of practical
theology can be obtained only by adopting, instead of the
abstract, a concrete notion of the Church as it is set forth in

SYSTEMATIC DISTEIBUTION OF PEACTICAL THEOLOGY. 389
Church history. Church history is the realized idea of the
Church, and since the Church life in its essential expressions
is continuous, so also must the ideal Church life, which
practical theology lays down as the postulate of the future,
run its course in the same expressions of life. The distribution
of practical theology is, therefore, to be borrowed from Church
history. Now the general activities in which the life of the
Church as a whole historically expresses itself are those of
extension, collection, edification, determining of habits, and
education. From this objective basis practical theology has
to arrange its widespread materials. The first, the expanding
or missionary activity, so far as practical theology is concerned,
which has already before it an existing Church institution,
falls under the habit-determining activity. Thus, for syste
matic arrangement, we have only four different functions to
take into account. Inasmuch as all these activities proceed
historically from the nature of the Church, the distribution of
practical theology founded upon these has the idea of the
Church itself for its basis. The systematic distribution of
practical theology is, therefore, in accordance with those
principles as follows. An introduction has to lay down the
idea of practical theology, its connection with the other parts
of theology and its general task ; and then to incorporate into
itself the fundamental and historical postulates which are
given, on the one hand, in exegetical and systematic theology,
and, on the other hand, in historical theology. It is un
systematic to treat of the fundamental and historical material
which is contained in the previous parts of theology with such
fulness as to make of it a first part of practical theology
(Marheineke, Nitzsch, Zezschwitz, Harnack). After the
groundwork has been laid in the introduction, ecclesiastics has
to treat its own subject, the ideal Church organism, under
four sections: (1) The Theory of Organization; (2) The
Theory of Worship; (3) The Theory of CuUure; and
(4) Ecclesiastical Didactics.

390 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDLA.

§ 45. THE THEORY OF CHURCH ORGANIZATION.
1. Church Polity, 2. Church Law.
The fellowship of believers, in its divine founding, in its
religious -historical origin, and its universal destination,
possesses the right of autonomy, that is, the right to organize
itself independently as an ecclesiastical community. All
those who confess Christ as Eevealer, Eedeemer, and Saviour,
are by means of this confession bound together into a
spiritual feUowship and for the highest purposes of a
religious-moral life. From faith in Christ, their common
principle of life, there arises the necessity for outward
union in an association. If the inner connection is to be
maintained, and the common aim of life, the realization of
the kingdom of God, to be reached, an outward bond must be
constituted. In short, individuals must form themselves
into communities, and separate communities into one grand
community. This takes place by means of a fixed constitution
and government proceeding from the life of the Church,
through the organs of which, every individual and each
separate congregation are made to feel themselves members
of one great ecclesiastical whole. The Church constitution is
the body, by means of which the Spirit of God which inspires
the community attains unto full practical activity. But, at
the same time, along with its constitution, the community
both inwardly and outwardly has constructed a special system
of Church law. Hence the theory of Church organization is
divided into (1) Church polity, which has to treat of the
organs of the Church constitution and government, and (2)
the science of Church law, which has to treat of ecclesiastical

GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF CHURCH POLITY. 391
jurisprudence. From historical theology both have to borrow
constitutional history, as their auxiliary science.
1. Church Polity. — The hierarchical-monarchical constitu
tion of the Eoman CathoUc Church must be overthrown by
the idea of the Church. It rests upon the quaUtative
distinction of clergy and laity, which is irreconcUable with
the essential nature of the Christian Church. Likewise the
political-monarchical constitution, under which for the most
part the Protestant Churches, especiaUy the Lutheran Church,
are placed, is overthrown. According to this constitution, the
territorial prince is chief bishop of his Protestant territorial
Church, and exercises the ecclesiastical power belonging to
him by a ministerial department, and subordinate to this, are
consistories and superintendencies which, as respects their
official authority, are not ecclesiastical, but civil courts. This
constitution rests upon the complete subordination of the
Church to the State, which is irreconcilable with the
autonomy of the Church. Under both of these forms of
constitution, the Eoman Catholic and this Protestant one, the
congregations are dependent upon their courts and deprived
of their rights, and the Church is prevented from freely
developing its inner life in all directions. The constitution
by which the feUowship of believers organizes itself into a
community must be a representation of the community. The
individual congregation, as part of the whole community,
forms the foundation : in its constitution it is bound to its
own faith and the faith of the whole community ; it cannot
arbitrarUy give itself its constitution. The preaching of the
word of God to believers, and therefore to each congregation,
rests on divine appointment, and the guiding of the congre
gation results from the nature of every society, for the
Christian society especially on account of its ideal aim.
Originally individuals gained prominence in the congregation,
who, according to their endowments, preached the gospel and
directed the affairs of the congregation. These two functions

392 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
being indispensable for the maintenance of the Christian
commonwealth, it soon appeared undesirable to leave thein to
the chance of personal endowment, and thus was constituted
a regular office. The pastoral office forms the centre of the
Christian congregational life. The single congregation is,
therefore, obliged, as well entitled, to call its own pastor to
foster its Christian life. The pastor is the representative of
the whole Church in the particular congregation, and has to
serve in it, according to the proportions and Christian culture
of his congregation, the general purposes of the Church. The
pastor must be educated for this service by theological science.
He is not quaUtatively distinguished from the congregational
members, the so-called laity, but only by his theological
education and the office which, on the ground of this, has
been confeiTcd upon him. But the congregation also,
regarded historically as an ecclesiastical-moral person, whose
members are acknowledged as Christians, is entitled to have
its congregational consciousness represented alongside of the
pastor. This is carried out by a council of elders (Presby
terian Session) chosen from the congregation. The pastor
and the session represent the unity of the single congregation,
the parish, irapotKia. The individual congregations find their
unity in the Synods elected by them, which are the organ by
means of which the Church extends the consciousness of its
associational unity over the widest range, so that a larger
group of congregations, a diocese, BioiKrjaK, finds its unity in
the Diocesan Synod, several dioceses, in the Provincial Synod,
several provincial churches in the Territorial Synod, several
territorial churches in the General Synod. The Church is
not confined to a particular State. By reason of its universal
character, it transcends the limits of the State in its orsaniza-
tion. Subject to the authority of higher courts, the Synods "
have legislative power over the whole extent of the churches
by which they are elected, in reference to all the internal
affairs of the Church. But, besides the legislative function.

CONGEEGATIONAL RIGHTS IN PROTESTANT CHUECH ES. 393
there must also be an executive function, a church adminis
tration and government : the decrees of Synod possessed of
-legal sanction must be carried out. For this end, special
organs of ecclesiastical administration are indispensable. The
legislative Synod has to appoint a permanent supreme Church
Council, which carries out the synodal decrees, and according
to these has to administer the regular government of the
whole Church, over which it presides. For the larger Church
groups, its administrative organs are the consistories with a
Provincial Church Council, and, subordinate to these, superin
tendents with a Diocesan Church Council. For single con
gregations, the pastor and the session (presbyterium) form the
administrative court
By means of the Eeformation, which gave prominence
again to the congregational principle in opposition to the
Eoman Catholic suppression of it, the Protestant Churches
were caUed upon to carry out this organization for themselves.
Promising beginnings have already been made in particular
national Churches, and these must be carried on so as to secure
the overthrow of opposing obstacles. The most pressing
inducement to this lies in the present condition of the
Church. While it is undeniable that in many places a pious
Church feeling has been maintained, the sense of a common
interest among the Churches has been more and more
dwindUng away under the statutory despotism that has
crushed and broken them up. One Uttie national Church, or
the Church of a canton, does not concern itself about another ;
one congregation has nothing to do with a neighbouring
congregation. The result is that the Churches have come to
regard their Church constitution as a regulation enjoined upon
them for State purposes, to which they must yield if they are
to avoid conflict with the law. In opposition to such
ecclesiastical pauperization, the organization of the Churches
ought to quicken the consciousness of Protestant confraternity
and revive in the congregations the feeUng that their Church

394 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
constitution is in the fullest sense their own affair, and that
for the advancement of their congregational life their most
active participation in Church matters is required. Of the
practicability of a Church constitution on a great scale a
guarantee is given, at least for the German Protestant
Churches, by the founding of the German Empire with a
Protestant emperor for its head, which puts down, as its
ecclesiastico-political aim, the founding of a German Pro
testant National Church. A beginning in this direction has
already been made by the Church Conference of the German
Church authorities. But the possibility of an organic com
bination of the German National Church with Protestant
Churches outside of Germany has been proved by the
Gustavus-Adolphus Union, the Missionary Associations, the
Protestant Union, the Evangelical Alliance. The constitution
of the Moravian Brethren is worthy of being imitated, as
is also the Eoman Catholic Church organization itself,
which was originally called forth under the influence of the
Christian idesi, and was inwardly corrupted only by the
admixture, under peculiar historical conditions, of unchristian
elements. 2. The Science of Chuech Law. — The Church, as a com
munity with a constitution, constructs a legal code, which is
' recognised by its own members, and is to be enforced also outside
of its own limits. Within the Church, the rights and duties
of members toward their authorities, of the authorities toward
the members, and the legal relations of members of court
toward one another, and outside of this, the rights of the
Church over against other Church communions and the State,
mark the boundaries within which it is applicable. The
Church makes its appearance as a legislator with a definite
jurisdiction. Church law is its scientific exposition. The
main point here is the ultimate principle upon which the
theory is to be based. From the congregational principle,
according to which the Church produces its own constitution.

EELATION OF THE PEINCE TO THE CHUECH OF HIS TEEEITOEY. 395
the principle of law results, that Church power is in the
Church, and proceeds from it alone. In this way Christian
Church law is distinguished from the Eoman Catholic, the
fundamental principle of which is, that Church power is in
the hierarchy, and likewise, from Protestant Church law,
which, with very slight reservation of the rights of the Church,
ascribes Church power to the territorial prince. Protestant
ecclesiastical jurisprudence has attempted under various
systems to prove that the power over the Protestant Churches
granted to territorial princes is a right belonging to them.^
The so-called Episcopal System (Eeinkingk, Carpzov) sought
to reach this by demonstrating that by the Eeligious Peace of
Augsburg (1555), the diocesan jurisdiction of the bishops
adhering to the Augsburg Confession, which was provisionaUy
suspended till an amicable arrangement could be made, de
volved upon the territorial princes. Another system, the
so-called Territorial S^jstem. (Thomasius), started from the
principle : cnifus regio, ejus religio ; the territory belonged to
the territorial prince, therefore he also has supreme authority
over the Protestant churches in his territory. A third system,
the so-called CoUegial System (Pfaff), acknowledges at least
the independence of the Church ; according to it, the members
of the Church, that is, of the community formed on the basis
of equal rights {collegium cequale), are in principle possessors
of Church power, but, at the time of the Eeformation, they
had transferred their rights to the princes. That the first and
third systems are without any historical basis, and that the
second proves too much to be of any avail, and that the con
sequences of those systems have been injurious to the interests
of the Church, is now pretty generaUy admitted. What the
theory aimed at, has not been reached. HistoricaUy con
sidered, the princely exercise of Church power was a service
rendered by the territorial princes to the Church in its time
' 1 Compare Aem. L. Eichter, Lehrbuch des Katholischen und evangelischen
Kirohenrechtes. 7 Aufl. S. 143 ff.

