Johann Salomo Semler
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

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 Epistemology, epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "the position that reason has precedence over other ways of acquiring knowledge", often in contrast to ot ...
".


Youth and education

He was born at
Saalfeld Saalfeld () is a town in Germany, capital of the Saalfeld-Rudolstadt district of Thuringia. It is best known internationally as the ancestral seat of the Saxe-Coburg and Gotha branch of the Saxon House of Wettin. Geography The town is situated ...
in Saxe-Saalfeld, 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 Halle-Wittenberg (), also referred to as MLU, is a public research university in the cities of Halle and Wittenberg. It is the largest and oldest university in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. MLU offers German and 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 tradition, oral and writing, written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also de ...
and
history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...
, and in 1752 he became a professor of
theology Theology is the study of religious belief from a Religion, religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an Discipline (academia), academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itse ...
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 K. F. 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: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
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, the object of which was to enforce Lutheran orthodoxy, 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 (; ) is the Capital city, capital of the Germany, German States of Germany, state Saxony-Anhalt. The city is on the Elbe river. Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor, Otto I, the first Holy Roman Emperor and founder of the Archbishopric of Mag ...
, exhausted and disappointed.


Classification

The importance of Semler, sometimes called "the father of German
rationalism In philosophy, rationalism is the Epistemology, epistemological view that "regards reason as the chief source and test of knowledge" or "the position that reason has precedence over other ways of acquiring knowledge", often in contrast to ot ...
", 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, in its broadest sense, is any belief held definitively and without the possibility of reform. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, or 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 and
New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...
s, the uniform authority of all parts of the
Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...
, 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 and anti-Judaic parties of the early church. He led the way in the task of discovering the origin of the Gospels, the
Epistles An epistle (; ) is a writing directed or sent to a person or group of people, usually an elegant and formal didactic letter. The epistle genre of letter-writing was common in ancient Egypt as part of the scribal-school writing curriculum. The ...
, the
Acts of the Apostles The Acts of the Apostles (, ''Práxeis Apostólōn''; ) is the fifth book of the New Testament; it tells of the founding of the Christian Church and the spread of The gospel, its message to the Roman Empire. Acts and the Gospel of Luke make u ...
, and the
Apocalypse Apocalypse () is a literary genre originating in Judaism in the centuries following the Babylonian exile (597–587 BCE) but persisting in Christianity and Islam. In apocalypse, a supernatural being reveals cosmic mysteries or the future to a ...
. He revived previous doubts as to the direct Pauline origin of the
Epistle to the Hebrews The Epistle 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; most of the Ancient Greek manuscripts, the Old Syriac Peshitto and ...
, 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. In church history Semler did the work of a pioneer in many periods and in several departments. Friedrich Tholuck 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 Hege ...
"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 Church, Reformed theology, theologian, philosopher, and biblical scholar known for his attempt to reconcile the criticisms of the Age o ...
'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, ''Geschichte der protestantischen Dogmatik'' (Berlin, 1854–1867) * Isaak Dorner, ''Geschichte der protestantischen Theologie'' (Munich, 1867) * article in
Herzog (; feminine ; masculine plural ; feminine plural ) 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 ...
's ''Realencyklopädie'' * Adolf Hilgenfeld, ''Historische-kritische Einleitung in das Neue Testament'' (Leipzig, 1875) * F. C. Baur, ''Epochen der kirchlichen Geschichtsschreibung'' (1852) * Albrecht Ritschl, ''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