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ILLUMINATION (Lat. illuminatio; Gk. photismos) : In Protestant dogmatics a name of a part of the ordo salutis (see Order of Salvation), signifying an activity of the Holy Spirit closely connected with the Calling (q.v.). So far as the New-Testament usage of photimos and photizein is concerned, it may be said, on the one hand, that the light brings forth ethical fruits in the children of light (Eph. v. 9-10; cf. Isa. ii. 5, lx. 3), and, on the other, that these children, as instruments appointed by God, illuminate the world and convert it unto God and his light (Matt. v. 14, 16; II Cor. iv. 5-6; cf. Rom. ii. 19; Acts xxvi. 18). But the real illuminator is Christ; the true light (John i. 9; cf. II Tim. i. 10). The apostolic preaching of the Gospel is itself "illumination," and its purpose is "to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ" (II Cor. iv. 6). The Christians, accordingly, are those who have been "once enlightened" (Heb. vi. 4, x. 32). It is important for the mystical conception that illumination and contemplation take place only upon the basis of a moral purification. It was, significant for Protestant theology that Luther in his Smaller Catechism inserted the illumination in the ordo salutis ("calls, gathers, illumines, sanctifies"). The Apology and the Formula of Concord represent the illumination as taking place through the Word, and regard it as a fanatical error to teach an illumination without the Word. This difference gives the conception its peculiar stamp: the illumination is subordinated to the calling and is effected only through the Word. And this is the reason, too, why the older Protestant dogmaticians use the term only occasionally. Hollaz was the first to give it a place of its own in the ordo salutis (Examen theologicum, Stockholm, 1741, pp. 813 sqq.). This is due to the importance which the illumination. received in the mystical and Pietistic literature. For Hollaz, in introducing the idea, takes the position that the illumination may be present in an imperfect degree in the human intellect without any sanctification of the will. Johann Arndt, however, in his Bücher vom wahren Christentum (Magdeburg, 1610), defends the mystical usage of the term rejected by Hollaz, declaring that the Holy Spirit illuminates only those who renounce the world and on this wise follow Christ (I. xxxvii. 16, xxxix. 4, III. i. 2, 11). In this way the illumination is made a special divine act, surpassing the vocation, inasmuch as it is realized only in the case of those who "desist from all that which God himself is not, from oneself and all creatures," "and keep their inmost souls pure from the creatures and the world. Thus God illuminates from within, for all must stream forth from within God's being. This inner light then shines forth in the works " (III., xi.). It is from the point of view of this opposition that the view of Hollaz is to be understood. The conception of Hollaz was also that of the Pietistic dogmaticians: "illumination itself consists in this, that the Holy Ghost in his light by means of the Word of God pictures and makes known heavenly truth to the human understanding with such clearness, force, and conviction that man thereby recognizes it as truth, believes it with divine assurance, and thus knows what God has graciously given him, and is able to judge spiritual things spiritually." (Freylinghausen, Grundlegung der Theologie, p. 166, Halle, 1705). The same is true also of the rationalistic dogmaticians (e.g., Wegscheider, Institutiones theologice, Halle, 1815, § 158, pp. 497-498). In the same direction, moreover, tend the views of the more modern dogmaticians so far as they employ the term at all (e.g., Dorner, Glaubenslehre, ii. 2, p. 727, Berlin, 1881, and, especially, Frank, System der Christlichen Wahrheit, ii. 333, Leipsic, 1894).

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The dogmatician's attitude to the term will vary, according to his conception of the call as a mere offering of salvation, or as the effectual appropriation of it. If the Biblical conception of vocation as an effectual divine influence through the Word is retained, it is difficult to vindicate a special place for illumination. But this conception is to be preferred for the obvious reason that, by the other theory, the call could not at all be reckoned among the proper acts of grace meant for the individual, but would amount to a mere presupposition for this work of grace. Thus considered, vocation denotes the effectual influence of the revelation of salvation upon the personal life; illumination the transference of the person into the sphere of God. In this connection there is just as little need, so far as Scriptural usage is concerned, of restricting illumination to the intellect as there is of supplementing the conception of vocation in any such way as that. Illumination is to be regarded as a synonym of vocation, without having any special locus in systematic theology. Both terms denote the influences of God in the Word, the effects of which are seen in regeneration and conversion. These influences address themselves to the whole man; they move the will as well as the intellect. That is as true of the calling as of the illumination. It would be well if the practical discussions based upon Luther's Catechism should likewise put the two terms together; not, therefore, as if the call outwardly offered the Word and the illumination inwardly appropriated its content, but in such a way that with the call and through it the illumination of man takes place.

R. Seeberg.

Bibliography: Besides the works mentioned in the text, consult the text-books on Dogmatics in the department of Soteriology, and J. H. Blunt, Dictionary of Doctrinal and Historical Theology, p. 324, London, 1870; A. A. Benton, Church Cyclopaedia, p. 374, Philadelphia, 1884.

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