Lecture VI.
Note 27. p. [213]. On Pietism In Germany In The Seventeenth Century.
The person who commenced the religious movement afterwards called Pietism, was John Arndt (1555-1621), who wrote The True Christian, a work as useful religiously, as Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, or Doddridge's Religion in the Soul.
Spener followed (1635-1705). The private religious meetings which he established about 1675, Collegia Pietatis, were the origin of the application of the name Pietism to the movement. One of his pupils was the saintly A. H. Francke, whose memoir was translated 1837. Paul Gerhardt, the well known author of the German hymns, also belonged to the same party. The university of Halle became the home of Pietism; and the orphan-house established in that town was renowned over Europe. The opposition of the old Lutheran party of other parts of Germany produced controversies which continued till about 1720; for an account of which, see Weismann, Mem. Eccl. Hist. Sacr. 1745, p. 1018 seq.
Pietism propagated its influence by means of Bengel in Würtemburg and the university of Tübingen, and in Moravia through Zinzendorf. Arnold and Thomasius belonged to this party at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Œtinger at Tübingen, Crusius at Leipsic, and, to a certain extent, Buddeus also, partook of the spirit of Pietism. It manifested a tendency to religious isolation; and in its nature combined the analogous movements subsequently carried out in England by Wesley and by Simeon respectively.
A brief account of it is given in Hase's Church History, § 409: and for a fuller account, see Schröckh, Chr. Kirchengesch. vol. viii. pp. 255-91; Pusey on German Theology, part i. (67-113); part. ii. ch. x; Amand Saintes, Crit. Hist. of Rationalism, E. T. ch. vii. Spener's character and life may be seen in Canstein's memoir of him; and in Weismann, pp. 966-72. A philosophical view of Pietism, as a necessary stage in the development of German religious life, is given by Dorner in the Studien und Kritiken, 1840, part ii. 137, Ueber den Pietismus. Kahnis, who himself quotes it, [pg 425] (Hist. of Germ. Prot.) E. T. p. 102, regards Pietism as ministering indirectly to rationalism; much in the same way as bishop Fitzgerald criticised the similar evangelical movement of England, Aids to Faith, p. 49, &c.
Note 28. p. [224]. Classification Of Schools Of Poetry In Germany.
The materials for understanding the awakening of literary tastes in the last century in Germany, through Lessing's influence, are furnished by Schlosser, History of the Eighteenth Century. See vol. i. ch. iii. E. T. for the period from the Pietists to Lessing; and ch. v. in reference to the Deutsche Bibliothek, and also vol. ii. ch. ii. § 3. See also Vilmar's History of German Literature (translated and abridged by Metcalfe).
It may facilitate clearness to name the classification of schools of German poetry and taste, which is given in the last-named work. They are divided into five classes: viz. I. that which was antecedent to Lessing, which is subdivided into (1) the Saxon school of Gottsched; and (2) the Swiss school of Bodmer, and of Wieland in his early manner; which was connected with the Gottingen school of Haller, Hagedorn, and Klopstock, together with the Stolbergs and Voss. II. Lessing, and writers influenced by him, such as (1) Kleist and the Prussian group; (2) Wieland in his second manner, and J. Paul Richter; (3) Kotzebue, who was a mixture of Wieland and Lessing. In these two periods Klopstock, Wieland, and Lessing, were the intellectual triumvirs. III. The “Sturm und Drang” period; the Weimar school with its second literary triumvirate, Herder, Goethe, Schiller. IV. The later schools: (1) the romantic, viz. the two Schlegels, Novalis, Tieck, Uhland, Fouqué; (2) the patriotic of the liberation wars, Arndt and Koerner. V. The modern school of disappointment and uneasy reaction against the absolute government, H. Heine and Grün.
It is an interesting psychological problem to trace the close analogy between the schools of poetical taste and the corresponding character in the contemporary criticism of ancient literature, the speculative philosophy, and the theology.
Note 29. p. [225]. The Wolfenbüttel Fragments.
It has been stated in the text that these were Fragments, which Lessing published in 1774 and the following years, of a larger work which he professed to have found in the library of Wolfenbüttel, where he was librarian. They were published in [pg 426] the third of the series of works, Beiträge zur Geschichte und Literatur aus den Schätzen der Herzoglichen Bibliothekzu Wolfenbüttel, under the title, Fragmente Eines Ungenannten Herausgegeben von G. E. Lessing.
After Lessing's death, C. A. E. Schmidt published further Fragments, under the title Uebrige noch Ungedruckte Werke des Wolfenbüttelschen Fragmentisten. Ein Nachlass von G. E. Lessing.
