FRANK, FRANZ HERMANN REINHOLD VON:
German Lutheran; b. at Altenburg (26 m. s. of Leipsic) Mar. 25, 1827; d. at Erlangen Feb. 7, 1894. His early life was spent at Zschernitz, and in 1839 he entered the gymnasium of Altenburg, matriculating in 1845 at the University of Leipsic to study theology, philosophy and philology (Ph.D., 1850; licentiate of theology, 1851). There, under the influence of Harless, Frank underwent an entire change of views, and from a rationalist he became
an enthusiastic admirer of the Lu- Early theran confession and of early Prot- Life. estant theology. In 1851 he became
subrector of a school at Ratzeburg, and two years later teacher of religion in the gymnasium of Altenburg. In 1857 he was appointed extraordinary professor of church history and systematic theology in Erlangen, and in the following year became ordinary professor; while from 1875 until his death he occupied the chair of systematic theology.
Not only as a theological leader, but also as a moral character, Frank exercised a far-reaching influence. He was thoroughly convinced of the truth of his conservative ideas; but deeply rooted as he was in Evangelical principles, he still maintained a deep interest in modern life with its aims and problems, while he was opposed to reactionary tendencies in ecclesiastical affairs, and to external authority in political relations. He may be styled the dogmatician of the " Erlangen theology." Twice his views were essentially changed — in Leipsic he was won for the old truth, in Erlangen, under the influence of Hofmann, for the " new mode of teaching the old truth."
Frank's most characteristic work was his System der christlichcn Gewissheit (2 vols., Erlangen,
RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Fran eke Frank
1870-73; 2d ed., 1881-83; Eng. transl. by M. J. Evans "System of Christian Certainty," Edinburgh, 1886). The great question which Frank attempted to answer in this work was the basis of belief. The answer is offered by the positive assurance of the Christian. The Christian is transposed into a new state of life, and into a state of regeneration and conversion of which he becomes positively assured. This assurance, however, implies also the assurance of an objective cause. Thus there result three groups of objects of Christian assurance; the immanent objects Theory of as the effects of the objective cause Christian inherent in the subject (knowledge Certitude, of sin; reality of the new life); the transcendent objects (God as the supramundane factor, the Trinity; the atoning God-Man); and the transmittent objects (the Word, the Sacraments, the Church), or the historical and concrete media by which faith experiences the effect of the supramundane cause. Each of these three groups is opposed by a development of modern in tellectualism; so that rationalism denies the reality of the peculiar religious experience of the Christian; pantheism does away with the causality of a personal God; and criticism (as represented by Baur and Strauss) tries to prove the Church and church life to be merely natural phenomena devoid of any specifically inherent transcendent causality. According to Frank, the objects of faith are implied in the assertion of the Ego of the new man, and he is assured of them according to the degree of the certainty of that Ego concerning itself.
Having thus acquired the realities of Christian faith, it is the task of dogmatics, as set forth by Frank in his System der christlichen Wahrheit (2 vols., Erlangen, 1878-80; 3d ed., 1893-94), to grasp and represent the objects of Christian faith in their inner connection. Here Dogmatic Frank no longer starts from sub- System, jective assurance, but from the first cause of Christian realities, from the principium essendi, or God. His work accordingly represents the evolution of the humanity ot God. The first part treats of the " principle of evolution " and establishes the doctrine of God. The second part is devoted to the " realization of evolution " in three divisions: generation (creation, world, man), degeneration (sin, devil), and regeneration, the latter comprising the humanity of God as being realized for the God-Man; the humanity of God as posited in the God-Man; and the humanity of God as evolving from the God-Man, that is (a) the humanity of God as the object of becoming (the means of grace); (b) the humanity of God as the subject of becoming (the order of salvation); and (c) the humanity of God as the object-subject of becoming (the Church). The third part describes the " aim of becoming," or eschatology.