396 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
of need, which should be always thankfuUy acknowledged by
Protestantism ; scientifically considered, it is the continuance
as a right of what is a wrong toward the Church. Against
this doctrine of ecclesiastical jurisprudence. Christian Church
law has to insist upon the natural right of the Church, and to
determine, in accordance therewith, both the intra-ecclesiastical
legal relations, and those that have reference to other religious
communities and the State. The hardest problem, even after
the principles have been estabUshed, is to fix the legal rela
tions of Church and State in respect of the individual.
Protestant Churches, which hold by the principle of the
Eeformation, have to take their stand on the ground of the
natural right of the Church, and in accordance therewith to
unite with the State. The Eeformation has shown how this
can be done, inasmuch as it acknowledged Church and State
to be ordinances of God, and rejected both the Eoman Catholic
idea of a Church-State and the Byzantine idea of a State-
Church. In both of these conceptions of the Church, along
side of what was false, there was also contained an element of
truth, inasmuch as the hierarchical theory vindicated the right
of the Church, while the Byzantine-Protestant theory insisted
upon the association of the Church with the State. If,
according to the Eeformation theory, both Church and State
are divine ordinances, both answer the one God-ordained end
of contributing their united influence to the realization of the
kingdom of God. The modern theory of a free Church in a
free State (Cavour) is a baseless abstraction ; the notion of the
complete absorption of the Church in the State (Hegel, Eothe),
while giving careful attention to its practical tasks, overlooks
the autonomous and universal character of the Church.
According to the Christian and Eeformation principle, the
true relation between Church and State will be an outward
legally sanctioned distinction, and an inward vital connection.
The State has to advance not only the material well-being, but
also the full development of the spiritual Ufe of its citizens,

PROPER EELATION OF STATE TO CHUECH. 397
and the ideal ends of humanity. Toward all religious de
nominations, therefore, within its bounds, the State is to
assume a positive attitude, and to extend toleration to all,
where no tendencies hostile to the State are manifested.
That parity which is demanded of the State in regard to all
religious denominations that may be present within its bounds,
is unrealizable. The State estimates these proportionally ;
according to the historical signiflcance which a religious
denomination has for it, and according to the number of its
members, the State will grant it privileges before the rest.
The Eoman Catholic Church system of the present is irrecon
cilable with the condition even of the Catholic State, and still
more so with that of the Protestant State. It is no longer
allowed to bishops and members of the Catholic Church to
regard the Papal Infallibility as a mere pretension; as a
dogma, it has been made a matter of faith and of uncondi
tional obedience. Should a State drive the Jesuits forth from
its borders and admit the Infallibility dogma, it therewith
adopts Jesuitism, and converts itself into a power hostile to
the State, all the more dangerous because it has its basis in
the superstition of the great mass of the Catholic people.
This hostile power may, indeed; be modified by the continued
influence of education ; but it can be broken down only by
means of great revolutions proceeding from the religious
domain itself, which very rarely occur. The rights of the
Church and religion which, according to the Jesuits' demand,
the State should recognise, are the rights of the infallible
papal Church and papal Christianity ; the truth and rights and
freedom, whose representative Jesuitism claims to be, are the
truth, rights and freedom of the infallible Papacy. Against
the ecclesiastical and civil polity of the Jesuits mere legislative
counteraction is not sufficient.
The freely organized Protestant Church strives after the
most vital connection with the State. Its organization would
be hanginw in the air, unless it assumed to itself the interests

398 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
of civil life, and put itself in sympathy with all the spiritual
aspirations of the national life. Should constitutional distinct
ness and inner connection be admitted, then in this position
it is already granted, that the distinction cannot be an absolute
one, and that the connection must be in some way organically
restored. Hence the Protestant Church, which pursues only
religio-ethical aims, the realization of which the State also in
its own interests must make its task, not only unconditionally
subjects itself to the civil law, and recognises the ecclesiastical
supremacy belonging according to its nature to the State, the
jus majestaticum circa sacra, but also seeks to enter into a
regular constitutional relation to the State. To the civil
superior, in case he belongs to the Protestant Church, special
privUeges are accorded as membrum prcecipuum, and chief
patron of his church, and the Church courts, from the highest
down to the congregational Church organs, are required to
associate themselves with the civil courts down to the courts
of the commune, in carrying out all the various interests in
the furtherance of which State and Church are mutually con
cerned (Marriage, Public Schools, High Schools, Universities,
Morals, Social Questions). This' interpenetrating of the
Church into the domain of the national life had already a
precedent in the pre-Christian religious communities ; these
were national religions, because the religious community and
the national community coincided. Circumstances, such as
presently exist in France, where a wide gulf has opened up
between the civil government and the national Church
dominated by a Jesuitical-clerical spirit, must damage the
State as well as the Church.
If the German National Church enters into the relation
described with the State, it will come to be a real national
Church. In spite of the peculiarities of provincial and terri
torial churches, which find expression in it, and are not to be
repressed by the Church courts in the interests of a general
uniformity, it wUl find its national unity in inner Christian

LITEEATUEE OF CHUECH OEGANIZATION. 399
piety and in active co-operation for the ideal-ethical ends of
Christianity. On the Church Constitution the works of Petersen, Klee,
Eothe, and Zeller, deserve to be mentioned. On Church Law,
the most important works are those of Eichhorn, Stahl, Puchta,
Eichter, Hinschius, and Thudichum. Copious lists of the
literature of these subjects are given in Pelt's Encyclopadie,
S. 619 ff., and in Hagenbach's Encyclopadie, S. 469 ff. -

400 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

§ 46. THE THEORY OF WORSHIP.
1. Liturgies. 2. Homiletics. '6. Catechetics.
4. Pastoral Science.
As the Confession is the postulate of the Church organiza
tion, the Confession and the Organization are the postulates of
the worship of the Church. In the more general sense of the
word, worship is the continuous action of the whole Church
for the edification of itself in faith, and has, for its regular
administration, the pastoral office. Christian worship, too,
according to the nature of religion has issued forth from the
faith of the Church, and has unfolded itself under diverse his
torical influences in a rich variety of forms. The theory of
worship has generally to determine scientifically the Christian
forms of worship, and has to borrow from historical theology,
as its auxiliary science, the history of worship or ecclesiastical
archseology. The Church, as a congregation of congregations, must have
a common form of worship. In reality this consists in a
form of worship for particular congregations, and the pastors
called by them are commissioned by the whole Church to
administer in them the pastoral office. For the preservation
of the communion, forms of worship have to be resolved upon
by the superior courts of the Church. The congregations and
pastors are bound by these, but are not thus bereft of freedom,
since they are fixed by courts which have been elected by
themselves. The pastor exercises all his official functions
under the commission he has from the Church. CaUed to
foster and maintain the Ufe of faith in his congregation in the
spirit of the whole Church, he must, through the study of
theology, be familiar with the historical development of the

LITLTiGics  MEANING OP THE WORD. 401
Christian Ufe, and be firmly estabUshed in his own life of
faith, so as to be able from personal conviction to perform all
his official obligations. His duty is, by means of his theo
logical culture to contend against aU forms of superstition,
heresy, error and unbelief, and to preserve his congregation in
the Uving faith in Christ, without communicating to it his
philosophical ideas and his theological learning.
The acts of worship, in which the congregation engages
along with the pastor, have reference — (1) to the congrega
tion in its totality, as the fostering by means of divine service
the faith of the congregation, — .worship in the strict sense of
the term ; (2) to the young of the congregation as laying the
foundations of the faith ; and (3) to individuals in the congre
gation as the guarding of the faith of the congregation. The
function of worship is, therefore, a liturgical one, which reaches
its highest point in the preaching of the word of God by the
pastors before the assembled congregation, a catechetical func
tion, and one directed to the care of souls. Thus the theory
of worship is divided into Liturgies and Homiletics, Cate
chetics, and the Theory of the Care of Souls, or Pastoral
Science in the strict sense.
1. LITURGICS. — Liturgies is the theory of Christian public
worship. Its task is, with reference to the idea of Christianity
and to history (ancient and modern liturgies), to determine
the nature of Christian public worship and the fundamental
forms in which it has been expressed. It has its name from
Xeirovpyia. Among the Greeks the word meant generally a
public office, but in the Greek Church it was transferred to
the administration of pubUc acts of divine service. According
to the modern use of the term, it is employed in the stricter
sense to the part of the divine service performed at the altar ;
in the wider sense it is used for the whole department of
liturgies. The- restriction of the tei-m by Zezschwitz to
the congregational act of communion is without any real
foundation. VOL. IL 2 0

402 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
The basis on which Christian pubUc worship rests is the
revelation of God in Christ. The divine human person of the
Founder is the middle point around which the festivals of the
Christian community, in constant remembrance of its dpyriyo'i
rri<s TTto-Teo)?, are grouped ; Sunday as the day of the Lord's
resurrection, the Christmas festival as the celebration of His
birth, the Easter festival as the celebration of His death and
resurrection in their religious significance according to Eom,
vi. 3-11, and the festival of Pentecost as the celebration of
the communication of His Spirit to the Church. The Chris
tian congregation meets on the public festivals for edification
in the faith. The assembled congregation is, in the celebration
of public worship, the acting person, making declaration of its
faith in fellowship with the pastor, and thereby quickening
and confirming it anew. Determined in respect of its contents
by a regard to the festival season, the celebration consists in
singing, prayer, and preaching of the word of God, by means
of which divine grace is commended to the congregation by
the pastor, and the congregation is commended to it, and the
service concludes with the bestowing of the blessing. The
dispensation of the sacraments, baptism and the Lord's Supper,
even if dissociated from the public celebration, is still an act
of congregational worship, performed by the pastor as organ
of the congregation. But there is an element partly sacra
mental, partly sacrificial, proper to all acts of worship. To the
performance and adequate rendering of the common festival
celebrations the arts of architecture, music, and painting con
tribute, which, inasmuch as they simply assist the worship,
are not an independent element thereof, but must be controlled
by the spirit prevailing in the Church.
The most important writings of recent times which treat
specially of Uturgics, are those of Gass, Hofling, Ehren-
feuchter, Klopper, Ebrard, Kliefoth, Bahr, and Schoberlein.
The treatises on practical theology generaUy mentioned under

NATUEE AND SCOPE OF HOMILETICS. 403
§ 44 ought speciaUy to be consulted. On particular parts of
liturgies, see the literature in Hagenbach, S. 414 ff. Engl.
transl. p. 517.
2. Homiletics. — Homiletics is the theory of preaching, and
stands in the closest connection with liturgies, inasmuch as
preaching forms the principal part of Christian public worship.
It has its name from ofiiXia ; in the ancient Church, the
Christian address to the congregation ; according to modern
usage, a particular form of preaching. Preaching is the pro
clamation of the word of God before the congregation assembled
for public worship by the pastor, who is officially commissioned
for this duty. It is, therefore, the duty of the pastor always
to base his discourse on a section of Holy Scripture, the
so-called text. His exposition of it must be scientifically
exegetical, but the end is practical application. The preacher
should not bring before his congregation theology and dogmatic
subtUties, but should seek on the basis of his text to build
it up in the faith. Possessing scientific knowledge of the
reUgious, and especiaUy the Christian religious life, he should,
as one skUled in religion, seek to give a religious tone to the
spirit of the congregation by an exposition of the Christian
truth in the living word, to make Christ, by means of his
preaching, a living power in the heart of every individual, and
thus the element of life in his congregation. The pastor has
to regard the assembled congregation as already a beUeving
company, which is, however, beset by the manifold influences
of the natural Ufe of this present worid. He must guard
against bringing forward in his preaching his own doubts in
regard to Christian truth. His preaching must always be so
positively reUgious, that it may nip in the bud any doubts
that may be rising in the congregation. The frequent com
plaints of smaU success attending preaching would be silenced,
if the sermons delivered were not one-sidedly dogmatic, or
moralizing, but truly Christian-religious. The chief thing,

