GROWTH AND DIFFUSION OF CRITICAL SPIRIT. 171 



and to trace the endeavour to fathom philosophically 

 and systematise the Christian doctrine, from the 

 beginning which was made by the Gnostics, through the 

 patristic and scholastic philosophies of the middle ages 

 down to the theosophy of Jacob Bdhnie, and from him 

 to Schelling, Schleiermacher, and Hegel. It was one of 

 the first and most important elaborations of Hegel's 

 grand conception of historical development. The same 

 idea was followed out in a series of works down to the 

 year 1860 on the historical development of separate 

 Christian dogmas and ultimately of the Christian Church 

 itself. " The characteristic feature in these works is 

 that the history of ecclesiastical and especially dogmatic 

 development is considered as a necessary mental process 

 which is dialectically carried on ; that, however rich the 

 details may be, no single feature has as such any value, 

 but only if it is placed in the whole and considered as 

 a moment in the process of the general idea which 

 governs everything. Thus the philosophical treatment 

 of history is here taken seriously and based on the 

 foundation of so much learned research and acute com- 

 bination that the ordinary reproach of abstract con- 

 structions which is rightly advanced against so many of 

 Hegel's disciples is silenced in the presence of such an 

 author and such labours. Nevertheless, though Baur 

 is favourably distinguished among other members of 

 Hegel's school by his genuine erudition, it cannot 



only be found " in the idea of philo- 

 sophy of religion itself, as it belongs 

 to the essence of such philosophy 

 again and again to enter upon the 

 same path which had been trodden 



by the ancient Gnostics " (loc. cit. , 

 p. 9), a view which Baur had already 

 explained in his inaugural disserta- 

 tion of the year 1827. 



