XI
the survey of the course of development difficult.
the survey of the course of development difficult.
Pleiderer - Development of Theology in Germany since Kant
The development of theology in Germany since Kant : and its progress in Great Britain since 1825 / by Otto Pfleiderer ; translated under
the author's supervision by J. Frederick Smith.
Pfleiderer, Otto, 1839-1908.
London : S. Sonnenschein & Co. ; 1890.
http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044081801573
Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us-google
We have determined this work to be in the public domain in the United States of America. It may not be in the public domain in other countries. Copies are provided as a preservation service. Particularly outside of the United States, persons receiving copies should make appropriate efforts to determine the copyright status of the work in their country and use the work accordingly. It is possible that current copyright holders, heirs or the estate of the authors of individual portions of the work, such as illustrations or photographs, assert copyrights over these portions. Depending on the nature of subsequent use that is made, additional rights may need to be obtained independently of anything we can address. The digital images and OCR of this work were produced by Google, Inc. (indicated by a watermark on each page in the PageTurner). Google requests that the images and OCR not be re-hosted, redistributed or used commercially. The images are provided for educational, scholarly, non-commercial purposes.
? ? C H'iC. i.
? ? HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY
? ? ? ? THE
DEVELOPMENT OF THEOLOGY IN GERMANY SINCE KANT,
AND ITS
PROGRESS IN GREAT BRITAIN SINCE 1825.
? ? ? THE
DEVELOPMENT OF THEOLOGY
IN GERMANY SINCE KANT, AND ITS
PROGRESS IN GREAT BRITAIN SINCE 1825. BY
? PFLEIDERER, D. D. , Professor of Tlteology in the Universiiy of Berlin.
TRANSLATED UNDER THE AUTHOR'S SUPERVISION BY J. FREDERICK SMITH.
OTTO
LONDON :
SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO. , NEW YORK: MACMILLAN & CO.
1890.
? ? C 7S-Co. -ao. tf V
? c
Co<Sia^t Ij-JUwau,
? Butlrr & Tannrr,
Thr Selwood Printing Works, Fromr, and London.
? ? ? PREFACE.
Two years ago I was asked by the Editor of the Library of Philosophy to write the volume tracing the Development
of Theology since Kant. According to the more precise statement of its scope, the work was to deal principally with the History of Modern Theology in Germany, but it was desired that it should include an account of the Protestant Theology of this century in other countries, particularly in Great Britain. Although I did not shut my eyes to the difficulties of the task, I resolved to undertake with the hope that might thereby contribute little towards a better mutual understanding between the German and English nations, especially towards the removal of numerous prejudices that still prevail in Great Britain with regard to the tendencies
of the German mind and make difficult for Englishmen to form a just view of our national character and aims.
But no sooner was the work actually taken in hand than the necessity appeared of reduction of its scope within narrower limits several respects. An account of theology outside Germany which should be at all satisfactory seemed to me impossible without study of on the spot in the
respective countries. On this account was compelled to leave entirely out of my survey the Theology of Holland1 and America, and to confine myself to that of Great Britain. With British Theology had for years kept myself so far in touch that a sojourn of some weeks in England and Scotland was sufficient, with the kind
? have made an exception in the case of the critical labours of Dr. Kuenen, of Leyden, which have had decided influence on the progress of German Theology. This scientific annexation of the distinguished Theolo gian of the Netherlands will, hope, be considered excusable.
assistance of
? ? I
a
a I
a
it
I1
it I
in
I
a
it,
? X PREFACE.
friendly theologians there, to supply the gaps in my know ledge and enable me to make a survey of the develop
ment of the Philosophy of Religion and Theology in Britain during the present century ; though notwithstanding all the pains I have bestowed upon the survey, I must fall back upon the kind consideration of my British readers.
But even when the range of the work had been thus re duced, the extent of the matters to be dealt with exceeded the limits of a volume of this series, so that I was obliged to lay down definite lines in the selection of what really belongs to my subject. As this is the development of theological thought, everything that belongs to the department of practical church
life, such as ecclesiastico-political events and party conflicts, or philanthropic movements of church societies, could at once be excluded. It was more difficult to draw the line with reference to non-theological science, particularly philosophy. Philosophy has in various ways had so much influence on the Theology of our century, that it is impossible quite to ignore it in a history of the latter. I have therefore brought it within the limits of my account so far, and only so far, as it has exerted a direct influence on the development of Theo
From the nature of the case, the line drawn cannot be so hard and fast that the concurrence of all readers in the selection made is to be expected. And those readers who may perhaps look for a more detailed treatment of the
Philosophy of Religion in Germany, may be referred to my History of the Philosophy of Religion from Spinoza to the Present Time, of which there is an English translation.
As regards the treatment of the materials, I have through out abstained from giving a complete, statistical enumeration of all the writers and titles of books holding a place in the theological literature of this century. Such a catalogue would have served but little the purpose of this book. I have re garded it as far more appropriate to deal somewhat more fully with the characteristic and important men and move ments, rather than by a mass of unimportant details to render
? logy.
? ? ? PREFACE. XI
the survey of the course of development difficult. Further, I dislike above all things that method of writing history which presents nothing but the writer's subjective judgment of people, without so much as allowing them to say what their own opinions and views are. To take all men as what they show themselves to be, is the only way in which we can
pay due regard to historical justice.
I have found but very few books to help me in my work.
For the period under review Dorner's History of Protestant Theology is much too meagre. The books of Carl Schwarz and Landerer on Recent Theology, unlike as they are as re gards style, the first being as brilliant as the second is dry, are
very much alike in this, that both have much more to say of men than they allow men to say for themselves. In the survey of English Theology, Dr. Tulloch's Movements of Religious
? has supplied me with useful points of observation, at all events for some parts of my sketch.
