A Brighter Day Begins with His Word.

New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge • VOLUME 10

THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG

['Herzog, J. J. (Johann Jakob), 1805-1882', 'Schaff, Philip, 1819-1893', 'Hauck, Albert, 1845-1918', 'Jackson, Samuel Macauley, 1851-1912', 'Sherman, Charles Colebrook, 1860-1927', 'Gilmore, George W. (George William), 1858-1933'] • Public-domain historical edition in the United States (published 1908); OCR from Internet Archive scan

THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG

The Monologen reveal the development of Schleiermacher's distinctive ethical theories. Kantian influence is much diminished here, 4. The and the " Monologues " form a hymn " Mono- to higher humanity, whose elements logues " ; are set forth as purity of will, superi- Stolpe ority over fate, individual training, Period. and devotion to mankind. During his two years' residence in Stolpe Schleiermacher had ample opportunity to practise the superiority over fate which he preached, and this period of relative isolation and deprivation of books was not lost in his development, especially as it was favorable to the translation of Plato which he had begun in Berlin; the first volume appeared in 1804, a year later than his Grundlinien einer Kritik der bisherigen Sittenlchre. This latter work supplements the ethical theory of the " Monologues " by establishing for the first time the triple division of ethics into the theories of duty, virtue, and good by the coordination of these classes, thus affording a glimpse of the distinctive foundation of Schleiermacher's ethics. At this period in his Zwei unvorgreiflichen Gutachten in Sachen des protestantischen Kirchenwesens zundchst in Beziehung auf den preussischen Staat, he advocated a closer union between Lutherans and Reformed, a freer form of worship, and an educational and social improvement of the clergy.

In 1804 the government refused to sanction his call to the projected Protestant theological faculty of Wiirzburg, and appointed him instead to Halle as extraordinary professor, where he lec- 5. At Halle ; tured on New-Testament exegesis, Call to philosophical and theological ethics, Berlin. introduction to theology, introduction to church history, and dogmatics. In 1806 he became full professor and university preacher. During this Halle period Schleiermacher published, besides two more volumes of his translation of Plato, his Weihnachtsfeier (1805) and his treatise on I Tim. in the form of a letter to Joachim Christian Gass (q.v.). The former treatise is a dialogue on the signification of Christ and his work of redemption. In the treatise on I Tim. Schleiermacher seeks to prove that the epistle is a compilation from the other two pastoral epistles, and the discussion opened the way to a strict study of the pastoral epistles. Meanwhile the fall of Jena and Napoleon's hatred of the German spirit of Halle had caused the suspension of lectures there. Schleiermacher seized the opportunity by his sermons to link the spirit of patriotism and the life of the Church. In the winter of 1807, however, he went to Berlin, where he had already lectured on Greek philosophy. Here, at the newly founded university, Schleiermacher lectured after Jan., 1808, on ethics and theological encyclopedia, and in the winter of 1808-09 on dogmatics and politics. His Gelegentliche Gedanken tiber Universitdten im deutschen Sinn (1808) gives his views on the functions of the university. In the spring of 1809 he became preacher at the Dreifaltigkeitskirche in Berlin, and in 1809-10 also lectured on Christian ethics and hermeneutics. When, in the autumn of 1X10, the University of Berlin was formally opened, Schleiermacher became the first

dean of the theological faculty. From 1810 to 1814 he was also a member of the department of public instruction in the ministry of the interior.

To the period here under consideration belongs

what may be termed Schleiermacher's theological

program — the Kurze Darstellung des theologischen

Studiums (1811). According to this

6. Inci- theology is a positive science, being dental directed to the solution of a practical

Activities, problem. The real soul of theology is

181 1-32. its interest in Christianity as it lives in the Church, and the theologian's ideal is the union of this living interest with the widest scientific spirit. Schleiermacher divides the domain of theological knowledge into philosophical, historical, and practical. The first, as apologetics, gives the basis of piety and Christianity, and the special characteristics of Protestantism; while as polemics it is directed against such internal evils as indifferentism and separatism. Historical theology he divides into exegesis, church history, dogmatics, and statistics. The new element in this system is the incorporation of dogmatics and ethics in the historical department, a result of Schleiermacher's view that dogma in itself is not knowledge. His new science of statistics seems only now to be receiving the attention which it deserves. This troubled period was a time of stress for Schleiermacher. In the matter of union of the Lutheran and Reformed churches he, not without good reason, mistrusted the practicability of the government's scheme of organization. Although the union of 1817 was forced on the churches instead of being an expression of their spontaneous religious convictions, he supported such union, and maintained this position through the period of controversy that ensued. One of these disputes evoked his Ueber den eigentilmlichen Wert und das bindende Aufsehen symbolischer Bucher, in which he limited the authority of the creeds to those expressions of the Protestant spirit which set forth the religious experience of the period of the Reformation and separated Protestantism from other systems of belief. The controversies of these years, combined with his teaching, left him scant leisure for writing. Nevertheless, he published a third volume of sermons in 1814, and in 1817 his Kritischer Versuch iiber die Schriften des Lukas, in which he traced the tradition of the Gospels to the primitive Christian community and maintained that it developed through oral transmission and fragmentary notes to the form of definite compilation. In 1832 he returned to the problem, and in his Ueber die Zeugnisse des Papias von unsern beiden ersten Evangelien was the first to suggest that the Gospel of Matthew is a collection of apothegms.

Since 1819 Schleiermacher's energy had been devoted to the preparation of his Christlichcr Glaube nach den Grundsdtzen der evangelischen Kirchc im Zusammenhavg dargestellt (1821-22). The introduction to this work seeks to determine the place occupied by Christian piety in the spiritual life of society and to fix the scientific formulation appropriate to its articles of belief. Ethics must determine the concept of the Church, the philosophy of religion the grades and varieties of religion, and

Historical source record →