Dr. Albrecht Ritschl, a very influential professor in Gottingen, holds a very peculiar place in theology. He is opposed by the Orthodox party in Germany, yet is very vigorous in his own opposition to Sabellianism, Sccinianism, or Unitarianism. Some of his opinions sound so much like Christian Science, that a statement of them, by Rev. James T. Bixby, is here reprinted from a recent number of the Unitarian Review:—
Nay, nature itself exists to the Spirit, in Ritschl's view, only as a means for spiritual ends. Our knowledge of God is, then, no mere speculation or theoretical cognition; but it is something more imperative. It is a practical necessity or postulate of our moral consciousness. The actuality of the divine existence is guaranteed to us by the spiritual experiences wrought...by the Divine Power. We can consequently only talk of a knowledge of God in so far as, in actual community with Him, we experience the operations of the Divine....The long string of perplexing questions, over which theology usually fumbles so blindly, yet so passionately: Christ's pre-existence and post-existence and consubstantiality; the number of his natures and the number of the wills within him; how God is united with the world, yet distinct from it; how He foresees and predestinates our acts, yet leaves us responsible; the mystical union of the Soul with God,—all these questions are, by Ritschl, pitched out of the window....What purpose has God in common with the human race? The answer to this question, we find in that fundamental intuition of the Soul, that corner-stone of Christian experience, God is Love. His aim must be accordingly, the upbuilding of humanity into a kingdom of God, as the supernatural destiny of man himself....Here are the two chief factors of Ritsehl's theological system,—the presentation of God as essentially Love, and, second, the upbuilding of a heavenly kingdom among men, as the final purpose of the world.
From these fundamental truths follow the recognition of the spirituality of God, and need of His various attributes,—His creatorship, personality, omniscience, omniprescence, and omnipotence. These attributes must not be understood in the customary...sense, but in a sense at once more spiritual and more practical. By the eternity of God e. g. is to be understood, not the extension of His existence beyond that of the world, but His unchangeability amid all the changes of things; by His omnipotence and omniscience, not the condition of natural things, but the assurance that the providence and gracious will of God are ever directed to the highest good of men. Miracles are to be considered only in their correlation to the special faith in Divine Providence, and outside of their connection therewith are not possible. From the same fundamental truths—namely, the Divine Love and spiritual edification of humanity, as the final purpose of all things—flows also the comprehension of the divine guidance of the world-processes by the divine hand to their beneficent end,—the salvation of man, or the doctrines of Justification and Reconciliation. God is Love. To explain, then, His relation to man by judicial or governmental analogies is a mistake. It is not to the Stater but to the family, we must look for light. God is a Father. His forgiveness of sins is, therefore, an example of a universal, though not unconditional, law of the kingdom of God. Ritschl rejects the doctrine of hereditary sin in every form. He puts in its place a doctrine of a realm of sins, wherein the individual sees himself, with his sins, inter-woven with the sins of others. When God judges that a man is not so hardened in sin but what a change of disposition is possible, he is the object of God's Love; and through that Love comes the change of heart. The man, recognizing this Divine Love, yet feeling with pain his opposition to God's law and consequent separation from God, voluntarily turns to Him, in faith.