OTTO PFLEIDERER. Lichterfelde, near Berlin.
EDITOR'S NOTE.
Thought
Gross
Dr. Pfleidcrer's work is not a translation in the ordinary sense. It lias been written for the Library of Philosophy, and appears first in English. This involves the disadvantage that the reader will not have (as usually in translations) the original to which to refer in case of doubt. For this reason special care has been taken to secure a clear and accurate rendering. The Authors MS. has been translated into English by Mr.
J. Frederick Smith, whose work has been reviscd in proof by Dr. Pfleiderer, by the translator, and by myself.
EDITOR,
GENERAL
? ? ? CONTENTS.
Book I.
THE BASIS OF MODERN THEOLOGY IN GERMAN IDEALISTIC PHILOSOPHY.
Chapter I. Kant
II. Herder
? III. Schleiermacher ? IV. Fichte .
3 21
44
57 62
68
?
? ?
v. Schelling VI. Hegel
? Book II.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF DOGMATIC THEOLOGY UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF IDEALISTIC PHILOSOPHY.
. . . . . . . IV. Eclectic Theologians
Book III.
BIBLICAL AND HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
Chapter I. The Theology of the School of Kant . . . .
?
S5 II. The Theology of the School of Schleiermacher . . 103
III. Speculative Theology
1; 154
209 252 277
Chapter I. New Testament Criticism and Exegesis. ? II. Old Testament Criticism and Exegesis . ? III. History of the Church and of Dogma .
Book IV.
A SURVEY OF THE PROGRESS OF THEOLOGY IN GREAT BRITAIN SINCE 1825.
Chapter I. The Schools of Philosophy in their relation to Theology
? II. Parties and Movements in Theology Index
. . . .
402
303 355
? ? ? ? BOOK I.
THE BASIS OF MODERN THEOLOGY IN GERMAN IDEALISTIC PHILOSOPHY.
G. T.
? ? ? ?
CHAPTER I. KANT.
In the year 1784 Kant wrote an essay upon the question, What is Aufkldrung ? l In it he reviews the tendencies of
his age, and at the same time indicates in what sense he con siders them justifiable and is willing to further them. This
essay may be regarded as the programme of the task to which German philosophy in Kant and his successors has devoted itself.
" Free Thought," says Kant, " is the advance of man beyond the state of voluntary immaturity. By immaturity is meant, inability to use his own understanding except under the guidance of another. The immaturity is voluntary when the cause of it is not want of intelligence, but of resolution and courage to use it without another's guidance. Sapere aude / Dare to use thy own understanding ! is therefore the motto of Free Thought. If the question be asked, ' Do we live in a free-thinking age ? ' the answer No but we live in an age of free-thought. ' As things are at present, men as a whole are very far from possessing, or even from being able to acquire, the power of making a sure and right use of their own understandings in religious matters without the guidance of others. On the other hand, we have clear indications that the field now lies nevertheless open before them, to which they can freely make their way, and that the
hindrances to general Freedom of Thought, or the abandon ment of the state of voluntary immaturity, are gradually be coming less. In this sense the present age the age of Free Thought, or the century of Frederick the Great. "
? Aufklarung. Any translation of this ter? ninus technicus may mislead. From Kant's authoritative definition of the thing, appears that our English
Free-thinking " substantially represents it. --Tr.
? ?
XI
the survey of the course of development difficult. Further, I dislike above all things that method of writing history which presents nothing but the writer's subjective judgment of people, without so much as allowing them to say what their own opinions and views are. To take all men as what they show themselves to be, is the only way in which we can
pay due regard to historical justice.
I have found but very few books to help me in my work.
For the period under review Dorner's History of Protestant Theology is much too meagre. The books of Carl Schwarz and Landerer on Recent Theology, unlike as they are as re gards style, the first being as brilliant as the second is dry, are
very much alike in this, that both have much more to say of men than they allow men to say for themselves. In the survey of English Theology, Dr. Tulloch's Movements of Religious
? has supplied me with useful points of observation, at all events for some parts of my sketch.
OTTO PFLEIDERER. Lichterfelde, near Berlin.
EDITOR'S NOTE.
Thought
Gross
Dr. Pfleidcrer's work is not a translation in the ordinary sense. It lias been written for the Library of Philosophy, and appears first in English. This involves the disadvantage that the reader will not have (as usually in translations) the original to which to refer in case of doubt. For this reason special care has been taken to secure a clear and accurate rendering. The Authors MS. has been translated into English by Mr.
J. Frederick Smith, whose work has been reviscd in proof by Dr. Pfleiderer, by the translator, and by myself.
EDITOR,
GENERAL
? ? ? CONTENTS.
Book I.
THE BASIS OF MODERN THEOLOGY IN GERMAN IDEALISTIC PHILOSOPHY.
Chapter I. Kant
II. Herder
? III. Schleiermacher ? IV. Fichte .
3 21
44
57 62
68
?
? ?
v. Schelling VI. Hegel
? Book II.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF DOGMATIC THEOLOGY UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF IDEALISTIC PHILOSOPHY.
. . . . . . . IV. Eclectic Theologians
Book III.
BIBLICAL AND HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
Chapter I. The Theology of the School of Kant . . . .
?
S5 II. The Theology of the School of Schleiermacher . . 103
III. Speculative Theology
1; 154
209 252 277
Chapter I. New Testament Criticism and Exegesis. ? II. Old Testament Criticism and Exegesis . ? III. History of the Church and of Dogma .
Book IV.
A SURVEY OF THE PROGRESS OF THEOLOGY IN GREAT BRITAIN SINCE 1825.
Chapter I. The Schools of Philosophy in their relation to Theology
? II. Parties and Movements in Theology Index
. . . .
402
303 355
? ? ? ? BOOK I.
THE BASIS OF MODERN THEOLOGY IN GERMAN IDEALISTIC PHILOSOPHY.
