Schenkel, Daniel
SCHENKEL, DANIEL (1813-1885), Swiss Protestant theologian, was born at Dagerlen in the canton of Zurich on the 21st of December 1813. After studying at Basel and Gottingen he was successively pastor at Schaffhausen (1841), professor of theology at Basel (1849); and at Heidelberg professor of theology (1851), director of the seminary and university preacher. At first inclined to conservatism, he afterwards became an exponent of the mediating theology ( Vermittelungs-theologie) , and ultimately a liberal theologian and advanced critic. Associating himself with the " German Protestant Union " (Deutsche Protestanten-verein) , he defended the community's claim to autonomy, the cause of universal suffrage in the church and the rights of the laity. From 1852 to 1859 he edited the Allgemeine Kirchenzeitung, and from 1861 to 1872 the Allgemeine Kirchliche Zeitschrift, which he had founded in 1859. In 1867, with a view to popularizing the researches and results of the Liberal school, he undertook the editorship of a Bibel-Lexicon (5 vols., 1869- 1875), a work which was so much in advance of its time that it is still useful. In his Das Wesen des Prolestantismus aus den Quetten da Reformationszeitalters beleuchtet (3 vols. 1846-1851, and ed. 1862), he declares that Protestantism is a principle which is always living and active, and not something which was realized once and for all in the past. He contends that the task of his age was to struggle against the Catholic principle which had infected Protestant theology and the church. In his Christliche Dogmatik (2 vols., 1858-1859) he argues that the record of revelation is human and was historically conditioned: it can never be absolutely perfect; and that inspiration, though originating directly with God, is continued through human instrumentality. His Charakterbild Jesu (1864, 4th ed. 1873; Engl. trans, from 3rd ed., 1869), which appeared almost simultaneously with D. Strauss's Leben Jesu, met with fierce opposition. The work is considered too subjective and fanciful, the great fault of the author being that he lacks the impartiality of objective historical insight. Yet, as Pfleiderer says, the work " is full of a passionate enthusiasm for the character of Jesus." The author rejects all the miracles except those of healing, and these he explains psychologically. His main purpose was to modernize and reinterpret Christianity; he says in the preface to the third edition of the book: " I have written it solely in the service of evangelical truth, to win to the truth those especially who have been most unhappily alienated from the church and its interests, in a great measure through the fault of a reactionary party, blinded by hierarchical aims." Schenkel died on the 18th of May 1885.
Other works: Friedrich Schleiermacher. Ein Lebens- und Charakterbild (1868); Christentum und Kirche (2 vols., 1867-1872); Die Grundiehren des Christentums aus dem Bewusstsein des Glaubens dargestellt (1877); and Das Chrislusbild der A pastel und der nachapostolischen Zeit (1879). See Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie, Otto Pfleiderer, Development of Theology (1890); and F. Lichtenberger, History of German Theology (1889). (M. A. CO SCHERER, EDMOND HENRI ADOLPHE (1815-1889), French theologian, critic and politician, was born in Paris on the 8th of April 1815. After a course of legal studies he spent several years in theological study at Strassburg, where he graduated doctor in theology in 1843, and was ordained. In 1843 he was appointed to a professorship in the ficole Evangelique at Geneva, but the development of his opinions in favour of the Liberal movement in Protestant theology led to his resigning the post six years later. He founded the Anti-Jesuite, afterwards the Reformation au XIX' siecle, in which he advocated the separation of the Church from the State; but he gradually abandoned Protestant doctrine. In thought he became a pronounced Hegelian. Eventually he settled in Paris, where he at once attracted attention by brilliant literary criticisms, at first chiefly on great foreign writers, contributed to the Revue des deux mondcs. He was elected municipal councillor at Versailles in 1870, deputy to the National Assembly for the department of Seine-et-Oise in 1871 and senator in 1875. He supported the Republican party. Towards the end of his life he devoted himself mainly to literary and general criticism, and was for many years one of the ablest contributors to Le Temps. He was a frequent visitor to England, and took a lively interest in English politics and literature. He died at Versailles on the 16th of March 1889.
Vital theorie _ x rw/F _ _.
Alexandre Vinet (1853), Lettres d"mon cure (1853), EtuJes critique's sur la litterature contemporaine (1863-1889), Eludes critiques de litterature (1876), Diderot (1880), La Democratie et la France (1883), Etudes sur la litterature au XVIII' siecle (1891).
A memoir of him, by V. C. O. Greard, appeared in 1890. See also an article by Professor E. Dowden in the Fortnightly Review (April 1889).
Note - this article incorporates content from Encyclopaedia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, (1910-1911)
