Abbildungen der Seite
PDF
EPUB

Germans; ch. ii reports on the spreading of Christianity under the dominion of the Romans; chaps. iii, iv, and v are occupied with the conversion of the Franks, the Alemanni, and the Bavarians; ch. vi is devoted to Boniface and his forerunners from England; ch. vii to Charlemagne ; ch. viii to Ansgarius, the Apostle of the North; ch. ix treats of the conversion of the Sclavonians in Germany, and ch. x of the conversion of the Prussians. An additional chapter discusses the question, What influence has the introduction of Christianity exercised on Germany?

A curious book, which well characterizes the relation of the European Churches to the state, has been published by Dr. Vilmar, the well-known Romanizing Lutheran, on the history of the denominational character of the Church of the Hessian states, especially of the Electorate of Hesse Kassel. (Geschichte des confessionstandes der evang. Kirche in Hessen. Marburg, 1860.) The Church of HesseKassel is a model of all state Churches; it does not know itself whether it is Lutheran and Reformed, and to decide this question, not the personal faith of the clergy and the congregations is consulted, but old parchments, two and three hundred years old. The controversy is carried on between the Lutheran and Reformed theologians with the utmost acrimony.

The Struggle of Luther with the AntiChristian Principles of the Revolution (Luthers Ringen mit den Anti-Christlichen Principien der Revolution. Halle, 1860) is the title of a work by H. Vorrester. The subject is one which has often occupied the attention of Protestant writers of various schools, and has received from them the most diverging answers. The ideas of right, reformation, and resolution; the nature of the Apostolic Church; Christianity and Anti-Christianity in their mutual development; Humanism in general, and German Humanism in particular; the revolutionary knighthood, and, in particular, Ulric von Hutten; Luther's reformatory mission, and his deviations from the purity of this mission, and the lasting influences which the period of this deviation had on the religious and theological position of Luther in the Church, are the attractive headings of the several chapters.

3. Other Branches of Theology. Ehrenfeuchter. Fr. (Professor of Goettingen) Practical Theology (Practische Theo

logie) 1 vol., pp. 460. Goettingen, 1859. The author assigns to practical theology the task to represent the life of the Church, and to show that its existence is intimately connected with the highest aims of man, and that therefore every deviation from the Church is an injury of our best interests. This first volume is divided into two parts. The first part treats of the essence, the appearance and present condition of the Church, of the ministry, and of practical theology as a system. The second book is devoted to the missionary efforts of the Church, and speaks of the pagan world, or the object of the mission; of Christianity, or the principle of the mission; and of the historical law, which is observable in the epochs of the mission. To this is added a chapter on the doctrine of the mission, on missionary preaching, and on the relation of the mission to the Church.

The question of divorce, which is at present agitated in nearly all the Protestant Churches of Europe, has been again treated of in a small work of E. Huschke, Professor of Law at the University of Breslau. (Was lehrt Gottes Wort von der Ehescheidung. Leipzic, 1860.) The author is one of the leaders of the Separated Lutherans of Germany, who chose rather to secede from the established Church than to give up any of the doctrinal or ecclesiastical landmarks of their theology. In this question the strict Lutherans have maintained a very honorable contest against the laxity of the Prussian legislation in behalf of what they consider, in common with most evangelical denominations, the true Scriptural doctrine on divorce.

II. FRANCE.

Saint René Taillandier, Histoire et Philosophie Religieuse. Paris, 1860.

Mr. Taillandier, Professor in Montpelier, has collected in this volume the frequent contributions which for years he has furnished to the Revue des Deux Mondes.

Though mostly devoted to purely literary questions, his contributions have awakened a great interest also in religious circles, as the author is of a deeply religious turn of mind, and belongs to that school of French scholars who desire and seek to promote the union between faith and science, between Christianity and philosophy. As the number of French Protestants is so small, and their own literary publications cannot, therefore, be numerous, it is a good sign of the times

that so many leading scholars of France proclaim the necessity of a return of the science to faith, and acknowledge at the same time the great merits of Protestantism, and the superiority of the Protestant civilization.

Le R. P. Felix, S. J. Le Progrès par le Christianisme. Conferences de Notre Dame de Paris. 4 vols. Paris, 1859.

