STEUDEL
1018
STEVENS
belief that controversy reveals the truth ; but he was nevertheless es-seniially a man of peace. He was un- able to advance as rapidly as more recent thinkers, be- cause he believed tliat the new theolo^'y was not doiii},' justice to many features of the older siipranaturalism; but he foui^ht" every new departure fairly and in its principles, so that lie secured the respect of the bettor class amonj^ his opponents, e. g. Schleiermacher, in rc- 8|>onse to whom he wrote one of his best treatises {I'ebfr das bti iilliiiiii/er Anerkeiimiug <les liiitor. C/iris- tii.i .fick Jur d. Jii/diiiif/ d. Gldi'heiis erijehende Virfahren [Tiib. ZeiUc/ir. lH;?oj). He is generally regarded as the latest prominent representative of the older Tii- bintren school of which Storr was the head; but it is evident from his writings that he occupied an inde- pendent relation to that school from the beginning, and that he by no means ignored the progress of theologi- cal science. He retained the one-sided idea of that school concerning religion and revelation which defines religion as an aggregation of "opinions," etc., but he departed from the Storr method of demonstration, inas- much as he taught that what the Bihle reveals is sim- ply a confirmation, completion, and rectification of man's natural consciousness of the truth (comp. for Storr's view, Storr's iJoi/miitik, § 1."), note f ). .Steudel was certainly influenced to depart from the older supranaturalist view by both F. H. Jacohi and Schleiermacher. (On the whole subject, see his (llanbiiishhre [1834]). In exegesis Steudel displayed the deficiencies of the Storr school; but it is certain that his hermeneutical theory was bet- ter than his exegetical practice. His works contain many sound arguments in support of the historico-gram- maiical method of interpretation as against Kanne, 01s- hausen, and Ilengstenberg (see Befuindlunff d. Sjii-ache d. heil. ISchnft ah tine Sprac/ie d. Gehtes [1822, etc.]). He clearly recognised a historical progression in reve- lation, and consecpiently different stages, and must be accfirded the praise of having furnished valuable contri- butions towards the development of Biblical theology. (C)n this subject, comp. especially his articles entitled Blicke in d. idUestamentl. OffeHbarunij, in the Tiib. Zeit- tchr. 1835, Nos. 1 and 2). Steudel also wrote on matters pertaining to the practical interests of the Church, e.g. ecclesiastical union, on which he published, in lHll,Ueber JMitpiiiLirereiniytiHf/, in opposition to a proposed amal- gamation of the Protestant and Homish churches; in 181G, liritruff zur KfimtiiiKS d. Geisles r/ewisser Vermitt- ler d. Frifdens; in 1822 he wrote against a proposed union of the Reformed and Lutheran churches of Wi'ir- temberg (L'tberd. Vereimgimy beider evanr/el. Kircheii ; comp. alsf) I'lbtr liiicktritt zum Lutheii/ium, in the Tiib, Zfilnrhr. 1831, iii, 12.') sq.). He had no confidence in the value of experiments within the field of the Church, and hence opposed iheir ap[)lication (comp. U<ber Ileil- miltelfur d. eviim/il. Kiic/ie, in the Tiib. Zntuchr. 1832, No. 1). His other writings were designed to promote in- terest for the educational institutions of his country, etc., and need not be mentioned here. So forcefid a charac- ter as Steudel was not always favorably regarded by his sufxriors, and he was fre(|uently maile aware of the fact. Hut his [irincipal troubles grew out of the hostil- ity of the new tendency, which was becoming all-pow- erful at Tubingen during his later days. The new 81'bool "could not pardon his inability to keep wholly wparate the scientific and the edifying" (Haur, in Kliip- fel's Gfitr/i. d. Tiib. ( 'iiirirxiHil, p. 1 1 7 ) ; and when he vent- ured, a few weeks after the appearance of the first vol- ume rif Strauss's f.flM-n .lisn. to issue a brief rejoinder, ill which he opposed to the confidence with which SlraiiKs bad [>roiiounced sentence of death upon supra- naturalism an equally confident testimony, "drawn from the coiiwiousness of a believer," to th(! vitality of su- Iiraiiaturali»m, be was smitten with the full force of the anger of tlie enraged crilic in the well-known tractate llerr l)r. SI, inli I, odtr d. .Srtbul/uii.ir/iiini/in d.vcrstiindi- Iftn .Siipriiriiiluralismus umerer Titt/e, a masterpiece of depreciatory polemics. Steudel resiwnded quietly in
the Tiib. Zeitschr. 1837, ii, 119 sq., and with this effort closed his public career. He was obliged by physical ailments to submit to repeate<l and painful surgical op- erations, and died Oct. 24, 1837. With regard to his life ami character, sec the memorial discourse by Dor- ner and the biographical sketch by Dettinger, both pub- lished in the Tiib. ZeitKc/ir. for 1838, No. 1. 'J'he latter article contains also a list of Steudel's writings. — Herzog, Beal-Eiiri/k/op. s. v.
Stevens, Benjamin, D.D., a Congregational minister, was born at Andover in 1720, graduated at Harvard College in 1740, and was ordained INIay 1, I'M. He was pastor in Kitterj', Me., where he labored luitil his death, May 18, 1791. He published a few occasion- al Se7-mo7ts, See Sprague, Aiiiials of the Amer. Pulpit, i, 484.
Stevens, Dillon, a minister of the TNIethodist Episcopal Church, was born at Hancock, Mass., April 6, 1794. He was converted in his twenty-fifth j'ear. and in 1822 united with the New York Conference. When the Troy Conference was set apart he became one of its members, and continued to labor until 1846, when he became supernumerary. He settled in Gloversville. N. v., where he continued to reside until his death, Jan. 10, 1861. He was a man of soinid judgment and intellectual strength, well suited to educate the Church both in the doctrines of the Gospel and in the practical duties of Christian life. See Minutes of Annual Con- ferences, 1861, p. 91.