MARTENSEN, HANS LASSEN

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Life (§ 1).

Theological Development (§ 2).

Character of His Theology (§ 3).

Mystic and Theosophic Elements (§ 4).

Polemic and Other Activities (§ 5).

Hans Lassen Martensen, a Danish bishop and theologian, was born at Flensburg (41 m. n.w. of Kiel, Germany) Aug. 19, 1808; d. at Copenhagen Feb. 3, 1884. He was educated in Copenhagen, both in school and at the university,

1. Life

. from which he took his degree in theology in 1832. From 1834 to 1836 he made further studies in Germany and Paris. Re turning to Copenhagen, he became a licentiate and privat-docent in theology in 1837, and was appointed reader in 1838 and professor of systematic theology in 1840, and in 1845 became also court preacher. On the death of the bishop of Zealand, J. P. Mynster (q.v.), in 1854, Martensen was chosen by the government as his successor, and in this, the highest ecclesiastical office of the country, he displayed great zeal both for the performance of the duties of his office and for the defense of the faith by his pen. In the last year of his life, conscious of failing strength, he resigned, and died a few days afterwards.

2. Theological Development

terpoint of the universe and of all its thoughts. Under the influence of Sib- bern's teaching at Copenhagen, he early came to the conclusion that Christian ity was to be accepted because its truth appeals to the reason as the one source of a comprehensive philosophy of life. He sought the unity of faith and knowledge, and could not be content with any scheme which did not offer this. But he was even more strongly influenced by the philosophy of Schleiermacher and Hegel. Schleiermacher he met personally in 1833, and was an enthusiagtie admirer of his mystical depth and the structural completeness of his dogmatics-, but he could not hold with his subjective attitude, in contradistinction from which he found himself powerfully attracted by the objective, all-embracing system of Hegel. Here, on the other hand, he felt the lack of system and of the recognition of religion as a higher sphere than mere philosophy. These deficiencies he found sup plied in the teaching of Franz Baader (q.v.) at Munich, who strongly emphasized the principle that philosophy must be religious, and that only one who has a personal sense of religion can philosophize about it.

His dissertation of 1837, De autonomia conscientite sui humante, in theologiam dogmatieam nostri temporas introducta, lays down a definite series of prop- ositions, to which he always adhered. 3. Char- Philosophy is not outside of or above acter of His religion, but speculation needs religion

Theology. (revelation) as its principle; in matters of conscience (the kernel of religion) man is conscious of himself not primarily as one who knows God but as one who is known of God. Human knowledge must remain in this dependence established by the conscience, and recognize that human powers will not avail to find the truth. Man can not place himself in the theocentric standpoint, for that would involve the denial of his qualities of a creature and a sinner. Regeneration and faith in revelation are prerequisites for a right insight into things both divine and human; faith is the condition of the entrance of the divine idea into the soul. Thus he rejected the autonomous standpoint of Kant and Schleiermacher on one side and of Hegel on the other. His system is more fully developed in his Christelige Dogmatik (Copenhagen, 1849), which Landerer calls "unquestionably the best reconstruction of ecclesiastical dogmatics from the standpoint of nineteenth-century knowledge." The peculiarity of his speculative position lies in his determined adherence to the teaching of Scripture and the Church. Scripture is to him at once the critical and the organic norm. His aim was not to discover or establish new doctrines, but to put new life into the old.

To the speculative element which is the most characteristic of his theology the mystic and theosophic were added in increasing measure as time went on. In his youth he had been a 4. Mystical diligent student of Eckart, on whom and Theo- he wrote in 1840; but his studies along sophic these lines bore their ripest and best

Elements. fruit in his Christelage Ethik (3 vols.,

1871-78), throughout which he assumes an intimate acquaintance with mystical experiences in relations with God. The theosophic element appears later and more gradually. It is found in his Dogmatik, not so much in the discussion of the being of God as in the passages which deal with the participation of nature and the universe in the renovation and perfecting of the Spirit. Jesus Christ is the second Adam, whose coming has not only a spiritual and a moral significance, but also a deep cosmological one; miracles are an inchoate, if not a continuing transfiguration of nature the B10r9,I11ents are mysteries of nature, especially the Lord's Supper considered as nourishment for the future spiritual body. A still closer approximation to theosophical views is seen in the controversial treatise Vom Glauben and Wissen (1867), partly no doubt owing to Schelling's later philoso- phy which had in the mean time been published. His conception of the Deity reached its greatest fulness in his work on Jakob Böhme (1881). This work closes his strictly theological production, which forms an unusually harmonious whole, allowing his genius full development on all its sides. His works

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found wide-spread approval wherever Protestant theology was studied, and even beyond those limits. Outside of this connected theological production, he took part in the discussion of many questions of his day. Thus he opposed the Baptists in Den christelige Daab (1843), where he laid down the prin-

ciples more fully developed later in his g. Polemic Dogmatik. His conception of the relaand Othertion between faith and knowledge was Activities. strongly opposed by S. A. Kierkegaard (q.v.), who between 1843 and 1851 published a long series of writings, tending to show that Christianity and speculation were things of different orders, and to reduce Christianity to the absurd and paradoxical which must be believed in spite of reason. With the appearance of Marten sen's Dogmatik, some of Kierkegaard's followers opened a campaign against his views, under the leadership of R. Nielsen; but to these attacks, lasting for a generation, Martensen seldom replied. When a young candidate for ordination set forth the view that the operation of the sacraments de pended on the faith of the minister, and Grundtvig defended him, he published two small works (1856, 1857) against this position, and in 1863 subjected the peculiarities of this view to a thorough criticism in his Til Forsvar mod den saakaldte Grundtvigian isme (1863). He broke a lance with the Roman Catholics in Katholicisme og Protestantism (1874), and published two treatises on constitutional questions affecting the Danish national church. In his episcopal duties he devoted himself principally to preaching and visitation. Of his sermons eight volumes were published, besides three more of or dination addresses, and a number of occasional dis courses. As bishop of Zealand he was the principal adviser of the government in ecclesiastical affairs. In 1849 the king divided his power in these matters with the national assembly, and a minister of pub lic worship was charged with its administration, although he might be a man of no churchly affiliations. In the discussions which followed, Marten sen decidedly opposed the abstract individualism which would leave every man free to follow his own conscience, but was not prepared to support alto gether the proposal for a synodal form of government, preferring rather to follow traditional Lu theran lines of consistorial organization, which in Denmark amounted to placing the power in the hands of bishops. At first his ideas met with little success; but just before his death a step in that direction was taken by the organization of an episcopal council, which was to be later expanded into a synod - although this was abolished in 1901, and has not yet been replaced by any other system.

(P. Madsen.).

Bibliography: Martensen'a works were widely circulated through translations in German, English and other languages. In English appeared his Christian Dogmatic,, Edinburgh, 1865; Christian Ethics, 3 vols., ib. 1873-82; Jacob Btihme, London, 1885. On his life the principal authorities are his autobiography, Copenhagen, 1882-83, Germ. transl., 3 parts Carlsruhe 188384, and Briefwechsel zwischen H. L. Mortensen and 1. A. Dorner, 2 vols., Berlin, 1888. Consult further: V. Nannestad, H. L. Mortensen. Copenhagen, 1897; London Quarterly Review, lxii (1883), 74 sqq.; Athenaum, 1884, i. 214 sqq.; British and Foreign Evangelical Review, xxxv (1886), 272 sqq.; Methodist Quarterly, xlvi (1886), 701 sqq.