This volume contains the Lent Sermons,

held in the Church of Notre Dame of Paris in 1856, 1857, 1858, and 1859 by Father Felix, who is generally regarded as the best pulpit orator of the Roman Church in France now living. His extraordinary oratorical gifts are attested by the Parisian press of all shades of opinion. The last number of the Revue Chrétienne makes the following remarks on the Lent Sermons preached by him in the same church this year : 46 Father Felix, whose conférences are always attended by an immense crowd, treated this year of the family. We shall not repeat what we have said before of his oratorical gifts, of the clearness of his plans, of the lucidity of his conclusions, and of the charm of his delivery. Father Felix has shown himself very strong when stigmatizing the open or secret vices of modern society, but has been less so when pointing out the remedy that can save it. When he rolls up before us the ideal pic ture of the Catholic world, when he desires to make us admire those times of profound faith when marriage was respected, and disorder appeared but rarely like a monster which chilled the heart, he might have seen a smile steal upon the mouths of many of his hearers, who sought in vain in their historic reminiscences that golden age to which he alluded. Instinctively the hearers of every Catholic sermon now-a-days distinguish two different parts. As long as the orator castigates the evil, they feel that he is right, and his appeals will bear fruit; but when the man of the Church endeavors to bring back his generation to the papal theocracy, modern intelligence recoils and acts on the defens

[merged small][ocr errors]

Reuss, (Professor at the Theological Faculty of Strasbourg,) Histoire de la Théologie Chrétienne au siècle apostolique.

Schwalb, Étude comparative des Dootrines de Mélancthon, Zwingle et Calvin.

La Papauté en présence de l'Evangile et de l'histoire.

E. Casalis (formerly missionary in South Africa, now director of the missionary seminary in Paris) Les Bassoutos, ou vingt-trois ans d'expériences et d'observations au sud de l'Afrique.

Among the announcements of Roman Catholic literature we find a complete edition, in 14 vols., of the works of one of the favorite modern saints of the Roman Church, Francis of Sales, Bishop of Geneva. (Euvres complètes de St. Francois de Sales.)

Cretineau Joly, J. (the ultramontane author of a comprehensive history of the Jesuits) l'Eglise Romaine en face de la Revolution.

Bautain, L. Philosophie des lois au point de vue Chretien. The author is favorably known to Protestants no less than to his coreligionists as a man of profound learning, evangelical views, and deep piety. A work of his on eloquence was published last year in an English translation in New York. Ponlevoy, le P. A. de Ravignan.

Vie du R. P. Xavier

Lacordaire, le R. P. Sainte Marie-Made

leine.

Nicholas, Auguste. La Vierge Marie. The work is now complete in four vol-. umes. The author, one of the most active ultramontanes in France, is a high officer of the government. His son became, at the beginning of the present year, a Dominican friar.

ART. XII-SYNOPSIS OF THE QUARTERLIES.

1.-American Quarterly Reviews.

I. THE CHRISTIAN Review, April, 1860.—1. The Ecclesiastical Miracles: 2. Moral Philosophy: 3. Baden Powell on the Immutability of Physical Laws: 4. Dr. Edward Beecher's "Conflict" and "Concord:" 5. The Doctrine of Romans i, 18-23: 6. The Defense of Socrates: 7. Modern Skepticism and its Refutation.

II. THE NEW ENGLANDER, May, 1860.-1. Humboldt, Ritter, and the New Geography: 2. The Power of Contrary Choice: 3. Discourse commemorative of Rev. C. A. Goodrich, D. D.: 4. Hebrew Servitude: 5. Are the Phenomena of Spiritualism Supernatural? 6. Worcester's Dictionary: 7. Common Schools and the English Language: 8. The Marble Faun: 9. The Crime against the Right of Suffrage.

III. BROWNSON'S QUARTERLY REVIEW, April, 1860.-1. Limits of Religious Thought: 2. Etudes de Theologie: 3. Ventura on Christian Politics. 4. Burnett's Path to the Church: 5. American College at Rome.

IV. THE PRESBYTERIAN QUARTERLY REVIEW, April, 1860.-1. Who is Responsible for the Present Slavery Agitation: 2. Pythagoras: 3. The American State and Christianity: 4. The Annihilation of the Wicked. 5. The Insurrection of the Paxton Boys.

