RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Neale Neander
While some of Neander's productions are awkward and lack polish, others are so powerful and impressive, so devout and sincere, and so highly imaginative that they secured an honorable place among spiritual songs. Neander proved himself also a true musician, for of the melodies to his hymns nineteen originated with him. (E. Simons.)
Bibliography: J. H. Reitz, Historie der Wiedergeborenen, iv. 44-57, Itzstein, 1717; M. Gobel, Geschichte des christlichen Lebens in der rheinisch-westfalischen Kirche, ii. 322— 358, Coblenz, 1849; C. Winkworth, The Christian Singers of Germany, London, 1869; W. Nelle, Joachim Neander, der Didder der Bundeslieder und Dankpsalmen, Hamburg, 1903; Julian, Hymnology, pp. 790-792; ADB, vol. xxiii.
NEANDER, JOHANN AUGUST WILHELM.
Career (§ 1). Conception of Church His-
Works (§ 2). tory and Methods (§ 4).
Place in Church History Defect as a Historian (§5). (§ 3). Personal Characteristics (§ 6).
Johann August Wilhelm Neander was born at Gottingen Jan. 17, 1789; d. at Berlin July 14, 1850. He was of Hebrew descent, bearing the name of David Mendel before his conversion to Christianity; and through his mother he was related to the philosopher Mendelssohn. Soon after his i. Career, birth he was taken by his mother, who had been separated from her husband, to Hamburg, which in subsequent years he regarded as his home. He was educated by the help of friends, especially the councilor Stieglitz. At the gymnasium at Hamburg he was especially interested in the study of Plato, which prepared him for the acceptance of Christianity. But that which determined him most strongly in its favor was Schleiermacher's Reden iiber die Religion. On Feb. 15, 1806, David Mendel was baptized, in the Church of St. Catharine at Hamburg, under the name of Neander (New-man). The state of his mind was pictured in an essay he wrote before his baptism, which was an attempt to describe the various stages of religious development; and it was apparent that he regarded Christianity from an ideal standpoint, rather than as the absolute truth. Until the spring of 1806 he had been intending to study law, and left Hamburg with this in view. He went to the University of Halle, where he came especially under the influence of Schleiermacher (q.v.); but he was compelled, by the commotions of war, to exchange for Gottingen, where Gottlieb Jacob Planck (q.v.) was then teaching. On his return to the university from a visit to Hamburg, in the fall of 1807, he substituted for Schleiermacher, Friedrich Schelling and Johann Fiehte (qq.v.) the New Testament and the Church Fathers. A few months afterward, he laid a confession before his friends, binding himself to the study of church history, and praying the Lord to preserve him from errors. In the spring of 1809 he returned to Hamburg, where he taught for eighteen months, preached from time to time, and continued with great zeal the study of church history. In 181 1 he habilitated at Heidelberg with the dissertation, De fidei gnoseosque Christiana idea et ea, qua ad se invicem atque ad philosophiam referantur, ratione secundum mentem dementis Alexandrini. In 1812 he was made professor extraordinary at the university, and the same year issued the first of his monographs, Ueber den Kaiser Julianus
und sein Zeitalter (Hamburg, 1812; Eng. transl., Julian the Apostate, New York, 1850). In 1813 he was called to Berlin to labor at the side of Schleiermacher, Wilhelm De Wette, and Philip Marheineke (qq.v.) where he lectured on church history and the exegesis of the New Testament with great success and continued his literary labors.
Neander published : Der heilige Bernhard und sein Zeitalter (Berlin, 1813); Die genetische Entwickelung der vornehmsten gnostischeii Systeme (1818); Der heilige Johann Chrysostomus und die Kirche besonders des Orients in dessen Zeitalter (1821-22) ; 2. Works. Denkwilrdigkeiten aus der Geschichte des Christenthums und des christlichen Lebens (1822-24) ; and Antignosticus, Geist des Tertullianus und Einleitung in dessen Schriften (1826). All these monographs were a preparation for the main work of his life, Allgemeine Geschichte der christlichen Religion und Kirche (6 vols, in 11, Hamburg, 1825-52; 4th ed., Gotha, 1863-65; Eng. transl., J. Torrey, General History of the Christian Religion and Church, 5 vols., and Index [by Mary Cutler Torrey], new ed., New York, 1882). This work comes down to the martyrdom of Jerome of Prag. Die Geschichte der Pflanzung und Leitung der christlichen Kirche durch die Apostel (1832; Eng. transl., J. E. Ryland, History of the Planting and Training of the Christian Church by the Apostles, Edinburgh, 1842; revised by E. G. Robinson, New York, 1865) is an independent introduction to the history. The controversy evoked by the Life of Jesus Christ by Strauss led him to write Das Leben Jesu Christi in seinem geschichtlichen Zusammenhang (1837; 7th ed., Gotha, 1873; Eng. transl., J. McClintock and C. E. Blumenthal, The Life of Jesus Christ, New York, 1848), pronounced the best answer offered to Strauss' work. He also wrote commentaries on Philippians (Berlin, 1849; Eng. transl., New York, 1851), James (1850; Eng. transl., 1859), and I John (1851; Lng. transl., 1852). Other activities were his lectures on systematic theology and, after Schleiermacher's death, on ethics which appeared after his death in Dogmengeschichte (Berlin, 1857), Katholizismus und Protestantismus (1863), and Geschichte der christlichen Ethik (1864).
In order to appreciate the position of Neander as a church historian it is necessary to take into consideration the views which had, up to this time, prevailed among church historians. The most important church historian of that time 3. Place in was Planck, and he belonged to the Church so-called pragmatic school. It must History, not be forgotten, however, that higher conceptions of church history had begun to be expressed by Schelling, Marheineke, and Johann Gieseler (q.v.). The pragmatic school only looked at Christianity as a system of doctrine and not as a historical development. In its interest in individuals and their thinking and plans as the only causes of changes, it lost sight of objective forces. Of higher causes it knew nothing. It substituted for the fulness of a living development, its poor shallow conception of Christianity. Instead of dealing with events or a revelation of the fulness of Christ's life, church history was turned into a picture gallery representing human follies and errors,
Neander Nectarius