166 



PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



50. 



Influence 

 of Hegel. 



51. 

 David F. 



Strauss. 



ently Schleiermacher was the first to come under the 

 influence of both movements and to give to them a new 

 and original expression. 



Through the doubts which he threw out regarding the 

 authenticity of the First Epistle to Timothy (1807), he 

 has been considered to have inaugurated a new line of 

 criticism viz., the literary criticism of the books of the 

 New Testament. It is not unlikely that he would have 

 occupied in critical theology the position which he 

 himself aimed at, doing for theology what Kant had 

 done for philosophy, had it not been that the interest of 

 religious thinkers was attracted in a different direction. 

 This came from the side of the Hegelian philosophy, 1 

 which for a time kept theological speculation spell- 

 bound. It was only after the fascination which Hegel 

 exercised on many minds was removed, and many ex- 

 pectations had been disappointed, that the influence of 

 Schleiermacher made itself felt in wider circles. The 

 change, which amounted almost to a crisis, in German 

 theology, was brought about in the year 1835 by the 

 publication of D. Fr. Strauss's (1808-74) 'Life of 

 Jesus.' This work furnishes another proof of the correct- 

 ness of a remark I have had frequent occasion to make, 

 how little the higher criticism alone is capable of deal- 

 ing in a comprehensive manner with any large subject 

 or any great problem ; how necessary it is to import the 



literary and critical study of the 

 Old Testament, the impression he 

 made abroad was much greater 

 than in England. Together with 

 Macpherson's ' Ossian ' and the 

 ' Percy Ballads,' he had a very 

 important influence upon German 

 literature. 



1 It is interesting to note that 

 the year in which Schleiermacher 

 published the critical investigation 

 mentioned in the text was also the 

 year which brought forth Hegel's 

 first great work, the 'Phenomen- 

 ology of Mind.' 



