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ROTHE, RICHARD (1799-1867)
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See also:ROTHE, See also:RICHARD (1799-1867) , Lutheran theologian, was See also:born at See also:Posen on the 28th of See also:January 1799. He studied See also:theology in the See also:universities of See also:Heidelberg and See also:Berlin (1817-20) under Karl See also:Daub (1765-1836), See also:Schleiermacher and See also:Neander, the philosophers and historians Georg See also:Hegel, See also:Friedrich Creuzer (1771-1858) and F. C. See also:Schlosser (1776-1861) exercising a considerable See also:influence in shaping his thought. From 182o to 1822 he was in the clerical See also:seminary at See also:Wittenberg. In the autumn of 1823 he was appointed See also:chaplain to the Prussian See also:embassy in See also:Rome, of which See also:Baron See also:Bunsen was the See also:head. This See also:post he exchanged in 1828 for a professorship in the See also:Witten-See also:berg theological seminary, of which in 1832 he became also second director and See also:ephorus, and hence in 1837 he removed to Heidelberg as See also:professor and director of a new clerical seminary; in 1849 he accepted an invitation to See also:Bonn as professor and university preacher, but in 1854 he returned to Heidelberg as professor of theology, and afterwards became member of the Oberkirchenrath, a position he held until his See also:death on the loth of See also:August 1867. As a youth Rothe had a See also:bent towards a supernatural See also:mysticism; his chosen authors were those of the romantic school, and See also:Novalis remained throughout his See also:life a See also:special favourite. In Berlin and Wittenberg he came under the influence of See also:Pietism as represented by such men as See also:Rudolf See also:Stier (1800-1862) and Friedrich See also:Tholuck, though Tholuck pronounced him a " very See also:modern See also:Christian." He afterwards confessed that, though he had been a sincere, he was never a happy, Pietist. In Rome, under the broadening influence of classical and ecclesiastical See also:art, he learned to look at See also:Christianity in its human and universalistic aspects, and began to develop his See also:great See also:idea, the inseparable relation of See also:religion and morals. He began then, and particularly after the revolution of See also:July 1830, likewise to give a more definite See also:form to his See also:peculiar view of the relations of See also: His removal to Heidelberg and the publication of his first important See also:work, See also:Die Anfange der christlichen Kirche and ihrer Verfassung (1837), coincide with the attainment of the See also:principal theological positions with which his name is associated. During the See also:middle See also:period of his career (1837-61) he led the life of a scholastic recluse. During the last six years of his life he came forward as the See also:advocate of a See also:free theology and of the See also:Protestantenverein. Rothe was one of the most profound and influential of modern See also:German theologians. Like Schleiermacher he combined with the keenest logical See also:faculty an intensely religious spirit, while his philosophical tendencies were in sympathy rather with Hegel than with Schleiermacher, and theosophic mysticism was more congenial to him than the abstractions of See also:Spinoza, to whom Schleiermacher owed so much. He classed himself among the theosophists, and claimed to be a convinced and happy supernaturalist in a scientific See also:age. His See also:system, though it may seem to contain doubtful or even fantastic elements, is in its 4eneral outlines a See also:noble massive whole, constructed by a profounc, comprehensive, fearless and logical mind. A peculiarity of his thought was the realistic nature of his See also:spiritualism: his abstractions are all real existences; his spiritual entities are real and corporeal; his truth is actual being. Hence Rothe, unlike Schleiermacher, See also:lays great stress, for instance, on the See also:personality of See also:God, on the reality of the worlds of See also:good and evil See also:spirits, and on the visible second coming of See also:Christ. Hence his religious feeling and theological See also:speculation demanded their realization in a See also:kingdom of God coextensive with See also:man's nature, terrestrial See also:history and human society; and thus his theological system became a Theologische Ethik, as he entitled one of his books (3 vols., 1845-1848). It is on this work that Rothe's permanent reputation as a theologian and ethical writer will See also:rest. The first edition remained twelve years out of See also:print before the second (5 vols., 1867-71) appeared. It was the author's purpose to rewrite the whole, but he died when he had completed the first two volumes. The See also:remainder was reprinted from the first edition by Professor Heinrich See also:Holtzmann, with the addition of some notes and emendations See also:left by the author. The Theologische Ethik begins with a See also:general See also:sketch of the author's system of speculative theology