THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
published work was the sixth volume of his Annates in 1739; his Histoire de la congregation de Saint- Maur remained in manuscript until 1747. By his death the order lost one of its most learned members and at the same time a saintly, humble, and amiable man. (Franz Gorres.)
Bibliography: D. Tassin, Hist. HtUraire de la congregation de S. Maur, pp. 542-571, Brussels, 1770; C. G. Jocher, Gelehrtenlexikon, iii. 218-219, Leipsic, 1751, iv. 810-814, Bremen, 1813; C. de Lama, Bibliothique des icrivains de . . S. Maur, pp. 145-147, Paris, 1882; K. Schorn, Eiflia sacra, ii. 80-82, 148 sqq., 340, Bonn, 1888; KL, viii. 911-913; Liohtenberger, ESR, viii. 742-743.
MARTENSEN, HANS LASSEN.
Life (S 1).
Theological Development (§ 2). Character of His Theology (§ 3). Mystic and Theosophic Elements (§ 4). Polemic and Other Activities (§ 5).
Hans Lassen Martensen, a Danish bishop and theologian, was born at Flensburg (41 m. n.w. of Kiel, Germany) Aug. 19, 1808; d. at Copenhagen Feb. 3, 1884. He was educated in Copenhagen, both in school and at the university, i. Life, from which he took his degree in theology in 1832. From 1834 to 1836 he made further studies in Germany and Paris. Returning to Copenhagen, he became a licentiate and privatr-docent in theology in 1837, and was appointed reader in 1838 and professor of systematic theology in 1840, and in 1845 became also court preacher. On the death of the bishop of Zealand, J. P. Mynster (q.v.), in 1854, Martensen was chosen by the government as his successor, and in this, the highest ecclesiastical office of the country, he displayed great zeal both for the performance of the duties of his office and for the defense of the faith by his pen. In the last year of his life, conscious of failing strength, he resigned, and died a few days afterwards.
As a theologian, he adhered without wavering to the philosophy which sees the spiritual explanation of all things in the light of the Christian revelation, and finds the person of Christ the cen- 2. Theologi- terpoint of the universe and of all its cal Develop- thoughts. Under the influence of Sibment bern's teaching at Copenhagen, he early came to the conclusion that Christianity was to be accepted because its truth appeals to the reason as the one source of a comprehensive philosophy of life. He sought the unity of faith and knowledge, and could not be content with any scheme which did not offer this. But he was even more strongly influenced by the philosophy of Schleiermacher and Hegel. Schleiermacher he met personally in 1833, and was an enthusiastic admirer of his mystical depth and the structural completeness of his dogmatics; but he could not hold with his subjective attitude, in contradistinction from which he found himself powerfully attracted by the objective, all-embracing system of Hegel. Here, on the other hand, he felt the lack of system and of the recognition of religion as a higher sphere than mere philosophy. These deficiencies he found supplied in the teaching of Franz Baader (q.v.) at Munich, who strongly emphasized the principle that philosophy must be religious, and that only one
who has a personal sense of religion can philosophize about it.
His dissertation of 1837, De autonomia conscientice sui humance, in theologiam dogmaticam nostri ternporis introducta, lays down a definite series of propositions, to which he always adhered. 3. Char- Philosophy is not outside of or above acter of His religion, but speculation needs religion Theology, (revelation) as its principle; in matters of conscience (the kernel of religion) man is conscious of himself not primarily as one who knows God but as one who is known of God. Human knowledge must remain in this dependence established by the conscience, and recognize that human powers will not avail to find the truth. Man can not place himself in the theocentric standpoint, for that would involve the denial of his qualities of a creature and a sinner. Regeneration and faith in revelation are prerequisites for a right insight into things both divine and human; faith is the condition of the entrance of the divine idea into the soul. Thus he rejected the autonomous standpoint of Kant and Schleiermacher on one side and of Hegel on the other. His system is more fully developed in his Christelige Dogmatik (Copenhagen, 1849), which Landerer calls " unquestionably the best reconstruction of ecclesiastical dogmatics from the standpoint of nineteenth-century knowledge." The peculiarity of his speculative position lies in his determined adherence to the teaching of Scripture and the Church. Scripture is to him at once the critical and the organic norm. His aim was not to discover or establish new doctrines, but to put new life into the old.
To the speculative element which is the most characteristic of his theology the mystic and theosophic were added in increasing measure as time went on. In his youth he had been a
4. Mystical diligent student of Eckart, on whom
and Theo- he wrote in 1840; but bis studies along sophic these lines bore their ripest and best
Elements, fruit in his Christelige Ethik (3 vols., 1871-78), throughout which he assumes an intimate acquaintance with mystical experiences in relations with God. The theosophic element appears later and more gradually. It is found in his Dogmatik, not so much in the discussion of the being of God as in the passages which deal with the participation of nature and the universe in the renovation and perfecting of the Spirit. Jesus Christ is the second Adam, whose coming has not only a spiritual and a moral significance, but also a deep cosmological one; miracles are an inchoate, if not a continuing transfiguration of nature; the sacraments are mysteries of nature, especially the Lord's Supper considered as nourishment for the future spiritual body. A still closer approximation to theosophical views is seen in the controversial treatise Vom Glauben und Wissen (1867), partly no doubt owing to Schelling's later philosophy which had in the mean time been published. His conception of the Deity reached its greatest fulness in his work on Jakob Bohme (1881). This work closes his strictly theological production, which forms an unusually harmonious whole, allowing his genius full development on all its sides. His works