G. T.
? ? ? ?
CHAPTER I. KANT.
In the year 1784 Kant wrote an essay upon the question, What is Aufkldrung ? l In it he reviews the tendencies of
his age, and at the same time indicates in what sense he con siders them justifiable and is willing to further them. This
essay may be regarded as the programme of the task to which German philosophy in Kant and his successors has devoted itself.
" Free Thought," says Kant, " is the advance of man beyond the state of voluntary immaturity. By immaturity is meant, inability to use his own understanding except under the guidance of another. The immaturity is voluntary when the cause of it is not want of intelligence, but of resolution and courage to use it without another's guidance. Sapere aude / Dare to use thy own understanding ! is therefore the motto of Free Thought. If the question be asked, ' Do we live in a free-thinking age ? ' the answer No but we live in an age of free-thought. ' As things are at present, men as a whole are very far from possessing, or even from being able to acquire, the power of making a sure and right use of their own understandings in religious matters without the guidance of others. On the other hand, we have clear indications that the field now lies nevertheless open before them, to which they can freely make their way, and that the
hindrances to general Freedom of Thought, or the abandon ment of the state of voluntary immaturity, are gradually be coming less. In this sense the present age the age of Free Thought, or the century of Frederick the Great. "
? Aufklarung. Any translation of this ter? ninus technicus may mislead. From Kant's authoritative definition of the thing, appears that our English
Free-thinking " substantially represents it. --Tr.
? ? 1'
1
it
is
is, '
;
? 4
BASIS OF MODERN THEOLOGY. [Bk. I.
It is only by slow degrees that the people generally can reach Freedom of Thought. It is not by means of a revolu tion, which can never effect a real reform in habits of thought ; a revolution only exchanges old prejudices for new, which then, as much as the old ones, serve as leading-strings to the unthinking crowd. The one proper method is the free use of reason as a public right, whereby the wise are put in a position to diffuse their superior intelligence and render it the common property of all. To check the free public employ ment of reason, in the interests of any existing social institu tions or laws, would, in Kant's view, be " a sin against the nature of man, the primary purpose of which consists in just this advance in Free Thinking. " Moreover, this public use of reason by the learned, Kant argues, involves no danger, inasmuch as it does not seek by any means to put an end to the performance of civil duties or of the obligations imposed on each man by his calling ; it was precisely under the veil of severe civil discipline, as it existed in the State of Frederick, that freedom of mind had more room to spread than is usually the case where there is greater civil liberty. When once however by freedom of thought the mental habits of a nation have been so educated that it is rendered more capable of
freedom in action, this education finally reacts upon the maxims of the government in such a way that it treats men no longer as machines but in a manner suited to their true
dignity.
We see from this essay that Kant participated to the full
in the movement of his age towards Aufkldrung, but that he gauged its meaning otherwise and more profoundly than did his contemporaries. He is no less opposed to the complacent vanity of the German popular philosophers, who thought that they already possessed Aufkldrung --the truth in religion and morals, -- than he is to the radicalism of the French party of progress, who imagined that they could reach the goal by means of revolution, by abjuring in theory and practice all
? beliefs and institutions. Of course, according to Kant, mankind is bound to be rationally free and enlightened, but they are not so as yet ; and will not"become so by merely
discarding old prejudices, but only by a true reform in habits of thought," whereby they will be enabled to " make a sure and right use " of their own understandings. To educate mankind for this true employment of the understanding is
existing
? ? ? Ch. KANT.
the vocation of men of letters, and more especially of philo sophers, task which was made possible in Frederick's State.
therefore not enough for men to learn to use their own understanding they must also learn to use rightly to help
them to do this the primary and essential vocation of philo sophy as Kant understood it. But we wish to ensure the true use of the understanding by a method which univer sally valid, we must first critically examine the laws which are involved in the very nature of the understanding itself. For the knowledge of a truth which valid for every one possible only when based on laws which are involved in the nature of the human mind as such, and have not been im ported into from without through facts of experience which must always be accidental and conditional. Kant con- vinced of the existence of such primary laws, involved the very constitution of the human mind. He looks upon them as laws which do not arise from experience, but which are rather prior to all experience, and, as determining its form, lie at the root of all theoretical, practical, and aesthetic judgments
out of which the world of consciousness built up. He has thrown this conviction into a scientific shape in the three critiques, namely of the Pure and of the Practical Reason, and of the Faculty of Judgment. On the one hand, Em- pirical Philosophy had held that all knowledge arises purely from without, from experienced perceptions, but had not been able to explain the fact that experience always conforms to law. Rationalistic Philosophy, again, had sought to derive all
from the constitution of the mind itself, from its innate ideas, but had left out of consideration its dependence upon experience, and had confounded the empty creations of thought with reality. Once more, both the rival schools of Empirical and Rationalistic philosophers had agreed at least in regarding all knowledge as something given--whether from without or from within -- and the knowing mind as only its passive recipient. Kant, on the contrary, taught that all cogni tion rests upon the union of the mind's activity and receptivity inasmuch as the material given us the multiformity of our perceptions, sensations, and sense-affections but the formation of this material into a system of knowledge the work of our own activity, this activity, in accordance with its own laws, giving to the material the form of rationality, which consti tutes the truth of our cognition. In opposition, therefore, to
,
? knowledge
? ? is ;
is
it
is
in
is if
;
in is
is
I
it
is
;
5'
; is
It is
I. ] a
? 6 BASIS OF MODERN THEOLOGY.
[Bk. I.
Rationalistic philosophy, Kant taught the dependence of the act of cognition on the material supplied in experience in space and time, and the impossibility of knowing the reality (das Ding an sich) lying behind these facts of experience. In opposition to Empirical philosophy, he taught that it is the subject which, by means of its characteristic perception of things under the forms of space and time and of the categories, converts this chaotic material into the regular orderly world called "experience"; and that in this respect the under standing itself is to be regarded as imposing laws on nature.