404 theological encyclopedia.
therefore, is that the pastor himself be thoroughly penetrated
by the Christian truth, and that he speak to his congregation
from his own hearty convictions. All rules of art, which
homiletics lays down regarding preaching, presuppose this.
However rigidly a preacher may observe the rules of a homi
letical theory, if he has not Christ in his own spirit and heart,
he will never, by the most artistic preaching, exercise any
real influence. In the very interests of edification and to give
effect to his preaching, the pastor must seek in accordance
with the character and culture of his congregation the widest
intellectual horizon. Set down in the midst of the practical
life, and inspired by national and patriotic feeling, he will
also be interested in, and will bring within the scope of his
preaching, general ecclesiastical, social, and political ques
tions, and, without introducing any ecclesiastical or political
polemics, wUl have to deal with them from a purely reUgious
standpoint, in order to determine the Christian-ethical atti
tude of his people in regard to such matters.
The more recent works on homiletics are those of Schott,
Marheineke, Theremin, Palmer, Schweizer, and Baur, [Vinet,
Shedd, The Yale Lectures on Preaching].
3. Catechetics. — There is continuous succession secured
to the Christian community in the children of Christian
parents. By means of baptism conferred upon the chUdren,
the Church asserts its claim over them, and thereby under
takes the duty of giving Christian training to baptized
children, who have been received into the Church by means
of the baptismal vows taken in their name by sponsors, untU
they shall be able to renew these vows on their own behalf
in the act of Confirmation, and be qualified for being received
as full members of the Christian congregation. Catechetics
is the theory of the Christian training of the Christian youth
pp to their Confirmation. It has its name from Kar7]j(€iv,

insteuction peopee for the youth of the church. 405
meaning, according to Scripture usage, to instruct, to teach
(Acts xvUi. 25 ; Eom. U. 18 ; 1 Cor. xiv. 19). It is usually
the Christian youth, whom the catechist has to deal with ;
but, under special circumstances, his activity may be directed
to proselytes, converts, and such adult persons as have not
enjoyed the privilege of religious instruction in their youth.
In reference to these no theory can be laid down, for here
the instruction is altogether dependent on the degree of
previous culture on the part of those who are grown up.
Catechetics attends only to the Christian training of the
baptized youth. The duty of this training, since it aims at
incorporation with the Church, rests upon the congregation
and the pastor. In the catechetical activity, too, both have
to co-operate. Besides seeing to it that the children grow
up surrounded by a Christian atmosphere, it is incumbent
upon the parents that they awaken the religious sense of their
chUdren by home instruction and by attendance on the public
services of the sanctuary, while the congregation, by arranging
services for the young, by oversight of the public behaviour
of the young, by children's festivals, etc., has to exercise over
them a reUgious and moral influence. But catechetical
instruction itself belongs to the pastor, and must begin with
the very dawn of intelUgence in the child. It, therefore,
already begins in the public school, and is divided into the
training of school chUdren, and the training of candidates for
Confirmation, the catechumens strictly so called. The former
may be given by the pastor together with the schoolmaster,
or even by the schoolmaster alone. The pastor only can
give the preparation for Confirmation. The diversity in age
determines the diversity in the instruction. In the school it
is imparted in a freer, in the Confirmation-class in a more
systematic form. School and Church, therefore, stand in
close connection with one another. The public school is the
affair of the State, and it is subject to its control and over
sight ; but the State and the Church have a common interest

406 theological encyclopedia.
in the intellectual and religious education of the youth
attending school. Eestricted as the ordinary public school
course of instruction necessarily is to purely intellectual
culture, reUgion ought to be regarded as a most essential
means of culture in the public school. Eeligious instruction
directs its attention to the child's spiritual life as a whole,
and gives him for his whole life the character-basis, by
means of which the lowest in intellectual culture is on an
equality with the most highly cultured. The antipathy to
religious instruction among schoolmasters called forth by
ecclesiastical orthodoxy is already in Germany giving place
to a better understanding. To take religious instruction out
of the public school means in fact nothing less than to
deprive it of its most characteristic element of life, and
to withdraw the most solid basis of the life of the nation.
Eeligious instruction must be obligatory in the public school,
and, what is a consequence thereof, must be confessional,
unless this be forbidden by the pronounced ecclesiastical views
of the parents. The good intention of those, who on principle
demand simultaneous schools for the sake of civil harmony,
is to be acknowledged, but it is not attainable. The parity
of the public school is not in keeping with their task.
Simultaneous schools are a two-edged sword, and are allowable
only under special local circumstances, and on an understand
ing between the civil commune and the local Church,
Catechetics has pre-eminently to lay down the principles
of the catechetic activity. The principal law, which it gives
to the catechist, amounts to this, that he has not only to
instruct but also to render the heart of the youth susceptible
to Christianity. He should not put in place of this the
instruments of instruction, biblical history, catechism and
hymn-book, and should not merely load the memory of the
children with historical and doctrinal matter, but should
endeavour by those means of instruction to attract the chil
dren to Christ, and by the love to Christ awakened in them to

methods in catechizing. 407
make them grow up into truly reUgious men. From this it
foUows, that the catechist has to go back to the germs of
religious life present in the chUd's heart, and to secure its
reUgious-Christian development. There are two erroneous
conceptions of the nature of religion, which the catechist in
the discharge of his official duties must avoid. He can
neither get everything out of the child by questions, nor put
everything into him by preaching. In every chUd a spark of
religious Ufe is slumbering, and to fan this into a flame
warming the whole spiritual being of the child by the
positive religion revealed in Christ, is the task of the
catechist. The erotematic method of catechetical instruction,
the so-caUed Socratic or Maeutic, is, therefore, as one-sided
as the acroamatic method. As pursued separately, the
former rests on rationalism, the latter on supernaturalism.
The catechist must receive and give, give and receive, and
must, therefore, employ both those methods alternately in a
suitable manner.
The most important recent works on catechetics are those
of Dinter, Daub, Schwarz, Thierbach, Palmer, and Zezschwitz.
4. Pastoral Theology. — Notwithstanding the activities
proceeding from the congregation for its self-development, in
consequence of which the pastor has to exercise the functions
of liturgist, preacher, and catechist, there may be individuals
in the congregation for whom the general Church influence is
not sufficient, who withdraw from it, or even assume a hostile
attitude, and, therefore, require special pastoral care. There
may be some Church members who are disturbed by doubts
or conscientious scruples, others who are indifferent to Church
altogether, or, on the contrary, are inclined to separatism,
others who put little value upon Church appointments and
ordinances, absent themselves from public worship and
observance of the sacraments, despise the ecclesiastical

408 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
solemnization of marriage, neglect the education of their
children, others who have fallen into utter unbelief, who
follow Uves of sin, vice, and crime, and openly scoff and
mock at all the Church interests of the congregation. This
wide and dark department of experience is the subject of
pastoral activity. The congregation cannot be indifferent
toward it. Moved by Christian <f)iXaBeXjila (Eom. xii. 1 0 ;
Heb. xUi. 1), and in the interests of its own self-preservation,
it will give attention to its spiritually destitute, and will
seek to have those members who are out of sympathy
with the congregational Ufe, or are altogether estranged
from it, restored to it. The care of souls is a congrega
tional affair, and the theory of this is pastoral theology.
The care of souls is the duty specially of the pastor
because of his office ; in the discharge of it is he most
characteristically the pastor of his congregation, pastor
animarum. The theory does not propose a special code of
morals for the pastor, nor define the free social and friendly
intercourse between him and the members of his congregation,
nor his practical relation to his people, but only the official
duties which are required of the pastor in reference to this
given subject of the care of souls. The theory, applied to a
very varied field of experience, is here at least sufficient.
One's own experience and the experience of others is the best
teacher for practical use. But especially in this difficult
department of pastoral activity, which if exercised by the
pastor alone, only too readily gives occasion to the charge of
despotism, ambitious designs, underhand priestcraft and thirst
for power, the pastor ought to call in the support and help of
the elders of the congregation. Under certain circumstances,
the lay element may be more effective here than the clerical.
The care of souls exercised by the pastor in fellowship with
his session {presbyterium') includes Church discipline. Church
discipline is, likewise, an affair of the congregation, and must,
according to the Christian principle, be limited to exhortation

PROPER LIMITS OF PASTORAL THEOLOGY. 409
and correction springing out of brotherly love addressed to
members separated from the life of the congregation, and to
the whole judgment, according to which the congregation as
such confers or refuses its privUeges. Legal proceedings for
withdrawal of Church privileges, exclusion from the Lord's
Supper, refusal of baptism, of ecclesiastical solemnization of
marriage, of burial according to ecclesiastical rites, etc., would
lead to the injury, rather than to the edification of the con
gregation. The success of pastoral care of souls always mainly
depends on the moral authority, which the pastor, and the
members of the eldership associated with him, possess in the
congregation. If in pastoral theology it has been required specially of the
pastor, that he acquaint himself with agriculture, gardening, and
culture of fruit trees, with political economy and even with
medicine, so that a special medicina pastoralis has been laid
down, this all results from too wide a conception of pastoral
theology. With the care of souls none of those pursuits have
anything to do.
Apart from the numerous writings of a purely practical
character as records of experience, the theory of the care of
souls is of aU the branches of practical theology least ade
quately supplied with a literature. Besides the treatises on
practical theology as a whole, only the article of A, Schweizer,
" Wissenschaftiiche Construction der Pastoraltheologie oder
Theorie der Seelsorge," in the Stud, u, Krit. 1838, H. 1, S.
7-53, and the writings of Hoffmann, Palmer, and VUmar are
deserving of mention.

410 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.

