Johann Salomo Semler (18 December 1725 – 14 March 1791) was a German church historian, biblical commentator, and critic of ecclesiastical documents and of the history of dogmas. He is sometimes known as "the father of German
rationalism
In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".Lacey, A.R. (1996), ''A Dictionary of Philosophy' ...
".
Youth and education
He was born at
Saalfeld
Saalfeld (german: Saalfeld/Saale) is a town in Germany, capital of the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district of Thuringia. It is best known internationally as the ancestral seat of the House of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Saxe-Coburg and Gotha branch of the S ...
in the
Electorate of Saxony
The Electorate of Saxony, also known as Electoral Saxony (German: or ), was a territory of the Holy Roman Empire from 1356–1806. It was centered around the cities of Dresden, Leipzig and Chemnitz.
In the Golden Bull of 1356, Emperor Charles ...
, the son of a poor clergyman. He grew up in
pietistic surroundings, which powerfully influenced him his life through, though he never became a Pietist. In his seventeenth year he entered the
University of Halle
Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg (german: Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg), also referred to as MLU, is a public, research-oriented university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg and the largest and oldest university i ...
, where he became the disciple, afterwards the assistant, and finally the literary executor of the orthodox rationalistic professor
S. J. Baumgarten. He also wrote Latin poems. In 1749 he accepted the position of editor, with the title of professor, of the Coburg official ''Gazette''. But in 1751 he was invited to the
University of Altdorf
The University of Altdorf () was a university in Altdorf bei Nürnberg, a small town outside the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg. It was founded in 1578 and received university privileges in 1622 and was closed in 1809 by Maximilian I Joseph of Ba ...
as professor of
philology
Philology () is the study of language in oral and writing, written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defin ...
and
history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
, and in 1752 he became a professor of
theology
Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...
at Halle.
Early work
After the death of Baumgarten in 1757, Semler became head of the theological faculty, and the fierce opposition provoked by his writings and lectures only helped increase his fame as a professor. His popularity continued undiminished until 1779. In that year he produced a reply (''Beantwortung der Fragmente eines Ungenannten'') to the Wolfenbuttel Fragments (see
Reimarus) and to
KF Bahrdt's confession of faith, a step which was interpreted by the extreme rationalists as a revocation of his own rationalistic position.
Later work and impact
Contemporary perception
Even the
Prussia
Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...
n government, which favoured Bahrdt, made known its displeasure at this new but quite consistent aspect of his position. But, though Semler was not inconsistent with himself in attacking the views of Reimarus and Bahrdt, his popularity began to decline, and towards the end of his life he felt a need to emphasize the apologetic and conservative value of true historical inquiry. His defence of the notorious edict of July 9, 1788, issued by the Prussian minister for ecclesiastical affairs,
Johann Christoph von Wöllner
Johann Christoph von Wöllner (19 May 1732, Döberitz, Margraviate of Brandenburg – 10 September 1800, Grossriez near Beeskow) was a Prussian pastor and politician under King Frederick William II. He was inclined to mysticism and joined the F ...
, the object of which was to enforce
Lutheran orthodoxy
Lutheran orthodoxy was an era in the history of Lutheranism, which began in 1580 from the writing of the ''Book of Concord'' and ended at the Age of Enlightenment. Lutheran orthodoxy was paralleled by similar eras in Calvinism and tridentine Rom ...
, might be cited as a sign of the decline of his powers and of an unfaithfulness to his principles. He died at
Halle,
Magdeburg
Magdeburg (; nds, label=Low Saxon, Meideborg ) is the capital and second-largest city of the German state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is situated at the Elbe river.
Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archdiocese of Magdebur ...
, exhausted and disappointed.
Classification
The importance of Semler, sometimes called "the father of German
rationalism
In philosophy, rationalism is the epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "any view appealing to reason as a source of knowledge or justification".Lacey, A.R. (1996), ''A Dictionary of Philosophy' ...
", in the history of theology and the human mind is that of a critic of biblical and ecclesiastical documents and of the history of
dogma
Dogma is a belief or set of beliefs that is accepted by the members of a group without being questioned or doubted. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Roman Catholicism, Judaism, Islam ...
s. He was not a philosophical thinker or theologian, though he insisted, with an energy and persistency before unknown, on certain distinctions of great importance when properly worked out and applied, e.g. the distinction between religion and theology, that between private personal beliefs and public historical creeds, and that between the local and temporal and the permanent elements of historical religion. His great work was that of the critic. He was the first to reject the equal value of the
Old
Old or OLD may refer to:
Places
*Old, Baranya, Hungary
*Old, Northamptonshire, England
*Old Street station, a railway and tube station in London (station code OLD)
*OLD, IATA code for Old Town Municipal Airport and Seaplane Base, Old Town, Mai ...
and
New Testament
The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...
s, the uniform authority of all parts of the
Bible
The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...
, the divine authority of the traditional canon of Scripture, the inspiration and supposed correctness of the text of the Old and New Testaments, and, generally, the identification of revelation with Scripture.
Though to some extent anticipated by the British deist,
Thomas Morgan, Semler was the first to take due note of and use for critical purposes the opposition between the
Judaic
Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic, monotheism, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots ...
and
anti-Judaic parties of the early church. He led the way in the task of discovering the origin of the Gospels, the
Epistles, the
Acts of the Apostles
The Acts of the Apostles ( grc-koi, Πράξεις Ἀποστόλων, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; la, Actūs Apostolōrum) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of its messag ...
