MENKEN, GOTTFRIED: German Reformed pastor; b. at Bremen May 29, 1768; d. there June 1, 1831. In the house of his parents he imbibed a Biblical piety which was, however, free from all narrowness though consciously opposed to rationalism. While still in the gymnasium he preached, and when he entered the University of Jena in 1788 his theological convictions had already assumed definite form. The rationalism of the university induced him to devote himself wholly to the Bible, to which the mysticism of his earlier days gave way. In 1790 he went to the University of Duisburg where he found a more sympathetic atmosphere in the circle of F. A. Hasenkamp and others whose study of the Bible was governed by the spirit of Bengel and Collenbusch. In 1791 he passed his theological examination, but stayed two years longer at Duisburg. He was assistant preacher in Uedem near Cleve (1793-94), for the German Reformed congregation in Frankfort-on-the-Main (1794-96), pastor of the Reformed congregation in Wetzlar (1796-1802), second preacher of St. Paul in Bremen (1802-11), and first preacher of St. Martin (1811-25).

The theology of Menken was not original with him; but the vigor of his expressions gave him a

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far-reaching influence, especially upon Bible students. The immovable center of his theology was the Bible, which he looked upon as the divine testimony of the past, present, and future history of salvation in the center of which stood Christ. From Collenbusch Menken acquired his views on the ethical relation of God to humanity, the atonement, and salvation. The divine nature is love, of which holiness and justice are only phases. These fundamental attributes of God are revealed in the order of his kingdom, which is never based upon an unfathomable decree, but always upon foreseen worthiness. In order to assure this worthiness, every reasonable creature is in need of a test; if in this way sin comes into the world, it serves only a good purpose that there may come into existence a more perfect and blessed creation. If Adam fell, death was for him not a punishment, but a natural consequence of sin, and if his heirs are overcome by sin, this also is not a punishment, but a suffering of injustice, since they are personally innocent of the sinfulness and mortality of their being. Christ delivered human nature from that unjust imposition, by assuming it not as it was originally, but as it was after the fall. This was not intended to assail the divinity or personal sinlessness of Christ, but only to emphasize his humanity. So it follows that in no way is there a compensation of the claims of divine holiness or of the law by the death of Christ. The sinlessness acquired by Christ can be appropriated by faith in him. Faith in Christ is a divine power producing that holiness and glory in man, and on this depends the main interest of the whole doctrine, and consequently the worthiness of man is in no way a divine gift, but the chief demand of God, for the sake of which he imparts to man his grace. All predestinarian ideas are combated from this standpoint. It is only consistent with this whole conception, which lacks a clear estimate of sin as positive opposition to God, that sanctification can be completed upon earth. As justification or forgiveness of sins in no way necessarily results from this doctrine, they really have no place in it, and the fact that Menken nevertheless used these conceptions shows that the Biblical vein in him was stronger than the influence of Collenbusch.

His chief works are: Christliche Homilien (Frankfort, 1797); Neue Sammlung christlicher Homilien (1801); Christliche Homilien über Stellen an die Geschichte des Propheten Elias (1804); Versuch einer Anleitung zum eignen Unterricht in die Warhheiten der heiligen. Schrift (an exposition of his system; 1805); Betrachtungen über das Evangelium Matthäi (only one volume published; 1809); Das Glaubensbekenntnis der christlichen Kirche (1816); Erklärung des elften Kapitels des Briefes an die Hebräer (1821); Predigten (1825); Blicke in das Leben des Apostel Paulus und der ersten Christengemeinen (1828); and Homilien über das neunte und zehnte Kapitel des Briefes an die Hebräer (1831). His works have been collected in seven volumes (Bremen, 1858-65; new edition, 8 vols. 1894-95).

(E. F. Karl Müller).

Bibliography: C. H. Gildemeisten, Leben und Wirken des . . . Gottfried Menken, 2 vols., Bremen, 1861. E. C. Achelis published a selection of Menken's Homilien, to which he prefixed an introduction dealing with the life, Gotha, 1888. Consult also A. Ritschl, Geschichte des Pietismus, i. 566 sqq., Bonn, 1880.