able all ages may find them, we can but regard them as merely
natural consequences of the personality of Jesus, unique because he was
unique. 'In the interests of religion the necessity can never arise of
regarding an event as taken out of its connection with nature, in
consequence of its dependence upon God.'

It is not possible within the compass of this book to do more than deal
with typical and representative persons. Schleiermacher was
epoch-making. He gathered in himself the creative impulses of the
preceding period. The characteristic theological tendencies of the two
succeeding generations may be traced back to him. Many men worked in
seriousness upon the theological problem. No one of them marks an era
again until we come to Ritschl. The theologians of the interval between
Schleiermacher and Ritschl have been divided into three groups. The
first group is of distinctly philosophical tendency. The influence of
Hegel was felt upon them all. To this group belong Schweitzer,
Biedermann, Lipsius, and Pfleiderer. The influence of Hegel was greatest
upon Biedermann, least upon Lipsius. An estimate of the influence of
Schleiermacher would reverse that order. Especially did Lipsius seek to
lay at the foundation of his work that exact psychological study of the
phenomena of religion which Schleiermacher had declared requisite. It is
possible that Lipsius will more nearly come to his own when the
enthusiasm for Ritschl has waned. The second group of Schleiermacher's
followers took the direction opposite to that which we have named. They
were the confessional theologians. Hoffmann shows himself learned, acute
and full of power. One does not see, however, why his method should not
prove anything which any confession ever claimed. He sets out from
Schleiermacher's declaration concerning the content of the Christian
consciousness. In Hoffmann's own devout consciousness there had been
response, since his childhood, to every item which the creed alleged.
Therefore these items must have objective truth. One is reminded of an
English parallel in Newman's _Grammar of Assent_. Yet another group,
that of the so-called mediating theologians, contains some well-known
names. Here belong Nitzsch, Rothe, Mueller, Dorner. The name had
originally described the effort to find, in the Union, common ground
between Lutherans and Reformed. In the fact that it made the creeds of
little importance and fell back on Schleiermacher's emphasis upon
fe