The life-work of Frank as a systematic theologian found its completion in his System der christlichen Sittlichkeil (2 vols., Erlangen, 1884-87; Eng. transl., System of the Christian Certainty , Edinburgh, 1886.) The leading point of view in this work is the " evolution of the God-Man. ' ' Frank attacked the theology IV.-24
of Ritschl in his Ueber die kirchliche Bedeutung der Theologie A. Ritschls (Leipsic, 1888) and Zur Theologie A. Ritschls (3d. ed., 1891); and he also wrote Evangelische Schulreden (Altenburg, 1856); Die Theologie der Concordienformel (4 vols., Erlangen, 1858-65); Aus dem Leben chrisilicher Frauen (Gutersloh, 1873); Dogmatische Studien (Leipsic, 1892); Vademecum fur angehende Theologen (1892); and Geschichte und Kritik der neueren Theologie (1894; 3d ed., 1898). (R. Seeberg.)
Bibliography: R. Seeberg, F. H. R. von Frank; ein Gedenkblatt, Leipsic, 1894; J. Gottschick, Die Kirchlichkeit der sogenannten kircklichen Theologie, pp. 110 sqq., Freiburg, 1890; F. Nippold, Handbuch der neuesten Kirchengeschichte, iii., part 1, pp. 495 sqq., Berlin, 1890; O. Pfleiderer, Die Entuicklung der protestantischen Theologie seit Kant, pp. 183 sqq., Freiburg, 1891; G. Daxer, Der Subjektivismus in Franks " System der christlichen Gewissheit" Gutersloh, 1900; F. K. E. Weber, F. H. R. von Franks Gotteslehre, Leipsic, 1901.
FRANK, GUSTAV WILHELM: German Protestant; b. at Schleiz (24 m. s.w. of Gara) Sept. 25, 1832; d. at Vienna Sept. 24, 1904. He studied at Jena, where he became privat-docent in 1859 and was appointed associate professor of theology in 1864. In 1867 he was called to Vienna as full professor of dogmatic and symbolic theology, and the same year became a member of the Evangelical ecclesiastical council in Vienna. He edited E. F. Apelt's Religionsphilosophie (Leipsic, 1860), and wrote Memorabilia qucedam Flaciana (Schleiz, 1856); De Luthero rationalismi prcecursore (Leipsic, 1857) ; De Academia Jenensi evangelical veritatis altrice (Schleiz, 1858); Die jenaische Theologie in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwickelung (Leipsic, 1858); De Matihim Flacii Illyrici in libros sacros meritis (1859); Geschichte der protestantischen Theologie (vols, i.-iii., 1862-75, vol. iv., with Lebensabriss by G. Losche, 1905); Johann Major, der Wittenberger Poet (Halle, 1863); Das Toleranzpatent Kaiser Joseph II (Vienna, 1882); and Symbolce ad recentiorem C. R. ordinis Theologorum evangelicorum Vindobonensis historiam congestos (1896).
FRANK, JACOB (Jankiev Lebowicz): Jewish adventurer, founder of the sect of Frankists; b. in Podolia c.1720; d. at Offenbach (4 m. e. of Frankfort) Dec. 10, 1791. He was the son of a rabbi and originally a distiller, but afterward traveled as a merchant in Turkey, where he received the surname of Frank, the usual designation for Occidentals among the Turks. In Turkey he lived chiefly in Salonica and Smyrna, the centers of Shabbethaianism, and himself became a prominent member of the sect of Shabbethai Zebi. On his return to Poland he became famous as a cabalist. In 1755 he settled in Podolia, gathered about him a group of local sectaries and began to preach to them a new gospel. The essence of his teaching seems to have been a negation of moral and religious laws, his mission, in his own words, being " to free the world from the laws and regulations which have hitherto existed." When it leaked out that at his meetings orgies were celebrated similar to those of the Adamites (q.v.), the Roman Catholics joined the orthodox Jews in the suppression of the Frankist sect. At the rabbinical court held at Sovanta
Frank Frankfort Recess