HARMS, CLAUS: German Lutheran; b. at
Fahrstedt, near Marne (50 m. n.w. of Hamburg),
South Ditmarsh (Sleswick-Holstein), May 25, 1778;
d. at Kiel Feb. 1, 1855. He received merely the
rudiments of an education in tile village school
and from the village pastor, and
Student worked in his father's mill till he was
Life. nineteen. Then, coming into posses
sion of a little property by his
father's death, he entered the gymnasium of
Meldorf, and by extraordinary industry finished
the course in two years. In 1799 he went to
the University of Kiel to study theology. This
university was dominated at that time by ration
alism, but Harms, studying the writings of Kant
and reading Schleiermacher, suddenly felt that all
rationalism and human science could not help him,
that his salvation must be sought elsewhere; the
study of Holy Scripture brought about his complete
conversion. In 1802 he finished his theological
studies and became private tutor in Probateier
hagen in Holstein.
In 1806 the congregation of Lunden, in the district of North Ditmarsh, chose him deacon. He
devoted himself with great energy to
Pastor and the art of preaching, and extended his
Preacher. care for
his parishioners to all their
spiritual and secular affairs. His sermons became very popular, even outside of his
parish; and he was at times so fearless in denunciations of existing shortcomings of the government
that he was called to account. In 1816 he was
appointed archdeacon of St. Nicolai in Kiel, where
he was equally popular. Since, however, he became more and more convinced that his time had
declined from the faith of the Reformation, and thus
from the source of salvation_ he considered the
year 1817, the three hundredth anniversary of the
Reformation, as an opportune time to speak his
mind. Accordingly he published (Kiel, 1,817) the
ninety-five theses of Luther with ninety-five theses
of his own, needed in his opinion by
Harms's the nineteenth century, and directed
Ninety-five
against various supposed abuses in the
Theses. Lutheran Church; especially against ra
tionalism; he declared his willingness
to defend and vindicate his theses and to avow his
errors if any should be proved. His first thesis was
aimed at the prevailing Pelagianism, while others
were: " We make reason the pope of our time in
regard to faith, conscience in regard to action, and
upon the latter has been placed a triple crown
lawmaking, praise, and punishment "(ix.);" con
science can not forgive, since forgiveness belongs to
God "(xi.);" if conscience ceases to read and begins
to write, the result will be as different as the hand
writings of men "(xvii.);" forgiveness of sins at least
cost money in the sixteenth century, but in the
nineteenth century it costs nothing, since, people
help themselves "(xxi.);" according to the old
faith, God created man; according to the new faith,
man creates God" (xxvii.); "the'religionof reason'
is bare either of reason or of religion, or of both "
(xxxii.). The following theses asserted for religion
its independent sphere: " That anybody should
misconstrue the fixed word of the Bible is prevented
by our symbolical books "(1.);" the words of our
revealed religion we regard as sacred in their original
language, and do not consider them a dress which
may be taken off from religion, but as its body in
union with which it has its life. But a translation
into a living language must be revised every
hundred years in order to remain alive " (li., Iii.).
Harms then attacked the rationalistic Bible of Al
tona (see
Bible Versions, VII., § 4) and the laxity
of the church government. The last twenty theses
were directed against the Union.
Harms's theses naturally created a
sensation and
called forth about two hundred pamphlets. The
rationalists were offended, but others recognized
the theses as a wholesome ferment and a bitter
medicine for the weak faith of the time. Court
preacher
C. F. von Ammon (q.v.) in Dresden ap
proved them and Schleiermacher also took the part
of Harms.
The position of Harms became more and more
important. His merits were more widely recognized,
and the number of his hearers in
His creased. In the University of Kiel the
Influence. spirit of rationalism began to disap
pear. In 1819 he declined a call to
St. Petersburg as Evangelical bishop, and in 1834
one to Trinity Church in Berlin as the successor of
Schleiermacher. After Fock's death in 1835 he was
promoted chief preacher at St. Nicolai and provost
of Kiel. In 1849 blindness compelled him to lay
down his offices.
Harms was before everything a powerful preacher.
Great crowds came to hear him; it was the content
of his sermons which attracted, in spite of their lack
of ornament and embellishment. Controversy deepened
his convictions, which he expressed decidedly
and sharolv in his writings. Among these must be
mentioned first his sermons, of which he published
sixteen collections between 1808 and 1858. He
wrote a number of catechisms and other books for
religious instruction
(Das Chrfatentum in einem
kleinen Katechismu8,
1810;
Die Religion der Christen
in einem Katechismm au/8 neue gelehrt,
1814; etc.).
His
Pastoraltheologie
(1830), the fruit of his informal
talks on practical theology, ap!leared in a third
edition as late as 1878. He also wrote hymns, a
few of which have passed into German hymn-books.
(H. C. Carstens†.)
Bibliography:
Harms's autobiography (Lebenabeachreib-
ung) appeared Kiel, 1852; some of his letters are in
P. Petri, L. A. Petri Leben,
Hanover, 1888. Consult: Dor, ner, B7.Uter der Erinnerung an das Jubil4um van C. Harms,
Kiel, 1842; K. Schneider C. Harms, der esangelische Pre
diger, Prieater and Pastor Bielefeld, 1861 idem Schleier
macher and Harms, Berlin, 1865; J. Kaftan, C. Harms,
Basel, 187e, C. Lüdemann, Erinnerung an Claus Harms
und seine Zeit, Kiel 1878; F. Volbehr, C. Harms an seirum
hundert§ehrigen Gieburtetag, ib. 1878. Further literature
is given in Hauck-Herzog, RE, vii. 433.