§ 47. THE SCIENCE OF CHURCH CULTURE.
1. The Science of Church Missions. 2. Church Social Science.
The Christian faith is not only a Ufe in God, but at the
same time, a course of activity in the Spirit of God. By its
life of faith, by the common Christian feeling proceeding from
it, by its organization, by its worship, the Church unceasingly
carries on the spiritual and moral elevation of the races which
are embraced in its communion. As the divinely favoured
artist who introduces the conception of the divine into the
worldly life, it realizes, by its mere existence, the highest
religious-ethical end, the winning of all mankind to the life in
God and the penetrating of it with the Spirit of God. But
besides, there are certain definite activities demanded of the
Church, by means of which it has to contribute to Christian
culture. In consequence of the universal destination of
Christianity, it is incumbent upon the Church to overstep its
boundaries, and draw all non-Christian races into its holy
fellowship. This call is addressed to it in the commission of its
Founder (Matt, xxviii. 19, 20), and it accomplishes it by means
of that love which is present in faith. Thus the missionary
activity appears as the duty of the Church. As the Church
itself was called forth by missionary activity, it is also required
to exercise this activity continually. The first branch of the
science of Christian culture is the science of missions.
While the Church exercises love toward those without, it
has to exercise it also inwardly in reference to the life of its
own community. It is the Church's duty to deal with the
bodily need and moral ruin, the misery and sufferings of its
members, the misfortune which has been brought on by
natural causes, whether blameworthy or blameless, and the

RECOGNITION OF A THEOEY OF MISSIONS. 411
incalculable influence of sin, to counteract, and, according to
its abiUty, to reUeve by its charity aU those diseased con
ditions, which if not removed ruin individuals, and awaken
sympathy in the whole community (1 Cor. xU, 26), The
second branch of the science of Christian culture is the social
science of the Church. These ethical activities of the Church
have for their presupposition the functions of worship. By
means of both, the Church proves itself at once a means of
grace and an organ of the kingdom of God. The more lively
the faith, the greater will be the fervency of the love of the
Church. 1. The Science of Missions, oe Apostolics. — The mis
sionary activity is associated with the beginnings of the
Church, and has been continued, though with interruptions,
in its history ever since. A great practical activity spon
taneously springing out of the life of the Church precedes the
theory. Only in modern times, in consequence of a more
profound appreciation of the idea of the Church, has the need
of defining scientifically the missionary activity been acknow
ledged. Most writers on the theory of practical theology
have, in accordance with the suggestion of Schleiermacher,
received the theory of missions into its system as a separate
branch. So A. Schweizer, Moll, Ebrard, von Zezschwitz, and
Harnack. Hagenbach, too, in his Encyclopadie (S. 387 ;
Engl, transl. p. 487), recognised its claims, without assigning
it a separate place in the system. Among those just named,
Zezschwitz, in his System of Practical Theology (S. 153 ff.),
has sketched an admirable outline of a theory of missions.
Instead of the name " HaUeutics " (Schweizer), or " Keryktics ''
(Zezschwitz), or Evangelistics (Harnack), the name "Apos
tolics," with reference to the apostolic model and the mission
of the Church, seems most suitable.
In the Protestant Church, down to the present day, missions
have been under the management of independent associations,
and have experienced the advantages and disadvantages of all

412 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
associational agencies. In return for great sacrifices, there
has been often little or no result. For the vast field, to
which missionary effort addresses itself, larger means and
more regular and constant co-operation are needed, in order
to carry out the contemplated undertakings. It is not
required of separate congregations that they undertake the
missionary enterprise, but that they contribute to it. The
pastor should foster the missionary spirit in his people.
Mission work is the Church's duty; hence, without exclud
ing the co-operation of independent associations, the Church
authorities must undertake the direction of missions, if these
are to accomplish their intended purpose. Freedom is the
basis from which missionary activity must proceed : liberty of
action and special gifts make the missionary. The Church
has to take into its service youths or men who devote them
selves to the missionary calUng. Supported by the contribu
tions of the congregations, the Church authorities have to
undertake the regular training of missionaries, and for this
purpose, have to establish missionary institutions or semi
naries. In these the science of missions is taught. Since
the missionary has to deal, not with a regularly consolidated
congregation, but with a newly formed Church community, to
which he himself is to give more perfect shape, his training
does not need to be a theological one ; and since the intro
duction of confessional differences hinders the success of
missions, the work should not be carried on in a confessional
dogmatic spirit. The missionary must work as a Christian,
in the spirit of the evangeUcal Church, The science of
missions is constructed on those lines. Guided for the most
part by experience, it has to borrow the history of missions
from historical theology, and the reports issued by the various
missionary societies, as auxiliary sciences. The theory of
missions has to begin with the history of missions, and in it
to give special prominence to the lives of distinguished
missionaries. Great examples awaken an enthusiasm for

CHEISTIAN CHARITY IN THE EARLY CHUECH. 413
determined imitation. In the field of theological science,
Bible study has to take the place of Exegetical theology,
Evangelistics the place of Dogmatics and Ethics, the system
of Mission Services the place of Liturgies, Keryktics the place
of Homiletics. Catechetics and the care of souls are con
tinued in the mission field. The theory of the constitution
is to be replaced by the theory of the organization of newly
formed congregations.
The sending of the missionary, as well as his training,
devolves upon the Church authorities. Suitable localities for
missionary operations have to be fixed upon in view of exist
ing circumstances, and of political and commercial conjunc
tives, and then suitable missionaries have to be chosen for
these. The Church authorities, too, will have to decide when
any of the newly constituted communities have attained unto
such maturity as entitles them to a place in the organic
fellowship of the Church.
2. The Social Science of the Church. — The activity,
which this branch has scientifically to define, proceeded from
the free loving impulse of the primitive Christian community
toward its poor, and by its free gifts gave practical proof of
itself in so perfect a manner, that there was no poor one in
the community (Acts iv. 32-35). But the growing need
very soon rendered it necessary, in order to secure its regular
exercise, to connect this free activity with a particular office.
The ministry of the word was separated from the ministry of
charity, and the latter service was committed to the diaconate
(Acts vi. 1-6). In subsequent ages it was Uttle attended to
by the Church, but was left for the most part to private
exercise of charity to the poor, or to the cloisters and special
monkish orders for the care of the poor and sick. The
Eeformation, indeed, according to the biblical pattern, assigned
the care of the poor to the congregations; but on the one
hand, the one-sided conception of the Church, prevaiUng
among the Eeformers, as a spiritual institution was unfavour-

414 theological encyclopedia.
able to the practice of charity on the part of the Church, and
on the other hand, it was checked and repressed by the State
control over the Church, by means of which the congregations
were reduced to a condition of pure passivity. Only in
modern times has the importance of this exercise of charity
been recognised in the domain of the Protestant Church by
the so-called Inner Mission ; this has been more extensively
carried out by the aid of independent associations ; while in
regions outside of the Church, Socialism has applied itself,
not only practically, but also theoretically, to most of the
questions which belong to the charity-function of the Church.
Owing to the little attention given to its practice, theology
has given no special attention to this branch of the Church's
activity. Eucyclopsedists and writers on the theory of practical
theology mention casually indeed the Church diaconate, but have
not hitherto attempted a theory of it. If it be strictly limited
to the care of the poor and sick, it can scarcely be shown that
it should form a distinct branch. But the idea of the Church
and history lead to the conception of the charity of the Church
as a practical activity, by which an essential aspect of Chris
tianity, the ethical, is brought into being. The charity of the
Church has the significance of an activity that belongs to the
very nature of the Church and is essential to its culture, and
is therefore to be treated by practical theology as a separate
branch. Inasmuch as it proceeds from the Church, and has
as its task the preserving and advancing by its operation the
moral life of the Church as a whole, the theory of it may
be designated the Church social science. Its basis is the
history of Christian culture derived from historical theology.
As the temporal and the spiritual are conditioned the one by
the other, it has for its subject the temporal and moral needs
from which the community suffers, by which it is threatened
and endangered in its moral core, and it determines the prac
tical procedure by means of which those needs are to be
removed, or, at least, ameliorated. It has, therefore, to include

how church charity is ADMINISTERED. 415
within its range everything that is embraced in the idea of
the Inner Mission, and also social questions, in so far as they
concern the Church, and in so far as the Church can contri
bute to their solution. On this practical field, charity and
the care of souls have many points of contact. These two,
however, are distinguished in that the latter has to aid by
spiritual counsels the endangered life of faith, while the
former has to aid the endangered moral life by advice and
active help. Thus, too, are practical theology and social
science distinguished from one another.
The tasks of Church charity can be performed only by a
fully organized Church. The practical importance of the
Church constitution here becomes evident. It gives free play
and regularity of action to the vital ethical energies existing
within, the community. Church charity can be successfully
exercised only when it is localized, and as far as possible
individualized. The head of this activity is the particular
congregation. With the best of intentions, the pastor can by
himself effect Uttle in this department. He must be asso
ciated with his congregational board in common and organized
action. By pastor and office-bearers the charitable contribu
tions of the congregation are to be distributed, and in this
they have to seek the aid of women. Here it is true : mulier
agat in ecclesia. Women by their tender-heartedness, their
ever ready self-denial, their practical adroitness and circum
spection, are best fitted for discharging the duties of the
Christian diaconate. The organization must be directed to
securing personal intercourse between the workers and those
in need, and to arranging so that as smaU a group as possible
may be put under the care of each distributor. Church
charity, varied as its performances are, must ever keep this
in view, that material gifts alone do not relieve distress, that
rather personal loving and unwearied labour is required to
awaken to new energy the disheartened, the despairing, and
the morally unstrung. In reference to extra-ecclesiastical

416 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
social questions, the Church has to give its attention specially
to the deeply-rooted hatred and envy of those without pro
perty against the possessors of property, and the hard-hearted
selfishness and love of gain which the possessors of capital
manifest in their dealings with their employees. The Church
has to endeavour to uproot those false notions, by affording
information and by continuous Christian exhortation, but
specially by leavening the youth with better principles in the
instructions of the school and Confirmation classes. The
theory has to indicate in detail the needs, to which the
charity of the Church has to pay attention, and the means
with which they may be most judiciously met. But besides
being the business of individual congregations, it is also an
affair of the Church courts, not only to support the congrega
tions in their charitable labours, but also for this end to
seek desirable points of contact with the authorities of the
commune and the State. It is specially incumbent on the
supreme authorities of the Church, if the general interests of
the Church call for it, to claim the help of the supreme civil
authorities, and by public addresses to influence the congrega
tions. But the principal thing is that all this Church charity,
as well as the missionary activity, be carried on in a broad
Christian spirit, without any ecclesiastical party ends and
designs, and without any hypocrisy, with the heartiness and
self-denial of a genuine evangelical faith. If throughout all
the German Churches this loving spirit were exhibited, and
were the pastors, by engaging in such duties, to show them
selves men of the people, the German National Church would
become truly national, and would secure its place in the_
hearts of the German people.

ECCLESIASTICAL DIDACTICS. 417

§ 48. ECCLESIASTICAL DIDACTICS.
1. Symbolology. 2. Ecclesiastical Poedeuties.
Like the missionary activity, the Christian function of teach
ing, which was associated with it (Matt, xxviii. 19), was
originaUy left altogether free. While missionary effort spread
out into ever increasing circles, the teaching function had also
a rapid development, and constructed a scientific theological
system. But while missions maintained their freedom, the
function of teaching soon came to be tied down to a fixed
doctrinal code, and was handed over to a regular teaching
office. The Church borrowed from its theology certain
doctrinal propositions, and formulated them in the Church
confession or symbol, by means of which the faith of the
Church as a whole, and the system of theology was deter
mined. From its theologians it chose the administrators of
the teaching function of the Church, who, as they were them
selves bound to the Church confession, had also to teach it to
their people. The Christian teaching function constituted
itself an ecclesiastical teaching function by means of the
symbol, and carried this out by the pastoral office. These two
functions are to be scientifically determined by ecclesiastical
didactics, and thus we have two branches, Symbolology and
Ecclesiastical Psedeutics.
1. Symbolology, or the Theory of the Church Function
OF Teaching by means of the Symbol. — This branch, too, is
new to the theological system. Liebner, however, in a review
article^ advanced a claim on its behalf; but his claim has
been disregarded by eucyclopsedists and writers on the theory
of practical theology. A reference, however, to history and
1 Compare Theolog. Stud. u. Krit. 1844, S. 134 f.
VOL. IL 2 D

