sciousness; or the indivisible unity of blessedness, holiness and wisdom." Lange says there is a threefold relation to God; first, man recognizes God as the all-determining spirit, and his dependence upon him: second, gives himself to God, as a being of absolute power, goodness and love, and in doing this attains the pure determination of his own nature: third, in this union with God he receives the true life of his own soul, etc. Schenkel in his Dogmatik vom Standpunkte des Gewissens, 1858, i. 135-155, makes conscience to be the organ of religion in man. Rothe, Ethik, i. 264, views conscience as essentially religious; "conscience stands or falls with the idea of God."]

$ 290.

TRUTH AND DIVINE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY.
REASON AND REVELATION.

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PERFECTIBILITY.

Notwithstanding their many differences of opinion, all Christians agreed in believing, that of all historical forms of religion, Christianity was most worthy of God, and best adapted to the religious wants of mankind. The rationalists, however, had recourse to the suppositions, either, that the historical religion, serves as a mere vehicle for the natural, and will at some time be resolved into it,' or, that it will gradually lose its present local and temporary character, and be perfected after the ideal formed by reason. On the other hand the supernaturalists of course regarded the religion revealed in Holy Writ as complete in itself for all times. As regards the nature of revelation, and its relation to reason, the supernaturalists belonging to the earlier part of the present period conceded important rights to the latter. Asserting that revelation was, more properly speaking, the complement of reason, they assigned to the latter (now becoming conscious of its limits) the office of proving the possibility and necessity of revelation. But after Kant had combated the idea that reason was competent to decide what was revealed or not, the rationalists substituted the idea of positive (historical) religion for that of revealed religion, and maintained that the moral value of the former was to be determined by practical reason. In opposition to both these systems, others assigned a more comprehensive meaning to the idea of revelation. In the opinion of some speculative philosophers, it is not so much the communication of isolated and abstract ideas, as the intellectual intuition of the universal, which constitutes the essence of revelation." According to others, (practical theologians), revelation is rather the manifestation of the divine power, which, however, does not exclude the cognitive faculties of man, though it puts them in a secondary place. At any rate the idea of revelation is now taken in a more living and flowing

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sense than it was in the older theology, notwithstanding all the differences of present usage.

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1 Henke, Lineam. i. 2: Quo magis adolescunt homines.... eo minus ponderis apud illos habet.... auctoritas aliorum. Hinc et omnis revelata religio paullatim in rationalem transit, et eo eniti potest homo, ut alienæ institutioni non amplius fontis, sed canalis, non lucis, sed lucernæ (!) benefi cium tribuat.

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Lessing suggested the idea of a perfectibility of the Christian religion, in his (?) treatise: Ueber Erzichung des Menschengeschlechts. The views of Semler respecting the local and temporary in Christianity, and the distinction which he made between public and private religion, seem to indicate that he held the same opinion. The same may be said in reference to the work of Teller: Religion der Vollkomnen. Comp. W. T. Krug, Briefe über die Perfectibilität der geoffenbarten Religion, Jena u. Lpz., 1795, and Ch. F. Ammon, Die Fortbildung des Christenthums zur Weltreligion, Lpz., 1833-35, ii.; 2d ed., 1836-40, iv.

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• In opposition to the Socinians, who (in strict accordance with supernaturalism) rejected the idea of natural religion, as well as to the "Fanaticos, qui dicunt, rationem esse cæcam, corruptam, hominem a Deo magis abducere, quam ad Deum adducere," the adherents of the old orthodoxy defended the use of reason in matters of religion, e. g., Beck, in his Fundamenta, p. 35, ss. J. L. Frey (professor of theology in Basle, died 1759), De officio Doctoris Christiani, pp. 33, 34: Cum enim lumen naturæ æque ac revelationis Deum patrem luminum auctorem agnoscat, nihil a Deo naturæ lumini repugnans revelari censendum est, nisi Deum sibi ipsi adversari blaspheme statuere in animum inducamus. Imo ne ipsius quidem revelationis divinitas credi posset, si quidquam rationis lumini repugnans in illa inveniretur. Comp. Baumgarten, Glaubenslehre, Einleitung.-The distinction made between articuli puri et mixti.-Advocates of modern evangelical supernaturalism have again maintained, that reason is altogether blind in matters of religion (in opposition to rationalism). [Comp. the Mansel and Maurice discussion, § 285, b, note.]

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Comp. Bretschneider, Entwicklung, etc. (new edit., 1841), § 30, and the compendiums of dogmatic theology.

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5 See Fichte, Kritik, etc. Tieftrunk, Censur, p. 66, ss., p. 245, ss. According to Herder, the general meaning of revelation is disclosure, publication, enlightening, clear idea, perception, conviction. See the passages collected in Herder's Dogmatik, p. 20, ss.

