THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
K. D. Ilgen (d. 1834), W F Hufnagel (d. 1830), and H. F- W Gesenius (q.v.); and in the New Testament, H. E. G. Paulus (q.v.). The influence of this exegesis upon the Evangelical view of history shows itself best in the Leben Jesu of D. F. Strauss (q.v.). Pauline theology had to undergo ethical correction in order to convert faith into fidelity to conviction and justification into spiritual integrity (Paulus). Individual rationalists began to employ mythical explanations (Wegscheider; J. P Gabler; q.v.). In this second period also rationalism was popularized from pulpit and books of instruction.
While rationalism prevailed in theological faculties and in learned literature, there were practical religious spirits that devoted them- 6. Reac- selves to the culture of a strict Bibtionary Heal Christianity; and there was no Supernat- total lack of intellectual efforts to deuralism. fend Biblical revelation and its supernatural character. Such a revelation was accepted by the critical supernaturalism relating itself to Kant; only, however, dependent upon subsequent verification in accordance with reason. Standing out more boldly was a Biblical supernaturalism in league with the Bengel school, advancing the authority of revelation. It proposed to establish the credibility of Scripture as a formal defense for its positive religious content. The result was a mixture of rational and authoritative judgments, whereas in proceeding to the verification of the content of religious truth only the latter would prevail. The best-known representative of this tendency was G. C. Storr (d. 1805), founder of the older Tubingen School (q.v.). In his Theologice Christiana (1807) historical proof is advanced for the first time that there are reliable accounts of Jesus in the New Testament. But Jesus himself authenticated his teaching by the claim of divine origin, and he vouched for this by his moral character and miracles. Upon his disciples he conferred the continuation of the office of teaching and promised them the enlightenment of the Holy Spirit. Paul has the same rank by his own witness and that of other apostles. Consequently, the New-Testament writings possess divine authority. As the New Testament witnesses to the content and canonical estimation of the Old, the entire Bible must be regarded as a book of divine authority, whose requirements are commands of God, and its precepts and accounts are true. After the leap from the human trustworthiness of Biblical authors to the divine truthfulness of the content of Scripture has been made, dogmatic theology is transformed into Biblical, in which dogmatic interests ever voice themselves. In increasing measure, to the formal supernaturalism of t his school is yoked a practical moralism adapted from Kant (E. G. Bengel; d. 1826). A less centralized group was formed by the representatives of supernaturalism outside of the Swabian group. F . V Reinhard (q.v.) discovered in loyalty to Scripture an escape from philosophical skepticism, though his uncertain dogmatics and his vague ethics formed an unwilling tribute to the Zeitgeist. A clarion call for the rallying of supernaturalism was made by Claus Harms (q.v.) in his
ninety-five theses at the third centennial anniversary of the Reformation (1817). August Hahn (q.v.) in his De raHonalismi vera indole
(1827) called attention to the unreserved naturalistic character of rationalism, whose devotees he read out of the Church. The only form of this period that attained to permanency was the Biblical supernaturalism. This is readily understood in part when it is remembered that there was no philosophical system upon which a theology, passing beyond Kant's moral theory, could venture as upon a foundation. The religious philosophy of F. H. Jacobi (d. 1819) indeed assured the right of religious conviction beside rational cosmic perception, but in basing itself upon an immediate divine revelation through a rational feeling it offered no more room for objective historical revelation than Kant's moral idealism itself.
Soon after the beginning of the nineteenth century attempts were made to harmonize the antithesis of rationalism and supernatural-
7. Com- ism, which resulted in the mixed forms promise and of supernatural rationalism and ra- Overthrow. tional supernaturalism, depending upon the change of emphasis. According to K. G. Bretschneider (q.v.), the former is a historical authentication of the pure religion of reason, and therefore concedes to revelation no influence upon the religious content; and the latter concedes to revelation a supplementation of rational knowledge, in so far as this is non-contradictory. These compounds in name merely serve as a sign of the dissolution of the antithesis. The progress of theology did not advance from these compromises. The problem was shifted to other ground as soon as it became apparent that the inteUectualistic formulation of religion and consequently of revelation was irrelevant. Rationalists and their opponents alike had taken for granted that religion originates from the acceptance of a certain sum of prescriptions and doctrines, and under this presupposition, it was a simple alternative whether this body of dogma or theology was natural or revealed. With the collapse of such a foundation, the controversy built thereon, if not entirely void, must at least assume another form. If religion, however, was a peculiar function of the personal life of the spirit essentially different from metaphysics and ethics, then the way was open to see revelation in a freer, more immediate, and personal character. With F. Schleiermacher's (q.v.) Reden (1799) a new view-point was entered which wielded a more comprehensive influence with the appearance of his Der christliche Glaube (1821). With the functions of cognition and practical activity there coordinated itself the realization in feeling of the immediate union of man and God. The revelation on which this union subsisted was not required to be in the form of final doctrine whether natural or supernatural in origin. Guided by the inwardly experienced attracting power of the divine, it was able to appropriate from reality immediately immanent, or accessible by way of history. Thus, the doctrinaire point of view held by rationalism and supernaturalism in common was overthrown. This departure was accelerated by the simultaneous appearance of