V. THE THEOLOGICAL AND LITERARY JOURNAL, April, 1860.-1. Dr. Fairbairn's Typology: 2. God is Love: 3. Dr. J. F. Berg's False View of the Second Advent: 4. Divine Authority of the Bible, in Review of Rev. A. Barnes: 5. Designation and Exposition of Isaiah, chapters xlix, 1, and li. VI. THE AMERICAN QUARTERLY CHURCH REVIEW, April, 1860.1. Philosophy and the Knowledge of God: 2. New Gospel in New England and the Church: 3. Bishop Griswold on the Apostolic Office: 4. The Moravians: 5. English Reformation: The Nag's Head Story: 6. Free Churches. VII. THE THEOLOGICAL AND LITERARY JOURNAL, January, 1860.1. Dr. Mansel's Limits of Religious Thought: 2. Notes on Scripture, Matthew xxiii, xxiv: 3. Christ's Promises, in the Epistles to the Churches, to those who are Victorious: 4. The Indo-Syrian Church: 5. Designation and Exposition of Isaiah, chapters xlix, 1, and li: 6. The Book of Judges: 7. Mr. Hequembourg's Plan of Creation.

VIII. THE BIBlical RepertoRY AND PRINCETON REVIEW, April, 1860.—— 1. Theories of the Eldership: 2. The Dissolution of Empires: 3. Sir W. Hamilton's Theory of Perception: 4. Man, Moral and Physical: 5. The First and Second Adam.

IX. THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN QUARTERLY REVIEW, April, 1860.1. Foreign Missions: 2. Letters on Psalmody: 3. The First Adam and the Second 4. Verity of the Old Testament History: 5. Secondary Uses of the Ceremonial Law: 6. Systematic Beneficence.

X. THE EVANGELICAL REVIEW, April, 1860.-1. The Study of the Scriptures: 2. For the Gifts and Calling of God are without Repentance: 3. Language: 4. Baccalaureate Address: 5. Imagination : 6. Christian Instruction in our Colleges: 7. The Field and Harvest of Ministerial Labor: 7. The Lutheran Church in Russia: 9. The Divinity of Christ: 10. Reminiscences of Lutheran Clergymen : 11. Dorpater Zeitschrift.

XI. THE MERCERSBURG REVIEW, April, 1860.-1. Constantine the Great: 2. The Old Doctrine of Christian Baptism: 3. The English Language: 4. German Hymnology: 5. Religion and Christianity: 6. What is a Catechumen? 7. Mansel's Limits of Religious Thought.

XII. THE SOUTHERN PRESBYTERIAN REVIEW, April, 1860.-1. A Few More Words on the Revised Book of Discipline: 2. The Relation of Organic Science to Sociology: 3. The Supernatural in the Scriptures: 4. Presbyterian Preaching at the South: 5. The Divine Right of Presbyterian Church Government; a Review of Killen's Ancient Church: 6. Baird's Elohim Revealed.

XIII. BIBLIOTHECA SACRA AND BIBLICAL REPOSITORY, April, 1860.1. Rothe's Ethics: 2. Comparative Phonology; or, the Phonetic System of the Indo-European Languages: 3. Exegesis of 1 Corinthians xv, 35-44, as Illustrated by Natural History and Chemistry: 4. John George Hamann : 5. Romanism and a Free Bible: 6. Dr. Nathaniel W. Taylor on Moral Government in the Abstract.

XIV. AMERICAN THEOLOGICAL REVIEW, May, 1860.-1. New England Theology historically considered: 2. Hickok's Rational Cosmology: 3. Unitarian Tendencies: 4. The Jewish Christian's Notion of a Redeemer: 5. The Alleged Progress in Theology: 6. Denominationalism not Sectarian : 7. Darwin on the Origin of Species: 8. Maine De Biran's Philosophy.

The American Theological Review has been called into existence by the necessities of the elder Calvinism. So rapid and general have been the advances of the more Arminian modifications of that system, and so uniformly have the higher periodicals of that section of the Church in these latitudes marched with those advances, that the more venerable and consistent form has been left, we believe, without a champion. Such a champion, able and scholarly, the present number, under the editorship of Professor H. B. Smith, shows itself; and we doubt not the work will live to do manful battle, not only for its own theological individualisms, but for the general Church of Christ.

