X.-HARVARD COLLEGE-SECTARIANISM, Speech of Josiah Quincy, President of Harvard Uni- versity, before the Board of Overseers of that Institution, February 25, 1845, on the Minority Report of the Committee of Visitation, presented to that Board by George Bancroft, Esq., February NOTICES OF RECENT PUBLICATIONS. Sparks's Library of American Biography, Vol. vi., Bush's Soul: or Inquiry into Scriptural Psychology, Paige's Commentary on New Testament, Vol. ii., Miles's Lowell as it was, and as it is,-Mind among Edes's Re-Dedication Discourse at Bolton,-Park's Dudleian Lecture,-Brazer's Discourse on Hon. By Alvan Lamson. Festus. A Poem. By Philip James Bailey. Letters addressed to Relatives and Friends, chiefly Russell's Young Ladies' Elocutionary Reader,-Rus- sell's Introduction to Young Ladies' Reader, Gannett's Dedication Discourse,—Robbins's Address and Dedication Sermon,-Ellis's Dedication Dis- course,-Peabody's Divinity School Address,— Newell's Discourse on Judge Story,-Greenleaf's Commemorative Discourse,-Baylies's Eulogy on B. Russell,-Peabody's Phi Beta Kappa Oration, -Brooks's Phi Beta Kappa Poem,-Jay's Peace Address,-May's Emancipation Address,-Spoon- er's Unconstitutionality of Slavery,-Hazard's Es- say on Channing,-Quincy's Memoir of Grahame, -Allen's Inquiry,—Brooks's Address on Natural History,-Answer to Questions addressed to Rev. We have placed below, the title of a book, published some years ago by Professor Baur of Tübingen, which contains much the most thorough account we have ever seen of the doctrine of the Atonement, in its historical progress through the Christian Church from the days of Origen and Irenæus to those of Hegel and Marheineke. It is a book not to be read cursorily, and it is one which will reward a close and patient study. Baur is a man of great learning, and much theological acuteness, as his Histories of Christian Gnosticism and of the Trinity and Incarnation amply show. He is tinctured with the philosophy of Hegel, but * Die Christliche Lehre von der Versöhnung in ihrer_geschichtlichen Entwicklun gvon der ältesten Zeit bis auf die neueste. Von Dr. F. C. BAUR, ordentlichem Professor der Evang. Theologie an der Universität zu Tübingen. 1838. 8vo. pp. 764. The Christian Doctrine of the Atonement according to its historical development. By Dr. F. C. BAUR, Professor, etc. in the University at Tübingen. + Die Christliche Gnosis, etc. Tübingen. 1835. pp. 755. In three large volumes, published in 1841-1844. VOL. XXXIX. 4TH S. VOL. IV. NO. I. 1 his philosophical and theological views seem not to influence him unfavorably as a historian. We might read his book through, and not discover, till we have reached the last few pages, to what opinion the writer inclines, so impartially does he present the arguments for the highest form of church Orthodoxy and for the lowest form of Rationalism. And yet the book is not a mere statement of the views and arguments of different ages and sects, without arrangement, progress or unity. It is critical and philosophical as well as historical. Its peculiar merit is that it contemplates the different views concerning this doctrine in relation to a law of progress, and attempts to show a gradual but regular development of the doctrine, from the first theoretical statement of it to the present time. Baur objects strongly to those histories which only heap together facts, only give an aggregate of opinions, without that binding coherence which is the soul of history. The history of a doctrine, he thinks, should show the inner movement of the idea, according to the progress of the human mind; and in a doctrinal history or monograph, the most difficult problem concerns not the facts, but their arrange ment. And certainly, if we believe that the development of ideas and the progress of thought are not accidental but Providential; if we believe that the human mind is, to some extent at least, under law; if we believe that opinions change from age to age, not according to blind chance but by a Divine guidance; it becomes a deeply interesting inquiry, What is the law of this progress, and toward what does it tend? Every doctrine or opinion which we study with this view, opens to us a new chapter in the Providential history of the human mind. As in the material world, a violent action in one direction produces reaction in the opposite, one extreme generates another to balance and restrain it. The mind acts freely, and yet under certain conditions and limitations from which it can never emancipate itself. This view offers the best consolation amid the apparent vagaries of opinion, and prevents an undue timidity when new and wild speculations arise around us. To many minds the history of theological doctrines is not an attractive study. It seems frivolous, barren and empty. |