RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Harless
Harmony of the Gospels
(Erlangen, 1834); Theologische Encyklopadie und Methodologie vom Standpunkte der protestantischen
Kirche (Nuremberg, -1837) ; and Christ- Writings. liche Ethik (Stuttgart, 1842); Eng.
transl., Edinburgh, 1868). The commentary and the work on ethics marked an epoch in their respective spheres. The encyclopedia is less important for its methodological arrangement than for Harless' clear and energetic views of the Church, the main points being the close relation of theology to the Church; the unity of theory and practise in a common living faith; the living continuity of the Church from her very foundation as an ideal factor of history; the emphasis of a common faith as the basis of Protestant theology; the entire transformation of this theology by the principle of justification; the necessity of preserving the principles of the Reformation in their purity; the obscurity caused by the later Protestant scholasticism, which considered the dogmas laid down in the confessional writings of the Church as the final conclusion of all dogmatic knowledge; and the sound reaction against this tendency by the Pietistic movement. The Christliche Ethik (Eng. transl., System of Christian Ethics, Edinburgh, 1865), is without doubt Harless' most important work. Its chief excellences are its scientific structure, the emphasis and consistent application of the Christian ethical principle, and the interrelation and connection of the Biblical factor with the historical factor in the more general sense of the word.
(R. Stahelin.)
Bibliography: Stahelin, in Zeitschrift fur kirchliche Wissenschaftund Leben, 1880, pp. 88 sqq., 145 aqq.; idem, Lbhe, Thomasiu8, Harless. Drei Lebens- und Geschichtsbilder, Leipsic, 1887; C. Mirbt, in Blatter fur bayerische Kirchengeschichte, 1896; Langsdorff, A. von Harless, Leipsic, 1888.
HARMER, JOHN REGINALD : Church of England bishop of Rochester; b. at Maisemore (2 m. n.w. of Gloucester), Gloucestershire, Aug. 11, 1857 He was educated at King's College, Cambridge (B.A., 1881; M.A., 1883), where he was fellow from 1883 to 1889, while from 1890 to 1899 he was fellow of Corpus Christi College in the same university, being also dean from 1892 to 1895. He was ordered deacon in 1881, and ordained priest two years later, and was domestic chaplain to Bishop Lightfoot of Durham in 1884-89, and examining chaplain to Bishop Westcott of the same diocese in 1889-95. He was vice-principal of the Cambridge Clergy Training School from 1889 to 1893. In 1895 he was consecrated bishop of Adelaide, South Australia, and ten years later was translated to the see of Rochester. He edited (London, 1890-93) eight volumes of the posthumous writings of Bishop Lightfoot, namely, five volumes of sermons, the abridged edition of the Apostolic Fathers, Biblical Essays, and Notes from Unpublished Commentaries.
HARMER, THOMAS: English Independent; b. in Norwich, probably in Oct., 1714; d. at Wattisfield (21 m. n.n.w. of Ipswich), Suffolk, Nov. 27, 1788. He was prepared for the ministry by Thomas Ridgley and John Eames, at the Fund Academy, Moorfields, and was elected to the pastorate of the Independent church at Wattisfield in July, 1734. He led an industrious but unambitious life, preached
every Sunday during fifty-four years, and exerted much influence in the dissenting churches of the eastern counties of England. His principal works are: Observations on Divers Passages of Scripture. Compiled from Books of Voyages and Travels into the East (4 vols., London, 1764-87; 4th ed. by Adam Clarke, 4 vols., 1808); Outlines of a New Commentary on the Book of Solomon's Song (1768); and Some Account of the Jewish Doctrine of the Resurrection (1771). His Miscellaneous Works were edited, with a Memoir, by W Youngman (1823), while his manuscript accounts of the dissenting churches of Norfolk and Suffolk were utilized by John Browne (q.v.) in his History of Congregationalism, and Memorials of the Churches in Norfolk and Suffolk (1877).
Bibliography: Besides the Memoir by Youngman, ut sup., and Browne, Hist, of Congregationalism, pp. 199, 471- 472, ut sup., consult DNB, xxiv. 414.
HARMONISTS. See Communism, II., 6; Rapp, Georg.
HARMONIUS : Syrian hymn-writer of the first half of the third century. He was a son of the Gnostic Bardesanes (q.v.), whose heretical views he shared. According to Sozomen, he received a Greek education (Hist, eccl., iii. 16; cf. Theodoret, Hist, eccl., iv. 29, and Hcer., i. 22). He originated the Syrian hymnology, and his hymns were long popular. In the fourth century Ephraem Syrus sought to crowd them out by writing orthodox hymns in the same meters and to the same airs. Ephraem (" Sermons against Heretics," liii., Opera Syr., ii. 554 B) regarded Bardesanes as the composer of the objectionable hymns; but the hymnal attributed by him to Bardesanes was probably composed by Harmonius. G. Keuger.
Bibliography: Consult, besides the literature under Bardesanes, DCB, ii. 84S-846; Ceillier, Auteurs sacres, i. 455, 466; Harnack, Litteratur, i. 174, 184, 187.