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In the opinion of Schelling (Methode, p. 196), the whole of history is a divine revelation. According to Blasche (Philosophie der Offenbarung), revelation is equal to manifestation (§ 5.) Not only history, but also natural history, belongs to the province of divine revelation (§ 22.) He combats the common (supernaturalistic) view, according to which revelation is supernatural, § 43, ss. Revelation is opposed to mystery, and signifies the disclosures of mysteries, while, according to the common view, revelation itself contains mysteries, § 55, ss.

Twesten, § 24 (vol. i. p. 340), defines revelation as the "manifestation

of divine grace for the salvation of mankind." Comp. the whole section, and Nitzsch, § 23, ss. De Wette shows the necessity of making a distinction between revelation and the inspiration of Holy Writ, Dogmatik, § 26. On the difficulty of establishing precise definitions, see Schleiermacher, § 10. Among the recent divines, see J. P. Lange, i. 385, sq. Martensen (ed. of 1836), p. 49, sq. Ch. Weisse, § 104-179. On Hermes and Bautain in the Catholic church, see § 287. [Comp. H. Ulrici, Glauben und Wissen, Speculation und exacte Wissenschaft, Lpz., 1858.-H. Rogers, (Edinb. Rev., 1849), on Faith and Reason, repr. in his Essays; and his Eclipse of Faith, 1852.-— Fronde's Nemesis of Faith, Lond., 1849. Morell's Phil. of Religion. F W. Newman, Phases of Faith, 1850. Brownson's Qu. Rev., July, 1856. Bibliotheca Sacra, vi., on the Relations of Faith and Philosophy. Christ. Examiner, March, 1861: The Cause of Reason and the Cause of Faith (Hedge). The controversy between Traditionalism and Rationalism in the Rom. Cath. Church, led to the publication of four propositions by the Holy See, on Reason and Faith, Dec. 12, 1855. The first asserts, that though faith be above reason, yet there is no dissension, for both are from one fountain of light, viz., God. 2. Ratiocinatio Dei existentiam, animæ spiritualitatem, hominis libertatem cum certitudine probare potest. Fides. posterior est revelatione; proinde ad probandum Dei existentiam contral atheum, ad probandum animæ rationalis spiritualitatem, ac libertatem contra naturalismi, ac fatalismi sectatorem allegari convenienter nequit. 3. Rationis usus fidem præcedit, et ad eam hominem ope revelationis et gratiæ conducit. The fourth proposition asserts, that the method of Bonaventura and others does not lead to rationalism. See Brownson's Qu. Rev., 1860, p. 440, sq.]

§ 291.

THE WORD OF GOD. SCRIPTURE AND TRADITION. SCRIPTURE AND SPIRIT.

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During the preceding period Protestant theologians had been accustomed to call the sacred Scriptures themselves the Word of God; in the course of the present period the distinction was enforced between the Word of God contained in Holy Writ and the Scriptures themselves.' The rationalists themselves, however, retained the (negative) principle of Protestantism, that the sacred Scriptures are a purer source of knowledge than tradition. Only Lessing advanced the opinion that tradition is older than Holy Writ. Some modern theologians endeavored to determine precisely the relation in which these two stand to each other, and showed that their difference is more relative than absolute. Puseyism made the attempt to enforce the authority of tradition in the old Catholic sense. By the Protestant Friends [§ 284, note 2] the question: Scripture, or

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Spirit? was decided in a sense which gave the most unlicensed play to subjective opinions.

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1 There were hints of this even in the century of the Reformation; see Schenkel, i. § 13. The distinction was first made prominent by J. G. Töllner (died 1774): Der Unterschied der heiligen Schrift und des Wortes Gottes, in his Miscellaneous Essays, Frankf., 1766, p. 85, ss. He shows, from the language of Scripture itself, that, by the Word of God, we are not to understand the Sacred Scriptures; on the other hand there are some things in Holy Writ which do not belong to the Word of God (such as historical events) although all in it has respect to the Word of God; and, in connection with it, that not all parts of Holy Writ are equally rich in the Word of God. Töllner goes even as far as to maintain that the Word of God is not limited to the sacred Scriptures, but also exists elsewhere; for he who propounds divine truth, propounds the Word of God. It is further contained in reason, and may be found in all the different forms of religion known among mankind, though Christians possess the Word of God in its most excellent, most perfect, and clearest form in the sacred Scriptures.-Herder directed the attention of theologians to what may be called the human aspect of Scripture (Briefe über das Studium der Theologie, Brief. i., and in his Spirit of Hebrew Poetry [see Marsh's version]; in his essay, Vom Geist des Christenthums, and in other works.

