THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
historical connection in which they stand to the original revelation of Christ and the life that has proceeded from hiin. In order, therefore, to establish the content of the faith, the dogmatist must also deal with those processes of the inner life by which faith is produced in the first instance; just as moral philosophy or ethical theology must deal with such subjective considerations without being able by external authorities or historical proof or logical deduction to establish the matter for those who deny knowledge and experience of the corresponding subjective processes. Much, too, will depend upon the answer to the question, whether the value of Scripture differs only in degree from that of other products of the genuinely Christian spirit, and whether the effect of the Spirit upon the Biblical writers pertains only to the sphere of morals and religion, and thus leaves room for the influences, defects, and progressive character of general human culture. Upon all such topics dogmatists differ greatly. Frank, e.g., in his System der christlichen Gewissheit (2 vols., Erlangen, 1870-73), seeks to deduce from the inner experience of the regenerate man itself all the principal elements of Christian truth revealed in the Bible and recognized in the Church confessfsion; whereas Cremer and Beck derive the truth only from the revelation of Scripture approving itself to the conscience.
Thus then the dogmatist must objectively reproduce the ecclesiastical confession and forms of doctrine as they appear above all in the official symbols; he must establish any de- ^^,.1^°^" partures therefrom which he may choose to make, and at the same time show with what right he can as a dogmatist still regard himself as belonging to his particular body. At the same time he is bound to try to atlvance Christian truth by working at the original sources with the highest degree of independence. The very spirit of loyalty will make it his duty to purify the Church and her doctrine. The scientific character of dogmatics, moreover, necessitates a sharply methodical mode of thought, an analysis into its constituent elements, and the establishment of every individual element of doctrine in its relations to the whole. Reason itself will here have to admit, however, that in the attempt to ascend from the finite limitations in which man moves there are no perfectly adequate categories for God and his relat ion to man. Instead of trying to overcome this fact, it is far more expedient freely to use anthropomorphisms in dogmatics.
But while doctrinal theology as such draws from the divine revelation, the scientific dogmatist will also deal with the independent phil- 11. Bela- osophie attempts that have been made to^^Phi know God in his relations to us,
losophy whether by way of cosmological or moral philosophizing or by the processes of thought itself (Hegel). But that which thus proceeds from a conscience and a self-consciousness that is not yet specifically Christ ian can be truly and correctly interpreted only by the Christian revelation and cxiierience; and so far the old orthodox dogmatists and also Kaftan rightly
elusions.
affirm that reason in dogmatics has only usus joniialin. At the same time the actual influence of philosophy and particular philosophies even upon dogmatists who deny the fact is perfectly clear; e.g., in Schleiermacher maybe seen the mighty influence of Schelling's philosophy of identity and of Spinoza's attempts to express the thoughts of the pious consciousness concerning God.
II. History of Protestant Dogmatics. — 1. In Germany: The Evangelical Protestant Reformation was bound by virtue of its original spirit to lead to all these problems and questions. But only gradually, through the strife of opposing tendencies did the real task of Evangelical Christian dogmatics reveal itself. The new doctrine of the Reformation pertained in the first
Fifteenth ''^^t^^^® ^° '^^^ heart of dog-
matics and ethics, to the essence of Sixteenth salvation that has appeared in Centuries. Christ, and in particular to the mode
of appropriating it. The dogmas of the Trinity and the person of Christ were accepted without criticism in the traditional form (Melanchthon's Loci, 1521). The next generations gave the new Christian dogmatics more and more of a scholastic character: e.g., Chemnitz, in his Loci, published in 1591; Hutter. Compendium locorum theologicorum, 1610; Calovius, Systema locorum theologicorum, 1655-77; and Quenstedt, Theologia didaciico-polemica, 1685; Johann Gerhard, in his Loci I of 1610-21, the most valuable production of the Lutheran orthodoxy, revealed a far more energetic religious spirit, and HoUatz, the last important representative of the old Lutheran orthodoxy, in his Examen theologicum acroamaticum, 1707, showed Pietistic influences. In the Reformed Church the development of dogmatics proceeds essentially from Calvin's Institutio Christianee religionis (1536; final edition 1559). The development here, too, leads to a period which may be characterized as scholastic, but the process is not shut up within itself as was Lutheranism. Arminianism is a departure. Cocceius takes the content of faith from Scripture. See below, 2.
The deep and powerful practical religious movement of Pietism reacted against those learned theologies which asserted the divine authority of Scripture indeed, but treated its content in the way of 2 J ^ barren and dead forms of conception. ■ gjj^gg " To stimulate and establish a living
and true faith, Spener and his followers Pietism, pointed to the inner assurance of the
IJiblical truth through the Holy Spirit for every one who would open his heart to its influence. But there was here no endeavor to make this truth, its validity for faith, and its relation to knowledge of the world the object of a strictly scientific treatment. Dogmatists influenced by Pietism, such as Breithaupt {Institutiones theol()<ji(v dogmalicw, 1723), Anton, Freylinghausen, and Rombach, sought, by going back to Scripture, to simplify the ecclesiastical doctrines in the direction of a practical religious tendency. And more strictly scientific theologians, like Buddeus (In- KliliUiones theologia: dogmaticir, 1723) and Pfaff {Institutiones theologies dogmalicce ct moralis, 1723),