in its two divisions, theology proper and cosmology, cosmology falling into the two subdivisions of Physik (the See also:world of nature) and Ethik (the world of spirit). It is the last subdivision with which the See also:body of the work is occupied. After an See also:analysis of the religious consciousness, which yields the See also:doctrine of an See also:absolute See also:personal and spiritual God, Rothe proceeds to deduce from his idea of God the See also:process and history of creative development, which is eternally proceeding and bringing forth, as its unending purpose, worlds of spirits, partially self-creative and sharing the absolute personality of the Creator. Rothe regards the natural man as the consummation of the development of See also:physical nature, and obtains spirit as the personal attainment, with divine help, of those beings in whom the further creative process of moral development is carried on. His theory leaves the natural man, without hesitation, to be See also:developed by the natural processes of See also:animal See also:evolution. The attainment of the higher See also:stage of development is the moral and religious vocation of man; this higher stage is self-determination, the performance of every human See also:function as a voluntary and intelligent See also:agent, or as a See also:person, having as its cosmical effect the subjection of all material to spiritual existences. This personal process of spiritualization is the continuation of the eternal divine work of creation. Thus the moral life and the religious life coincide, and when normal are identical; both have the same aim and are occupied with the same task, the accomplishment of the spiritualization of the world. " Piety, that it may become truth and reality, demands morality as its fulfilment, as the only See also:concrete See also:element in which the idea of fellowship with God is realized; morality, that it may find its perfect unfolding, requires the aid of piety, in the See also:light of which alone it can comprehend its own idea in all its breadth and See also:depth." The process of human development Rothe regards as necessarily taking .an abnormal form and passing through the phase of See also:sin. This abnormal See also:condition necessitates a fresh creative See also:act, that of salvation, which was, however, from the first, See also:part of the divine See also:plan. As a preparation for this salvation supernatural See also:revelation was required for the purifying and revivification of the religious consciousness, and the Saviour Himself had to appear in human history as a fresh miraculous creation, born of a woman but not begotten by a man. In consequence of His supernatural See also:birth the Saviour, or the second See also:Adam, was free from See also:original sin. By His own moral and religious development He made possible a relation of perfect See also:fellow-See also:ship between God and man, which was the new and highest stage of the divine creation of mankind. This stage of development inaugurated by the Saviour is attained by means of His kingdom or the community of salvation, which is both moral and religious, and in the first instance and temporarily only religious—that is, a church. As men reach the full development of their nature, and appropriate the perfection of the Saviour, the separation between the religious and the moral life will vanish, and the Christian state, as the highest See also:sphere of human life representing all human functions, will displace the church. " In proportion as the Saviour Christianizes the state by means of the church must the progressive completion of the structure of the church prove the cause of its abolition." The decline of the church is therefore not to be deplored, but recognized as the consequence of the See also:independence and completeness of the Christian life. It is the third See also:section of his work—the Pflichtenlehre—which is generally most highly valued, and where his full strength as an ethical thinker is displayed, without any mixture of theosophic speculation. Since Rothe's death several volumes of his sermons and of his lectures (on dogmatics, the history of See also:homiletics) and a collection of brief essays and religious meditations under the See also:title of Stille Stunden (Wittenberg, 1872) have been published. See F. Nippold, Richard Rothe, ein christliches Lebensbild (2 vols., Wittenberg, 1873–74); D. See also:Schenkel, "Zur Erinnerung an Dr R. Rothe," in the Allgemeine kirchliche Zeitschrift (1867–68) ; H.Holtzmann, " Richard Rothe," in the Jahrbuch See also:des Protestantenvereins (1869); K. H. W. See also:Schwarz, Zur Geschichte der neuesten Theologie (4th ed., See also:Leipzig, 1869, pp. 417–44) ; See also:Otto See also:Pfleiderer, Religionsphilosophie auf geschichtlicher Grundlage (2nd ed., Berlin, 1884, vol. i. pp. 611–15) ; cf. The Development of Theology in See also:Germany since See also:Kant (1890); W. Honig, Richard Rothe, sein Charakler, Leben and Denken (1898); Adolf See also:Hausrath, Richard Rothe and See also:seine Freunde (1902). Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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