It was this latter conception, viz. , of reason, both in theoreti
cal knowledge and in practical judgments, imposing laws upon itself, which was the essence of Kant's thought and the open ing of a new era of philosophy. Of this there can be no doubt in the mind of any one who recognises the connexion between the different parts of the system, and its relation to the theories which preceded and followed it. It has, how ever, been widely supposed for some time, and particularly in theological circles, that the main point in Kant's philosophy is the limitation of human knowledge to phenomena, and the proof that we cannot know anything of the region lying beyond them. Nor can it be denied that Kant himself laid great emphasis upon this side of his teaching, inasmuch as this limitation of the speculative reason seemed to him the preliminary basis of the unconditional character of the prac tical reason. Nevertheless this view is obviously erroneous ; were it true, it would be impossible to say what claim to originality Kant's philosophy possessed, and how it could lay down the lines for future development. For a glance at
English philosophy prior to Kant shows that Locke, Berkeley, and especially Hume, had limited our knowledge to the phe nomena of consciousness, and had pronounced the reference of these phenomena to a trans-subjective reality a supposition incapable of proof, and likewise valueless, on account of the incognisability of the problematical external object. In the case of Hume this was the necessary consequence of his scep tical dissolution of the idea of causation, in which he saw only the expression of the customary transition of imagination from one idea to another, a subjective fiction which could not possibly carry us from the phenomena of consciousness to trans-subjective reality. therefore, this negative side of
? Kant's philosophy -- the limitation of our knowledge to ex
? ? If,
? Ch. KANT.
perience--were the important part of would have been
a repetition of that of his predecessor, Hume. Indeed, we
should be compelled to allow that, in point of consistency, Kant was inferior to Hume, since he admittedly broke through
this limitation several respects he made
selves the causes of sensations or experience the freedom of man's intelligible character the cause of actions in time God the cause of the existence of the highest good, or of the unity
;of the natural and moral worlds. He thus indisputably ex tended the category of causation to transcendental objects, in spite of its presupposed limitation to the world of experience. Such inconsistency would be quite incomprehensible as
ordinarily supposed, this sceptical doctrine were the gist and real object of Kant's theory of knowledge. The real state of the case as follows Kant had been impressed by the imposing character of Hume's sceptical philosophy, and had adopted its doctrine of the incognisability of things-in-them- selves this principle he had accepted prior to his own critical inquiry into the forms of cognition inherent in the human mind, but afterwards regarded as the result of this inquiry, though, he had undertaken the inquiry independently of this preconceived opinion, he would have come to the oppo site conclusion. This timidity, which hesitated to leap, with the aid of the idea of causality, the confines of the pheno mena of consciousness, and to lay hold of things-in-themselves, was a legacy from the scepticism of Hume, from which Kant was unable completely to free himself, even when, in oppo sition to Hume, he reasserted for the idea of causation its
things-in-them-
? as one of the fundamental a priori forms of judgment. was, therefore, net the desertion of Kant's philosophy, but simply the true and necessary carrying out of
its speculative principle and most characteristic position, when his successors rejected this sceptical limitation of our know" ledge, and credited thought with the power of theoretically
conceiving Being, as well as of practically moulding when, in other words, they put an end to the Kantian dualism of the Theoretical Reason, limited to the world of phenomena, and the Practical Reason, dwelling the world the intelligible.
The Practical Philosophy of Kant partly the complement, partly the antithesis of his theoretical philosophy. his theory of knowledge he had aimed at proving that cognition governed by the a priori forms existing the understanding,
rightful position
? ? is in
it, it
I n
in
of
;
it ;
It
in
; if
if,
is is7
is
:
;
:
I. ]
? 8 BASIS OF MODERN THEOLOGY. [Bk. I.
independently of experience, but for that very reason limited the action of the mind in cognition to merely the formal work-
ing-up of given conceptions. Similarly, in order that the law of moral action may possess unconditional and universal vali
dity, it must, in Kant's view, be independent of experience, and belong to the reason a priori, i. e. , must be autonomous ; it is as much the province of Reason as Practical to lay down laws for action, as of the Speculative Reason to do this for cognition ; but at the same time, if this practical law is to be a priori, it must be limited to the. form of action merely, and must not include any object of desire since the will can be influenced by an object of desire, only by the expectation of pleasure, a motive which acts differently in different individuals, and belongs to the lower sense-faculty of desire and hence can never claim universal or unconditional validity. All material principles, whatever their contents, are, according to Kant, equally eudaemonistic; they depend upon self-love, or the lower faculty of desire, and have only a subjective and empiri cally conditioned validity ; they are therefore merely pruden tial maxims, not pure laws of reason. The autonomous law, characteristic of reason, must accordingly relate solely to the general form of action, without the slightest admixture of material motives, which would only sully its purity ; its com
? mand as the " Categorical Imperative " is :
Act so that the rule governing thy will may also always serve as the principle
of a universal legislation.
Thus far Kant's doctrine of the legislation of the practical
reason seems to form a complete parallel to that of the specu lative reason ; but as soon as we look more closely at the rela tion of form and contents, an essential distinction becomes apparent. In the sphere of knowledge, form and contents, in spite of their different origin, are in no way really opposed, but only exist for, and with each other ; we are compelled to bring every object of sense-experience under the a priori forms of intuition and of thought, and our sense-perceptions, instead of being antagonistic to these forms, can only be apprehended by their means. It is quite otherwise in the sphere of action. The moral law is indeed the form of a
priori validity, which we can and ought to apply as a criterion to every object of sense-desire -- i. e. , to our empirical inclina tions and actions ; but we are by no means compelled to do this ; we are able to follow the natural inclinations
produced
? ? ?
the author's supervision by J. Frederick Smith.
