RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Wolff
for popularizing and teaching. It gave to the German “Enlightenment” its scientific independence. The disciples of Wolff not only repeated the principles of their master, but applied them more exactly ‘ to special departments of science. In His Philos- jurisprudence, in philology, and even ophy and in medicine there arose scholars who Theology tried to give their science a greater Victorious. stability by employing the “scientific” method of Wolff. Representatives of German culture, like Gottsched, transmitted his influence to larger circles of educated people. Among the disciples of Wolff must be mentioned especially Alexander Gottlieb Baumgarten (d. 1762), who supplemented the system at an important point and anticipated its further development. Like Leibnitz, Wolff had separated the lower sensual and the higher intellectual knowledge, but in his logic he represented only the latter. Baumgarten treated in his #sthetica the doctrine of sensual knowledge as esthetics. The philosophy of Wolff was of course not without its opponents, especially among the theologians, among the orthodox as well as among the Pietists. The orthodox, it is true, also combined theology and philosophy in an intellectualistic way, but so that philosophy served theology; philosophy in its independence seemed to them not only against the rule of theology, but also against religion and revelation. The Pietists, on the other hand, were offended by the intellectualism of the followers of Wolff as well as of the orthodox. The spokesman of Pietistic polemics was Joachim Lange (q.v:), the principal defender of orthodoxy was Valentin Ernst Loéscher (q.v.); but the opponents of Wolff were either representatives of a vanishing period of thought or precursors of a later culture that possessed no influence, and Wolff gained the victory. The theologians of his school developed the thoughts of their master by applying his method to the Bible and revelation. In conformity with the later orthodoxy they conceded to natural theology an increasing influence in the dogmatic system. Owing to the expansion of intellectualism, the independent position of revelation still asserted by Wolff proved impossible; it was gradually supplanted by the rationalistic element. The history of the Wolffian school of theology became the history of the dissolution of the orthodox system; it was in every respect a theology of transition. Far more positive is its practical importance for Church and Christianity as it secured for undogmatic piety, which had arisen since the stagnation of orthodoxy and the influence of Pietism, a solid background of ideas and conceptions. Protestant apologetics owed to it a good deal of its first bloom. It provided for the transition from Pietism as well as from orthodoxy to the period of “Enlightenment”? without the sacrifice of the universal character of Christianity. (H. SrepHavy.) BrstiocRAPHY: On the life consult: F.C. Baumeister, Vita, fata et scripta Wolfii, Leipsic, 1739; J. C. Gottsched, Historische Lobschrift auf Christian Fretherr von Wolf, Halle, 1755; F. W. Kluge, Christian von Wolff, der Philosoph, Breslau, 1831; Briefwechsel zwischen Leibniz und Christian Wolff, ed. C J. Gerhardt, Halle, 1860; B. Erdmann, M. Knutzen und seine Zeit, Leipsic, 1876; J. Cesar, Christian Wolff in Marburg, Marburg, 1879; ADB, xliv. 12-28. On his philosophy and theology consult: J. F. Buddeus, Bedenken ‘iiber die wolffische Philosophie, Freiburg, 1724;
L. P. Thiimmig, Institutiones philosophiea Wolffiane, 2 vols., Leipsic, 1725-26; I. G. Canz, Philosophie Leibnitziane et Wolffiane usus in theologia, ib. 1728-34; K. G. Ludovici, Ausfiihrlicher Entwurf einer vollstindigen Historie der wolffischen Philosophie, 3 vols., ib. 1736-38; idem, Sammlung und Ausziige der simmtlichen Streitschriften wegen der wolffischen Philosophie, 2 parts, ib. 1737; idem, Neueste Merkwiirdigkeiten der leibnitz-wolffischen Philosophie, ib. 1738; G. V. Hartmann, Anleitung zur Historie der leibnitz-wolffischen Philosophie, Hof, Bavaria, 1737; J. J. Koethen, Principia quedam metaphysicea Wolfiane, Cologne, 1737; J. G. Darjes, Anmerkungen iiber einige Lehrsitze der wolffischen Metaphysik, Leipsic, 1748; J. M. Schréckh, Christliche Kirchengeschichte seit der Reformation, vi. 100 sqq., viii. 26 sqq. (the whole series, 45 vols.), ib. 1768-1812; J. C. Schwab, Vergleichung des kantischen Moralprincips mit dem letbnitzisch-wolffischen, Berlin, 1800; W. Gass, Geschichte der protestantischen Dogmatik, li. 160 sqq., 4 vols., ib. 1854-67; G. W. Frank, Geschichte der protestantischen Theologte, ii. 384 sqq., 4 vols., Leipsic, 1862-1905; E. Zeller, Geschichte der deutschen Philosophie seit Leibniz, Munich, 1873; R. Frank, Die wolff’ sche Strafrechtsphilosophie, Gottingen, 1887; G. Kraus, Christian Wolff als Botaniker, Halle, 1892; W. Arnsperger, Christian Wolff's Verhdltnis zu Leibniz, Weimar, 1897; O. Willareth, Die Lehre vom Uebel bei Leibniz und seiner Schule, Strasburg, 1898; K. Fischer, Geschichte der neweren Philosophie, iii. 627-638, Heidelberg, 1902; J. Reinhard, Die Prinzipienlehre der lutherischen Dogmatik 1700-50, Leipsic, 1906; E. Weber, Die philosophische Scholastik des deutschen Protestantismus im Zeitalter der Orthodozxie, ib. 1907; H. Pichler, Ueber Christian Wolffs Ontologie, ib. 1900; the works on the history of philosophy by W. Windelband, New York, 1893; J. E. Erdmann, 3 vols., London, 1892-98; Ueberweg-Heinze, 9th ed., Berlin, 1905.
WOLFF, JOSEPH: Missionary and traveler; b. of Jewish parentage, at Weilersbach, near Bamberg, Germany, 1795; d. at Isle Brewers (35 m. s.w. of Bristol), England, May 2, 1862. His father was a rabbi, and he was sent to a Protestant lyceum at Stuttgart, and later to Bamberg. He left home, and was converted to Christianity, being baptized in 1812, when he took the Christian name of Joseph, his single name, Wolff, becoming his surname. In 1814 he attended theological lectures at Vienna and studied oriental languages, and was at Tubingen 1815-16, in the same pursuit. He went to Rome in 1816, where he was a pupil in the Collegium Romanum and the Collegio di Propaganda, but was expelled from the city in 1818 for attacking the doctrine of infallibility and the teaching of the professors. He entered the monastery of the Redemptionists at Val Sainte, but in 1819 went to England, and joined the Church of England. He studied for two years oriental languages at Cambridge; went out as missionary to the Jews, 1821- 1826, traveling extensively in the East; again, 1828-34, he was traveling in search of the ten lost tribes, going through Palestine, Turkey, Egypt, Central Asia, and India; his third journey of 1836— 1838 took him to Abyssinia, Yemen, and Bombay, and then to the United States. He was ordained deacon, 1837, and priest, 1838, when he became rector at Linthwaite, and later at High Hoyland, Yorkshire. In 1843 he made a daring journey to Bokhara, to learn the fate of two British officers, and barely escaped death himself; on returning, 1845, he became vicar of Isle Brewers in Somerset, where he remained till his death. He has been justly styled ‘‘a comet in the missionary heaven.” His journeys were essentially missionary in their character, and full of peril and adventure. His was a singular personality that fascinated by its vitality
Wolfgang Wolsey