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PROTESTANTENVEREIN

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 473 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PROTESTANTENVEREIN is the name of a society in See also:

Germany the See also:general See also:object of which is to promote the See also:union (Verein) and progress of the various established See also:Protestant Churches of the See also:country in See also:harmony with the advance of culture and on the basis of See also:Christianity. It was founded at See also:Frankfort-on-the-See also:Main in 1863 by a number of distinguished clergymen and See also:lay-men of liberal tendencies, representing the freer parties of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches of the various See also:German states, amongst whom were the statesmen See also:Bluntschli and Von See also:Bennigsen and the professors R. See also:Rothe, H. See also:Ewald, D. See also:Schenkel, A. See also:Hilgenfeld and F. See also:Hitzig. The more See also:special See also:objects of the association are the following: the development of the Churches on the basis of a representative parochial and synodal See also:system of See also:government in which the laity shall enjoy their full rights; the promotion of a federation of all the Churches in one See also:national See also:Church; resistance to all hierarchical tendencies both within and without the Protestant Churches; the promotion of See also:Christian See also:toleration and mutual respect amongst the various confessions; the rousing and nurture of the Christian See also:life and of all Christian See also:works necessary for the moral strength and prosperity of the nation. These objects include opposition to the claims of See also:Rome and to autocratic interference with the Church on the See also:part of either See also:political or ecclesiastical authorities, efforts to induce the laity to claim and exercise their privileges as members of the Church, the assertion of the right of the See also:clergy, laity and both lay and clerical professors to See also:search for and proclaim freely the truth in See also:independence of the See also:creeds and the Ietter of Scripture. Membership in the association is open to all Germans who are Protestants and declare their willingness to co-operate in promoting its objects. The means used to promote these objects are mainly (i) the formation of See also:local See also:branch associations through-out the country, the See also:duty of which is by lectures, meetings and the See also:distribution of suitable literature to make known and See also:advocate its principles, and (2) the holding of See also:great See also:annual or biennial meetings of the whole association, at which its objects and principles are expounded and applied to the circumstances of the Church at the moment. The " theses " accepted by the general meetings of the association as the result of the discussions on the papers read indicate the theological position of its members.

The following may serve as illustrations: The creeds of the Protestant Church shut the doors on the past only, but open them for advance in the future; it is immoral and contrary to true Protestantism to require subscription to them. The limits of the freedom of teaching are not prescribed by the See also:

letter of Scripture, but a fundamental requirement of Protestantism is See also:free inquiry in and about the Scriptures. The See also:attempt to limit the freedom of theological inquiry and teaching in the See also:universities is a violation of the vital principle of Protestantism. Only such conceptions of the See also:person of Jesus can satisfy the religious necessities of this See also:age as fully recognize the See also:idea ofhis humanity and See also:place in See also:history. The higher See also:reason only has unconditional authority, and the See also:Bible must justify itself before its tribunal; we find the history of divine See also:revelation and its fulfilment in the Bible alone, and reason bids us regard the Bible as the only authority and See also:canon in matters of religious belief. The formation of the association at once provoked fierce and determined opposition on the part of the orthodox sections of the Church, particularly in See also:Berlin. Attempts more or less founded in 1701, through the efforts of the Rev. See also:Thomas See also:Bray, a successful have been made from the first to exclude clergymen and professors identified with it from the pulpits and chairs of Berlin and elsewhere, though membership in it involves no legal disqualification for either. One of the objects of the association was to some extent obtained by their organization of the Prussian Church when Dr See also:Falk was cultus See also:minister, on the basis of parochial and synodal See also:representation, which came into full operation in 1879. But the See also:election for the general See also:synod turned out very unfavourable to the liberal party, and the large orthodox See also:majority endeavoured to use their See also:power against the principles and the members of the association. In 1882 the position of the association was rendered still more difficult by the agitation in Berlin of Dr Kalthoff and other members of it in favour of a "See also:people's church " on purely dissenting and extremely advanced theological principles. This difficulty has continued, and the extreme rationalist position taken up by some leaders has alienated the sympathy not only of the obscurantists but of those who were prepared to go some distance in the direction of a liberal See also:theology.

There are now about 25,000 members in the 20 branches of the Verein. See D. Schenkel, Der deutsche Protestantenverein and See also:

seine Bedeutung See also:fur See also:die Gegenwart (See also:Wiesbaden, 1868, 2nd ed. 1871) ; Der deutsche Protestantenverein in seinen Statuten and den Thesen seiner Hauptversammlungen 1865—1882 (Berlin, 1883) ; P. Wehlhorn in See also:Herzog-Hauck's Realencyk. fur prot. Theol. u. Kirche; H. Weinel, " Religious Life and Thought in Germany To-See also:day," Hibbert See also:Journal (See also:July 1909).

End of Article: PROTESTANTENVEREIN

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