418 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
to the Ufe of the Church as a whole, shows it to be certainly
entitled to this place. The confessional controversy is one in
which the Church Ufe is most profoundly interested : even in
recent times it has pre-eminently engaged the attention of
practical Churchmen. Theology has here a neglect to make
good. Continued scientific treatment of the question would
undoubtedly have contributed to clearing away many practical
difficulties with which it was beset.
The history of doctrines and symbolics, borrowed from
historical theology, are the auxiliary sciences of symbolology.
In order to determine the teaching function of the Church by
means of the symbol in accordance with the idea of the
Church, symbolology has to take into consideration the origin,
the form, the contents, and the historical consequences of the
existing symbols. In respect of their origin, they have been
called forth by the historical development of the Church ;
history teaches that the Church needed a confession. In
respect of their form, however, the existing symbols, with the
exception of the apostolicum, are unsuited for the use of the
Church as a whole, in consequence of their great extent and
their purely theological mode of thought and language. In
respect of their contents, moreover, they are insufficient, in
asmuch as they only define faith as dogma, while they leave
undetermined the other essential aspect of the faith, the
ethical. This applies even to the apostolicum, which embraces
likewise purely historical elements, which are not suitable in
a confession, the adoption of which in the symbol on historic
grounds is incomprehensible to the Church of the present dayi
Finally, in respect of historical consequences, the symbols
have proved the chief occasion of ecclesiastical divisions. All
these defects of the present confessions result from the sub
stitution on the part of the Church of a human doctrinal
confession for a confession of saving truth. The Church as
ideally conceived, as the communion which lives out its faith,
was in no need of a confession ; but so soon as it appeared in

THE UNIVEESALLY VALID CHRISTIAN CONFESSION. 419
history as an organized community, it had to give expression
to its faith over against other religious communities, the State,
and confessional Churches. In order to correct the actual
defects of existing confessions, and to check the divisions in
the Church caused by them, the Church must put its
acknowledgment of divine salvation in place of the human
doctrinal confession. In short, this confession must give
expression to the essential basis of Church life in generally
intelligible phrases. In distinction from the confessional
doctrinal Churches, which make membership in them depen
dent on the confession of their dogmatic system, is the
member of the Christian Church, who, baptized unto Christ,
beUeves in God in the spirit of Christ, and promises to live
in accordance with this faith. The confession, which every
Christian has to make, is accordingly reduced to the single
statement that, having been baptized, he believes in God in
the spirit of Christ, and desires to live in accordance with this
belief. Every one thereby makes confession of Christ, the
Son of God in the religious-historical sense, who has revealed
to men life in God, of Christ, the Eedeemer, who has Uved
this Ufe for them, of Christ, the Saviour, who raises all who
foUow Him into believing and living fellowship with God.
Although the Church demands this confession of all its
members, it does not thereby lay down for its whole doctrinal
activity a dogmaticaUy formulated system, but only a doctrinal
norm to which its doctrinal activity is bound, and according
to which it is to be estimated.
Of the Protestant national Churches, the United Evan
geUcal Churches which, according to their Eeformation basis
and their historical origin, should be, not Churches of doctrine,
but Churches of the Christian Ufe, are called to appropriate that
confession of saving truth and to make it their doctrinal norm.
For the United Evangelical Church the confession controversy
is a purely practical question. In the separate evangeUcal
territorial Churches, various theological-ecclesiastical tendencies

420 THEOLOGICAL ENCYCLOPEDIA.
exist alongside one another, of the representatives of which,
some are confessional, either of a more or of a less strict
type, others acknowledge only the principles of the confessions
of the Eeformation, and others repudiate every church con
fession. The last two may be won for the proposed confession
of saving truth, and there is no reason in principle why the
first named should refuse to enter into church communion
with those others, provided that their doctrinal confession is
preserved to the confessional communities. The various ele
ments in the separate evangelical territorial churches should
not prevent them uniting in a living feUowship, and forming
by inner consolidation one organically constructed church. A
constitutional connection could be secured between it and the
other Protestant Churches of Germany, which have had the
legal validity of their doctrinal confession guaranteed to them.
In this way a German National Church might be constructed,
the highest function of which wUl be the bringing of the
Protestant Churches outside of Germany into organic connec
tion with the German Church. Dogmatic confessionalism,
with its exclusiveness, has been the chief obstacle in the way
of a great Protestant Church Union, and the restoration of a
German National Church. Far distant as the time for realiz
ing this may be, practical theology at its ideal standpoint will
not abandon the hope, that the spirit of Protestantism and
the love of Fatherland will yet overcome all hindrances, and
realize the ideal. During the transition stage, however, wisdom
must be exercised in the use of existing forms of church govern
ment in order that confiicting elements in the separate territorial
churches may be harmonized, and that all ecclesiastical schism
may be guarded against. It will have to be considered, that-
even now in the separate evangelical state churches, the type
of doctrine is not required, either by principle, or by existing
law, to be estimated according to a dogmatic confession of
faith. The erection and continuance of a German National
Church are possible only if it, be laid down as a fundamental

CONFESSION OF A NATIONAL CHUECH. 421
principle of church jurisprudence, that the teaching function
is to be exercised and judged in accordance with the confes
sion of saving truth as its doctrinal standard. The legalistic
tendency of Judaism and Eomanism, which is in contradiction
to the inmost spirit of the evangelical church, and is, even
within its bounds, fondly cherished, especially by jurists, would
then no longer have place within the church. The supreme
Church authorities would be relieved of the difficult task of
guarding the purity of the church. This guarding function
would be committed to theological science. Keeping pace
with the general sciences, theology wUl guard the German
Protestant Church from the conflicts and divisions, which
have befallen the Catholic Church through the schism of the
Eastern Church, through the Eeformation, and in later times,
through the German and Old Catholic movements, and which
have befallen Protestantism through the split into Lutheran
and Eeformed Churches, and which have befallen the Lutheran
Church also through continual divisions down to the present
day. It will rather be the duty of the church authorities to
see to it, that in all places the teaching is in accordance with
the standard of the Christian confession of saving truth. The
more energetically this confession is made in the discharge of
the practical duties of life, the deeper and stronger wiU,the
love of their church be rooted in the hearts of the German
people. 2. Ecclesiastical Pedeutics, oe the Theory of the
Teaching Function of the Church with eeference to
the Pastoral Office, — ^Accdrding to our symbolology, the
pastoral office is bound by the church confession of saving
truth. The ordination formula should give fit expression to
this, and be regarded as a vow by him who is ordained. The
solemn obUgation laid upon the pastor in regard to the
doctrinal confession, as used in the churches that cleave to
dogma, is in itself a humUiation to the pastor. If the men
who have the guiding of the church can administer their

422 theological encyclopedia.
office only in so far as they are theologically trained, pre
eminently the holders of the pastoral office who are entrusted
by the Church with the function of teaching, must be
equipped with the most complete theological acquirements.
The Church has to place confidence in them, that, on the
ground of their scientific training, with conscientious fideUty,
they will expound the confession of the essentials of salvation,
and unfold the wealth of Christian truth contained therein
for the edification of their people. Besides the general
service, which theology by its mere existence has performed
for the Church, this is the most important, that it has
qualified the ministers of the Church for their office. The
Church must, therefore, take care that this service is rendered
it in a systematic way. The free relationship which, accord
ing to §§ 14 and 21, exists between Church and theology,
becomes a regular and formal relationship. The Church has
need of special institutions, in which its pastors, by means of
unremitting and regular application, receive a theological
education. These are the ecclesiastical seminaries, and the
theological faculties connected with the universities. The
task of the former is to afford candidates of theology, who
have already received a scientific training, an introduction to
the practical work of the Church. The seminaries, therefore,
have nothing to do with theoretical theology, but on the
ground of this, they have to show the candidates, how to use
the contents of Scripture for the edification of the Church,
and how, for this purpose, and for the instruction of the
congregation. Church history and the reUgious content of the
dogmatic and ethical material treated of in systematic theology
may be employed. The special function, however, of the semi
naries is, by introducing the candidates to the theory of practical
theology and its several branches, to make them acquainted with
the practical tasks of the pastoral calling, and, by homiletical and
catechetical exercises, to qualify them for their future official
duties. In addition to this, apologetics, polemics, and irenics

university faculties of theology, 423
are relegated to the seminaries. The apologetical, polemical,
and irenical function, on the basis of the principles of
systematic theology, and according to the condition of the
Church at the time, and the general historical circumstances
by which the Church is affected, is exercised by men of wide
experience in the Church. The theory of these functions is
constructed and discussed in the seminaries.
The theological faculties of the universities, on the other
hand, in their relation to the Church, have the task of teaching
theological science purely as theory, in order to afford to
students, who have chosen the ministry as their calling, a
scientific training, and to lay the necessary basis for the work
to be carried on by the Church seminaries. While the
seminaries are purely an affair of the Church, in the theo
logical faculties, as in the public schools, the interests of
Church and State have common ground. As their common
interest demands reUgious instruction in the public schools,
so the State, as well as the Church, demands the scientific
culture of the pastors of the Churches which it recognises.
In consideration for the Churches, therefore, the State receives
the theological faculties into its universities, which have for
their highest aim the fostering of science in its purely ethical
tendency as directed to the investigation of truth. The
administration of the theological faculties lies wholly with
the State, since it supports them in the universities with its
funds, and has, therefore, to see to it that they satisfy the
general ends of the university. In this way regard may be
had most readily to the claims of the confessional Churches,
in so far as their theology is not opposed to the aims of the
State : the spread of doctrines dangerous to the State cannot
be aUowed by the State to be carried on at its cost. The
care of the evangelical Church for its theology coincides with
the civU ends of the universities. The evangelical theological
faculties have as their highest purpose, the investigation and
knowledge of divine truth, and strive after its attainment,

424 theological encyclopedia,
with all the means of human science at their disposal. Like
the other scientific faculties, with which they have inward
and outward intercourse, they pursue their theologico-scientific
ends by means of literary activity, by means of oral lectures,
and especiaUy by means of the seminaries co-ordinated with
them, in which they introduce their students to independent
scientific work under the separate branches of theology, and
fit them for carrying forward the work of theological science.
The practical seminaries, for the most part connected with the
theological faculties, in which homiletical and catechetical
exercises are prescribed, do not, in regard to this function,
belong to the university. Their academical position could be
secured only if they were conducted as seminaries for practical
theology, and undertook the task of stimulating the students
to scientific labours in the comprehensive department of
practical theology. Only if the theological faculties fulfil
their theoretico-scientific task, can they perfectly satisfy the
demands of the Church, in qualifying pastors for the ministry,
and conferring upon the official teachers of the Church that
scientific qualification, without which their duties cannot be
discharged. Faithfully adhering to its task, theology as a
university science Will maintain its own legitimate and proper
place alongside of the other sciences, and will be to all time
an ornament of the German Church. But, although it con
tributes its most signal service to the Church, as its most
perfect and most living expression, it is never to be forgotten,
that life in God is more than knowledge of Him, and that
even theology, with all that it has wrought, is of value only
as the outcome of a life that is lived in God.

I ]^ D E X.