Pfleiderer, Otto, 1839-1908.
London : S. Sonnenschein & Co. ; 1890.
http://hdl. handle. net/2027/hvd. 32044081801573
Public Domain in the United States, Google-digitized http://www. hathitrust. org/access_use#pd-us-google
We have determined this work to be in the public domain in the United States of America. It may not be in the public domain in other countries. Copies are provided as a preservation service. Particularly outside of the United States, persons receiving copies should make appropriate efforts to determine the copyright status of the work in their country and use the work accordingly. It is possible that current copyright holders, heirs or the estate of the authors of individual portions of the work, such as illustrations or photographs, assert copyrights over these portions. Depending on the nature of subsequent use that is made, additional rights may need to be obtained independently of anything we can address. The digital images and OCR of this work were produced by Google, Inc. (indicated by a watermark on each page in the PageTurner). Google requests that the images and OCR not be re-hosted, redistributed or used commercially. The images are provided for educational, scholarly, non-commercial purposes.
? ? C H'iC. i.
? ? HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY
? ? ? ? THE
DEVELOPMENT OF THEOLOGY IN GERMANY SINCE KANT,
AND ITS
PROGRESS IN GREAT BRITAIN SINCE 1825.
? ? ? THE
DEVELOPMENT OF THEOLOGY
IN GERMANY SINCE KANT, AND ITS
PROGRESS IN GREAT BRITAIN SINCE 1825. BY
? PFLEIDERER, D. D. , Professor of Tlteology in the Universiiy of Berlin.
TRANSLATED UNDER THE AUTHOR'S SUPERVISION BY J. FREDERICK SMITH.
OTTO
LONDON :
SWAN SONNENSCHEIN & CO. , NEW YORK: MACMILLAN & CO.
1890.
? ? C 7S-Co. -ao. tf V
? c
Co<Sia^t Ij-JUwau,
? Butlrr & Tannrr,
Thr Selwood Printing Works, Fromr, and London.
? ? ? PREFACE.
Two years ago I was asked by the Editor of the Library of Philosophy to write the volume tracing the Development
of Theology since Kant. According to the more precise statement of its scope, the work was to deal principally with the History of Modern Theology in Germany, but it was desired that it should include an account of the Protestant Theology of this century in other countries, particularly in Great Britain. Although I did not shut my eyes to the difficulties of the task, I resolved to undertake with the hope that might thereby contribute little towards a better mutual understanding between the German and English nations, especially towards the removal of numerous prejudices that still prevail in Great Britain with regard to the tendencies
of the German mind and make difficult for Englishmen to form a just view of our national character and aims.
But no sooner was the work actually taken in hand than the necessity appeared of reduction of its scope within narrower limits several respects. An account of theology outside Germany which should be at all satisfactory seemed to me impossible without study of on the spot in the
respective countries. On this account was compelled to leave entirely out of my survey the Theology of Holland1 and America, and to confine myself to that of Great Britain. With British Theology had for years kept myself so far in touch that a sojourn of some weeks in England and Scotland was sufficient, with the kind
? have made an exception in the case of the critical labours of Dr. Kuenen, of Leyden, which have had decided influence on the progress of German Theology. This scientific annexation of the distinguished Theolo gian of the Netherlands will, hope, be considered excusable.
assistance of
? ? I
a
a I
a
it
I1
it I
in
I
a
it,
? X PREFACE.
friendly theologians there, to supply the gaps in my know ledge and enable me to make a survey of the develop
ment of the Philosophy of Religion and Theology in Britain during the present century ; though notwithstanding all the pains I have bestowed upon the survey, I must fall back upon the kind consideration of my British readers.
But even when the range of the work had been thus re duced, the extent of the matters to be dealt with exceeded the limits of a volume of this series, so that I was obliged to lay down definite lines in the selection of what really belongs to my subject. As this is the development of theological thought, everything that belongs to the department of practical church
life, such as ecclesiastico-political events and party conflicts, or philanthropic movements of church societies, could at once be excluded. It was more difficult to draw the line with reference to non-theological science, particularly philosophy. Philosophy has in various ways had so much influence on the Theology of our century, that it is impossible quite to ignore it in a history of the latter. I have therefore brought it within the limits of my account so far, and only so far, as it has exerted a direct influence on the development of Theo
From the nature of the case, the line drawn cannot be so hard and fast that the concurrence of all readers in the selection made is to be expected. And those readers who may perhaps look for a more detailed treatment of the
Philosophy of Religion in Germany, may be referred to my History of the Philosophy of Religion from Spinoza to the Present Time, of which there is an English translation.
As regards the treatment of the materials, I have through out abstained from giving a complete, statistical enumeration of all the writers and titles of books holding a place in the theological literature of this century. Such a catalogue would have served but little the purpose of this book. I have re garded it as far more appropriate to deal somewhat more fully with the characteristic and important men and move ments, rather than by a mass of unimportant details to render
? logy.
? ? ? PREFACE. XI
the survey of the course of development difficult. Further, I dislike above all things that method of writing history which presents nothing but the writer's subjective judgment of people, without so much as allowing them to say what their own opinions and views are. To take all men as what they show themselves to be, is the only way in which we can
pay due regard to historical justice.
I have found but very few books to help me in my work.
For the period under review Dorner's History of Protestant Theology is much too meagre. The books of Carl Schwarz and Landerer on Recent Theology, unlike as they are as re gards style, the first being as brilliant as the second is dry, are
very much alike in this, that both have much more to say of men than they allow men to say for themselves. In the survey of English Theology, Dr. Tulloch's Movements of Religious
? has supplied me with useful points of observation, at all events for some parts of my sketch.
OTTO PFLEIDERER. Lichterfelde, near Berlin.
EDITOR'S NOTE.