, and the
Apocalypse
Apocalypse () is a literary genre in which a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a human intermediary. The means of mediation include dreams, visions and heavenly journeys, and they typically feature symbolic imager ...
. He revived previous doubts as to the direct Pauline origin of the
Epistle to the Hebrews
The Epistle to the Hebrews ( grc, Πρὸς Ἑβραίους, Pros Hebraious, to the Hebrews) is one of the books of the New Testament.
The text does not mention the name of its author, but was traditionally attributed to Paul the Apostle. Mos ...
, called in question Peter's authorship of the first epistle, and referred the second epistle to the end of the 2nd century. He wished to remove the Apocalypse altogether from the canon. In textual criticism Semler pursued further the principle of classifying manuscripts in families, adopted by
Richard Simon and
Johann Albrecht Bengel
Johann Albrecht Bengel (24 June 1687 – 2 November 1752), also known as ''Bengelius'', was a Lutheran pietist clergyman and Greek-language scholar known for his edition of the Greek New Testament and his commentaries on it.
Life and career
Be ...
. In church history Semler did the work of a pioneer in many periods and in several departments.
Friedrich Tholuck
Friedrich August Gottreu Tholuck (30 March 1799 – 10 June 1877), known as August Tholuck, was a German Protestant theologian, pastor, and historian, and church leader.
Biography
Tholuck was born at Breslau, and educated at the gymnasium and ...
pronounced him "the father of the history of doctrines," and
Ferdinand Christian Baur
Ferdinand Christian Baur (21 June 1792 – 2 December 1860) was a German Protestant theologian and founder and leader of the (new) Tübingen School of theology (named for the University of Tübingen where Baur studied and taught). Following Hegel ...
"the first to deal with that history from the true critical standpoint." At the same time, it is admitted by all that he was nowhere more than a pioneer.
His concept of church has been contrasted with
Friedrich Schleiermacher
Friedrich Daniel Ernst Schleiermacher (; 21 November 1768 – 12 February 1834) was a German Reformed theologian, philosopher, and biblical scholar known for his attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the Enlightenment with traditional P ...
's.
[Rendtorff, Trutz. ''Church and Theology: The Systematic Function of the Church Concept in Modern Theology'', Westminster Press, 1971, .]
Bibliography
Tholuck gives 171 as the number of Semler's works, of which only two reached a second edition. Amongst the major ones are:
*''Commentatio de demoniacis'' (Halle, 1760, 4th ed. 1779)
*''Umständliche Untersuchung der damonischen Leute'' (1762)
*''Versuch einer biblischen Damonologie'' (1776)
*''Selecta capita historiae ecclesiasticae'' (3 vols., Halle, 1767–1769)
*''Abhandlung von freier Untersuchung des Kanon'' (Halle, 1771–1775)
*''Apparatus ad liberalem N. T. interpretationem'' (1767, ad V. T., 1773)
*''Institutio ad doctrinam Christ. liberaliter discendam'' (Halle, 1774),
*''Über historische, gesellschaftliche, und moralische Religion der Christen'' (1786)
*''Semler's Lebensbeschreibung, von ihm selbst abgefasst'' (Halle, 1781–1782) autobiography
For estimates of Semler, see:
*
Wilhelm Gass
Wilhelm Gass (November 28, 1813 – February 21, 1889) was a German theologian born in Breslau. He was the son of theologian Joachim Christian Gass (1766–1831).
He received his education in Breslau, Halle and Berlin, and as a student was ...
, ''Geschichte der protestantischen Dogmatik'' (Berlin, 1854–1867)
*
Isaak Dorner, ''Geschichte der protestantischen Theologie'' (Munich, 1867)
* article in
Herzog
''Herzog'' (female ''Herzogin'') is a German hereditary title held by one who rules a territorial duchy, exercises feudal authority over an estate called a duchy, or possesses a right by law or tradition to be referred to by the ducal title. ...
's ''Realencyklopädie''
*
Adolf Hilgenfeld
Adolf Bernhard Christoph Hilgenfeld (2 June 182312 January 1907) was a German Protestant theologian.
Biography
He was born at Stappenbeck near Salzwedel in the Province of Saxony.
He studied at the Friedrich Wilhelm University in Berlin a ...
, ''Historische-kritische Einleitung in das Neue Testament'' (Leipzig, 1875)
*
F. C. Baur
Ferdinand Christian Baur (21 June 1792 – 2 December 1860) was a German Protestant theologian and founder and leader of the (new) Tübingen School of theology (named for the University of Tübingen where Baur studied and taught). Following Hegel ...
, ''Epochen der kirchlichen Geschichtsschreibung'' (1852)
*
Albrecht Ritschl
Albrecht Ritschl (25 March 182220 March 1889) was a German Protestant theologian.
Starting in 1852, Ritschl lectured on systematic theology. According to this system, faith was understood to be irreducible to other experiences, beyond the scop ...
, ''Geschichte des Pietismus'' (Bonn. 1880-1888)
Notes
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Semler, Johann Salomo
1725 births
1791 deaths
People from Saalfeld
German Lutheran theologians
German biblical scholars
18th-century German Protestant theologians
German male non-fiction writers
18th-century German male writers
Lutheran biblical scholars