• The rationalists often ventured to maintain that their system alone was in accordance with Scripture, and rejected the development of doctrines, and the symbolical definitions, as contrary to the principle of Protestantism.

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Lessing, in his controversy with Götze, appealed to the Regula Fidei in its earliest sense, which existed previous to the written Word. Comp. his works, vi., vii.; Theologischer Nachlass, p. 115 ss. Delbrück revived this idea in his work: Philip Melancthon, der Glaubenslehrer, Bonn, 1826. He was opposed by Sack, Nitzsch, and Lücke, Bonn, 1827.

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Pelt, in the first part of the Theologische Mitarbeiter, Kiel, 1830. Schenkel, über das ursprüngliche Verhältniss der Kirche zum Kanon, Basel, 1838. Compare with this work the modern compendiums of dogmatic theology, e. g. Twesten, i., p. 115-119, 128-130, 288. Marheineke, Symbolik, ii., p. 187 ss. The critical researches respecting the origin of the Canon (from the time of Semler), rendered the distinction between Scripture and tradition more indefinite. [Comp. Holtzmann, Kanon und Tradition, 427 sq.]

* See Keble on Primitive Tradition, (compare the German work of WeaverAmthor, ubi supra, p. 10 sq., 40 sq.) The tradition of the first six centuries was assumed as untroubled. Among the German theologians Daniel in his "Kontroversen," Halle, 1843, approximates most closely to the Oxford school: in reply, see Jacobi, Die Kirchliche Lehre von der Tradition und heiliger Schrift, Berl., 1847. [On the Oxford view, see W. Goode, Div. Rule of Faith, 2d ed., 3, 1843; Palmer on the Church, ii. 11-93: E. B. Pusey, The Rule of Faith: Peck, Appeal from Tradition to Scripture, New York, 1844; Tracts for the Times, 78.]

• Wislicenus, Ob Schrift, ob Geist? 2 Aufl., 1845, and the writings in this controversy (Comp. Bruns und Häfner's Repert., vi., etc.).-Scherer in

several articles in the Rev. de Theol. (see § 285, note 11). Tholuck in the Zeitschrift f. Christl. Wissenschaft, 1850, No. 16-18, 42-44. In reply, Stier, in the same journal, 1850, No. 21. [Tholuck's Essay translated in Journal of Sacred Lit., July, 1854; his reply to Stier in Zeitschrift f. Christl. Wiss., 1851.-Scherer first wrote La Critique et la Foi, 1850; replied to Malan in Rev. de Theol., 1850; to Merle d'Aubigne, Gasparin, Chenevière (De l'Autorité du Nouveau Test.), and others, 1850-1. Gasparin, reviewed Scherer in Les Archives du Christ., 1850; his work on Plenary Inspiration, transl. by Jas. Montgomery, 1851. On this controversy, see Schaff's Kirchenfreund, Aug., 1851; Princeton Review, July, 1851.]

INSPIRATION OF SCRIPTURE.

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§ 292.

INTERPRETATION.

PROPHECY.

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MIRACLES AND

The critical treatment of the sacred Scriptures gradually undermined the authority of the former rigid theory of inspiration.' For a time commentators sought to remove all difficulties by the application of the principle of accommodation, or by an arbitrary exegesis; but at last the rationalists found themselves compelled by a more unbiassed system of interpretation to acknowledge that Christ and his apostles might have erred, at least in those things which do not constitute the essential parts of religion. This was the case especially with the miracles and prophecies, to which the former apologists had appealed in support of their views. After they had in vain endeavored to explain them away by artificial modes of interpretation, they were compelled to assert that the sacred writers had a different point of view from that of modern theologians; thus renouncing the absolute authority of their writings. The adherents of the mediating theology sought to avoid these difficulties, by affixing to the idea of inspiration, as well as to that of miracle® and of prophecy," a more comprehensive and spiritual sense. But at the same time they introduced much that was indefinite, which is not yet fully cleared up.

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The theory of accommodation was principally applied to the demoniacal and miraculous; Christ and his apostles accommodated themselves to the weakness and the prejudices of their contemporaries. Comp. Senf, Versuch über die Herablassung Gottes in der christlichen Religion, Halle, 1792. P. van Hemmert, über die Accommodation im N. Test. translated from the Dutch, Dortm. u. Lpz., 1797. Vogel, Aufsätze theologischen Inhalts, Nürnb., 1799. 2d part; and several others. This theory was combated by Süsskind, über die Grenzen der Pflicht, keine Unwarheit zu sagen, im Magazin St. 13. Heringa, über die Lehre Jesu und seiner Apostel, translated from the Dutch, Offenb. 1792. For more particulars as to the literature, comp. Bretschneider, Entwickl., p. 138 ss. [Hugh Farmer, b. 1714, d. 1787, maintained that