RATIONALISM

The interpretation of scripture truths upon the principles of human reason; which has become famous in the present day by the theological systems to which it has given birth in Germany. The history of the progre of the opinions of the reformed churches of that country may be found in Dr. Pusey's e ay upon this subject. He conceives the polemical discu ions which prevailed throughout those communities in the 17th and first half of the following century to have prepared the way for the reception of the low views of Christianity, as a moral system, which were derived from the writings of the concealed or avowed deists of this country, — Herbert, Tyndal, Morgan, To land, .; and from the tone with which they were reviewed by the sincere, but odd, theologians of the orthodox party. From the middle of the last century there has arisen in Germany a succe ion of divines — Banmgarten, Michael is, Semler, Eichhorn, Paulus, Bretschneider, .— who have endeavoured either to affix a lower and more human character to the invisible operations of God upon men through Christianity, or to reduce the accounts which we have of the foundation of our religion to the mixture of truth and error natural to fallible men. They have questioned the genuinene of almost all the separate parts of Scripture, and the accuracy of all their supernatural narratives. The discredit into which these theologians appear to have fallen arises, in a great measure, from the inability they have shown to produce a connected and consistent system of religion upon the low ground which they have taken up. Of later years a much more spiritual conception of the nature of scripture promises and Christian a istances is observable in the writings of German divines, under the operation of which their theological criticism has already a umed a more dignified and exalted tone. The sensation created by Strau 's Ltfe of Christ, the latest, and in some respects the most remarkable production of the Rationalist school, may probably have aided in this reaction. (See the article " Rationalism us," in the Conv. Lexicon. The English reader may consult the writings of Mr. Hugh Rose and Dr. Pusey on the subject of German rationalism; At Lins on's View (tf Universities in Germany; Hawkins's Germany, and two articles in the Church of England Quarterly Review, Oct. 1837, and Jan. 1838.) [s. 1037]