Alliaous against errors of scholasti
cism, i. 34.
Alsted, traces of scholasticism in his
Encyclopedia, i. 49.
Ambrose on clerical culture, i. 21.
Anselm and the beginnings of scholas
ticism, ii. 225.
Anti-scholastic theologians, value of
their protest, i. 37.
Apocalypse, Eschatology of, ii. 172.
Apocalyptic literature of the Jews,
Rise of, ii. 134.
Apologetics, Place of, in encyclopedia,
i. 426-430.
Apologetics, relation to systematic
theology, ii. 305.
Apologies as scientific defence of
Christianity, i. 192.
Apologies in the early Church, ii. 200.
Apostles' Creed, Origin of, ii. 201.
Apostolics or science of missions, ii.
411.
Aramaic, Relation of, to Hebrew, ii. 30.
Archaeology, Jewish, ii. 52 ; division
of, 53 ; literature of, 56.
Art in the mediseval Church, ii. 317.
Asceticism and casuistry — the true
and false, ii. 371.
Augustine de doctrina Christiana, i. 22.
Authenticity of biblical writings, ii. 48.
Bacon, Roger, protests against pre
vailing errors, i. 31.
Bahrdt on theological studies at
universities, i. 68.
Beginnings of encyclopiiedia, i. 19.
Bertholdt's Encyclopiedia criticized, i.
82.
Biblical criticism, ii. 40 ; literature
of, 50.
Biblical "theology, ii. 101 ; literature
of, 174.
Biedei-mann, Theological standpoint
of, i. 295, iL 331.
Bonaventnra on manifold sense of
Scripture, i. 30.
Bruno Bauer exaggerated Strauss's
principles, i. 261. 42S

Buchner's Encyclopsedia from R. C.
standpoint, i. 152.
Buddseus, orthodox theologian favour
ing pietism, i. 59.
Calixtus' theory of tradition, i. 47.
Calov, Exposition of course of theo-
¦ logical study by, i. 42.
Canon of Scripture, Formation of, ii. 4.
Cassiodorus, theological guide for his
monks, i. 22.
Casuistry uo place in Protestantism, ii.
371.
Catechetics, Nature and scope of, ii. 404.
Charitv in early Christian Church, ii.
413."
Christ, World-wide significance of, ii.
352.
Christ ofthe synoptic Gospels, ii. 146.
Christ, object of worship in the
Christian Church, ii. 825.
Christian faith in relation to theologv,
i. 191.
Christian religion the subject of
theology, i. 187.
Christianity as a historical religion, i.
188.
Christianity, Earliest beginning of, ii.
155.
Christianity,Causes of spread of, ii. 190.
Christianity the ideal religion, ii. 324.
Christology of Synoptic Gospels, ii.
161 ; of Paul, 163 ; of Epistle to the
Hebrews, 165 ; of the Fourth Gospel,
166 ; of the Church, 351.
Chrysostom's contribution to encyclo
paedia, i. 21.
Church in relation to theology, i. 190.
Church in relation to the kingdom of
God, ii. 357.
Church as visible and invisible, ii. 358.
Church history. Importance of, ii. 179 ;
periods in, 187 ; literature of, 255.
Church law, ii. 394.
Church polity, ii. 391.
Church and State, ii. 244, 396.
Chytraeus assigns a high place to
Scripture, i. 40.

426

INDEX.

Circle of the sciences, i. 167.
Clarisse as encyclopaedist follows Mur-
sinna, i. 83.
Classification of theological depart
ments the task of encyclopaedia, i.
165.
CoUegial system, ii. 395.
Commentary as part of exegesis, ii. 95.
Constitution of the Church, History of,
ii. 61 ; theory of, 391.
Constitutional development in early
Church, ii. 191.
Co-operation of freedom and grace in
man's salvation, ii. 356.
Councils, Decisions of Christian doc
trine by, ii. 202.
Creeds, Earliest forms of, ii. 201.
Criticism, Biblioal, ii. 40.
Crusades of Middle Ages, ii. 221.
Culture, History of Christian, ii. 267.
Danz's Encyclopsedia, Relation of, to
Schleiermacher, i. 95.
Daub influenced by Schelling, i. 116.
Decline of Jewish literature and
nationality, ii. 71.
Deism in England, Rise of, ii. 242.
Deutsch-katholicismus purely nega
tive, i. 268.
Didactic Hebrew literature of later
period, ii. 136.
Didactics, Ecclesiastical, ii. 417.
Discipline in church, Extravagant
demands for, ii. 199.
Distribution of theology. Principle of,
i. 297.
Distribution of theologie, i. 182.
Dohmayer's Encyclopaedia valuable for
R. C. Church, i. 147.
Doctrinal system of Epistle of James,
ii. 168.
Doctrines, History of, ii. 271.
Doedes' Encyclopadie, i. 124 ; view of
place of methodology, 181.
Dogmatic tendency of century follow
ing Eeformation, i. 441.
Dogmatics, Idea of, ii. 330 ; various
methods of, 335 ; division adopted,
339 ; literature of, 361.
Dominicans, Rise of the order of, ii.
212 ; doctrinal position of, 226.
Drey influenced by Schleiermacher, i.
149.
Drummond's introduction to study of
theology, i. 139.
Du Pin's view of theological study, i.
56.
Efficacy of sacraments, Eomish doc
trine of, ii. 214.

Egypt, Sojourn of Israel in, ii. 63.
Elders as church ofiicers, iL 392.
Encyclopaedia, word used generally, i.
167 ; applied to theological sciences,
17L
Episcopal system in Church law, ii. 395.
Episcopate, struggle with the Papacy,
ii. 213.
Erasmus points out errors of seholas-
ticism, i, 35 ; replies to Latomus, 52,
Erhardt influenced by Schelling, i.
116.
Erigena, his doctrinal position, ii. 224.
Emesti's institutio interpretis K. T., i.
64.
Eschatology of Apocalypse, ii. 172 ; of
the Church, 358.
Ethical view of sin, ii. 368 ; goal in
the kingdom of God, 873.
Ethics, Idea of Christian, ii. 362 ;
. Eothe's view of, 363 ; past neglect
of, 365 ; Martensen's distribution of,
366 ; principles of, 367 ; literature
of, 373.
Exegesis, ii. 91 ; as commentary, 95 ;
as paraphrase, 96 ; as translation,
97 ; history of, 99.
Exegetical theology, ii. 3-176 ; dis
tribution of, 3, 11.
Exilian period of Jewish history, ii. 67.
Extra-canonical writings, ii. 9.
Faith, Doctrine of Paul and James
regarding, ii. 170.
Faith in relation to theology, i. 191.
Family, Ethical significance of the, ii.
369.
Fathers, Biblical quotations in the
early, ii. 45.
Febronianism, movement in K. C.
Church, i. 147.
Feuerbach makes man all, i. 266.
Foederal method in dogmatics, ii. 336.
Formal method of encyclopsedia con
demned, i. 166, 169.
Fourfold distribution of theology, i.
298, 301.
Fourfold sense of Scripture, i. 29, 30.
Franciscans, Rise of order of, ii. 212 ;
doctrinal position of, 226.
Francke's exposition of pietism, i. 48.
Frank's system of Christian certainty,
i. 277.
Free Churches of Germany extremely
negative, i. 267.
Freedom and grace, Co-operation of, in
man's salvation, ii. 356.
Gaupp's view of practical theology, ii.
380.

INDEX.

427

General part of theologie, its idea, i
182 ; its treatment, 187.
Gerbert, a Romanist opposed to scholas
ticism, i. 143.
Gerhard, Exposition of theological
course of study by, i. 42.
German review of Hegelians of the
left, i. 265.
German Catholicism, i. 268.
Gerson opposed errors of scholasticism,
i. 34.
Gnosticism in the early Church, ii. 200.
God, Gradual historical development
of notion of, ii. 116.
God is knowable, asserted by Hegel, i.
249 ; views of Mansel, etc. , 250.
Gothic church architecture, ii. 217.
Grammatico-historical method of inter
pretation, ii. 21.
Greek of N. T. or Hellenistic, ii. 36 ;
literature of, 38.
Greek Church, Early theology of, ii. 205.
Greek philosophy overthrows Greek
religion, ii. 118 ; Roman religion, 119.
Grimm, Remarks on criticisms by, i.
415-425.
Hagenbach's Encyclopsedia reviewed,
i. 97 ; its tenth edition, 101 ; English
adaptation of, 103 ; fourlbld distribu
tion adopted, 299 ; place assigned to
apologetics in, 427.
Halle Review, organ of left Hegelians,
i. 265.
Harless' Theological Encyclopaedia, i.
108 ; criticized by Doedes, 110.
Harnack's view of practical theology,
ii. 381.
Heathen religions, ii. 109 ; literature
of, 109.
Hebraism, its relation to religions of
nature, ii. 141 ; periods of, 120.
Hebrew literature. Characteristics of,
ii. 86 ; under the kings, 125.
Hebrew philology, Literature of, ii. 35.
Hebrew prophecy. Characteristics of,
iL 126.
Hebrew religion, Beginnings of, ii. 122;
elements in, 321 ; defects of, 323.
Hegel's encyclopaedic treatment of
religion, i. 117 ; his speculative
philosophy, 245 ; his philosophy of
religion, 247 ; attachment to dog
matic form of Christianity, 251, 265.
Hegel and Schleiermacher compared, i.
279.
Hegelians of the extreme left, i. 265.
Hegelirigen, contemptuous name for
extreme Hegelians, i. 267.
Hellenistic Greek, ii. 36.

Herder's letters on study of theology,
i. 71 ; restores 0. T. to place of
honour, 72.
Hermeneutics, Theory of, ii. 13 ; his
torical principle in, 19 ; literature
of, 25.
Hierarchical development under
Gregory VIL, ii. 211.
Historical theology, ii. 177-296.
History of encyclopaedia. Place of, i. 17.
History of Jews, ii. 58.
Hodge's estimate of Schleiermacher's
theology, i. 242.
Hofmann's Encyclopsedia, Brief out
line of, i. 129 ; examination of his
theology, 334-377.
Holy Scripture and word of God
distinguished, i. 210.
HomUetics, Theory of, ii. 211.
Hugo St. Victor's JEruditio Didascalica,
i. 27.
Hyperius' survey of theological
studies, i, 41.
Idea of theological encyclopaedia, i. 169.
Ideal life in kingdom of God, ii 370.
lUumination opposed by rationalism
as superficial, i. 227 ; relation of, to
Semler, 68.
Immanence in religions of nature, ii.
316.
Immortality, Proofs of, ii. 360.
Infallibility dogma pronounced, u.
248 ; disproved by history, 240.
Inquisition in regard to doctrinal
beliefs, ii. 229.
Inspiration, Old Church doctrine of, i.
209.
Introduction to theologie. Proper con
tents of, i. 182.
Introduction, Idea of biblical, ii. 77 ;
as history of biblical literature, 84.
Irenics, Relation of, to systematic
theology, ii. 305.
Isagogics, Biblical, ii. 75 ; literature
of, 90.
Isidorus on etymologies, i. 24.
Israel under judges, ii. 65 ; under
kings, 67 ; during exUe, 69.
Jansenism, Significance of, ii. 240.
Jesuits, Opposition to, in Prussia, ii. 248.
Jesus, Religious influence of, ii. 144 ;
religious development of, 149.
Jewish history, ii. 58 ; periods of, 61 ;
literature of, 69.
Josephinism, its influence on R. C.
theology, i. 147.
Kant as opponent of the Church

428

INDEX.

theology, i. 73 ; subordinates religion
to morals, 74. _
Kienlen's Encyclopaedia in French and
German, i. 108.
Kingdom of God, ii. 153 ; in relation
to the Church as ideal, 357.
Klee, Roman Catholic spirit in his
Encyclopaedia, i. 152.
Kleuker, Criticism of his encyclopaedic
. arrangement, i. 80.
Knighthood, Order of, in mediaeval
Church, n. 221.
Kiibel, Place assigned to apologetics
by, i. 428.
Lagarde's idea of natural religion, i.
315.
Lange (J. P. ) gives a twofold division
of encyclopaedia, i. Ill ; view of
practical theology, ii. 382.
Lange (Lobegott), Tinge of rationalism
in Encyclopsedia of, i. 110.
Language and religion. Relations of, ii.
112.
Latomus against Erasmus, i. 52.
Laurentius recommends scholastic
theology, i. 53.
Leibnitz endeavours to reconoUe reason
and revelation, i. 220.
Lessing opposes the rationalism of the
Illumination, i. 71.
Life of Jesus, Modern treatment of, ii.
145.
Linguistics, Biblical, ii. 26.
Lipsius, Theological standpoint of, i.
288 ; division of dogmatics, ii. 331,
338.
Liturgies, Meaning of term, ii. 401.
Local method in dogmatics, ii. 335.
Lutheran orthodoxy, its view of Scrip
ture, i. 45 ; restored in modern
Church, 270.
Lutheran Church, Early controversies
in, ii. 237 ; separation of Lutheran
and Reformed Churches, 245.
Mabillon's traits des etudes monas-
tique, i. 55.
Manuscripts of Old Testament, ii. 43 ;
of New Testament, 44.
Marriage, Ethical significance of, ii.
369.
Martensen's division of Christian ethics,
ii. 366.
Martin of Lausanne gives threefold
division of theology, i. 139.
Material method of treatment of en
cyclopaedia, i. 169, 343.
Means of grace, ii. 357.

