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Herrmann, Johann Wilhelm
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Johann Wilhelm Herrmann
(1846-1922)
Johann Wilhelm Herrmann
(1846-1922)
Jason Donnelly, 2000
Johann Wilhelm Herrmann was born in 1846 in Melkow,
Prussia. His father and maternal grandfather were both pastors. According
to the son, Wilhelm’s father “understood Schleiermacher’s theology
well, and the religious life of peasant people still better”(R. W.
Stewart, 1904). After receiving his preliminary education at the gymnasium
in Stendal he left for University in 1866. As a student he attended Halle
for four years, where under the direction of Fredrich Tholuck (1799-1877)
the faculty was said to have possessed the temper of warm Evangelism
(Julius Müller and Martin Kähler
were also on the faculty). Tholuck reflected the pietism of a humble
believer who had developed a sincere admiration for the theology of Hegel.
As mediating theology became more articulated it emerged as an approach
which stood between the extremes of the theological landscape, namely the
advanced Hegelians, the sturdily orthodox, the Pietists, and the radical
liberals (Latourette, 16-38). By the time Herrmann arrived for his studies
at Halle, Tholuck had become a respected mediating theologian known for
his dedication to his students. His sincere approach to theology and his
genuine affection for his students made a lasting affect on Herrmann, who
during his studies stayed for two and a half years as a house guest of the
professor. Upon finishing his studies Herrmann left Halle to serve in the
twenty-sixth infantry during the Franco-Prussian war. At the end of the
war Herrmann served as a private tutor for two years for a family near
Magdeburg.
After applying for recognition as a Privat-Docent in
1874, Herrmann was given his first appointment to Halle in 1875. During
this time at the home of Tholuck, Herrmann first met and began his
friendship with Albrecht Ristchl (1822-1889), professor at Göttingen
from 1864-1889 (Welch, 45-5). After four years Herrmann left Halle and
became professor of systematic theology at Marburg where he remained, in
spite of three calls elsewhere, from 1879 until his retirement in 1916 (Voelkel,
1971, xv). According to Van Pelt, Herrmann from the beginning was
recognized as the leading personality at Marburg. "He was a scholar
of rare attainments, and yet when the name of Herrmann is mentioned, it is
not learning that one thinks of. When Herrmann is named one thinks of a
glowing spirit, of a mind of great freedom and originality, and of a faith
intense, sure, and joyous" (Van Pelt, 1922, 972).
It is hard for us today to view Herrmann solely in
this light without mentioning those that came after him. Perhaps what is
most remarkable about the legacy of Wilhelm Herrmann is how quickly this
influential theologian became overshadowed by two of his former students.
Indeed it is hard to go back in time to see an accurate picture of Wilhelm
Herrmann that is not cast in the shadow of either Karl Barth or Rudolph
Bultmann. Nonetheless, at the time of his death in 1922, “Wilhelm
Herrmann was the most revered and influential systematic theologian in
Germany" (Van Pelt, 1925, 867). In addition to his highly regarded
teaching career Herrmann made frequent contributions to the Die
Christliche Welt and worked from 1907 to 1917 with Martin Rade as an
editor for Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche. His major works include Die
Religion im Verhältnis zum Welterkennen und zur Sittlichkeit or Religion
in Relationship to Knowledge of the World and Morality (1879), Ethik
(1901), Christlich-protestantische
Dogmatik (1906) and his most famous, Der
Verkehr des Christen mit Gott (1886).
With their emphasis on the connection between the
religious and the ethical, Herrmann and Adolf Harnack came to be
considered as theological heirs to Ritschl. Also apparent in Herrmann’s
thinking is the influence of Kant’s understanding of religious
knowledge. And last but not least, there are distinct elements of
Schleiermacher’s theology in Herrmann’s thought, particularly in his
christology. Having been impressed with the critical nature of Ritschl’s
thought as a student, having become the most prominent faculty member at
Marburg, and being a German theologian in the nineteenth century, it seems
quite possible that we could make too much of these connections. That
said, like each of them, “coming to terms with the scientific world was
what Wilhelm Herrmann’s entire career was about”(xix, Voelkel 1971).
The Communion of
the Christian with God
In The
Communion of the Christian with God, Herrmann seeks to establish that
the experience of communion with God is the basis for authentic Christian
faith. With this understanding the task of the theologian as he sees it is
to elucidate the experience that grounds Christian faith. He explains to
the reader up front that if he were a better preacher his task might be
different. But as a theologian it is not his project to explain doctrine
or sell dogmatic arguments in order to evangelize. Herrmann here hopes to
better appreciate a process and not to sell that process directly by the
subtle force of fear that arises from proscribing faith as law. Only an
experience that takes place within the individual will have the effect of
transforming that individual's life. No external force, whether social or
psychological, can provide the necessary fulcrum to inspire one to turn
freely toward God.