Thought
Gross
Dr. Pfleidcrer's work is not a translation in the ordinary sense. It lias been written for the Library of Philosophy, and appears first in English. This involves the disadvantage that the reader will not have (as usually in translations) the original to which to refer in case of doubt. For this reason special care has been taken to secure a clear and accurate rendering. The Authors MS. has been translated into English by Mr.
J. Frederick Smith, whose work has been reviscd in proof by Dr. Pfleiderer, by the translator, and by myself.
EDITOR,
GENERAL
? ? ? CONTENTS.
Book I.
THE BASIS OF MODERN THEOLOGY IN GERMAN IDEALISTIC PHILOSOPHY.
Chapter I. Kant
II. Herder
? III. Schleiermacher ? IV. Fichte .
3 21
44
57 62
68
?
? ?
v. Schelling VI. Hegel
? Book II.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF DOGMATIC THEOLOGY UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF IDEALISTIC PHILOSOPHY.
. . . . . . . IV. Eclectic Theologians
Book III.
BIBLICAL AND HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
Chapter I. The Theology of the School of Kant . . . .
?
S5 II. The Theology of the School of Schleiermacher . . 103
III. Speculative Theology
1; 154
209 252 277
Chapter I. New Testament Criticism and Exegesis. ? II. Old Testament Criticism and Exegesis . ? III. History of the Church and of Dogma .
Book IV.
A SURVEY OF THE PROGRESS OF THEOLOGY IN GREAT BRITAIN SINCE 1825.
Chapter I. The Schools of Philosophy in their relation to Theology
? II. Parties and Movements in Theology Index
. . . .
402
303 355
? ? ? ? BOOK I.
THE BASIS OF MODERN THEOLOGY IN GERMAN IDEALISTIC PHILOSOPHY.
G. T.
? ? ? ?
CHAPTER I. KANT.
In the year 1784 Kant wrote an essay upon the question, What is Aufkldrung ? l In it he reviews the tendencies of
his age, and at the same time indicates in what sense he con siders them justifiable and is willing to further them. This
essay may be regarded as the programme of the task to which German philosophy in Kant and his successors has devoted itself.
" Free Thought," says Kant, " is the advance of man beyond the state of voluntary immaturity. By immaturity is meant, inability to use his own understanding except under the guidance of another. The immaturity is voluntary when the cause of it is not want of intelligence, but of resolution and courage to use it without another's guidance. Sapere aude / Dare to use thy own understanding ! is therefore the motto of Free Thought. If the question be asked, ' Do we live in a free-thinking age ? ' the answer No but we live in an age of free-thought. ' As things are at present, men as a whole are very far from possessing, or even from being able to acquire, the power of making a sure and right use of their own understandings in religious matters without the guidance of others. On the other hand, we have clear indications that the field now lies nevertheless open before them, to which they can freely make their way, and that the
hindrances to general Freedom of Thought, or the abandon ment of the state of voluntary immaturity, are gradually be coming less. In this sense the present age the age of Free Thought, or the century of Frederick the Great. "
? Aufklarung. Any translation of this ter? ninus technicus may mislead. From Kant's authoritative definition of the thing, appears that our English
Free-thinking " substantially represents it. --Tr.
? ?
XI
the survey of the course of development difficult. Further, I dislike above all things that method of writing history which presents nothing but the writer's subjective judgment of people, without so much as allowing them to say what their own opinions and views are. To take all men as what they show themselves to be, is the only way in which we can
pay due regard to historical justice.
I have found but very few books to help me in my work.
For the period under review Dorner's History of Protestant Theology is much too meagre. The books of Carl Schwarz and Landerer on Recent Theology, unlike as they are as re gards style, the first being as brilliant as the second is dry, are
very much alike in this, that both have much more to say of men than they allow men to say for themselves. In the survey of English Theology, Dr. Tulloch's Movements of Religious
? has supplied me with useful points of observation, at all events for some parts of my sketch.
OTTO PFLEIDERER. Lichterfelde, near Berlin.
EDITOR'S NOTE.
Thought
Gross
Dr. Pfleidcrer's work is not a translation in the ordinary sense. It lias been written for the Library of Philosophy, and appears first in English. This involves the disadvantage that the reader will not have (as usually in translations) the original to which to refer in case of doubt. For this reason special care has been taken to secure a clear and accurate rendering. The Authors MS. has been translated into English by Mr.
J. Frederick Smith, whose work has been reviscd in proof by Dr. Pfleiderer, by the translator, and by myself.
EDITOR,
GENERAL
? ? ? CONTENTS.
Book I.
THE BASIS OF MODERN THEOLOGY IN GERMAN IDEALISTIC PHILOSOPHY.
Chapter I. Kant
II. Herder
? III. Schleiermacher ? IV. Fichte .
3 21
44
57 62
68
?
? ?
v. Schelling VI. Hegel
? Book II.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF DOGMATIC THEOLOGY UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF IDEALISTIC PHILOSOPHY.
. . . . . . . IV. Eclectic Theologians
Book III.
BIBLICAL AND HISTORICAL THEOLOGY.
Chapter I. The Theology of the School of Kant . . . .
?
S5 II. The Theology of the School of Schleiermacher . . 103
III. Speculative Theology
1; 154
209 252 277
Chapter I. New Testament Criticism and Exegesis. ? II. Old Testament Criticism and Exegesis . ? III. History of the Church and of Dogma .
Book IV.
A SURVEY OF THE PROGRESS OF THEOLOGY IN GREAT BRITAIN SINCE 1825.
Chapter I. The Schools of Philosophy in their relation to Theology
? II. Parties and Movements in Theology Index
. . . .
402
303 355
? ? ? ? BOOK I.
THE BASIS OF MODERN THEOLOGY IN GERMAN IDEALISTIC PHILOSOPHY.
