Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 104:415 (Jul 1947)
Article: Protestant Theology since 1700
Author: Miner Brodhead Stearns

BSac 104:415 (Jul 47) p. 307

Protestant Theology since 1700

Miner Brodhead Stearns

(Continued from the April-June Number, 1947)

{Editor’s note: Footnotes in the original were numbered from 140–187, but in this electronic edition are numbered from 1–48, respectively.}

The Mediating School

This is rather a broad group, including men of various views who had in common a general indebtedness to Schleiermacher and hence are sometimes called the “School of Schleiermacher,” although—as Dorner points out—that theologian had no desire to found a school.”1 They are called the mediating school because they “possess the common characteristic of trying to reconcile the faith of the church with their own thought and that of their contemporaries, without making their faith dependent upon the hypotheses and formulae of a definite philosophical system.”2 For this reason they have been called the “eclectic mediating theologians.”3 They are also mediating in the sense that they hold a position intermediate between the Hegelians—whom we have just considered—and the new orthodox party (whom we shall study later). A brief survey of some of these men and their systems will be valuable, but no attempt will be made to treat them exhaustively.

Some of their common characteristics may be noted before taking up any individuals. They considered Schleiermacher’s definition of religion or piety as feeling to be incomplete, and added that thought and will are likewise involved. Man’s freedom as well as his dependence upon God was stressed. The principal doctrines of the Reformers were adhered to in theory, although in reality they were sometimes considerably

BSac 104:415 (Jul 47) p. 308

modified. For example, these men were unanimous in rejecting the idea of the inerrancy of Scripture. Some rejected eternal punishment of the lost. Miracles were not rejected in toto, but some of them were discounted. This school was further “mediating” in its effort to retain at the same time a supernatural revelation and the results of “scientific” criticism of Scripture. As may be imagined, the results were not always happy. The mediating spirit also showed itself in supporting the union of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches which had been accomplished in Prussia in 1817 on the 300th anniversary of the posting of Luther’s theses, and in other German States shortly thereafter. There was a strong reaction against this union—especially upon the part of the orthodox Lutherans—but the mediating school favored it. For many years the organ of this sch...