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127 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Enoyolopedia
Similar lines were followed in the text-books of G. S. Franke (Theologische EncykloPadie, vol. i., Altona, 1819), K. F. Staudlin (Encyklopkdie and Methodologie, Hanover, 1821), and J. T. L. Danz (Encyklopddie and Methodologie, Weimar, 1832).
A new start was made with Schleiermacher, who in opposition to rationalism in religion wished to recover for religion its own province in a philosophic consideration of the self-consciousness of Christians. It was he who first discerned the essence of theology as subject to scientific treatment and gave to the science organic form. In this respect his Kurze Darstellung des theologischen Stadiums (Berlin, 1811, enlarged, 1830) made an epoch. He showed that theology had developed out of the needs of the Church and by those needs was to be oriented. He produced a clear demarcation between philosophy and the history of religion, but he divided the science into the parts, philosophical, historical, and practical. The first governed apologetical and polemic theology;
dogmatics and ethics were assigned 6. Schleier- to historical theology; and practical
macher theology dealt with church governand his ment and church service. The operInfluence. ation of Schleiermacher's principles was for a time thwarted by the entrance of the Hegelian philosophy which regarded religion and its results as transitional in the march of evolution, but with the help of the growing historical and linguistic criticism it established itself ever more firmly. Meanwhile there appeared the contrast between emphasis upon the historical (Strauss's Leben Jesu) and Hegelian opposition between pantheism and atheism, a problem to the solution of which F. C. Baur devoted himself in the history of early Christianity. Next to appear was the " Mediating theology," the fundamental thought of which was that a view of the world which includes supernaturalism is not an obstacle to scientific work. Recognizable here is the influence of Schleiermacher and Neander in the acknowledgment of a revealed character in Christianity, and of Hegel and Schelling in the tendency to speculation. The writing which best exhibits this character is A. F. L. Pelt's Theologische Encyklopddie (Hamburg, 1843), which makes historical theology take precedence of dogmatic and practical. Noteworthy are E. L. T. Henke's Grundriss I fir Yorlesungen zur Einleitung in das theologische Stadium (Marburg, 1869), J. P. Lange's Grundriss der theologischen Encyklopddie and Methodologie (Heidelberg, 1877) which unites systematic and practical theology, and K. Rosenkranz's Encyklopddie der theologischen Wissenschaft (Halle, 1831) which seeks to use Hegel's philosophy in the construction of theological science. The " mediating theology" was left behind by K. R. Hagenbach in the work which long remained the standard (Encyklopadie der theoZogischen Wissenschaft, Leipsic 1833, 9th ed. with the help of E. Scharer, 1874, 11th ed. by Kautzsch, 1884, 12th ed. by Reischle, 1889). J. F. Rabiger's Encyklopkdie der Theologie (1880) differs from R. Rothe's Theologische Encyklopddie (ed. Ruppelius, Wittenberg, 1880) in that it uses the historic standpoint of the Tiibingen school, while
Rothe gives the preference to a speculative tendency. The Encyklopiiaie of J. C. K. Hofmann (ed. Beatmann, Nordlingen; 1879) closely follows Schleiermacher in emphasizing the personal relationship of man to God, in which he was preceded by G. C. A. Harlesa (Nuremberg, 1837). More in the direction which Hengstenberg gave to theology is the aeries issued under the editorship of O. Zockler (B vole., Nordlingen, 1881-90) under the title Hcendbiicher der theologischen Wissenschaften in encykloPadischer Darstellung.
The question what the present condition of theological work demands has been answered by Ritschl, who asserts as the starting-point of theology the Gospel alit lies in Scripture. This Gospel is essentially a revelation, set forth, however, in historical relations and under historic conditions. So that there results a double field of investigation, philosophical history and the internal developments of church life. On this basis, investigation of theology without reference to the
7. Modern Church which developed it is out of the Problems. question; it would make the Bible simply a part of the world's religious literature, deprive it of the interest derived from churchly relations, separate it from its accompany ing conceptions of canon, symbol, and dogma. Yet the tendency is strong in modern times in this way to seek,a universal theology. In this direction look the methodological proposals of G. Kriiger (Was heisst and zu welchem Ende studiert man DogmengeschichteP Freiburg, 1895; Das Dogma vom neuen Testament, Giessen, 1896) and W. Wrede (Ueber Aufgabe and Methode der sogenannten neutestamentlichen Theologie, Gottingen, 1897); the former would do away with the distinction between canonical Scripture and the early patristic writings, and the latter would put the theology of the New Testament into a philosophy of religion. Another advocate of this method is C. A. Bernouilli (Die urissenschaftliche and die kirchliche Methode in der Theologie, Tiibingen, 1897), who takes the position that the true theology is something apart from the Church and that " religion is history." This school calls its method the " purely historical." Yet can that be " purely historical " which disre gards the historical fact of him who is cometo save the lost? which attempts a vivisection between Church and theology which is possible only in the ory? The latest development analyzes the situation into a necessity for investigation of three points: the conception of the Church, of science, and the view of the world which Christianity would set forth. The Roman Catholic conception of the Church as a sanatorium excludes the action of science, the Lutheran conception of it as a community of faith requires that .action for its own good. The con ception of the world as set forth by the physicist is different from that reached by the theologian and is reached by different methods. The decision upon the worth of the Scriptures of the New Testa ment as compared with early patristic writings in the construction of a history of dogma is helped by the consideration that the former are the classi cal expression fromtheearliest generations of Chris tians of the faith which had been transmitted to