Rationalism, a term applied to a specific move- ment in theology which assumed definite shape about the middle of the 18th century, and culminated in the first decades of the 19th. Its chief seat was in Prot- estant Germany. Its distinguishing trait consisted in erecting the hitman understanding into a supreme judge over the. Word of God, and thus, by implication, denying the importance, and even necessity, of any miraculous revelation whatever. But a tendency to rationalism has existed to some degree wherever human thought has made the least advances. Especially are its out- breaks distinctly recognisable at several points along the course of the history of theology ; and in several coun- tries it had existed as a clearly defined movement even before its full development in Germany. (In the chief features of this article, we shall follow the paper of Dr. Tholuck in Herzog's Real-Kncyklop. xii, 537-554.)
I. English Rationalism:— Sporadic tendencies towards rationalism existed among the Averrhoists in the mid- dle Ages, and among the anti-Trinitarians of the 16th century; but these were largely of a philosophical or a mystical type. But in English deism the tendency became definitely' theological and an ti- Biblical. In reaction against the confessional persecutions and in- tolerance of the 17th century, not a few gifted minds were led to look for a really tenable position only in the elementary traits that are common to all confes- sions, and even to all religions whatsoever. This led gradually to a denial of the necessity of revelation, and to an exclusive reliance upon the light of nature {lumen naturce). This lumen became thus both the source and the judge of all religious truth. This movement was variously styled naturalism, deism, and occasionally also rationalism. English deism differs, however, in this respect from German — that it proceeded mainly from non-theologians, and was openly hostile to the Bible; whereas German rationalism sprang from theologians eminent in the Church, and it professedly honored the Scriptures as a valuable summary of the highest relig- ious truths. The former, according to Nitzsch ( Systt m, § 28), was largely a denier of rev< lation ; the latter was a philosophical exegete. But as the former relied, in the last instance, on the lumen naturce, and the latter on the so-called "sound human understanding," the ultimate result was identical.
II. Rationalism in the Netherlands. — This arose si- multaneously with English deism. Here, also, the tol- eration of different confessions led to latitudinarianism. The tendency was further promoted by a revival of classical humanism. Forerunners of rationalism ap- peared before the middle of the 17th century. Voetius {Disput. Theol. l, 1) mentions a work (of 1633) which did not hesitate to hold thus: Natu rails ratio judex et norma fidei. The tendency was systematically pre- '
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pared fur by the Cartesian philosophy. Without di- rectly touching the foundations of faith, it yel silently undermined them by the fundamental maxim, De om- nibus dubitandum. This maxim, though reverently in- tended, yel resulted, in practice, in a thoroughly anti- Biblical drift. Duker and Kuril held thai buman rea- son is as infallible as < rod, its author; and that if it ever errs, this results from mere lack of attention to its inner light. The influence of Spinoza was in the same direc- tion. In bis Tractatus Theologico-politicus, he hadsub- religion of the Bible to a philosophical inter- pretation which was fatal to its positive validity. His disciple, L.Meyer, taughl unhesitatingly (1666), Quid- quid rationi conirarium, illud rum est credendum. Also from the time of Spinoza forward there appears, even among devoul theologians, a tendency to break loose from orthodox traditions. This is further promoted by the works of gifted French refugees — Bayle, Le Clerc, and others.
III. German Rationalism. — This subject falls natu- rally into the following five subdivisions: the period of preparatory discussion (1000 L750); the period of historical criticism i 17.">u 17*11); the period of philo- sophical criticism (1780-1800); the period of the so- called rationalismtu vulgaris (1800 1814); the period of philosophical rationalism (from Kant to Feuerbach).
I. Preparatory. — II was only incidentally thai for- eign rationalism attracted the attention of I .erman the- ologians before t he close of the 17th century. The ear- liest assailant of Herbert of Cherbury and of Spinoza was Musaeus, in L667 and L674. Bui a German basis for rationalism had already been laid. In the midst of the violence of orthodox polemics, Calixtus had laid the foundations for a less rigid tendency. The Thirty Years' War (1618 1648) had spread immorality among the masses and indifference among the nobility. The succeeding years of material prosperity and of French luxury still further undermined the power of the old orthodoxy. But the Lutheran Church still firmly held its old position till towards the close of the century. The Reformed Church was the tirst to be affected. Duisburg became the rallyinir-point of suspected Car- tesians from all quarters. Here II. Hulsius (1088) de- fended the principle of Roell, that reason is the ulti- mate judge in matters of faith, and substituted syllo- gistic argumentation for the testimonium internum. He also declared thai theo 1, iUy was the handmaid of phi- losophy . instead of the converse. The same views were found elsewhere in Reformed circles. Bashuysen held. in a dissertation (Zerlist. 1727 I, thai reason is the test of faith, and that none but fanatic appealed to a testi- monium spiritus. Similar sentiments soon found place in Lutheran schools, though not in the thcol)gical fac- ulties. Thomasius, firsl at Leipsic, then at Halle, was