Herrmann views the church as a gathered community
made up of the priesthood of all believers. Together with scripture, the
tradition of the community helps elucidate and guide believers but the
church should not obstruct potential believers by requiring confessional
statements. Such confessional requirements are in Herrmann's view not only
burdensome but in their deterring quality, counter to the Christian
message. The revelation found in scripture is quite distinct from
doctrines that purport to be based upon the authority of scripture.
Doctrines are constructions of persons from their readings of scriptural
revelation but they are not the revelation themselves. We ought to regard
the creeds of the church as the creative expressions of other believers.
Therefor, the religious community helps mediate to believers the picture
of Jesus but it should not attempt through the imposition of doctrine and
confessional requirements mandate how one is to understand that picture.
To do otherwise in the presence of those who do not yet have the personal
experience on which to base their faith is to demand that intelligent
people become foolish before joining the community.
Herrmann viewed scripture as authoritative but in a
quite different manner than Martin Luther. His understanding of the misuse
of scripture was similar to his frustration about the confessional
requirements that had come to characterize many Protestant churches.
According to Herrmann the relation of Luther's conception of scripture had
emerged in a context where one could assume that all were Christians. In
this context Luther was reported to have said that he would no longer
argue with any man who did not recognize scripture as the Word of God.
Herrmann writes, “If we were now to take such a course it would be very
convenient and very pleasing to the flesh, but it would be utterly
fruitless.” He goes on to declare, “We ought rather to say that we
will argue with every man....”(108). I believe this statement embodies
three important elements of Herrmann's position in Communion; it is an attack against the false complacency of
confessional theology, it is an attack against those who have made in idol
out of the idea of sola scriptura,
and it is a call for sincere evangelism. Scripture has authority to guide
believers who have been impacted by Jesus, but it does not have authority
to mandate belief for the unbeliever. Herrmann has the practical
understanding that no compelling reason exists for non-believers to view
the New Testament as authoritative in any way. His rejection of Luther's
claim is made on behalf of those who can not bring themselves into a
community that appears so alien from their experience. To those within the
churches disturbed by his position he indignantly proclaimed that
Christianity could not be obtained "so cheaply"(77). In the end
it seems Herrmann viewed scripture as an element of tradition that was
handed down from those believers who had first felt the impact of Jesus on
their lives. Scripture and tradition are mediators that should not be
confused with or elevated above the chief end--namely the communion of the
Christian with God.
We have stated above that Herrmann's understanding of
the theological task is that its service is to help elucidate how this
communion takes place. His entire theological system was based upon the
individual's experience of communion with God. In the first chapter of Communion, Herrmann rejects the aims of mysticism on the grounds
that it uses Jesus as a mere mediator to be transcended en route to an encounter with God beyond the particulars of history.
His main critique is that mysticism discards Jesus and thus separates
people from God. How can one be sure of what they are experiencing when
they seek the ineffable? Thus while it is based on individual religious
experience and potentially packaged in Christian terms, mysticism is not
what Herrmann is after. For him, it is the life of Jesus that provides a
positive vision of God for the Christian. Instead of the boundless
imaginative nature of mysticism, Herrmann claims that it is through
encountering the portrait of the historical Jesus that one is lead to
communion with God.
The indispensable role Jesus plays in Herrmann's
understanding of communion is not easily grasped in a quick reading of his
work. On the one hand, his understanding of salvation depends on the
historical reality of Jesus' life. One comes to encounter the moral force
of Jesus through the tradition in general and the gospel narratives in
particular. The Bible, he writes introduces us to a marvelously vivid
personal life that compels us to self-examination (6). Conversion is made
complete when that person moving in their freedom joyfully surrenders to
the compelling God-consciousness of Jesus, thereby recognizing him as Lord
and attempting to follow in his moral example. On the other hand he
believes that Lessing's thesis (and thus joins Kierkegaard in declaring)
that "no historical judgement however certain it may appear, ever
attains anything more than probability"(72). Thus we can not depend
upon the biblical Christ as the basis of our salvation (80). But if
salvation depends on understanding the person of Jesus in history, by way
of the tradition and the New Testament, and if those accounts are
historically conditioned, how does his system hold together?
