THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
College, to which it transferred its property in Dec, 1830. This society, however, which was later incorporated, still exists and holds property in trust for the divinity school. In 1869 the previous requirements for admission to the school were lowered to accommodate the students of the short-lived Boston School for the Ministry, but they were soon raised, and since 1899 no student has been admitted to the school who has not already received a degree in arts or its equivalent. No degree was conferred tor graduation in the school until 1870, and then only to those who passed special examinations, but since 1S75 there has been no graduation without this degree. Throughout its history the school has stood for the principles already quoted from its constitution; and it has maintained the impartial, critical, and scientific study of theology in its broadest sense. Among its best-known instructors have been the two Henry Wares, Andrews Norton, John G. Palfrey, George R. Noyes (q.v.), Ezra Abbot (q.v.), Charles Carroll Everett (q.v.), and Joseph Henry Thayer (q.v.). Although formally committed to non-sectarianism, the institution was for many years practically identified with Unitarian Congregationalism, since as a rule its graduates were welcomed by no other denomination; but in 1878, in connection with an appeal for increased endowment, the undenominational aspect of the school was emphasized anew, and at the present time its faculty contains three Trinitarian and three Unitarian Congregationalists, and one Baptist. In 1910 it had a faculty of eleven and a student attendance of fifty-one, sixteen of whom were graduates. In addition the institution has conducted, since 1899, a brief summer school, attended in 1909 by fifty-nine men and five women. The elective system is carried throughout the course, and the seminary students have the right to attend lectures in other departments of Harvard University, and in Andover Theological Seminary now located at Cambridge and affiliated with Harvard University. The special library of the school contains about 38,000 volumes and 11,000 pamphlets, besides which the general university library is also available.
Robert Swain Morison.
Bibliography: J. Quincy, History of Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 1840; The Harvard Book, Cambridge, 1875. pp. 197-211; G. G. Bush, History of Higher Education in Massachusetts, Washington, 1891, pp. 137-147.
THEOLOGY AS A SCIENCE.
I. History of the Idea.
Early Use and Meaning of the Term (§ 1). Development till Schleiermaeher (§ 2). Schleiermaeher, De Wette, and Strauss (§ 8). II. .Scientific Presentation. Relation to Religion (§ 1).
Christianity, Other Religions, the Individual (§ 2). Philosophy of Religion, Apologetics (§ 3). Lines of Advance (§ 4). III. British and American Theology. Three Divisions (§1). Tendencies in Dogmatics (§ 2).
I. History of the Idea: The name and even the notion of theology, to some extent, extends back into the scientific usage of the Greeks. In the Christian Church it appears first not in the New Testament but in the apologists. Taken over from Greek science it soon won features of its own.
In Aristotle's " Metaphysics " (VI., i. 19, cf. XI., vii. 15) there are distinguished three branches of theoretical philosophy — mathematical, i. Early physical, theological. In Clement of Use and Alexandria the expression " metaphys- Meaning ics " is identified with theology as conof the ceived by Aristotle (Strom, i. 28). Term. Aristotle appears to have thought of the doctrine of God as among the questions of fundamental philosophy: " The terms theologos, theologein (theologia) have in Aristotle the fixed meaning . of poetical (mythical) narratives of the gods (Gottersage), corresponding to the expressions mythologos, mythologia, mythologein (Natorp, in Philosophische Monatshefte, no. xxv., 1888); thus it was a prescientific stage of reflection concerning things. According to Natorp, the Stoa was the creator of the idea of a science of theology. With the theology of the poets came their philosophical (physical) interpretation as philosophical theology. Neoplatonism (q.v.), of importance for the theology of Christianity, was the first to impress the Platonic and Aristotelian philosophy upon theology. At the outset Neoplatonism developed a view of the world on the foundation of religious notions in philosophical form and with philosophical methods. Before Scholasticism (q.v.), however, there were only side movements ruled by Neoplatonism. It was common even into the fifth century to designate the ancient poets (Orpheus, Hesiod, Musa?us, Homer) as theologians. Athenagoras distinguishes between a " worldly " and a " theological " wisdom (Suppl., x.). For Clement of Alexandria the " philosophy which really is philosophy " is identical with " true theology " (Strom., v. 9). Augustine speaks of a " natural theology," i.e., especially in distinction from mythology (City of God, viii. 1, Eng. transl., NPNF, 1 ser., ii. 144). For Christian reflection, the men of the Bible took the place of the " poets " and assumed the role of " theologians." To Philo, Moses was the theologian par excellence. How early and in what respect John became specifically the " theologian " is not certain (cf. G. A. Deissmann, Lichl von Osten, pp. 252-253, Tubingen, 1908). The ancient Church's allegorical science of the Bible influenced by Philo belongs with the ancient (Stoic) myths which the theologians of an earlier time used. The theology of the philosophers became the foundation of the apologists. Whether the apologists or the Gnostics are to be regarded as the creators of a peculiar Christian theology may be left undecided.
Harnack with justice repeatedly indicates (cf. Dogmengeschichte, 123 sqq., Freiburg, 1898, Eng. transl. of earlier ed., vol. i., Boston, 1805) that the establishing of a specific religious doctrine is a singular and at bottom a surprising act of the Christian community. This is ultimately con- 2. Develop- nected with the influence of Paul. For ment till !t was this apostle who necessarily had Schleier- theories in order to render the Gospel macher. intelligible and who in particular had to create a Christology. By an inner necessity piety was impelled to fashion a view of the world which corresponded to itself. Here the