5. Pietism and Rationalism Influential
Zogici.
Study of the Bible is the
and Ration- foundation of all theology, interpre-
alism In- tation is the mistress who orders all
fluential. the parts and affords the basis; dog
matics and
ethics are to come from
Scripture. Historical development was lost to
sight, church history
simply furnished a bounding
line. The orthodox cultivation of homiletics
seemed to Spener the greatest hindrance to theo
logical study, while catechetics is especially im
portant. A. H. Franks took up Spener's thesis in
Idea studiosi theologici
(Halle, 1718) and
Methodus
studii theologici. (1723),
as did J. J. Breithaupt in
Ezercitationes de studio theologico (1702),
J. Large
in
Institutianes atudii theologici (1723),
and J. J.
Rambach in
Studiosus theologise
(Frankfort,
1723).
Related spirits were Franz Buddeus
(Isagoge
historico-theologica,
Leipsic, 1727) and C. M. Pfaff
(Introductio in historiam theologize litterariam, 3
vols., Tübingen, 1723), who reinstated the division
into exegetical, historical, dogmatic, and practical
theology. To the filling in of these outlines L.
Mosheim contributed in his
Kurze Anweisung, die
Gottesgelehrtheit verniinftig zu erkennen
(ed. Wind
heim, Helmstadt,
1756-63).
Through the preva
lence of the Wolffian philosophy rationalism had its
influence, and the works of J. S. Semler rapidly
succeeded each other
(1757-80).
J. A. N&eselt
united a view of the materials and the literature
of theology in his
Anweisung zur Kenntnisa der
besseren Bücher in der Theologie
(Leipsic,
1800).
Similar lines were followed in the text-books of G. S.
Franke
(Theologische EncykloPadie,
vol. i., Altona,
1819), K. F. Staudlin
(Encyklopkdie and Methodologie,
Hanover, 1821), and J. T.
L. Danz
(Encyklopädie and Methodologie,
Weimar, 1832).
A new start was made with Schleiermacher, who
in opposition to rationalism in religion wished to
recover for religion its own province in a philosophic consideration of the self-consciousness of
Christians. It was he who first discerned the
essence of theology as subject to scientific treatment
and gave to the science organic form. In this
respect his
Kurze Darstellung des theologischen
Stadiums
(Berlin, 1811, enlarged, 1830) made an
epoch. He showed that theology had developed
out of the needs of the Church and by those needs
was to be oriented. He produced a clear demarcation between philosophy and the history of religion, but he divided the science into the parts,
philosophical, historical, and practical. The first
governed apologetical and polemic theology;
