Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume X.djvu/740

 734: LUTHERAN CHURCH annunciation of the gospel promise with the gospel conditions to the individual penitent. But as a prescribed form private absolution has either never been practised, or has ceased in most parts of the church, though its generic idea is carried out, informally at least, by all faithful pastors. The practice of exorcism in baptism, simply as a rite long established, and which might be tolerated if regarded merely as a symbolical representation of the doctrine that our nature is under the dominion of sin, was practised in parts of the church, but has fallen into oblivion. Persons are received to the communion of the church by confirmation performed by the pastor even in places where the episcopate is retained. " The Lutheran church," says the Rev. Dr. Schaff, "draws the fine arts into the service of religion, and has produced a body of hymns and chorals which, in richness, power, and unction, surpasses the hymnology of all other churches in the world." In the United States wider extremes in the mode of worship in the Lutheran church some- times existed in a single locality than could be found within her whole communion in other parts of the world. This diversity lias been deeply lamented, and earnest efforts are ma- king with marked success to introduce greater uniformity of usage. The " Church Book " of the general council is the ripest of the results of these efforts, and on the recommendation of the council this edition of it, with music, arranged for the use of congregations by Har- riet R. Krauth, has been largely introduced. The general synod in North America (South) and the general synod have also published books of worship, with the same tendency. III. CONSTITUTION OF THE CHUECH. Many embarrassing circumstances prevented the Lu- theran church from developing her life as per- fectly in her church constitution as in her doctrines and worship. The idea of the uni- versal priesthood of all believers at once over- threw the doctrine of an essential class distinc- tion between clergy and laity. The ministry is not an order, but a divinely appointed office, to which men must be rightly called. No imparity exists by divine right ; a hierarchical organization on the pretence of divine right is unchristian, but a gradation (bishops, super- intendents, provosts) may be observed, as a thing of human right only. The government by superintendents and consistories has been very general, but the latest tendency has been to modify the consistorial constitution by the introduction of general synods. In Denmark Evangelical bishops took the place of the Ro- man Catholic prelates who were deposed. In Sweden the bishops embraced the reformation, and thus secured in that country an " apostolic succession" in the high-church sense ; though, on the principles of the Lutheran church, alike where she has as where she has not such a succession, it is not regarded as essential even to the order of the church. The ultimate source of power is in the congregations, that is, in the pastor and other officers and the people of the single communions. The right to choose a pastor belongs to the people, who may exercise it by direct vote, or through their representatives. Synods possess such powers as the congregations delegate to them. "Ministers are related to congregations, not as their servants, but as the servants of the church ;" and even in the United States, where the congregational principle has been more radically developed than anywhere else in the Lutheran church, " the synod to which pastors belong has the entire jurisdiction over them." (" Formula of the Lutheran Church," ch. iii. T 3.) In the United States there are 51 synods. Of these, 9 are independent organizations, and the rest connected as follows: 20 with the general synod, founded in 1820; 5 with the general synod (South), founded in 1863; 11 with the general council, founded in 1867; and 6 with the synodical conference, founded in 1872. The total number of ministers is 2,500 ; of churches, 4,400 ; of communicants, 550,000. These statistics are based on the latest reports of 1873, with a small margin for known in- crease. Absolute ministerial parity is main- tained, and lay representation is universal; but many vital points of church organization are unsettled. The constitutional powers of the synods are very few ; and the feeling is increasing that a stronger and more centrali- zing government is needed. IV. THEOLOGICAL SCIENCE flourished in the 16th century chiefly in the universities of Wittenberg, Leipsic, Tu- bingen, Strasburg, and Jena. To this era be- long Luther, Melanchthon, Flacius, Chemnitz, Brentius, and Chytraeus. In the 17th century occur the names of Glassius, Pfeiffer, Erasmus Schmidt, Hakspan, Geier, Seb. Schmidt, Calo- vius ; in dogmatics, Hutter, Gerhard,, Quen- stedt, Calixtus, Hunnius ; in church history, Rechenberg, Ittig, Sagittarius, Seckendorf, and Arnold. In the 18th century, Loscher closes the ancient school, and the pietistic school, practical rather than scientific, is illus- trated by Spener, Francke, and Lange. The conservative pietistic, avoiding the faults of the others and combining their virtues, em- braces Hollazius, Starck, Buddeus, Cyprian, J. 0. "Wolf, Weismann, Deyling, Carpzov, J. II. and C. B. Michaelis, J. G. Walch, Pfaff, Mos- heim, Bengel, and Crusius. The school which treated theology after the philosophical meth- od of Wolf includes S. J. Baumgarten, Rein- beck, and Carpzov ; to the transitional school belong Ernesti, J. D. Michaelis, and Semler, who prepared the way for rationalism; the principal members of the rationalistic school were Griesbach, Koppe, J. G. Rosenmiiller, Eichhorn, Gabler, Bertholdt, De Wette, Henke, Spittler, Eberhard, and A. H. Niemeyer. Of the supranaturalistic school, abandoning the ancient orthodoxy in various degrees, but still maintaining more or less of the fundamentals of Christianity, are Morus, Doderlein, Seiler, Storr, Knapp, Reinhard, Lilienthal, and Kop-