RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Ethics
Kahler's Wissenschaft der christlichen Lehre (Erlangen, 1883), and R. Kiibel's Christliche Ethik (2 parts, Munich, 1896). Strictly Lutheran are G. C. A. Harless' Christliche Ethik (Stuttgart, 1842; 8th ed., 1893), A. Wuttke's Handbuch der christlichen Sittenlehre (2 vols., Berlin, 1862), A. F. C. Vilmar's Theologische Moral (3 parts, Giitersloh, 1871), the second part of A. von Oettingen's Socialethik (2 vols., Erlangen, 1873-74; 3d ed., 1882); J. C. K. von Hofmann's Theologische Ethik (Nordlingen, 1878), F. H. R. Frank's System der christlichen Sittlichkeit (2 vols., Leipsic, 1884- 1887), and C. E. Luthardt's Kompendium der theologischen Ethik (Leipsic, 1896). The Neo-Kantianism of A. Ritschl is represented, more or less closely, by W. Bornemann's Unterricht im Christentum (Gottingen, 1891), H. Schultz's Grundriss der evangelischen Ethik (Gottingen, 1891), W. Herrmann's Ethik (Tubingen, 1900), Theodor Haring's Christliches Leben (Stuttgart, 1900), and J. Gottschick's Ethik (Tubingen, 1907). J. Pfleiderer's Grundriss der Glaubens- und Sittenlehre (3d ed., Berlin, 1886) belongs to the school of liberal and speculative theology.
Among the more recent philosophical ethicists an idealism friendly to Christianity is represented by H. M. Chalybseus' System der spekulativen Ethik (2 vols., Leipsic, 1850), I. H. Fichte's System der Ethik (2 vols., Leipsic, 1850-53), C. Sigwart's Vorfragen der Ethik (Freiburg, 1886), G. Class's Ideate und Giiter (Leipsic, 1886), F Harms's Ethik (Leipsic, 1889), and A. Dorner's Das menschliche Handeln, philosophische Ethik (Berlin, 1895). The influence of Kant is shown in A. Trendelenburg's Naturrecht auf dem Grunde der Ethik (Leipsic, 1860), H. Lotze's Grundziige der praktischen Philosophic (Leipsic, 1884), Theodor Lipps's Ethische Grundfragen (Hamburg, 1899), and M. Wentscher's Ethik (2 vols., Leipsic, 1901-05). Herbart's point of view is represented by J. W. Nahlowsky's Allgemeine praktische Philosophic (Leipsic, 1871; 2d ed., 1885), T. Ziller's Allgemeine philosophische Ethik (Langensalza, 1880; 2d ed., 1886), H. Steinthal's Allgemeine Ethik (Berlin, 1885), and W. Rein's Grundriss der Ethik (Osterwald, 1902). W. Wundt, Ethik (Stuttgart, 1886), and F Paulsen, System der Ethik (2 vols., Berlin, 1890), show the influence of Positivism and Utilitarianism (qq.v.), and also reflect the teachings of the theory of evolution, as elaborated especially by Charles Darwin, and an ethical relativism conditioned by this theory and represented by H. Spencer's Data of Ethics (London, 1879) and Leslie Stephen's Science of Ethics (1882). Under such influences there has been a wide-spread tendency, even in German thought, to trace ethical requirements simply to conditions of culture, tradition, inheritance, and utilitarian motives, and to regard them as purely relative. This tendency is represented by Feuerbach's Veber Spiritualismus und Materialisms (Leipsic, 1866), E. Laas's Idealismus und Positivismus (3 parts, Berlin, 1879-84), and G. von Gizycki's Grundziige der Moral (Leipsic, 1883). This eudemonism has found its antipodal pessimism in J. Frauenstadt's Sittliches Leben (Leipsic, 1866) and E. von Hartmann's Phdnomenologie des sitt-
lichen Bewusstseins (Berlin, 1878) and Ethische Studien (Leipsic, 1898); while a degenerate offshoot of both tendencies is Friedrich Nietzsche's ethics of the " superman " (Jenseits von Gut und Bose, Leipsic, 1886), which overleaps all moral bounds.
In post-Reformation Roman Catholic ethics casuistics first bloomed again through the instrumentality of the Jesuits, who culti- 9. Roman vated ethics diligently that they
Catholic might utilize it for advice in cases of
Ethics. conscience. Among the most important ethical treatises of the Jesuits special mention should be made of the works of F Toletus, Thomas Sanchez, Antonio de Escobar, Busenbaum, Alfonso Liguori, and J. P. Gury. Their ethics seeks to render itself indispensable through its subtly developed casuistry, and to become popular by its extreme adaptation to human weaknesses. The latter end is served by the well-known Jesuit doctrines of probabilism, intention and mental reservation. This elasticity of Jesuit ethics, together with its Pelagianizing tendency, was assailed within the Roman Catholic Church especially by Jansenism, as represented in Pascal's Pensces sur lareligion (Paris, 1670) and Quesnel's Reflexions morales (1687). The Jansenists regarded the love of God, evoked by the operation of divine grace, as the one root of moral action, but they were led into gloomy mysticism and asceticism by their faulty comprehension of the Pauline doctrine of justification by faith. Still more visionary and passive was the ascetic mysticism of quietism, set forth by the Spaniard M. de Molinos (q.v.) in his Guida spirituale (Rome, 1675) and modified by Fenelon, but attacked in both forms by the Jesuits.
With the end of the eighteenth century Roman Catholic ethics also came under the influence of philosophy. The Jesuit B. Stattler, in his Vollstdndige christliche Sittenlehre (2 vols., Augsburg, 1791), adopted the philosophical method of C. Wolff; while his pupil, S. Mutschelle, in his Moraltheologie (2 parts, Munich, 1801-03), followed Kant, as did F. G. Wanker, G. Hermes, and others. On the other hand, M. Sailer, in his Handbuch der christlichen Moral (Munich, 1818), set forth a Pietistic mystic eudemonism, a similar tendency being shown in J. B. von Hirscher's more scientific Christliche Moral (5th ed., Tubingen, 1851). Some traces of Schleiermacher's influence are discernible in H. Klee's System der katholischen Moral (Mainz, 1847), K. Martin's Lehrbuch der katholischen Moral (Mainz, 1850), and C. Werner's System der christlichen Ethik (Regensburg, 1850); while a more traditional character is maintained in the ethical manuals of H. T. Simar (Freiburg, 1877), F X. Linsenmann (1879), J. Schwane (1878-85), and Rappenhoner (1889).