The first article, by Professor E. A. Lawrence, of the East Windsor Theological Seminary, purposes to state the true limits and history of New England Calvinism. It is from an able and eloquent pen, which manages its facts with no ordinary skill. Professor Park dates the existence of New England theology from the commencement of Edwards's career. The present Review claims to remove this modern landmark backward, and include within the limits of New England theology the prevalent doctrines of the Congregational Churches generally from near the commencement of their existence. And in its derivative character, as drawn from the apostles, it "takes John Calvin into its genealogical line." The installation of this theology as adjectively "New England," took place in the adoption of the "Westminster Confession of Faith in 1648," which is now "the accredited exponent of New England theology."

Should any uncircumcised Arminian like ourself attempt an interference in this high debate, he may learn what sort of a setdown he will receive from the following passage. The writer is contrasting the believing theologian with the speculative: "The derivative character of the one leads along the line of an illustrious descent to its origin with the apostles and their Lord. The lineal branches of the other came to an end some centuries this side of the

apostolic age, in Sabellius or Socinus, Arius or Arminius, whose substantive doctrine, so far as not derived from Scripture, was original, and because original, erroneous. A desire to be the originator of essentially new Christian doctrines has ever been a leading cause of corruption in theology. It is the great practical error, the original sin by which the race fell. Hence the propagators of such original theology must be reputed as in regular succession from that distinguished preacher whose first converts were made in Eden."

II.-English Reviews.

I. THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW, April, 1860.-1. Vedic Religion; 2. Manin, and Venice in 1848-9; 3. The Ethics of War; 4. Plutarch and his Times. 5. Austria and the Government of Hungary; 6. Parliamentary Reform: the Dangers and the Safeguards; 7. Japan; 8. Darwin on the Origin of Species.

II. THE LONDON REVIEW, (WESLEYAN,) April, 1860.-1. Lord Macaulay ; 2. Whitby; 3. Ancient Syriac Gospels; 4. Eastern Problems; 5. Frederich Schiller; 6. Morocco; 7. Books and their Bindings; 8. Socrates; 9. Arctic Explorations.

III. THE BRITISH QUARTERLY REVIEW, April, 1860.-1. Lord Macaulay; 2. M'Leod's Eastern Africa; 3. Christian Revivals; 4. Belgium and China; 5. Darwin on the Origin of Species; 6. Lord Dundonald; 7. Brown's Sermons; 8. China and Japan; 9. Italian Nationality.

IV. THE NATIONAL REVIEW, April, 1860-1. Plutarch's Lives: Clough; 2. The Testimony of Geology to the Age of the Human Race; 3. The Budget and the Treaty in their relation to Political Morality; 4. St. Thomas of Canterbury and his Biographers; 5. Madam Récamier; 6. The Acts of the Apostles; how far Historical? 7. The Reform Bill its real Bearing and Ultimate Results; 8. Christianity in Japan; 9. Papal Rome; 10. Cerebral Psychology: Bain; 11. Mr. Bright, painted by Himself. V. THE BRITISH AND FOREIGN EVANGELICAL REVIEW, April, 1860.1. Recent Syriac Literature; 2. A Nation's Right to Worship God; 3. Dr. Tyler and his Theology; 4. On the Power of Contrary Choice; 5. The Minister's Wooing; 6. What is Christianity? 7. The Text of Jeremiah ; 8. Natural Science and Theology; 9. Principal Tulloch's Leaders of the Reformation.

VI. THE CHRISTIAN REMEMBRANCER, April, 1860.-2. Lord Bacon and the Inductive Philosophy; 2. Neale's Commentary on the Psalms; 3. Mr. Mansel and Mr. Maurice; 4. Daniel Wilson; 5. Irish Revivalism in Relation to the Church of England; 6. On the Remains of Old Babylonian Literature; 7. The Bishop of Oxford's Ordination Addresses; 8. The Trial of the Bishop of Brechin; 9. Liturgical Quotations in the Pauline Epistles. VII. THE JOURNAL OF SACRED LITERATURE AND BIBLICAL RECORD, April, 1860.-1. Sinai, Kadesh, and Mount Hor; or, a Critical Inquiry into the Route of the Exodus; 2. Nimrod and his Dynasty; 3. George Buchanan; 4. The Sisters of Galilee and Bethany; 5. Pauline Authorship of the Hebrews; 6. Remarks on the Book of Esther; 7. Analysis of the Emblems of St. John, Rev. xiii.

« ZurückWeiter »