Mediseval doctrine a reproduction of
Old Church theology, li. 223.
Mediation schemes between rationalism
and supernaturalism, i. , 229.
Mediation theology, i. 275.
Melanchthon's brevis discendse theo-
logiae ratio, i. 38.
Merits, Romish doctrine of, ii. 216.
Messiah, Jesus the Jewish, ii. 160.
Messianic kingdom. Characteristics of,
U. 152.
Methodology not to be separated from
encyclopaedia, i. 181.
Middle Ages, Theology of the, ii. 207.
Missions, First development of, ii, 254 ;
history of, 257 ; literature of, 259 ;
theory of, 410.
MoU's arrangement of practical theo
logy, ii. 380.
Monkish idea of morality, ii. 219.
Monks, Importance of, in history of
civilisation, ii. 220.
Moral decay of Church and people in
Middle Ages, ii. 222.
Moses, Influence of, on Hebrew religion,
u. 123.
Mosheim, Practical aim of his treatise
on theological method, i. 61.
Miiller (Max) on religious notions of
the ancients, ii. 114.
Mursinna gives name of encyclopsedia
to our science, i. 62.
Mystical sense of Scripture, ii. 17.
Mysticism distinguished from orthodox
theology, i. 216 ; rises on ruin of
scholasticism, ii. 228 ; appears in a
practical form in the Church, 240.
Natural science and theology, i. 322.
Naturalism, the end of the left
Hegelian extreme, i. 268.
Nature-religion, History of, ii. 316 ;
origin of, 318 ; worship of, 319 ;
higher forms of, 320.
Kicolaus de Clemangis, De studio
theologico, i. 35.
Nitzsch's view of practical theology, ii.
380.
Koack misconceives theological en
cyclopaedia, i. 122 ; his speculative
science of religion, 124.
l^ominalism wrecks scholasticism, ii.
227.
Nosselt on preliminary theological
studies, i. 76.
Oberthur, importance of his Encyclo
paedia for Roman Catholic Church,'i,
145.
Object of theologie, 172,

INDEX,

429

Orders of friars, dangerous to Papacy,
iL 212.
Organization of the Church, ii. 390.
Orthodox theology defined, i. 205 ; in
Roman Catholic Church, 206 ; theory
of Scripture, 211 ; modern, 273.
P.EDEUTICS, Ecclesiastical, ii. 421.
Palestine, Natural history of, ii. 54.
Pananthropism of Feuerbach, i. 267.
Pantheism in speculative theology, i.
285.
Paraphrase as work of exegete, ii. 96.
Pastoral theology, Nature and scope
of, ii. 407.
Patristics, Definition of, ii. 287 ; litera
ture of, 291.
Patrology or Uves of the fathers, ii.
290.
Paul, Christology of, ii. 163 ; and
James' views of faith, 170.
Pelt, his relation to Schleiermacher, i.
105 ; his view of practical theology,
u. 399.
Pfaff, Pietistic elements in theology of,
i. 60.
PhUo, his religious phUosophical
system, ii. 138.
PhUosophy, its relation to the positive
sciences, i. 199 ; relation to theology
and Church, 201.
Photius' quarrel with Rome, ii. 209.
Pietism protest against orthodox dog
matism, i. 47 ; relation of, to mysti
cism, 217 ; its movements within
the Church, u. 240.
Planck's theological attitude, i. 77 ;
arrangement of encyclopsedia, 78.
Polemics, relation to systematic theo
logy, ii. 305.
Polity, Principles of Church, u._391.
Pope, Bishop of Rome becomes, ii. 391.
Positive science. Meaning of term, i.
198 ; theology a, 198.
Possevinus' Bibliotheca selecta, i. 54.
Practical theology. Idea of, u. 374 ;
historical sketches, 375-387; dis
tribution of, 388.
Preparation for Christianity, iL 143,
Proofs of being of God, ii. 345.
Protestantism, Worship of, contrasted
with the Romish, ii. 249 ; relation
of, to morals and political freedom,
252. , ..
Providence, Christian doctrine of, u.
344.
Psalms, Theology of the, u. 142.
Psychological origin of religion, ii.
308.
Puseyism, German, i. 275.

Rabantjs Maueus' Institutio Cleri
corum, i. 26.
Rationalism, Rise of, i. 63, 219 ;
development in Germany, 220.
Rationalistic theory of Scripture, i.
223 ; services rendered by, 226.
Reaction against extreme negative
tendencies, i. 270.
Reconciliation of man with God, ii.
350 ; in Christ, 355.
Reformation, how it afiected theology,
i. 38 ; causes of, ii. 231 ; overthrows
sacerdotalism and hierarchism, 233;
its conservative character, 235.
Reformed Church constitution, ii.
245.
Relation of theology to Church, i. 308.
Religion, History of biblical, iL 103 ;
comprehensive conception of, 107 ;
of nature, 111 ; distinguishing prin
ciple in, the idea of God, 115 ;
theory of, 307 ; Biedermann and
Lipsius on nature and origin of,
310 ; elements in, 314 ; history of,
315 ; history of religion of nature,
316 ; history of Hebrew, 321.
Repentance of sin, ii. 355.
Resurrection, Origin of story of
Christ's, ii. 157 ; development of
doctrine in Church, 158.
Reuterdahl in encyclopsedia follows
Schleiermacher, i. 108.
Revelation of God to man, first part of
dogmatics, ii. 339.
Ritschl, Theological standpoint of, i.
287 ; school of, 293.
Ritual of the Church, Development of
the, u. 1S6.
Eomanism, Ideal tendencies in modern,
u. 243.
Romanizing tendencies among English
aristocracy, ii. 247.
Ronge founder of Deutsch-katholicis
mus, i. 268.
Rosenkranz' relation to Hegel, i. 118 ;
threefold division of Theological
Encyclopsedia, 119.
Bothe's Theological Encyclopaedia,
General principles of, i. 133 ; three
fold division of theology, 134 ; de
tailed examination of his system,
377-413 ; conception of ethics, ii.
362.
Ruge, a leader of the Hegelian extreme
left, i. 265.
Sacraments, Number of fixed, u.
214 ; as opus operatum, 215.
Sacrificial death of Christ, u. 351-353.
Schelling on method of academical

430

INDEX.

studies, i. 112 ; his view of value of
biblical writings, 113.
Schenkel, Theological standpoint of, i.
287.
Schleiermacher, his brief outline of
study of theology, i. 85 ; his general
view of theology criticized, 89 ; his
relation to previous theological
systems, 231 ; idea of dogmatics,
234 ; services to theology, 236 ; his
attitude one of compromise, 239 ;
relations of his philosophy and
theology, 240 ; compared with
Hegel, 279 ; influence on modern
theology, 287 ; view of practical
theology, ii. 376. \
Scholastic theology, Characteristics of,
i. 30 ; as orthodox theology of
Roman Catholic Church, 207 ; be
ginning of, in Anselm, ii. 225.
Science of Christian religion, the sub
ject of enoyolopsedia, i. 162.
Scotus Erigena, his doctrinal position,
u. 224.
Scribes, Rise of Jewish, ii. 133.
Scripture, subject of exegesis, ii. 92 ; a
source for systematic theology, 327.
Selneccer assigns high place to Scrip
ture, i. 40.
Seminaries, theological, ii. 422.
Semitic languages, Distribution of, ii.
27.
Semler, his influence on theological
study, i. 64 ; opposed to dogmatism,
66 ; estimate of, 68.
Services of theology to the Church, i.
309 ; to members of the Church,
313.
Sin, Christian doctrine of, ii. 347 ;
original, 348 ; its reign in man's
life, 368.
Smith (H. B.), Introduction to Chris
tian theology, i. 141..
Social Christian morality, ii. 372.
Social science of the Church, ii.
413.
Society as an ethical power, ii.
369.
Speculative theology aud the absolute,
i. 244 ; produced from speculative
philosophy, 252 ; hiirtful tendencies
of, 255.
Spener and beginnings of pietism, i.
47.
State, its relation to the Church, ii.
396 ; as an ethical power, 369.
Statistics of, the Church, ii. 292 ;
literature of, 295.
Staudenmaier, most profound of Roman
Catholic encyclopaedists, i. 153.

Staudlin's Theological Encyclopsedia,
i. 82.
Strauss, ablest representative of He
gelian extreme left, i. 259 ; attitude'
antichristian, 259 ; makes specula
tive truth and Christianity incon
sistent, 263.
Supernatural theology, Rise of, i. 213.
Survey of history of theological ency
clopsedia, i. 158. '
SymboUcs, ii. 277 ; literature of, 284.
Symbolology, ii. 4i7.
Synoptic Gospels, Christ ofthe, iL 146,
161.
Systematic theology. Idea of, ii. 297 ;
divisions of, 301 ; relation to Scrip
ture, 327.
Table of schemes for encyclopaedia, i.
307.
Task of encyclopaedia to represent
theology as science, i. 164.
Territorial system in Church law, ii.
395.
TertuUian opposed to philosophy, i.
205.
Testimonium spiritus sancti, i. 208.
Textual criticism, ii. 43.
Theologian necessarily a Christian man,
i. 196.
Theologie, name proposed for encyclo
psedia, i. 171 ; as methodology, 179 ;
distribution of, 182.
Theology, Subject of, i. 187 ;_ as a
positive science, 198 ; relation of
Church to, 190 ; relation of, to
Church, 308 ; to other sciences, 315 ;
relation to philosophy, 327 ; to
jurisprudence, 326.
Theory of religion, u. 307.
Threefold distribution of theology, i.
301.
Tittmann's view of encyclopsedia, i. 78.
Transcendence in Hebraism and Chris
tianity, ii. 321.
Translation as work of exegete, ii. 97.
Tridentine reform in the Eomish
Church, ii. 239.
Trinitarian scheme of doctrine adopted
by Hegel, ii. 251 ; in distributioof
dogmatics, ii. 336.
Trinity, Christian doctrine of, ii. 341.
Twofold distribution of theology, i.
305.
CTnion, Opposition of orthodox
Lutherans to the, i. 272.
University faculties of theology, ii.
423.
Uses of theologie, L 172.

