RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Vinet
his selfishness. Thus man becomes master of himself in proportion as he devotes himself to his fellows, is the more free the more social he is, receives more as he demands less, and is more himself the less he belongs to himself.”’ Thus the individual and society grow in unison, attaining mutual perfection in the fulfilment and the service of duty. Applying this doctrine of individualism to the Church, Vinet became an advocate of the separation of Church and State, the step urged in the only two of his works which do not bear the mark of collected essays. Here he maintained that religion is an affair between God and man alone, while the State should have sole control of social morals, which comprize security of person and property and public decency. In 1831 Vinet was still a true son of the national Church, but by the time of the publication of his Hssai sur la manifestation, etc., ut sup. (1842), his attitude had changed. The tenets set forth in his first essay of 1826 are here carried still further, with special attack upon the theory that the State is the entireman. Vinet maintained, on the contrary, that the State is based on identical traits common to all, while the foundation of the Church is human individuality of conscience. Individuality being thus considered a part of the inmost essence of Christianity, Vinet deemed the union of Church and State as heresy, and allowed validity only to a church independent of the State. A theological system he never evolved, though from him proceeded great ideas destined to bring forth fruit both for theology and for the Church. Thus he became a sort of second Pascal, and there is, therefore, little cause for surprise that Vinet’s posthumous Etudes sur Blaise Pascal (Paris, 1848; Eng. transl., Studies on Pascal, Edinburgh, 1859) should be the best study yet written on that philosopher. In his apologetics he laid stress on the way in which the Gospel perfectly answers the needs of the heart. He was firmly convinced, moreover, that the most efficacious apologetic is psychological. But the psychological method of apologetics was the weakness, as well as the strength, of Vinet; for though history does not make faith, the neglect of historical factors leads to the peril of subjectivity and ultimately to rationalism. Vinet has even been termed a rationalist, but, in spite of occasional phrases in his letters and in his conversation, he was no’ skeptic. Had his attitude toward the Bible been clearer, the charge of rationalism might more easily be refuted. Lack of precision is characteristic of his apologetics and of his theology in general, but the reality which he ascribes, in all his writings, to the fall and to original sin, as well as to the great facts of salvation and the miracles, is alone sufficient to prevent rationalists or modern “ liberals ’’ from claiming him as one of their number. The entire character of his works demonstrates with equal clearness that he presupposed as absolutely necessary the facts of revelation. Christianity was for him primarily a history and a fact, which it must have been to gain currency.
The sole works of Vinet on practical theology were posthumous. His Théologie pastorale (Paris, 1850; Eng. transl., Edinburgh, 1852) is especially valuable for its rich utilization of French Roman
Catholic literature. Here he denies any priestly character to the clergy, terms preaching a work of love and a mystery, and regards re- Homiletic ligious instruction as an act of worship. and Other In his Homilétique ou théorie de la pré- Works. dication (Paris, 1853; Eng. transl., Homiletics, Edinburgh and New York, 1853, new ed. 1880; often republished, since it was long a text-book in theological seminaries in the United States of America), he shows himself relatively indifferent to his text, deciding upon the themes of his sermons before choosing their texts. Both theoretically and practically he regarded almost exclusively the synthetic sermon, and sharply reproved any neglect of artistic embellishment. In citations he especially affected German writers on the theory of homiletics and the French preachers, whose works he had studied exhaustively. The results of these latter studies are embodied in his third work on practical theology, Histoire de la prédication parmi les Réformés de France au dix-septiéme siecle (Paris, 1860), a publication of great value. The strength of Vinet’s own sermons lies in their masterly control of the psychological method; their weakness in their neglect of Biblical foundation. Of Vinet’s five homiletic volumes only one was based on sermons actually delivered by him, the remainder containing, for the most part, apologetic or ethical studies in rhetorical form, presented to a relatively small circle of students. The inner life of Vinet is clearly mirrored in his poems, a large number of which have justly been incorporated in French Protestant hymnals. In addition to the works already mentioned, Vinet was the author of the following: Chrestomathie francaise, ou choix de morceaux tirés des meilleurs écrivains francais (3 vols., Basel, 1829-30); Htudes évangéliques (Paris, 1847; Eng. transl., Gospel Studies, Glasgow, 1849); Méditations évangéliques (1849; Eng. transl., Evangelical Meditations, Edinburgh, 1858); Etudes sur la littérature francaise au dix-neuvieme siécle (3 vols., 1849-51); Nouvelles études évangéliques (1851); Histoire de la littérature frangaise au dix-huitiéme siecle (2 vols., 1853; Eng. transl., Hist. of French Literature in the 18th Century, Edinburgh, 1854); Liberté religieuse et questions ecclésiastiques (1854); L’ Education, la famille et la société (1855); Moralistes des seizi¢me et dix-septiéme siécles (1859); Poétes du siécle de Louis XIV. (1861); Mélanges (1869); and Lettres (2 vols., Lausanne, 1880). (Arnotp Rinaet.) BisriocRapHy: Biographical sketches are by E. Scherer, Paris, 1853; E. Rambert, 3d ed., 2 vols., Lausanne, 1876; Laura M. Lane, New York, 1890; E. de Pressensé, Paris, 1890, cf. his Contemporary Portraits, London, 1879; H. Lecoultre, Paris, 1892. On Vinet’s activities and thought consult: F. J. Stahl, Kirchenverfassung nach Lehre und Recht der Protestanten, pp. 279 sqq., Erlangen, 1840; F. Chavannes, A. Vinet, notice et mémoires, Paris, 1847; idem, A. Vinet . . . comme apologiste et moraliste chrétien, Leyden, 1883; J. F. Astié, Esprit d’A. Vinet, 2 vols., Lausanne, 1861; idem, Le Vinet de la légende et celui de l’hist., ib. 1882; A. F. Langlois, A. Vinet considéré comme predicateur, Strasburg, 1864; J. Widmer, A. Vinet envisagé comme apologiste, Lausanne, 1875; J. Cramer, A. Vinet, moralist et apologiste chrétien, Lausanne, 1884; L. Molines, Etudes sur A. Vinet, Paris, 1890; J. B. Roy, L’Individu et la société d’aprés les . . . owvrages d’A. Vinet, Lausanne, 1893; V. Rivet, Htude sur les origines de la pensée religueuse de Vinet, Paris, 1896; E. Combe, Vinet inter-
Vinson Virgin Birth