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Untitled Article
various points of mutual contact unavoidably Te-act upon theology . This danger is , however , no other than that to which the English Episcopal , nay even the Romanist , and indeed every part of the Christian Church , is exposed < and this disease , thus universal to mankind , may indeed delay , but cannot preclude , the restoration of German theology , derived from the genuine sources of philological and historical investigation , combined with that experience in faith which brings the mind and heart in vivid contact with them .
If , however , Mr . Rose has failed to perceive the necessary course of developement of German theology , so neither has he become sufficiently acquainted with , nor duly appreciated , the counter-workings by which the further progress of the evil was even in the worst and most perplexed times opposed and checked . He names indeed Storr as an opponent of the rationalist school , yet so that no one could thence perceive that this theologian was only the representative of a party at all times considerable and
important . He names the philosophy of Schelling , yet almost as if all the impulses in religion and in the church , which , for almost twenty years , have been tending to improvement and increased unity , were derived from the suspicious source of mystical philosophemata . Neither was the case . Storr was but the disciple of the whole school of Wurtemberg and Tubingen ,
of which he was subsequently the head ; a school which , without being exempt from the errors of the time , has now for between thirty and forty years united in its writings the most conscientious earnestness with the deepest investigation . Here should have been mentioned together with Storr the names and the works of the two Flatts , of Siisskind , Bengel , Steudel , &c . To the same effect notice should also have been taken of
Reinhard , who , chiefly by the pure means of works alike classical and theological , promoted an improved spirit in Saxony ; of Knapp , who , but lately deceased , blended the purest orthodoxy with classical attainments , which might satisfy even English scholars , and with a depth of scriptural interpretation which was the object of respect in every school ; of Hess , the venerable investigator and relator of biblical history ; of the works of Planck on Theological Encyclopaedia , and in defence of Christianity ; of
Kleuker in Kiel , Schott in Jena , Schwarz in Heidelberg , and of the direction ( in part one of scientific depth ) decisively opposed to the common rationalism , which the theological faculty of Berlin has by its historical and philosophical investigations , for more than fifteen years , imparted to theological study . All this must be viewed in connexion with the great number of well-disposed and Christian practical clergy in evangelical Germany , and with the almost universal removal of the lower classes from unchristian
books upon religion . It should have been acknowledged , that in certain parts of Germany and Switzerland , Christian societies existed for the purpose of mutually imparting biblical and Christian knowledge , and for the circulation of the Scriptures , even previous to the ( it must be confessed , somewhat too vehement ) impulse given by the British Bible Society . It should have been noticed how the community of the Moravian brethren
exerted , upon the whole , a very deep and gentle influence ( even though not altogether exempt from error ) upon the very highest as well as upon the lowest classes , in producing the reception of the fundamental doctrines of Christianity , especially of the Atonement . It should have been remarked , that the entirely voluntary associations in Bible and Missionary Societies could not have been so universal and so great , as is upon the whole the case , without a considerable foundation of Christian disposition ; this and
Untitled Article
528 Professor Sack * s View of Religion in Germany .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1828, page 528, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2563/page/16/
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