INDEX.

431

Variations in the biblical text, ii. 46.
Vicarious sacrifice of Christ, Christian
doctrine of, ii. 352.
Vincent of Beauvais' bibliotheca mundi,
i. 28.
Virgin, Origin of worship of, ii. 216 ;
immaculate conception proclaimed,
251.
Walch, pietistic element in his theo
logy, i. 61. V
Werenfels protests against dogmatic
treatment of Scripture, i. 50.
Werner's History of Catholic Theology
referred to, i. 143.
Wisdom of Hebrews, Literature of, ii.
129 ; wisdom personified in Hebrew
literature, 131.
Wislicenus, leader of extremely nega
tive party, i. 267,

Wolf's endeavour to reconcile reason
and revelation, i. 220.
Wolfenbiittel fragments, their influ
ence on development of rationalism,
i. 221.
Worship, Development of forms of, ii.
196; history of, 263; literature of,
265 ; theory of, 400.
Young Hegelians, followers of extreme
negative tendencies, i. 256.
Zezschwitz's view of practical theo
logy, n. 382.
Zockler's Handbook of the theological
sciences, i. 135 ; on modern theo
logical tendencies, 318 ; on relation
of theology and philosophy to other
sciences, 324 ; place assigned to
apologetics, 428.

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logical Library." . . . Such expositions as those of the Good Samaritan and the Pro
digal Son are as full of human feeUng as others are of ripe learning. The volume is
quite a treasury of original exposition on a subject on which preaobers constantly need
help, and on which little that is new has appeared in recent years. —Methodist Becorder.

T. and T. Clark's Publications.

Just published, in Three Volumes, 8to, price 31s. 6d.,
THE LIFE OF CHRIST.
BY DR. BERNHARD WEISS,
PKOFESSOK OF THEOLOGY, BERLIN.
' The authority of John's Gospel is vindicated with great fulness and success.
Altogether the book seems destined to hold a very distinguished, if not absolutely
unique, place in the criticisih of the New Testament. Its fearless search after truth,
its independence of spirit, its extent of research, its thoughtful and discriminating tone,
must secure for it a very high reputation.' — Congregationalist.
' If the work in its completeness fulfil the promise of this instalment, it will be an
exposition of the divine character and mission of our Lord more thorough and pene
trating and conclusive than any that we yet possess.' — British Quarterly Beview.
'Able and learned volumes. ... A careful perusal of these books will amply repay
the reader. They are replete with original matter, and are evidently the result of
painstaking conscientiousness on the part of the author.' — Bock.
'A valuable treatise. ... A thoroughly exhaustive work; a work in which learning
of the most severe type, combined with a perfect knowledge of the languages drawn
upon for the elucidation of his purpose, is apparent in every page.' — Bell's Weekly

'From the thoroughness of the discussion and clearness of the writer, we anticipate a
very valuable addition to the Great Biography.' — Freeman.

By the same Author.
In Two Volumes, 8vo, price 21s.,
BIBLICAL THEOLOGY OF THE NEW
TESTAMENT.
'We can bear grateful testimony to the vigour, freshness, and richly suggestive
power.' — Baptist Magazine.
' Further references to this work, so far from diminishing the high estimate we have
previously expressed, have induced us to value it still more. The issue of the second
and concluding volume gives aid to this enhanced appreciation,' — Theological Quarterly.
' Written throughout with freshness, vigour, and perfect command of the material. . . .
This is a field which Weiss has made his own. His work far excels the numerous works
of his predecessors in thoroughness and completeness.' — Methodist Becorder.
' The work which this volume completes is one of no ordinary strength and acumen.
It is an exposition of the books of the New Testament arranged scientifically, 'that is,
according to the authorship and development. It is the ripe fruit of many years of New
Testament exegesis and theological study. . . . The book is in every way a notable
one.' — British Quarterly Beview.
'A work so thorough as this, and which so fully recognises the historical character of
the science of Biblical Theology, was well worth translating.' — Academy.
'Able contributions to theological literature.' — Scotsman.
Just published, in post 8vo, price 7s. 6d.,
BIBLICAL STUDY:
ITS PRINCIPLES, METHODS, AND HISTORY.
By Peofessoe C. A. BRIGGS, D.D.,
With Iktroduction by Professor A. B. Bruce, D.D., Glasgow.
' A book fitted at once to meet the requirements of professional students of Scripture,
and to serve as an available guide for educated laymen who, while using the Bible
chiefly for edification, desire to have the advantage of the light which scholarship can
throw on the sacred page, ought to meet with wide acceptance and to be in many ways
useful. Such a book is the one now published. Dr. Briggs is exceptionally well
qualified to prepare a work of this kind.' — Prof. Bruce.
' We are sure that no student will regret sending for this hook.'~-Academy.
'Dr. Briggs' book is a model of masterly condensation and conciseness. He knows
how to be brief without becoming obscure.' — Freeman.

T. and T. Clark s Publications.

BISHOP MARTENSEN' S WORKS.
TWamfus " nL^^ri^'^.^t*"'! ^^''^P' ?" greatest Lutheran, divine of our century.
for th!;^,^^t r,??f 1 "• ,*''M^°'l",^'" '•"^ '"'«d pages of which contain intellectual food
i/i^ltnUfl ^' V°* ^Y f^l^^  His ''Christian Dogmatics "has exercised
as wide an influence on Protestant thought as any volume of our oentury.'-^oyo^tor.
In Three Volumes, 8vo, price 10s. 6d. each,
CHRISTIAN ETHICS.
Volume I. GENERAL ETHICS.— II. INDIVIDUAL ETHICS. -IH. SOCIAL ETHICS.
.u•¦^^ "!.*'' \^ * '"^'"^^i" °f 'wo societies, a temporal and a spiritual, it is clear that his
ethical development only can go on when these two are treatnd side by side. This
Bishop Martensen has done with rare tkiU. We do not know where the conflicting
ola,ims of Church and State are more equitably adjusted. , . . We can read these
volumes through with unflagging interest.'— iiierary World.
' Dr. Martensen's work on Christian Dogmatics reveals the strength of thought as well
as the fine literary grace of its author. . . . His chief ethical writings comprise a system
of Christian Ethics, general and special, in three volumes. Each of these volumes has
great and singular excellence, and it might be generally felt that iu them the author has
surpassed his own work on " Christian Dogmatics.'" — Bev. Principal Cairns.
In One Volume, 8vo, price 10s. 6d.,
CHRISTIAN DOGMATICS.
'To students this volume will be helpful and welcome.' — Freeman.
' We feel much indebted to Messrs. Clark for their introduction of this important
compendium of orthodox theology from the pen of the learned ' Danish Bishop. . . .
Every reader must rise from its perusal stronger, calmer, and more hopeful, not only
for the fortunes of Christianity, but of dogmatic theology.' — Quarterly Beview.
' Such a book is a library in itself, and a monument of pious labour iu the cause of
true religion.' — Irish Ecclesiastical Gazette.
Just published, in demy 8vo, price 9s.,
A POPULAR INTRODUCTION TO THE
HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINE.
By Rev. T. G. CRIPPEN.
' A clear and intelligible account of the course of religions from the earliest times to
our own ; . . . . indeed, the student who masters this volume only wiU have no
mere acquaintance with this department of theological work.' — .Freeman.
' Mr. Crippen is studiously, ou some points startlingly, and enviably fair. His book
shows wide reading and honest thinking. It abounds in acute distinctions; its state
ment of varying views of doctrine is sometimes very happy, and it sufficiently illustrates
the pathology of theological speculation.' — Wesleyan Methodist Magazine.
In Three Volumes, 8vo, price 3Is. 6d.,
A HISTORY OF CHRISTIAN DOCTRINES.
By the Late Dk. K. R. HAGENBACH.
SEratiBlateti from tJje iFiftj^ ant 3Last ffiertnan ffitition, init])
^titiitians fxam other Sources.
WITH AN INTEODUGTION BY THE VEEY EEV. DEAN PLUMPTEE.
' This scholarly and elaborate history.'— Dickinson's Theological Quarterly.^
' There is no work which deals with this subject in a manner so scientific and so
thsrough as Hagenbach's. Moreover, there is no edition of this work, either m German
or in English, which approaches the present as to completeness and accuracy. —Church
'No work will be more welcome or useful than the present one. We have a whole
system of theology from the hand of the greatest Jiving theologian of Germany. —
Methodist Becorder.
.,  .  ^ 

T. and T, Clark s Publications,

Just published, a New Edition, thoroughly Revised and Enlarged,
HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
By PHILIP SCHAFF, D.D., LL.D.
APOSTOLIC CHRISTIANITY, A.D. 1-100. In Two Divisions. Ex. demy 8vo, price 21s.
ANTE-NICENE CHRISTIANITY, AD. 100-325. In Two Divisions. Ex. demy 8vo,
price 21s.
NICENE and POST-NICENE CHEISTIANITY, AD. 325-600. In Two Divisions. Ex.
demy 8vo, price 2 Is.
MEDIEVAL CHRISTIANITY, AD. 590-1073. In Two Divisions. Ex. demy 8vo,
price 21s.
'No student, and indeed no critic, can with fairness overlook a work like the present,
written with such evident candour, and, at the same time, with so thorough a knowledge
of the sources of early Christian history.' — Scotsman.
' I trust that this very instructive volume will find its way to the library table of every
minister who cares to investigajte thoroughly the foundations of Christianity. I cannot
refrain froni congratulating you on having carried through the press this noble contri
bution to historical literature. I think that there is no other work which equals it iu
many important excellences.' — ^Bev. Prof. Fisher, D.D.
' In no other work of its kind with which I am acquainted will students and general
readers find so much to instruct and interest them.'— Eev. Prof. Hitchcock, D.D.
In demy 4to, Third Edition, price 25s.,
BIBLICG-THEOLOGICAL LEXICON OF NEW
TESTAMENT GREEK.
By HERMANN CREMER, D.D.,
PKOFESSOK OF THEOLOGY IN THE UNIVEBSITIT OF GBEIFSWALD.
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN OF THE SECOND EDITION
fWITS ADDITIONAL MATTER AND CORRECTIONS BY THE AUTHOR)
By WILLIAM UEWICK, M.A.
' Dr. Cremer's work is highly and deservedly esteemed in Germany. It gives with
care and thoroughness a complete history, as far as it goes, of each word and phrase
that it deals with. . , . Dr. Cremer's explanations are most lucidly set out.' — Gua/rdian.
' It is hardly possible to exaggerate the value of this work to the student of the Greek
Testament. . . . The translation is accurate and idiomatic, and the additions to the
later edition are considerable and important.' — Church Bells.
' We cannot find an important word in our Greek New Testament which is not
discussed with a fulness and discrimination which leaves nothing to be desired.' —
Ifonconformist. ' This noble edition in quarto of Cremer's Biblioo-Theological Lexicon quite super
sedes the translation of the first edition of the work. Many of the most important
articles have been re-writtSn and re-arranged,' — British Quarterly Beview.
In demy 8oo, price 9s.,
GREEK AND ENGLISH LEXICON OF THE
NEW TESTAMENT.
By Peof. EDWARD EOBINSON, D.D.
Kevised by Profs. NEGEIS and DUNCAN.
' We regard this Lexicon as a valuable addition to philological science, and, on the
whole, the best Lexicon upon the New Testament which a istudent could purchase.' —
Baptist Magazine.

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