G. T.
? ? ? ?
CHAPTER I. KANT.
In the year 1784 Kant wrote an essay upon the question, What is Aufkldrung ? l In it he reviews the tendencies of
his age, and at the same time indicates in what sense he con siders them justifiable and is willing to further them. This
essay may be regarded as the programme of the task to which German philosophy in Kant and his successors has devoted itself.
" Free Thought," says Kant, " is the advance of man beyond the state of voluntary immaturity. By immaturity is meant, inability to use his own understanding except under the guidance of another. The immaturity is voluntary when the cause of it is not want of intelligence, but of resolution and courage to use it without another's guidance. Sapere aude / Dare to use thy own understanding ! is therefore the motto of Free Thought. If the question be asked, ' Do we live in a free-thinking age ? ' the answer No but we live in an age of free-thought. ' As things are at present, men as a whole are very far from possessing, or even from being able to acquire, the power of making a sure and right use of their own understandings in religious matters without the guidance of others. On the other hand, we have clear indications that the field now lies nevertheless open before them, to which they can freely make their way, and that the
hindrances to general Freedom of Thought, or the abandon ment of the state of voluntary immaturity, are gradually be coming less. In this sense the present age the age of Free Thought, or the century of Frederick the Great. "
? Aufklarung. Any translation of this ter? ninus technicus may mislead. From Kant's authoritative definition of the thing, appears that our English
Free-thinking " substantially represents it. --Tr.
? ? 1'
1
it
is
is, '
;
? 4
BASIS OF MODERN THEOLOGY. [Bk. I.
It is only by slow degrees that the people generally can reach Freedom of Thought. It is not by means of a revolu tion, which can never effect a real reform in habits of thought ; a revolution only exchanges old prejudices for new, which then, as much as the old ones, serve as leading-strings to the unthinking crowd. The one proper method is the free use of reason as a public right, whereby the wise are put in a position to diffuse their superior intelligence and render it the common property of all. To check the free public employ ment of reason, in the interests of any existing social institu tions or laws, would, in Kant's view, be " a sin against the nature of man, the primary purpose of which consists in just this advance in Free Thinking. " Moreover, this public use of reason by the learned, Kant argues, involves no danger, inasmuch as it does not seek by any means to put an end to the performance of civil duties or of the obligations imposed on each man by his calling ; it was precisely under the veil of severe civil discipline, as it existed in the State of Frederick, that freedom of mind had more room to spread than is usually the case where there is greater civil liberty. When once however by freedom of thought the mental habits of a nation have been so educated that it is rendered more capable of
freedom in action, this education finally reacts upon the maxims of the government in such a way that it treats men no longer as machines but in a manner suited to their true
dignity.
We see from this essay that Kant participated to the full
in the movement of his age towards Aufkldrung, but that he gauged its meaning otherwise and more profoundly than did his contemporaries. He is no less opposed to the complacent vanity of the German popular philosophers, who thought that they already possessed Aufkldrung --the truth in religion and morals, -- than he is to the radicalism of the French party of progress, who imagined that they could reach the goal by means of revolution, by abjuring in theory and practice all
? beliefs and institutions. Of course, according to Kant, mankind is bound to be rationally free and enlightened, but they are not so as yet ; and will not"become so by merely
discarding old prejudices, but only by a true reform in habits of thought," whereby they will be enabled to " make a sure and right use " of their own understandings. To educate mankind for this true employment of the understanding is
existing
? ? ? Ch. KANT.
the vocation of men of letters, and more especially of philo sophers, task which was made possible in Frederick's State.
therefore not enough for men to learn to use their own understanding they must also learn to use rightly to help
them to do this the primary and essential vocation of philo sophy as Kant understood it. But we wish to ensure the true use of the understanding by a method which univer sally valid, we must first critically examine the laws which are involved in the very nature of the understanding itself. For the knowledge of a truth which valid for every one possible only when based on laws which are involved in the nature of the human mind as such, and have not been im ported into from without through facts of experience which must always be accidental and conditional. Kant con- vinced of the existence of such primary laws, involved the very constitution of the human mind. He looks upon them as laws which do not arise from experience, but which are rather prior to all experience, and, as determining its form, lie at the root of all theoretical, practical, and aesthetic judgments
out of which the world of consciousness built up. He has thrown this conviction into a scientific shape in the three critiques, namely of the Pure and of the Practical Reason, and of the Faculty of Judgment. On the one hand, Em- pirical Philosophy had held that all knowledge arises purely from without, from experienced perceptions, but had not been able to explain the fact that experience always conforms to law. Rationalistic Philosophy, again, had sought to derive all
from the constitution of the mind itself, from its innate ideas, but had left out of consideration its dependence upon experience, and had confounded the empty creations of thought with reality. Once more, both the rival schools of Empirical and Rationalistic philosophers had agreed at least in regarding all knowledge as something given--whether from without or from within -- and the knowing mind as only its passive recipient. Kant, on the contrary, taught that all cogni tion rests upon the union of the mind's activity and receptivity inasmuch as the material given us the multiformity of our perceptions, sensations, and sense-affections but the formation of this material into a system of knowledge the work of our own activity, this activity, in accordance with its own laws, giving to the material the form of rationality, which consti tutes the truth of our cognition. In opposition, therefore, to
,
? knowledge
? ? is ;
is
it
is
in
is if
;
in is
is
I
it
is
;
5'
; is
It is
I. ] a
? 6 BASIS OF MODERN THEOLOGY.
[Bk. I.
Rationalistic philosophy, Kant taught the dependence of the act of cognition on the material supplied in experience in space and time, and the impossibility of knowing the reality (das Ding an sich) lying behind these facts of experience. In opposition to Empirical philosophy, he taught that it is the subject which, by means of its characteristic perception of things under the forms of space and time and of the categories, converts this chaotic material into the regular orderly world called "experience"; and that in this respect the under standing itself is to be regarded as imposing laws on nature.
