Hahn, August

HAGUE ASSOCIATION, THE: A society founded in Oct., 1785, by a number of distinguished Dutch theologians for the defense of the Christian religion. The occasion was the appearance, in a Dutch translation (Dort, 1784) of Priestley's History of the Corruptions of Christianity; and the object of the society was to take a firm stand against

the anti-Christian tendencies of the age. During the first period of its life (1785-1810) its standpoint was strictly orthodox and supernaturalistic. The doctrines of vicarious atonement, the divinity of Christ, the personality of the Holy Spirit, etc., were strongly emphasized; and the inspiration of the Scriptures was considered an indisputable fact. During the second period (1810-35) the exegetical element was made more prominent, and the stand point -may be characterized as Biblico-evangelical. The character of the third period (1835-60) was principally determined by the writings of D. F. Strauss and the Tübingen school. The contest raged around the fundamentals of Christianity; and the principles which the society fought for were strongly conservative, though it carried on the fight in a free, scientific spirit. But, from this critico historical platform the society, after 1860, grad ually glided into the field of ethics and social reform; slavery, war, capital punishment, woman's eman cipation and questions of a similar nature have received particular attention; though the doctrinal history of Christianity continued to be cultivated in the spirit of modern research, the rigid orthodoxy of the early period of the association has disap peared.

(J. A. Gerth van Wijk†.)

HAHN, AUGUST: Lutheran; b. at Grossosterhausen near Querfurt (18 m. s.w. of Halle), Prussian Saxony, Mar. 27, 1792; d. at Breslau May 13, 1863. His father died when he was a child and he was taken under the care and instruction of the village pastor. In 1807 he was sent to the gymnasium of Eisleben and in 1810 he went to the University of Leipsic. While studying theology, he perfected his knowledge of the ancient languages; Rosenmüller guided him in Syriac and Arabic, and Heil in Orientalia. In 1813 he finished his theological course and became private tutor. In 1817 he entered the newly founded theological seminary at Wittenberg where the two Nitzschs, Schleusner and Heubner were his teachers and where he found again his old faith temporarily lost at Leipsic. In 1819 he became privat-docent at Königsberg and professor. In the following year he was appointed preacher and superintendent of one of the Königsberg churches, but because of his health had to resign these additional offices in 1822. In 1827 he accepted a call to Leipsic where he was drawn into fierce theological battles. In his inaugural dissertation he attacked the rationalists by declaring rationalism diametrically oppoeed to Christianity. The rationalists, such as Schulthess, Rohr, and others replied, and in the following year Hahn published his Lehrbuch dea christlichen Glaubens. It breathes the Christian and Biblical spirit which animated his whole personality. In 1833 Hahn became professor and councilor of the consistory at Breslau, where he lectured on dogmatics and historical theology, also on ethics, practical theology and New Testament exegesis. Hahn became involved in the occasional fierce struggles in the consistory and faculty, also in dissensions with the "Old Lutherans," who would not submit to the demands of the Evangelical Union of Prussia. His activity in Silesia became still more extensive and successful after the accession of

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Frederick William IV. In 1844 he was made gen eral superintendent; and the call of E. F. Gaupp to the university and consistory, of Oehler to the uni versity, and of Wachler to the consistory showed the changed conditions which he brought about. In his later years he gave up his lectures and devoted himself entirely to his ecclesiastical office. He expressed his later dogmatic convictions in the second edition of his Lehrbuch (1857) where he declared the confessional writings of the Church an entirely justified expression of Christian truth. He also wrote a treatise on the writings of Ephraem Syrus (Leipsic, 1819), several dissertations on Marcion (1820-26), a Syriac chrestomathy (1825), and edited a Hebrew Bible (1833) and Greek New Testament (1840-61).

J. Köstlin.

Bibliography: K. Kolbe, in Allgemeine Kirchenwitung, 18&3, nos. 75-77 (uses an unprinted autobiography).