RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Kabasilas Kahnis
(sermons, 1883) ; Die Wahrheit der christlichen Religion (1888); and Dogmatik (Tubingen, 1897).
KAHNIS, ha'nis, KARL FRIEDRICH AUGUST:
German Lutheran theologian; b. at Greiz (49 m. s.s.w. of Leipsic) Dec. 22, 1814; d. at Leipsic June 20, 1888. Despite the poverty of his parents, he was educated at the gymnasium of his native town, and after acting as private tutor for several years began the study of theology at Halle. He was at first an ardent Hegelian, but becom- Earlier ing conscious that Hegelianism failed Life. to recognize the value of individual Professor effort, personality, and the influence atBreslau. of the Christian faith, he passed to orthodox Lutheranism. The transition may be dated from the publication of his Dr Ruge und Hegel: Ein Beitrag zur Wilrdigung Hegelscher Tendenzen (Quedlinberg, 1838). At the invitation of Hengstenberg, Kahnis went in 1840 to Berlin, where he studied under Neander, Marheineke, Twesten, and others. To Tholuck's Litterarischer Anzeiger filr christliche Theologie he contributed a criticism of Strauss, which appeared in expanded form under the title Die moderne Wissenschaft des Dr. Strauss und der Glaube unserer Kirche (Berlin, 1842). In 1842 he became privat-docent and then spent two happy years in close relationship with Neander, Steffens, and the circle of romanticists who gathered about Ludwig von Gerlach. In 1844 he was called to Breslau as professor extraordinary to represent the orthodox party in a rationalistic faculty, but in his inaugural speech De Spiritus Sancti persona he departed from the accepted doctrine of Trinitarianism, ranking the Son as subordinate to the Father, and assigning the last place to the Holy Spirit, which he described as the impersonal principle of life, binding together the other two. This first venture of Kahnis into the field of theology is important for his subsequent development. Hampered to a large extent in his academic work by the lack of harmony between himself and his colleagues, he devoted himself to scientific investigation in theology, the first results being his Lehre vom heiligen Geiste (Halle, 1847), which marked no departure from the doctrines enunciated in his earlier work, yet voiced his protest against the liberalism of the times.
After the revolution of 1848, in which Kahnis supported the king and the established order, he came to believe that the safest defense against irreligion was in rigid orthodoxy, and Professor gradually drifted into an attitude of at Leipsic. opposition to the Union (the Consolidation of the Lutheran and Reformed churches in Prussia effected by a royal decree in 1817). He strove to preserve the integrity of the Lutheran creed. Convinced at last that the Lutheran confession possessed neither a logical nor a legal basis under the Union, he joined the old Lutheran party in Nov., 1848, a step by which his academic activity at Breslau became still more difficult. In 1850, therefore, he gladly accepted a call to Leipsic, where he succeeded Harless in the chair of dogmatics, to which he later united that of church history. In the following year the Uni-
versity of Erlangen gave him the degree of D.D., and he acknowledged this honor by his Lehre vom Abendmahle (Leipsic, 1851), one of the best formulations of the type of Lutheranism taught at Erlangen. His professorial work at Leipsic was attended with success, but, feeling himself out of sympathy with the prevailing tone in the faculty, he would have accepted a call to Erlangen in 1856 had not the authorities promised to fill the first vacancy in the faculty by a theologian entirely in agreement with his own views. In the same year, Luthardt was called from Marburg, and he and Kahnis, together with Delitzsch, who came to Leipsic from Erlangen in 1867, constituted a triumvirate which raised the university to an unrivaled eminence in the realm of theology. In addition to his academic duties, Kahnis found time for much useful labor in the field of practical Christianity. From 1851 to 1857 he was a member of the board of missions, from 1853 to 1857 edited the Sachsische Kirchen- und Schulblatt, and from 1866 to 1875 was one of the editors of the Niednersche Zeitschriftfur historische Theologie. At Leipsic in 1854 he published Der innere Gang des deutschen Protestantismus seit Mitte des vorigen Jahrhunderts (Eng. transl. by T. Meyer, Internal History of German Protestantism since the Middle of Last Century, Edinburgh, 1856), expanded in the second edition (1860) so as to include the entire period from the Reformation. These same years witnessed a literary controversy with Nitzsch over the question of the Union and confessional latitudinarianism, a controversy in which Kahnis sought to demonstrate the lack of doctrinal unity prevailing among the supporters of the movement.
In 1860 Kahnis became canon of the cathedral at Meissen and in 1864—65 he was rector of Leipsic University. Before that time, however, his religious views had undergone the change which found expression in his Luthcrische Dog- Later matik (3 vols., Leipsic, 1861-68). The Views and character of the work was foreshad- Works. owed in the second edition of Der Innere Gang, which revealed an approximation to rationalism, the abandonment of his old belief in inspiration, a readiness to admit the necessity of progress in doctrine, and an insistence upon the importance of recognizing the facts of human nature and natural morality. The five divisions of the Dogmatik deal with the history of Lutheran dogmatics, religion, revelation, creed, and system. The problem which Kahnis set himself was the derivation of the doctrines of the Lutheran Church from the basic principle of justification by faith, and the proof of their verity by the sole authority of the Scriptures. He found the nature of Christianity in the community of salvation between man and God through Christ in the Holy Spirit, seeking his proof in history, philosophy, and the common facts of life. It was not the system he advanced that aroused opposition, but the liberal attitude assumed by him toward the higher critics of the New Testament, his readiness to adopt the most of their theories, and his consequent modification of the doctrine of inspiration, as well as his dissent from the dogma of the Church
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