It was this latter conception, viz. , of reason, both in theoreti
cal knowledge and in practical judgments, imposing laws upon itself, which was the essence of Kant's thought and the open ing of a new era of philosophy. Of this there can be no doubt in the mind of any one who recognises the connexion between the different parts of the system, and its relation to the theories which preceded and followed it. It has, how ever, been widely supposed for some time, and particularly in theological circles, that the main point in Kant's philosophy is the limitation of human knowledge to phenomena, and the proof that we cannot know anything of the region lying beyond them. Nor can it be denied that Kant himself laid great emphasis upon this side of his teaching, inasmuch as this limitation of the speculative reason seemed to him the preliminary basis of the unconditional character of the prac tical reason. Nevertheless this view is obviously erroneous ; were it true, it would be impossible to say what claim to originality Kant's philosophy possessed, and how it could lay down the lines for future development. For a glance at
English philosophy prior to Kant shows that Locke, Berkeley, and especially Hume, had limited our knowledge to the phe nomena of consciousness, and had pronounced the reference of these phenomena to a trans-subjective reality a supposition incapable of proof, and likewise valueless, on account of the incognisability of the problematical external object. In the case of Hume this was the necessary consequence of his scep tical dissolution of the idea of causation, in which he saw only the expression of the customary transition of imagination from one idea to another, a subjective fiction which could not possibly carry us from the phenomena of consciousness to trans-subjective reality. therefore, this negative side of
? Kant's philosophy -- the limitation of our knowledge to ex
? ? If,
? Ch. KANT.
perience--were the important part of would have been
a repetition of that of his predecessor, Hume. Indeed, we
should be compelled to allow that, in point of consistency, Kant was inferior to Hume, since he admittedly broke through
this limitation several respects he made
selves the causes of sensations or experience the freedom of man's intelligible character the cause of actions in time God the cause of the existence of the highest good, or of the unity
;of the natural and moral worlds. He thus indisputably ex tended the category of causation to transcendental objects, in spite of its presupposed limitation to the world of experience. Such inconsistency would be quite incomprehensible as
ordinarily supposed, this sceptical doctrine were the gist and real object of Kant's theory of knowledge. The real state of the case as follows Kant had been impressed by the imposing character of Hume's sceptical philosophy, and had adopted its doctrine of the incognisability of things-in-them- selves this principle he had accepted prior to his own critical inquiry into the forms of cognition inherent in the human mind, but afterwards regarded as the result of this inquiry, though, he had undertaken the inquiry independently of this preconceived opinion, he would have come to the oppo site conclusion. This timidity, which hesitated to leap, with the aid of the idea of causality, the confines of the pheno mena of consciousness, and to lay hold of things-in-themselves, was a legacy from the scepticism of Hume, from which Kant was unable completely to free himself, even when, in oppo sition to Hume, he reasserted for the idea of causation its
things-in-them-
? as one of the fundamental a priori forms of judgment. was, therefore, net the desertion of Kant's philosophy, but simply the true and necessary carrying out of
its speculative principle and most characteristic position, when his successors rejected this sceptical limitation of our know" ledge, and credited thought with the power of theoretically
conceiving Being, as well as of practically moulding when, in other words, they put an end to the Kantian dualism of the Theoretical Reason, limited to the world of phenomena, and the Practical Reason, dwelling the world the intelligible.
The Practical Philosophy of Kant partly the complement, partly the antithesis of his theoretical philosophy. his theory of knowledge he had aimed at proving that cognition governed by the a priori forms existing the understanding,
rightful position
? ? is in
it, it
I n
in
of
;
it ;
It
in
; if
if,
is is7
is
:
;
:
I. ]
? 8 BASIS OF MODERN THEOLOGY. [Bk. I.
independently of experience, but for that very reason limited the action of the mind in cognition to merely the formal work-
ing-up of given conceptions. Similarly, in order that the law of moral action may possess unconditional and universal vali
dity, it must, in Kant's view, be independent of experience, and belong to the reason a priori, i. e. , must be autonomous ; it is as much the province of Reason as Practical to lay down laws for action, as of the Speculative Reason to do this for cognition ; but at the same time, if this practical law is to be a priori, it must be limited to the. form of action merely, and must not include any object of desire since the will can be influenced by an object of desire, only by the expectation of pleasure, a motive which acts differently in different individuals, and belongs to the lower sense-faculty of desire and hence can never claim universal or unconditional validity. All material principles, whatever their contents, are, according to Kant, equally eudaemonistic; they depend upon self-love, or the lower faculty of desire, and have only a subjective and empiri cally conditioned validity ; they are therefore merely pruden tial maxims, not pure laws of reason. The autonomous law, characteristic of reason, must accordingly relate solely to the general form of action, without the slightest admixture of material motives, which would only sully its purity ; its com
? mand as the " Categorical Imperative " is :
Act so that the rule governing thy will may also always serve as the principle
of a universal legislation.
Thus far Kant's doctrine of the legislation of the practical
reason seems to form a complete parallel to that of the specu lative reason ; but as soon as we look more closely at the rela tion of form and contents, an essential distinction becomes apparent. In the sphere of knowledge, form and contents, in spite of their different origin, are in no way really opposed, but only exist for, and with each other ; we are compelled to bring every object of sense-experience under the a priori forms of intuition and of thought, and our sense-perceptions, instead of being antagonistic to these forms, can only be apprehended by their means. It is quite otherwise in the sphere of action. The moral law is indeed the form of a
priori validity, which we can and ought to apply as a criterion to every object of sense-desire -- i. e. , to our empirical inclina tions and actions ; but we are by no means compelled to do this ; we are able to follow the natural inclinations
produced
? ? ?
