NEANDER
890
XEAPOLIS
Neamler and Luther himself, he holds higher sfill the objectivity of the Gospel? It was not Neander's wish to set aside the objectivity of the Church, or to subordi- nate it to the individual, but to contract its sphere, in order to give the laittr liberty of action, and that the pious members of tlie Church might testify of the Gos- pel ajiainst the Church. But it is not easy to perceive ■what is to be gained by the maintenance of the objec- tivity of tlie Church, especially in the department of historical study, if not a word is to be said for the other factor of [ Cliristian] life. . . . We know not wliy it should be a matter of reproach to Neander that lie more or less contrasts what belongs to Christianity generally, with tliat which merely belongs to the Church. Is there an ecclesiastical communion which dare maintain that its system, taken as a whole, is in every particular a pure expression of the Gospel? Is it, therefore, a fact that these two— the Christian and the ecclesiastical — are everywhere striving at a reconcilement not yet completed, and tlierefore must be regarded more or less in contrast, relatively, and according to the stage of the Church's development?" (Preface to Lectures on l)o(j- ma by Xeander, i, 9, 10). It must be confessed, too, that Neander's theology in many respects falls short of the proper standard of orthodoxy. He did not admit the binding authority of the symbolical books. His views on inspiration, on the sanctification of the Lord's day, and even on the Trinity, are somewhat loose and lat- itudinarian. His best disciples in this respect have gone beyond his position and become more churchlj-. But then it must be considered, 1st, that he rose in an age of universal rationalism, and was one of the earliest pioneers of evangelical faith and theology in Germany; 2d, that this very liberalism and, if we choose to call it, latitudinarianism, served as a bridge for many who could not otherwise have been rescued from the bonds of scepticism ; 3d, that these defects did not weaken his general conviction of the divine character of Christian- ity, nor affect his unfeigned, deep-rooted piety. Many of his pupils and followers may surpass him in ortho- doxy, but few can be found in any age in whom doc- trine was to the same extent life and power, in whom theoretic conviction had so fully passed over into tlesh and blood, in wlioin the love of Christ and man glowed with so warm and pure a flame, as in the truly great and good Xeander. Any defects, if Neander's work can really be said to have defects, cannot blind any one to their real excellences and immortal merits. He is em- phatically the evangelical regenerator of tliis branch of theology, and has made it a running commentary on Christ's previous promise to be with his people to the end of the world, and even with two or three of his humblest disciples where they are assembled in his name. Thus Chiircli history becomes to the intelligent reader a book of devotion as well as useful and interest- ing information, or to use Neander's own words in the preface to the first volume of his large work, "a living witness for the divine power of Christianity, a school of Christian experience, a voice of edification, instruction, and warning, sounding through all ages for all who will hear." He everywhere follows the footsteps of the Saviour in his march through the various ages of the Church, and kisses them reverently wherever he fuids them. He traces them in the writings of an Origen and a Tertullian, a Chrysostom and an Augustine, a Ber- naril and a Thomas .\(iuinas. a Luther and a ^lelanctlion, a Calvin and a Fi-ni'lon. Christ was to him the divine harmony of all tlie discords of conlissions and sects, or as he liked to repeat after Pascal, " En Jesus Christ toutes les contradictions sont accordees."
Neander, it nuist be conceded, is not a model as a writer of Church history. His style is too monotonous and diffuse, witlu)ut any picturesque alteration of light and shade, flowing like a (juiet stream over an unijroken plain, 'i'et did he so enrich the department of Church history with material contributions gained by a thorough mastery, independent investigation, and scrupulously
conscientious use of the sources, and present a so much more methodical treatment of the subject as to gain for himself the approval of all, and he has come to be univer- sally acknowledged the father of modern Church history, marking by liis efforts in this field of sacred learning an epoch as clearly as Flacius (q. v.) did in the ICth, Arnold (q. v.) in the 17th, or Mosheim in the ixih cen- tury. " In spite of all faults," says Schaff. " Neander still remains, on the whole, beyond doubt the greatest Church historian thus far of the 19th century. Great, too, especially in this, that he never suffered his renown to obscure at all his sense of the sinfulness and weak- ness of every human work in this world. With all his comprehensive knowledge, he justly regarded himself as, among many others, merely a forerunner of a new creative epoch of ever-young Christianity; and towards that time he gladly stretched his vision, with the pro- phetic gaze of faith and hope, from amid the errors and confusion around him. ' We stand,' says he, ' on tlie line between an old and a new, about to be called into being by the ever-fresh energy of the Gospel. For the fourth time an epoch in the life of our race is in preparation bj' means of Christianity. We. therefore, can furnish, in ever}' respect, but pioneer work for the period of the new creation, when life and science shall be regenerated, and the wonderful works of God proclaimed with new tongues of fire' {Leben Jesii, 1st ed. p. ix sq.)" (/list. Apostvl. Ch. p. lOG). A complete edition of Neander's writings has been brought out in recent years ((Jotha, 18G2-(j(;, 13 vols. 8vo) ; and his name will go down to future generations as the philanthropic founder of a home for little wanderers called the '"Neander Haus." An American institution of learning, the Bochester Theological Seminary, prides itself on the possession of his library. See Farrell, Memorial of A. Neander (1851); Krsihhc, August Neander, ein Beitraff z. dessen Karukteristik (llamb. 1852); Kling, Dr. August Ne- ander, ein Beitrog z. d. Lebensbilde, in " Stud. u. Krit." of 1851; Zum Geddchtniss August Neander's (Berlin, 1850); Neuer Nekrolog d. Deutschen (1850, p. 425); Hagenbach, Neander's Verdienste nm d. Kirchenge- schichte, in the "Stud. n. Krit." of 1851 ; Baur, d. Kpo- chen d. Kirchlich. Geschichte ; Schaff, Jiecollniions of Neander, in " Mercersburg Review," Jan. 1851 ; and in Kirclioifreund (1851), 283 sq. ; and Jfist. Apost. Ch. p. 95-107 ; Uhlhorn, d. dltere Kirchengcscli. in ihren neueren DarstfUungen, etc.; Saintes, Rationalism, p. 265 sq, ; Bib. Sacra, April, 1851, art. vii; Jan. 1850, p. 77 sq.; Schwar/, Neueste Deutsche Theologie (Lcips. 18G4), ch. i; Kahnis, Ilist. German Protestantism, p. 272 sq.; Hurst, IJist. of Rationalism, p. 249 sq. ; Farrar, Crit. Hist. Free Thought, p. 251 sq.; Brit. Qu. Rev. Nov. 1850; Oct. 1868; Brit, and For. Kv. Rev. July, 1868, p. 601 sq.; Neic-Kufflander. 1865; Ch. Remembrancer, 18C2. p. 39; Meth. Qu. Rev. A]m\, 1848, p. 248; 1847, p. 308; Jan. 1851, p. 143, 181 ; July, 1852, p. 485; Jan. 1853. p. 102; 1857. p. 203 ; April, 1865, p. 469; North Brit. Rev. l-'eb. 1851. (J. ll.W.)