THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
agnosticism (cf. H. Spencer, First Principles, ib. 1884; T. Huxley, Science and Culture, ib. 1881), and in yet others, where it has not relieved Christianity of all its supernatural elements, thus reducing it to pure theism, it has set it in a wider natural order and interpreted that order no longer as simply mechanical but also as teleological. Perhaps it has influenced apologetics more profoundly than any other branch of theological inquiry, whether the point of view be conservative or liberal (see Apologetics). The traditional dualism of natural and supernatural is indeed in some quarters still maintained; where, however, the divine immanence is seriously held, the line between the natural and the supernatural is disappearing, and the supernatural is the natural viewed from its causal ground or its teleological import. Thus the supernatural is reinstated not as anomalous and shrouded in mystery, but as ultimate source and final end of the rational order (see Polemics and Theology, the end).
C. A. Beckwith.
Bibliography: J. Tulloch, Rational Theology and Christian Philosophy in England in the 17th Century, 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1872; L. Stephen, Hist, of Eng. Thought in the 18th Century, 2 vols., New York, 1881 ; K. F. Staudlin, Geschichte des Rationalismus und Supranaturalismus, Gottingen, 1S26; E. B. Pusey, Probable Causes of the Rationalist Character lately Predominant in the Theology of Germany, London, 1828; A. Saintes, Hist, critique du rationalisme en Allemagne, Paris, 1841, Eng. transl., Critical Hist, of Rationalism in Germany, London, 1849; F. A. G. Tholuck, V orgeschichte des Rationalismus, 4 vols., Berlin, 1853-62; idem, Geschichte des Rationalismus, vol. i., ib. 1865; A. de Gasparin, The Schools of Doubt and the School of Faith, Edinburgh, 1854; G. Smith, Rational Religion, London, 1861; A. F. Arbousse-Bastide, Christianisme et Vesprit moderne, Paris, 1862; A. S. Farrar, Critical Hist, of Free Thought, London, 1862; W. Howitt, The Hist, of the Supernatural in all Ages and Nations, 2 vols., Philadelphia, 1863; K. R. Hagenbach, German Rationalism in its Rise, Progress, and Decline, Edinburgh, 1865; W. E. H. Lecky, Hist, of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, 2 vols., new ed., London, 1867; G. P. Fisher, Faith and Rationalism, New York, 1S79; J. Cairns, Unbelief in the Eighteenth Century, London, 1881; J. Cook, Scepticism and Rationalism, ib. 1881; H. Coke, Creeds of the Day, 2 vols., ib. 1883; H. Heussler, Der Rationalismus des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts, Breslau, 1885; E. Costanzi, II Razionalismo e la Ragione storica, Rome, 1888; C. M. Mead, Supernatural Revelation, London, 1890; C. Brun, Rationalismen i dens historiske Sammenhceng med del attende Aarhundredes Oplysning, Christiania, 1891; O. Pfleiderer, Geschichte der protestantischen Theologie seit Kant, Berlin, 1891; F. TJtopy, Le Rationalisme philosophique et religieux, Paris, 1891; F. V A. Aulard, Culte de la raison, Paris, 1892; J. H. King, The Supernatural: its Origin, Nature, and Evolution, 2 vols., London and New York, 1892; W. H. Mallock, Studies of Contemporary Superstition, London, 1895; K. Fischer. Geschichte der neueren Philosophic vols, iii. vii., 10 vols., Heidelberg, 1897-1903; J. M. Robertson, Studies in Religious Fallacy, London, 1900; idem, Short Hist, of Free Thought, 2d ed., 2 vols., ib. 1906; A.J. Balfour, Foundations of Belief, 8th ed., London, 1901; G. Forester, The Faith of an Agnostic; or, first Essays in Rationalism, London, 1902; J. F. Hurst, Hist, of Rationalism, revised ed., New York, 1902; C. E. Plumptre, On the Progress of Liberty of Thought during Queen Victoria's Reign, London, 1902; G. Henslow, Present Day Rationalism, ib. 1904; C. Watts, The Meaning of Rationalism, ib. 1905; A. \V. Benn, Rationalism in the Nineteenth Century, 2 vols., ib. 1906, J. M. Robertson, A Short History of Free Thought, Ancient and Modern, 2 vols., 2d ed., New York, 1906; F. Podmore, The Naturalisation of the Supernatural, London, 1908, C. F. D'Arcy, Christianity and the Supernatural, ib. 1909; the works on the hist, of philosophy by J. E. Erdmann, New York, 1893, W Windelband, vol. iii., London, 1898, and F. Ueberweg, nil. Heinze,
vols, iii.— iv., Berlin, 1901-02. Related literature will be found under Agnosticism; Atheism; Deism; Enlightenment; Materialism, etc.
RATRAMNUS, ra"tram'nus (RATHRAMHUS) : Monk of Corbie and one of the most important theological authors of the ninth century; d. after 868. Of his life almost nothing is known, even his writings containing no biographical material; and the date of his birth, like that of his pro- Life. fession, can not be ascertained. He was deeply versed in Biblical and patristic learning, and theologically was a disciple of Augustine. He took part in all the theological controversies of his period, and his opinion was frequently sought by Charles the Bald, while his bishop delegated him to refute the attacks of the Patriarch Photius on the Roman Catholic Church. It is also evident that he was warmly admired by Gottschalk (MPL, cxxi. 367-368).
The chief work of Ratramnus was the De corpore et sanguine Domini liber, written at the request of Charles the Bald, probably after Paschasius Radbertus (see Radbehtus, Paschasius) had sent him his treatise on the same theme. In this Doctrine work Ratramnus maintained that the of the eucharistic elements are not the actual Eucharist, body and blood of the Christ of history, but are mystic symbols of remembrance. He might, therefore, be regarded as a symbolist, seeing in the Eucharist a sacrificial meal, the efficacy of which depends on the intensity with which the recipient realizes the redeeming passion of Christ. This does not, however, completely express his position, for he maintained at the same time that " according to the invisible substance, i.e., the power of the divine Word, the body and blood of Christ are truly present " (.cap. xlix.). This shows that Ratramnus was more than a symbolist, and that he believed in a real presence which was received by the faithful through the spirit of God. His eucharistic doctrine is elucidated by his teaching on baptism. Baptismal regeneration is not due to the water in itself, but to the Holy Ghost who enters it at the priestly consecration. Both in baptism and in the Eucharist, then, a mutable and transitory element perceptible to the senses coexists with an immutable and eternal element which faith alone can grasp. This distinction between external and internal runs, with slight inconsistencies, through the entire presentation of Ratramnus, the concomitance of the two constituting the divine mystery. The change of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ for those who receive in faith is defined by Ratramnus as due to the sanctification of the Holy Ghost invisibly contained in the sacraments, or as the spiritual power of the Word immanent in the material substances (" Word " here seeming to mean the words of institution as spoken by the priest at the consecration of the elements rather than the Scriptures in general or the Logos). It would furthermore appear that he held that the Eucharist is the visible vehicle of invisible grace, and that in the sacrament the power of God, under its material veil, secretly works the salvation to which the Eucharist testifies. The eucharistic teaching of Ratramnus thus approximated