Page:Philosophical Review Volume 2.djvu/259

No. 2.] pose. This theory forms the basis of our modern philologico-historical methods. Flacius's work manifests the influences of both Protestant and Humanistic thought. Richard Simon is the Catholic opponent of Flacius. The work of Franz rests on the same general presuppositions as that of Flacius, but differs from the latter in its methods. He gets at the meaning of a passage by connecting it with what immediately precedes and follows. The chief significance of hermeneutics lies in the fact that the fundamental methods of mental sciences are here for the first time examined. – Simultaneously with the preceding movement began rationalistic theology, which followed the path marked out by Erasmus. The latter affirmed the freedom and dignity of man, and distinguished the teaching of Christ from the rest of the Bible. This direction of thought pointed to a formal and moral criticism of dogmas. Schools representing the movement sprang up in Southern France and Italy, and formed the beginning of Socinianism. Protestant Christianity had to justify its claims before the Humanistic, historico-critical, formal and moral methods of the age. The truth of Scripture was based on the historico-critical certainty of the important events of the New Testament, of which the resurrection is the chief. Grotius is the best representative of this theology. Man strives after happiness, he says, which Christianity promises him. The spread of this religion and the resurrection are miracles which prove the truth of Christianity. – The theory of accommodation (the divine author of the Bible adapted himself to historical conditions), the first form of historical interpretation, meets us in this school. The criticism of dogmas by Arminians and Socinians shows that human reason has reached its majority. Laurentius Valla really gave Socinianism its first impetus. Man is here to act, he claims, the will forms his real essence on which reason depends. Valla influenced Erasmus. The Socinians attack as irrational and unjust the most important dogmas of the church, – original sin, eternal damnation, vicarious atonement. Servede antagonized the notion of the trinity as a logical impossibility. Jean Bodin, however, united the transcendental theology with this moral rationalism in his Heptaplomeres. He preaches tolerance and expresses his dislike of theological controversies. All religions are regarded by him as akin to each other, they are the daughters of a common mother, natural religion, of which the consciousness of freedom, of immortality, and of retribution forms the content. Bodin despairs of finding the criterion of the true religion. A