History Christian doctrine that the soul is not of Annihila- self-existent, but owes, as its existence,
tionistic so its continuance in being, to the
Theories, will of God. The earliest appearance
of a genuinely annihilationist theory
in extant Christian literature is to be found
apparently in the African apologist Arnobius, at
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Annihilationism
the opening of the fourth century (cf . Salmoud, pp. 473-474; Falke, pp. 27-28). It seemed to him impossible that beings such as men could either owe their being directly to God or persist in being without a special gift of God; the unrighteous must therefore be gradually consumed in the fires of Gehenna. A somewhat similar idea was announced by the Socinians in the sixteenth century (0. Fock, Der Socinianismus, Kiel, 1847, pp. 714 sqq.). On the positive side, Faustus Socinus himself thought that man is mortal by nature and attains immortality only by grace . On the negative side, his followers (Crell, Schwaltz, and especially Ernst Sohner) taught explicitly that the second death consists in annihilation, which takes place, however, only after the general resurrection, at the final judgment. From the Socinians this general view passed over to England where it was adopted, not merely, as might have been anticipated, by men like Locke {Reasonableness of Christianity, § 1), Hobbes (Leviathan), and Whiston, but also by Churchmen like Hammond and Warburton, and was at least played with by non-conformist leaders like Isaac Watts. The most remarkable example of its utilization in this age, however, is supplied by the non-juror Henry Dodwell (1706). Insisting that the " soul is a principle naturally mortal," Dodwell refused to allow the benefit of this mortality to any but those who lived and died without the limits of the proclamation of the Gospel; no " adult person whatever," he insisted, " living where Christianity is professed, and the motives of its credibility are sufficiently proposed, can hope for the benefit of actual mortality." Those living in Christian lands are therefore all immortalized, but in two classes: some " by the pleasure of God to punishment," some " to reward by their union with the divine baptismal Spirit." It was part of his contention that " none have the power of giving this divine immortalizing Spirit since the apostles but the bishops only," so that his book was rather a blast against the antiprelatists than a plea for annihilationism; and it was replied to as such by Samuel Clarke (1706), Richard Baxter (1707), and Daniel Whitby (1707). During the eighteenth century the theory was advocated also on the continent of Europe (e.g., E. J. E. Walter, Priifung einiger wichtigen Lehren theologisches und philosophisches Inhalts , Berlin, 1782), and almost found a martyr in the Neuchatel pastor, Ferdinand Olivier Petitpierre, commonly spoken of by the nickname of "No Eternity " (cf. C. Berthoud, Les Quatre Petitpierres, Neuchatel, 1875). In the first half of the nineteenth century also it found sporadic adherents, as e.g., C. H. Weisse in Germany (TSK, ix., 1836, 271-340) and H. H. Dobney in England (Notes of Lectures on Future Punishment, London, 1844; new ed., On the Scripture Doctrine of Future Punishment, 1846).
The real extension of the theory belongs, however, only to the second half of the nineteenth century. During this period it attained, chiefly through the able advocacy of it by C. F. Hudson and E. White, something like a popular vogue in English-speaking lands. In French-speaking countries, while never
becoming really popular, it has commanded the attention of an influential circle of theologians and philosophers (as J. Rognon, L'Immortalite native et I'enseignement biblique, Paris, 1894, p. 7; but cf . A. Gretillat, Expose de theologie systematique, IV., 1892, p. 602). In Germany, on
7. Nine- the other hand, it has met with less ac-
teenth Cen- ceptance, although it is precisely there
tury that it has been most scientifically
Theories, developed, and has received the adherence of the most outstanding names. Before the opening of this half century in fact it had gained the great support of Richard Rothe's advocacy (Theologische Ethik, 2 vols., Wittenberg, 1845-47; 2d ed., 1867-72, §§ 470-472; Dogmatik, iii., Heidelberg, 1870, §§ 47-48, especially p. 158), and never since has it ceased to find adherents of mark, who base their acceptance of it sometimes on general grounds, but increasingly on the view that the Scriptures teach, not a doctrine of the immortality of the soul, but a reanimation by resurrection of God's people. The chief names in this series are C. H. Weisse (Philosophische Dogmatik, Leipsic, 1853-62, § 970); Hermann Schultz (Voraussetzungen der christlichen Lehre der Unsterblichkeit, Gottingen, 1861, p. 155; cf. Grundriss der evangelischen Dogmatik, 1892, p. 154: " This condemnation of the second death may in itself, according to the Bible, be thought of as existence in torment, or as painful cessation of existence. Dogmatics without venturing to decide, will find the second conception the more probable, biblically and dogmatically "); H. Plitt (Evangelische Glaubenslehre, Gotha, 1863); F. Brandes, (TSK, 1872, pp. 545, 550); A. Schaffer (Auf der Neige des Lebens, Gotha, 1884; Was ist Gliick ? 1891, pp. 290-294); G. Runze (Unsterblichkeit und Auferstehung, L, Berlin, 1894, pp. 167, 204: " Christian Eschatology teaches not a natural immortality for the soul, but a reanimation by God's almighty power. The Christian hope of
reanimation makes the actualization of a future blessed existence depend entirely on faith in God "); L. Lemme (Endlosigkeit der Verdammnis, Berlin, 1898, pp. 31-32, 60-61); cf. R.Kabisch (Die Eschatologie des Paulus, Gottingen, 1893).
The same general standpoint has been occupied in Holland, e.g., by Jonker (Theologische Studien, i.). The first advocate of conditionalism in French was the Swiss pastor, E. P6tavel-011iff, whose first book, La Fin du mal, appeared in 1872 (Paris), followed by many articles in the French theological journals and by Le Probleme de Vimmortalite (1891; Eng. transl., London, 1892), and The Extinction of Evil (Eng., 1889). In 1880 C. Byse issued a translation of E. White's chief book. The theory not only had already been presented by A. Bost, (Le Sort des mechants, 1861), but had been taken up by philosophers of such standing as C. Lambert (Systeme du monde moral, 1862), P Janet (RDM, 1863), and C. Renouvier (La Critique philosophique, 1878); and soon afterward Charles Secretan and C. Ribot (RT, 1885, no. 1) expressed their general adherence to it. Perhaps the more distinguished advocacy of it on French ground has come, however, from the two professors Sabatier, Auguste
Annihilationism Annunciation