The authorship of the Fragments was suspected at the time by Hamann; but it remained generally unknown, and became as great a secret as the authorship of the Letters of Junius, until 1827, when the question was discussed by Gurlitt in the Leipziger Literatur-Zeitung, No. 55, and proof was offered that the author was Reimarus of Hamburg.
The result of this and subsequent investigations is as follows. The original work of Reimarus, from which the Fragments were taken, remains in MS. in the public library of Hamburg. It was entitled Apologie oder Schutz-Schrift für die vernünftigen Verehrer Gottes. When written, it was shown only to intimate friends. Lessing was allowed to take a copy, and showed the MS. to Mendelssohn in 1771. Lessing wished to publish it entire; but the censorship would not give the imprimatur. Consequently it came out in fragments among the series of contributions from the Wolfenbüttel library, which were free from the censorship. The pretended discovery of them in the library was a mere excuse; and there is proof in Lessing's remains that he admitted the fact. See the statement of these facts in Lessing's Leben, by Guhrauer, (of which, vol. i. is by Danzel; vol. ii. by Guhrauer,) vol. ii. b. iii. ch. iv. p. 133, note 3, and b. iv. p. 141.[1067]
Several writers, subsequently to Gurlitt's examination of the question of authorship, have written, either on the question of the authorship of the Fragments, or on the contents of the larger work from which they are selections. In the Zeitschrift für die Historische Theologie for 1839, part iv. is an article composed from W. Körte's life of Thaer, in reference to the former question. Also Dr. W. Klose examined the original MS. in the Hamburg library, and published an account of it, with considerable extracts, in several of the numbers of the same journal, Niedner's Zeitschrift, 1850, (part iv; 1851, part iv; 1852, part iii.) It is in the preface (Vorbericht) to the first of these parts that the account of Reimarus's own mental history is given, to which allusion was made in the text of Lecture [VI]. (p. [225].)
During the last year the question has been made the subject of a monograph by the celebrated Strauss. He had heard of the existence of a copy of the original MS. in private hands at Hamburg, and proceeded to collate it with the view of publication. [pg 427] He found it to differ in some respects from the Fragments published by Lessing and Schmidt. He did not consider the hitherto unpublished parts of the work sufficiently important, either in a literary or historical point of view, to merit publication in extenso; but contented himself with stating the results of his study of it in a small work, H. S. Reimarus und seine Schutz-Schrift, &c. 1861. It contains a brief account of the literary question of the Fragments, and of Reimarus's life and stand-point; also an analysis of the unpublished parts of the work, written with the clearness which characterises all Strauss's didactic works. It would appear from the analysis that the pieces printed by Lessing were not only some of the ablest, but some of the least offensive of the whole work. The concluding pages contain some very interesting remarks, in which Strauss contrasts the criticism of the eighteenth century with that of the present day; the characteristics of the former being, that it charges imposture on the scripture writers; that of the latter, that it admits their honesty, but explains away their statements and opinions by reference to psychological and historical phenomena.
In addition to the sources given above, information is contained in the following works: Schröckh's Christ Kirchengesch. vi. 275; Schlosser's History of the Eighteenth Century, E. T. vol. ii. 266 seq.; Hagenbach's Dogmengeschichte, § 275 notes, (where reference is made to Guhrauer's Bodin's Heptaplomeres, 1841, p. 257 seq.); Conversations-Lexicon, art. Reimarus; Amand Saintes' History of Rationalism, E. T. p. 84; Kahnis, Id. p. 145 seq.; K. Schwarz, Lessing als Theolog, of which ch. iv. is on the Fragmenten-streit; Strauss's Kleine Schriften, 1861; Lessing's Werke, xii. 508. (ed. Lachmann.)
Note 30. p. [242]. Schleiermacher's Early Studies.
It may be interesting to trace more fully the parallel noticed in the text between the development of Plato's thoughts and Schleiermacher's early studies.
