Professor Ernst Osiander,[1] of the seminary at Maulbronn, appeals to Cicero: "0 magna vis veritatis, quae contra hominum ingenia, callidi- tatem, sollertiam facillime se per ipsam defendit." (0 mighty power of truth, which against all the ingenious devices, the craft and subtlety, of men, easily defends itself by its own strength!)
Franz Baader, of Munich,[2] ornaments his work with the reflection: "II faut que les hommes soient bien loin de toi, o Verite! puisque tu supporte (sic!) leur ignorance, leurs erreurs, et leurs crimes." (Men must indeed be far from thee, 0 Truth, since thou art able to bear with their ignorance, their errors, and their crimes!)
Tholuck [3] girds himself with the Catholic maxim of Vincent of Lerins: "Teneanmus quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus creditum est." (Let us hold that which has been believed always, every- where, by all.)
The fear of Strauss had, indeed, a tendency to inspire Protestant theologians with catholicising ideas. One of the most competent reviewers of his book, Dr. Ullmann in the Studien und Kritiken, had expressed the wish that it had been written in Latin to prevent its doing harm among the people. [4] An anonymous dialogue of the period shows us the schoolmaster coming in distress to the clergyman. He has allowed himself to be persuaded into reading the book by his acquaintance the Major, and he is now anxious to get rid of the doubts which it has aroused in him. When his cure has been safely accomplished, the reverend gentleman dismisses him with the following exhortation: "Now I hope that after the experience which you have had you will for the future refrain from reading books of this kind, which are not written for you, and of which there is no necessity for you to take any notice; and for the refutation of which, should that be needful, you have no
- ↑ Apologie des Lebens Jesu gegenuber dem neuesten Versuch, es in Mythem aufzulosen. (Defence of the Life of Jesus against the latest attempt to resolve it into myth.) By Job. Ernst Osiander, Professor at the Evangelical Seminary at Maulbronn.
- ↑ Uber das Leben-Jesu van Strauss, von Franz Baader, 1836. Here may be mentioned also the lectures which Krabbe (subsequently Professor at Rostock) delivered against Strauss: Vorlesungen ilber das Leben-Jesu fur Theologen und Nicht-Theologen (Lectures on the Life of Jesus for Theologians and non-Theologians), Hamburg, 1839. They are more tolerable to non-theologians than to theologians. The author at a later period distinguished himself by the fanatical zeal with which he urged on the deposition of his colleague, Michael Baumgarten, whose Geschichte Jesu, published in 1859, though fully accepting the miracles, was weighed in the balance by Krabbe and found light-weight by the Rostock standard.
- ↑ For the title, see head of chapter. Tholuck was born in 1799 at Breslau, and became in 1826 Professor at Halle, where he worked until his death in 1877. With the possible exception of Neander, he was the most distinguished representative of the mediating theology. His piety was deep and his learning was wide, but his judgment went astray in the effort to steer his freight of pietism safely between the rocks of rationalism and the shoals of orthodoxy.
- ↑ Stud. u. Krit., 1836, p. 777. In his "Open letter to Dr. Ullmann," Strauss examines this suggestion in a serious and dignified fashion, and shows that nothing would be gained by such expedients.�Streitschriften, 3rd pt., p. 129 ff.
