and henceforth develops itself historically in the form of the Church. The Church, therefore, consists of those to whom this elevated principle of life has been communicated, and in whom it develops itself until it realizes all it includes. That is, until the essential oneness of God and man is in the Church fully realized.
There is another mode of representation current with the disci- ples of Schleiermacher, especially in this country. Its advocates speak of humanity as a generic life. They define man to be the man- ifestation of this generic life in connection with a special corporeal organization, by which it is individualized and becomes personal. It was this generic humanity which sinned in Adam, and thence- forth was corrupt in all the individual men in whom it was mani- fested. It was this genei'ic humanity that Christ assumed into personal union with his divinity, not as two distinct substances, but so united as to become one generic human life. This purified hu- manity now develops itself, by an inward force in the Church, just as from Adam generic humanity was developed in his poster- ity. All this, however, differs only in words from Schleiermacher's simpler and more philosophic statement. For it is still assumed as the fundamental idea of the gospel, that God and man are one. This generic humanity is only a form of the life of God. And as to its sinning in Adam, and being thenceforth corrupt, sin and corruption are only imperfect development. God, the universal life principle, as Dr. Nevin calls it, so variously manifested in the different existences in this world, is imperfectly or insufficiently manifested in man generally, but perfectly in Christ, and through Him ultimately in like perfection in his people. Christ, therefore, according to Dorner, is a universal person. He comprises in Him- self the whole of humanity. All that is separately revealed in others is summed up in Him. In this system "Der Mittelpunkt," says Schwarz, "christlicher Wahrheit, der christologische Kern der ganzen Dogmatik ist die Goschel-Dorner'sche monstrose Vorstel- lung von der Allpersonlichkeit Christi, die ihm als dem Urmen- schen zukommt. Es ist ' die Zusammenfassung des ganzen geglie-
Naturgesetzes Oder gegen dasselbe ist nirgends ein Ort Aber — es ist zuzugeben,--
diese die philosophische Grundanschauung bildende Immanenz -wird von dem Theologen Schleiermacher nicht streng innegehalten, das aus der Ontologie und Kosmologie verbannte Wtcder dringt durch die Christologie wieder ein. Die Person Christi in ihrer religiose sittlichen Absolutheit ist ein Wunder, eine Ausnahme vom Naturgesetz, sie stehet einzig da. Ihr Eintreten in die Menschheit erfodert trotz aller Anschliessungen nach riickwaitz wie nach vorwartz einen besondern gottlichen Anstoss, sie ist aus der geschiciitlichen Ent- wiclielung nicht hervorgegangen und nicht zu begreifen. Und dieser iibernatiirliche An- stoss ist es, welcher, so sehr er auch wieder in die Natiirlichkeit einlenkt, doch mit dem religios=moralischen Wunder auch die Moglichkeit der damit zusammenhangenden phy- siscben Wunder offen lasst und so den ganzen Weltzusammenhang durchbricht." VOL. II. 29
450 PART in. Ch. m. — the person of CHRIST.
flerten Systems der natiirlichen Gaben der Menschheit."*^ " The middle point of Christian truth, tlie kernel of dogmatic theology is Goschel's and Domer's monstrous idea of the All-personality of Christ which belongs to Him as the Urmensch or archetypal man. He comprehends within Himself all the diversified forms or systems of the natural gifts of mankind." Goschel and Domer, adds Schwarz, were driven to this view because they conceded to their opponent Strauss, that the Absolute could only reveal itself in the totality of individuals ; and therefore as the Absolute was in Christ, he must embrace all individuals, because (the Gattungs- begriff) the true and total idea of humanity, the ideal man, or Urmensch, was revealed in Christ. The objection is constantly urged by his German critics, as Baur, Strauss, and Schwarz, that Schleiermacher admits that the Absolute is revealed in perfection in the totality of individuals, and yet is revealed perfectly in Christ, which according to Schleiermacher's own philosophy they pro- nounce to be a contradiction or impossibility.''*
The design of the preceding paragraphs is simply to show the unscriptural character of Schleiermacher's Christology in all its modifications, because it is founded on a view of the nature of man entirely at variance with the Word of God. It assumes the one- ness of God and man. It takes for granted that fully developed humanity is divine; that Christ in being the ideal, or perfect man, is God.
Schleiermacher's Theory perverts the Plan of Salvation. 7. It need hardly be remarked that the plan of salvation accord- ing to Schleiermacher's doctrine is entirely different from that re- vealed in the Bible and cherished by the Church in all ages. It is, in Germany at least, regarded as a rejection of the Church system, and as a substitute for it, and only in some of its forms as a reconciliation of the two, as to what is deemed absolutely essen- tial. The system in all its forms rejects the doctrines of atonement or satisfaction to the justice of God ; of regeneration and sanctifica- tion by the Holy Spirit; of justification as a judicial or forensic act; of faith in Christ, as a trusting to what He has done for us, as dis- tinguished from what He does in us ; in short, of all the great dis- tinctive doctrines not merely of the Reformation but of the Catholic faith. By many of the followers of Schleiermacher these doctrines are rejected in so many words ; by others the terms are more or
1 Schwarz, Getckichte der neuesten Theologie^ p. 260. J 3 Baur's ChrUtliche Lehre von der Verioknung, p. 621-624.