till
late in the second century. By the aid of this theory, constructed from
the few books which it admits to be of undoubted genuineness, it guides
itself in the examination of the remainder, tracing them to party
interests which determined their aim, pronouncing on their object and date
by reference to it.(840) In this way it arrives at most extraordinary
conclusions in reference to some of them. Not one single book, except four
of St. Paul's Epistles, is regarded to be authentic. The Gospel called
that of St. John is considered as a treatise of Alexandrian philosophy,
written late in the second century to support the theory of the {~GREEK CAPITAL LETTER LAMDA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON WITH OXIA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER GAMMA~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER OMICRON~}{~GREEK SMALL LETTER FINAL SIGMA~}. It
will thus be perceived that the inquiry, though it professes to be
objective, yet has a subjective cast.

The leader of this school was Christian Baur, (39) lately deceased; a man
of large erudition; a wonder of acuteness even in Germany; distinguished
for the extraordinary ability displayed in his reply to the attacks made
on Protestantism by the celebrated Roman catholic theologian Moehler: and
though the doctrinal result of the school is ethics or pure Socinianism
and naturalism, and the critical opinions obviously are most extravagant,
the sagacity and learning shown in the monographs published by it make
them some of the most instructive, as sources of information, in modern
theology, to those who know how to use them aright. From an orthodox point
of view the effect of the school is most destructive; but, if viewed in
reference to the preceding schools, it manifests a tenacious hold over the
historic side of Christianity, and has affected in a literary way the
schools formerly described, which claim lineage from the older critics.

As the tendency just described is the modern representative of the older
critical schools; so the next holds a similar position to the
philosophical.

The school is frequently on this account described by the same name, of
"Mediation theology,"(841) originally applied to Schleiermacher, because
it attempts to unite science with faith, a true use of reason with a
belief in scripture. It comprises the chief theological names of Germany,
some of whom were disciples of Schleiermacher, others of the orthodox
portion of the Hegelian party. Their object is not simply, like the
revivers of Lutheran or