THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
I. History of the Development of the Science. Biblical Indications (§1). Early and Medieval Church (§ 2). In the Reformation and After (§ 3).
PRACTICAL THEOLOGY.
Protestant Development (§ 4). II. Theoretical Discussion. Basal Concepts (§1). Subdivisions (§ 2). Bouleutics (§3).
Classification (§ 4).
Relation to Non-theological Sciences
and Arts (§ 5). Final Tests (§ 6).
1. History of the Development of the Science:
The Christian Church engages in multifarious activities connected with its belief in Christ and characteristic of its life, these including missions, the edification of its members, the peri. Biblical formance of public worship, and the Indications, care of the poor and needy. All this, as at present discharged, is but a continuation of what the Church has done from the first. Immediately after the ascension, the disciples began to preach in order to win new believers (Acts ii. 36 sqq.); and those so won were baptized (Acts ii. 41) and " continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers " (Acts ii. 42). Similar development took place elsewhere (Rom. vi. 3; I Cor. xi. 20, xii. 13, 28; Gal. iii. 27); the gentile Christians received specific rules of conduct (Acts xv. 20); the sick were the objects of special religious rites (James v. 14-15); and the imposition of hands was used in ordination (Acts vi. 6, xiii. 3; I Tim. iv. 14, v. 22). The discharge of all these duties led to the emergence of special persons to perform them. Christ himself had chosen certain ones to continue his work (Matt, xxviii. 18-20), and the title of apostle, which he had given them (Luke vi. 13), could be conferred by the Christian community (Gal. i. 1), and might even be assumed falsely (II Cor. xi. 13; Rev. ii. 2). Other designations were also used; ruler (cf. Rom. xii. 8; Heb. xiii. 7, 17, 24), elder (Acts xi. 30, xiv. 23; James v. 14), bishop (Phil. i. 1), prophet (Acts xi. 27), teacher (Acts xiii. 1), evangelist (Acts xxi. 8), servant (Phil. i. 1). See Organization of the Early Church.
Before long, as may be seen from the Didache (q.v.), a system of regulation was evolved, both in ritual and legislation, although preaching, in particular, could not so strictly be out-
2. Early lined. The germs of practical theology and lay in all these things. From this came
Medieval Liturgies, Symbolics (qq.v.), Cateche- Church. tics (see Catbchesis, Catechetics), Homiletics (q.v.), and the rules governing the various orders of clergy, as well as ecclesiastical functions themselves; and to this same early period belong such efforts at practical theology as Chrysostom's De sacerdotio, Augustine's De doctrina Christiana, Ambrose's De officiis, and Gregory's Regula pastoralis. Medieval theology devoted most attention to liturgies, next to canon law, of those branches now considered parts of practical theology. This fact was due to problems arising in the life of the Church. Thus the need of instructing the clergy in their duties gave rise to the De ecclesiasticis officiis of Isidore of Seville, the De exordiis of Walafrid Strabo, and the De institutione clericorum of Rabanus Maurus. These and similar writings dis-
cussed, from the medieval point of view, themes which would now be regarded as parts of liturgies and pastoral theology, with an attempt to gain a historical foundation and explanation for the subjects treated. Homiletics, on the other hand, received comparatively scant attention, as contrasted with the discussions of liturgies by Rupert of Deutz, Honorius of Autun, Sicardus, and Durand; while the development of catechetics was prevented by the fact that medieval catechizing was restricted to the hearing of texts and the reading of authorized interpretations.
The fathers of the Reformation churches sought to establish and regulate, so far as possible, worship, feasts, administration, and the duties of clergy and congregation, this being exempli- 3. In the fied in such agenda as those of Bugen- Reforma- hagen, Brandenburg-Nuremberg, Pomtion and erania, and Electoral Palatinate (see After. Agenda). While the pastor, though not the only person concerned in the church, was yet the chief figure, his activity in its various aspects was the main theme of the agenda, and pastoral activity accordingly formed the center of practical theology. But it was not enough merely to lay down rules; the pastor must know what he did and why. Directions and theoretical bases must, therefore, be included, and these are found in the Brandenburg-Nuremberg agenda and similar early Reformation documents, which commingle subjects belonging to dogmatic, exegetical, historical, and practical theology, though all intended was to subserve correct ecclesiastical procedure. One side required still more profound discussion— preaching; and the agendas accordingly gave models for the preacher or referred him to recognized authorities. Side by side with the official agendas arose compends of all that the pastor must know, do, and claim, these being Protestant analogues to the Roman Institutio of Rabanus and the Manuale curatorum of Surgantius. Since in Luther the Lutherans saw the model of a pastor, and since he had devoted no special treatise to this matter, Porta, shortly after the Reformer's death, compiled from his writings a Pastorale Luiheri, similar productions being the Hirtenbuch of E. Sarcerius (1559), the Pastor of N. Hemming (1566), the Hirt of Zwingli (1525), the Pastorale of Lorich (1537), and the De cur a animarum of Butzer (1538). All these authors seek their basis in the Bible, and a similar course was pursued with rigidity by Andreas Hyperius (q.v.), who held that before practical theology can be put in force, it must be made a part of scientific theological study, and must be taught systematically, not fragmentarily. Demanding an immense amount of preliminary reading on the part of the student, covering all practical theology except missions, he held that such reading would in-