35 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Tuckerman Tuebingen School
retained unbroken sway. The Church of Wiirttemberg had remained true to its Biblical trend, its essentially irenic position, and its
2. Doctrine desire to unite theological theory with of Storr. practical religion, traits which it owed specially to the influence of Johann
Brenz (q.v.). In the controversies of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the theologians of Tiibingen had stood by the Formula of Concord, without relinquishing their Biblical-practical point of view. Early in the eighteenth century the chancellor of the university, J. W. Jager (1702-20), in dependence on the method of Johannes Cocceius (q.v.), sought to introduce a system of greater vitality, and his efforts were carried still further by C .M. Pfaff (q.v.) and C. E. Weismann (q.v.), Pfaff tending toward the school of Georg Calixtus (q.v.), and Weismann toward that of Spener and J. A. Bengel (qq.v.). Nevertheless, neither the Bengel school nor the Wolffian philosophy could introduce a new phase of theology at Tiibingen, though the former imparted its quiet Biblical stimulus. Meanwhile, in the second half of the eighteenth century, the Enlightenment (q.v.) began to assail all positive Christianity. It thus became necessary to gain a point of view which should retain the inalienable elements of the old truths while changing their forms in adjustment with the new normative influences. Such was the task which Storr desired and sought to accomplish. Abandoning the orthodox substructure, he deemed it possible to lay a sure foundation for scientific theology and dogmatics on the sole authority of divine revelation as contained in the Bible, and attempted to derive the Christian truth from these sources through grammatical and historical exegesis and through systematic logic. He aimed first to prove] the authenticity and integrity of the New-Testament writings from historical evidences, and the credibility of the authors from their relation to the events reported, from their characteristic points of view to be identified in the writings, and from the inevitable controlling influence of partizans and opponents. These authenticated Scriptures afford as a result that upon Christ devolves, in the highest sense, the authority of a divine ambassador, which was substantiated by his perfect ethical thought and conduct, but particularly the divine miracles. From this authority follow in order, the truth of his doctrine, the authority of the apostles and the truth of their teaching, the inspiration of the apostolic writings, and, finally, the recognition and inspiration of the Old Testament, so far as the latter is attested by divinely accredited men. This position of Storr was distinguished from orthodoxy bv his substitution of the authority of Jesus and his apostles for the inspiration of the Scriptures, by making the Scripture the sole source, even the text-book, of Christian teaching, and by his derivation of not only ‘‘ human faith ” but indirectly also “ divine faith ”’ from empirical historical deduction, while in doubt about attributing the virtue of proof to the “‘ testimony of the Holy Spirit.” From the Enlightenment he differs sharply by the manner in which he employed historical and logical proofs in the service of the principle of authority. After the
establishment of the authority of Christ and the Bible, he needed no further internal proof of Christian truth from reason or experience. Claiming to deal also reasonably in receiving implicitly upon the attested authority of Scripture what reason is unable of itself to establish out of the nature of the case, Storr thus professes a merely formal principle of authority, the supernaturalism of the Christian truth, and a purely instrumental use of reason. This system was admirably carried out in his Annotationes theologice ad philosophicam Kantit de religione doctrinam (Tiibingen, 1793; Germ. transl., 1794), in which he maintained that he who refused to credit authorities that had shared the advantage of receiving special experiences, merely because their teachings could not be deduced from the principles of unaided reason, deserted the point of view of true criticism. Such testimonies, on the contrary, should be seriously considered, just so soon as their moral efficacy was firmly established. With respect to the latter, the Christian historical faith indubitably surpassed the pallid, blank belief of pure reason. Storr also employed Kant’s postulate of a necessary harmony between virtue and happiness to justify the New-Testament union of religion and morality.