Though it is impossible to arrange the dialogues of Plato in the chronological order in which they were composed, so as to be able to study the master in his successive styles, yet several systems of arrangement, founded on different principles, seem to coincide so far as to render it probable that Plato's great theory of ideas or forms grew upon him through these stages: viz. (1) it was viewed as a fact of mind, an innate conception of forms (e.g. in Meno); (2) as useful in guiding perplexed minds to truth, and sifting philosophical doctrines by means of the dialectical process, e.g. in the Theætetus and Parmenides; (3) as representing an objective [pg 428] reality, a true cause in nature external to the mind, as well as an hypothesis in science (e.g. in the Republic); (4) as having a mystical connexion with divinity, and furnishing a cosmogony, Whether this passage, from the subjective conception to the objective reality, be really or only logically the order of development in Plato's ideal theory, it is clear that the growth of Schleiermacher's mind admits of comparison with this supposed order of development in Plato; though there is a slight variation in the steps of the process. Schleiermacher went through three stages, (1) the philosophy of Jacobi, (2) of Fichte, and probably (3) of Schelling; from which he learned respectively, (1) to have faith in our intuitions, (2) to construe the outward by the inward, (3) to believe in the power of the mind to pass beyond the inward, and apprehend absolute truth. If the resemblance to the above account of Plato were exactly perfect, the love of a philosophy like Fichte's ought to have preceded that of Jacobi. Schelling's influence, it ought to be noted, is very slight on Schleiermacher, compared with that of the others. The traces of it which appear are perhaps resolvable into a similarity to Jacobi's system.
Note 31. p. [244]. Schleiermacher's Theological Works.
The theological works of Schleiermacher are doctrinal, critical, and pastoral. The latter consist chiefly of the sermons which he delivered in Berlin. The critical works are mentioned in a footnote to p. [248]; but it may be useful to give a brief notice of his doctrinal works, of which some are referred to in the text.
The earliest was the Reden über die Religion an die Gebildeten unter ihren Verächtern, 1799, (Discourses on Religion addressed to the educated among its despisers,) which ought not to be read in earlier editions than the fourth (1829), the notes of which contain explanations. The object of these discourses was to direct attention away from the study of religion in its outward manifestations, to its inward essence; which he showed to lie neither in knowledge nor in action, but in feeling. See especially Discourse II. Uber das Wesen der Religion. For the effect which the discourses created, see Neanders testimony, quoted by Kahnis, Hist. of Prot. E. T. p. 208.
The works which succeeded the Reden were the following: in 1800, the Monologen (Soliloquies); in 1803, Grundlinien einer Kritik der bisherigen Sittenlehre (Critique on previous Ethical teaching); in 1806, Die Weinachtsfeier (Christmas Eve); in 1811, the Kurze Darstellung des Theologischen Studiums (Plan of Theological Study;—lately translated), which gave rise to the branch now common in German universities, called Theologische Encyclopädie;[1068] [pg 429] in 1821, Der Christliche Glaube nach den Grundsätzen der Evangelischen Kirche (the Christian Faith on the principles of the Evangelical Church), which was improved in the subsequent editions.
As the Reden breathed the spirit of Jacobi, the Monologen breathed that of Fichte. They study the ethical, as the former the religious side of man; the action of the personal will as distinct from the feelings of dependence. The dialogue of the Weihnachtsfeier showed Christ as the means of effecting that oneness with the absolute which the two former works had shown to be necessary.
In the Glaubens-lehre, Schleiermacher gives a general view of dogmatic theology, viewed from the psychological side, i.e. its appropriation by the Christian consciousness. He studies (1) man's consciousness of God, prior to experience of the opposition of sin and grace; next, after being aware of such an opposition, as (2) the subject of sin, and (3) the subject of grace; or, in theological language, the states of innocence, of sin, and of grace. Each of these is subdivided in spirit, even when not in form, in a threefold manner; describing respectively the condition of man, the attributes of God, and the constitution of the world, as they relate to the above three named states. The subjective and psychological character of the inquiry is seen in the fact, that when treating the second of these subdivisions,—the Divine attributes,—he does not study them as peculiarities of God's nature, but as modifications of the mode in which we refer to God our own feeling of dependence. This subjective tendency illustrates the influence of Fichte and Jacobi on Schleiemiacher.
The contrast is an interesting one between a dogmatic treatise of the schoolmen, of the reformers, and of Schleiermacher. The first commences with the Deity and his attributes, and passes to man: the second generally begins with the rule of faith, the Bible; and then, passing to the Deity, proceeds mainly after the scholastic fashion: the third begins and ends with the human consciousness, and its contents.
Note 32. p. [252]. On Some German Critical Theologians. (de Wette, Ewald, Etc.)
Some of the theologians of the critical school which is described in the text, deserve a more full notice than was possible in the foot-notes to the Lecture.
De Wette (1780-1849) was educated at Jena, under Griesbach. [pg 430] He was made Professor at Berlin in 1810, but was deprived in 1819, in consequence of the Prussian government having opened a letter of condolence written by him to the mother of Sand, the assassin of the dramatist Kotzebue. (For the history of the excited state of the German students at this time, see K. Raumer's Pädagogik, vol. iv. translated.) In 1826 he was made Professor at Basle. An interesting life of him is given in the Bibliotheca Sacra for 1850. His most important works are, his Einleitung ins Alt. und Neu. Test.; Lehrbuch der Dogmatik, 1819; his New Translation of the Bible (1839); and Commentaries on several parts of Scripture. On his doctrinal views see Kahnis, p. 231 seq. He is said to have been a man of sweet and amiable character; and indeed he appears to be so in his writings. It has been remarked, as a proof of his singular fairness, that he not only candidly states the opinions of an opponent, but even sometimes confesses his inability fully to refute them.
Along with De Wette ought to be classed a great number of distinguished men, most of whom wrote parts of the Commentary which he designed under the name of Exegetisches Handbuch. They were mostly critics rather than writers on doctrine, and represent the modified state of thought of his later life; but still maintain, for the most part, his critical stand-point in reference to the scriptures; and therefore, though contemporary with the new Tübingen and other schools described in Lecture [VII], which have arisen since Strauss's criticism, in that which we called the third period of our sketch, they really belong to the school of critics of the older or second period. Such are, or were, Gesenius, Knobel, Hirzel, Hitzig, Credner, Tuch, E. Meier, Hupfeld, and Stühelin. See Am. Saintes, part ii. ch. xi.
H. Ewald, born 1803, became Professor at Göttingen 1831. In 1837 he was one of the seven professors who sacrificed their position when the new king of Hanover, Ernest, interfered with the constitution. From 1838 to 1848 he was professor at Tübingen: since 1848 at Göttingen. His works are partly on the oriental languages, and partly on theology. Among the latter the chief are, Die Poetischen Bücher des Alten Test., 1835; Die Propheten des Alten Bundes, 1840; and the Geschichte des Volkes Israel, 1842-50; a work which, whatever may be thought of the theological aspects of it, if regarded in respect of scholarship, poetic appreciation, and grandeur of generalization, is one of the most remarkable books ever produced even in Germany. (Renan has based upon it the most brilliant of his essays, ess. ii. in the Etudes d'Hist. Religieuse.) His works on the New Testament are partly directed against the views of the new Tübingen school. He differs from the older critical school of De Wette, in applying himself more exclusively to the Semitic literature; and cannot be classed with them in any other way than that he represents the effort of independent criticism, linguistic and historic; removed from the dogmatic school, and also from the later forms of critical.
Note 33. p. [255]. The Name Jehovah.
The name יהוה is written Jehovah, by transferring to it the vowel points of the word Adonai, אדני, which the pious scruples of the Jews led them to substitute for it. It was probably read Yahveh. In reference to the meaning of El, and Jehovah, see Gesenius's Lexicon on the words אל (p. 45. Engl. Transl.), and יהוה (p. 337); also the word hajah, היה, (p. 221.) See likewise Hengstenberg's Authentie. des Pentateuches, i. 222 seq.; especially p. 230, where he shows that jahveh, יהוה, is derived by regular analogy from the future of the verb hajah, היה ( = havah, היה). See also M. Nicholas's Etudes Crit. sur la Bible, pp. 115, 163; and the article Jehovah in Smith's Biblical Dictionary.
Note 34. p. [256]. The Use Of The Names Of Deity In The Composition Of Hebrew Proper Names.
A curious list of these is given by Dr. Donaldson. (Christian Orthodoxy, pp. 235, 6.)
Examples of names before the age of Saul, compounded with El, are seen in El-kanah, El-i, Samu-el, Abi-el. When Saul reigns we find the name Jah or Jehovah appear, in Jeho-nathan, Ahi-jah, Jedid-iah; and during the regal period in the list of kings, Jos-iah, Jeho-abaz, Jeho-i-akim, Zedek-iah; and among the prophets, Isa-iah, Jerem-iah, Mica-iah, Jeho-sheah. After the fall of Judah we find the name El reappear; e.g. Ezeki-el ( = Hezek-iah), Dani-el, Micha-el, Gabri-el, El-iashib, Shealti-el. After the captivity the name Jah recurs; e.g. Nehem-iah, Zephan-iah, Zechar-iah, Malach-iah. The name El-i-jah ( = my God is Jah) is an instance of a word compounded with both names.
Donaldson tries to generalize from the above to the effect, that, previously to the age of the early kings, proper names compounded with El were prevalent; and in the regal and prophetic age, those compounded with Jah; again, after the fall of Judah, and in the captivity, those with El; and after the captivity, with Jah. But the selection is too limited to admit of such a generalization being satisfactory. It does however prove the knowledge of the twofold conception implied by the use of the names.