For Storr there can be no occasion for the material influence of any philosophy whatsoever on the content of Christian doctrine. According to him, dogmatics and ethics had simply to combine the results of exegesis, but this was to result largely, as F. C. Baur pointed out, in an artificial congeries of passages from all parts of the Old and New Testaments, without regard to the genetic evolution of Biblical truth. For him there are no writings of the canon but only passages without discrimination of value, which is due to the fact that the principle of unity is not organic but formal authority. With reference to the doctrine of sin and grace, the result of his work seems to be a Semipelagian simplification and moderating of the dogma, satisfying
neither deep religious nor scientific in- 3. Criticism terest. Thus he debased faith from of Storr’s divinely prepared receptivity for re-
Doctrine; generating grace to an autonomous
Works. human moral relation, and regarded
the Holy Ghost as a mere factor to aid and complete human activity. On the atonement he based the remission of punishment only on the passive obedience of Christ, accepting unquestioningly the formal equivalence of the passion of Christ with the sins of the world, and deducing from the active obedience of the Savior (to which he was also bound for himself) only the positive results of his exaltation and the beatification of his brethren. In his Christology, Storr, professing to be in accord with orthodoxy on the deity of Christ, but avoiding the Communicatio idiomatum (q.v.), and thus losing hold of the true incarnation of the Logos, perhaps unconsciously approximated a Socinian view of the person of Christ (see Monar- CHIANISM; also Soctnus, Faustus, SocrnrAns). The dogmatic system of Storr is set forth especially in his last important work, Doctrine Christiane pars theoreticae sacris litteris repetita (1793; Germ. transl. enlarged by K. C. Flatt, Stuttgart, 1803), which
Tuebingen School Tulloch
long enjoyed official recognition in Wirttemberg. In exegesis he combated the accommodation hypothesis represented by J. S. Semler and A. Teller. His principal critical exegetical works are Neue Apologie der Offenbarung Johannis (Tubingen, 1783) ; Zweck der evangelischen Geschichte und der Briefe Johannis (1786), a keen and far-sighted study in relation with the Synoptic Gospels, by which, according to Baur, the critical study of the Fourth Gospel was much advanced; and Erlduterung an die Hebrder (1789), containing a treatment of the purpose of the death of Jesus.
The school of Storr, in the narrower sense, was composed of J. F. Flatt, F. 8. Siiskind, and K. C. Flatt, all his immediate pupils and successors, and
in part his colleagues in the theolog-
4. The ical faculty. Johann Friedrich Flatt School (b. at Tubingen Feb. 20, 1759; d. of Storr; there Nov. 24, 1821), educated at Tu-
J. F. Flatt. bingen, and appointed professor of
philosophy in 1785, was an enthusiastic Kantian. Transferred to the theological faculty in 1792, he lectured principally on Christian ethics, and, besides, on New-Testament exegesis, apologetics, and practical theology, and, for a brief period, 1798, on dogmatics. From 1796 he edited the Magazin ftir Dogmatik und Moral. The Vorlesungen tiber Christliche Moral was published (Tibingen, 1823), as were his lectures on the Pauline Epistles (1820 sqq.). ‘Theological contributions were, De deitate Christi (Géttingen, 1788), a prize treatise assigned by the University of Gottingen, at the direction of George II. of England; and Beitrdge zur christlichen Dogmatik und Moral (Tibingen, 1792).
Friedrich Gottlieb Siiskind (b. at Neustadt-onthe-Linde Feb. 17, 1767; d. at Stuttgart Nov. 12, 1829), educated at Tiibingen (1783-88), succeeded
Storr as professor of dogmatics (1798) ;
5. F.G. and in 1805 as chief court chaplain and
Siiskind; consistorial councilor at Stuttgart, K. C. Flatt. where he was appointed director of the
council for higher education in 1814. As a theologian he was enlisted in the solution of the basal problems of apologetics and dogmatics, by the application of philosophy and exegesis. He sharply opposed the contemporary philosophy of religion set forth by Kant, Fichte, and Schelling; and finally came somewhat into accord with the theology of Schleiermacher. He was preeminently the dialectician of the older Tiibingen school, but entirely lacking in the speculative power to grasp the organic unity from the point of view of a supreme idea. In his later official position his ‘“‘ categorical and dictatorial ’’ resoluteness often caused offense, especially as redactor of the unpopular Wiirttemberg liturgy of 1809, yet he was a man of the most rigid integrity, and far more stern to himself than to others. He was editor of Flatt’s Magazin (1803-12), in which many of his apologetic and polemic articles appeared. Karl Christian Flatt (b. at Stuttgart Aug. 18, 1772; d. Nov. 20, 1843), the younger brother of Johann Friedrich, was educated at Tiibingen, after which he traveled extensively in Germany, residing for some time at Gottingen. During this period he devoted himself to