The hinge upon which Herrmann's argument swings is
the claim that the inner moral life of Jesus shines through the portrait
held by the church community. This picture of Jesus is not a doctrinal
equation. The narratives that remain conditioned by history are only a
piece of this portrait. This presentation of Christ leaves some room for
the individual to have their own authentic experience. To defend the
validity of this faith, that is not vulnerable to the increasing
challenges of biblical criticism (it had been fifty years since Strauss
published Leben Jesu), Herrmann
appeals to the tangible transformations that take place within Christian
persons. In a way he agrees with those who might object to this by
admitting that his explanation is not self-evident to all. But his
argument is consistent. The perspective that assists his empathy towards
the critical thinking non-believer is informed by his understanding of the
transformation that occurs when one experiences Jesus. His explanation
that real lives are transformed re-frames the issue and implicitly asks
the non-believer, how do you explain the fact that this portrait of Jesus
leads many to personal transformation? Jesus has the power to shine
through the details, he says, just look at the living examples of morally
upright Christians. What Herrmann finds even more compelling is that such
Christians can be found in spite of obsolete ecclesiastical forms and
obstructive teaching (10). The portrait of Jesus found in Christian
community can not convince one to believe, but it can affirm what
individuals experience before that portrait. For those yearning for
deliverance from a meaningless world, Herrmann maintains, in that portrait
they will encounter the savior.
In summary, Herrmann's Communion
maintains that the experience of communion is the basis of all Christian
faith. This individual experience takes place when one allows the portrait
of Jesus to speak through its contingencies to one's desire for a moral
life that contains meaning. This portrait of Jesus comes through both
scripture and tradition and its meaning becomes understandable within
Christian community. Doctrines or dogma can be joyful expressions that
reflect aspects of the internal experience but as external elements they
can only become a hindrance to the growing number of people beyond the
churches. Communion with God is not found in the way of the mystics, who
fail to account for the historical. Communion is not found by adhering to
defined doctrine or established scriptural interpretation that runs the
risk of making faith into law. One comes to believe solely by experiencing
the power of Jesus' within one's own existence. Once an individual comes
face to face with the portrait of Jesus found in the Christian tradition,
one becomes aware of the need for a savior. In Herrmann’s Communion,
salvation is offered through Jesus by way of the fact that he is the true
portrait of a moral human life.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
Herrmann, Wilhelm. The
Communion of the Christian with God: Described on the basis of Luther’s
statements. Edited and with an introduction by Robert T. Voelkel.
Lives of Jesus Series, ed. Leander Keck. Philiadelphia, PA: Fortress
Press, 1971. Based on the second English translation of Der
Verkehr des Christen mit Gott [1886] by J. Sandys Stanyon of the
fourth German edition of 1903.
Secondary Sources
Barth, Karl. “The Principles of Dogmatics according
to Wilhelm Herrmann (1925).” In Theology
and Church: Shorter Writings 1920-1928. Translated by Louise Pettibone
Smith. With an introduction (1962) by T. F. Torrance. New York: Harper and
Row Publishers, 1962. Translated from the German Die Theologie und die Kirche, 1928.
Carlston, Charles E. “Biblicism or Historicism?:
Some Remarks on the Conflict Between Kahler and Herrmann on the Historical
Jesus.” Biblical Research 13
(1968):26-40.
Cubillos, Robert Hernán.
“Herrmann’s Communion of the
Christian with God: Contributions to an Evangelical Perspective on the
Importance of Experience and the ‘Inner Life’ of Jesus?” Journal
of the Evangelical Theological Society 33 (1990) 179-88.
Deegan, Daniel. “Wilhelm Herrmann: A
Reassessment.” Scottish Journal of
Theology 19 (1966): 188-203.
Dorrien, Gary. The
Barthian Revolt in Modern Theology: Theology Without Weapons.
Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2000.
Furgusson, David. “Meaning, Truth, and Realism in
Bultmann and Lindbeck.” Religious
Studies 26 (1990) 183-198.
Herrmann, Wilhelm. Faith
and Morals. Crown Theological Library. Translated by Donald Matheson
and Robert Stewart. G. P. Putnam’s Sons: New York, 1904.
Latourette, Kenneth Scott. The Nineteenth Century in Europe: The Protestant and Eastern Churches.
Christianity in a Revolutionary Age: A History of Christianity in the
Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. 2. New York: Harper and Brothers
Publishers, 1959.
Sockness, Brent W. “The Ideal and the Historical in
the Christology of Wilhelm Herrmann: The Promise and the Perils of
Revisionary Christology.” Journal
of Religion 72 (1992): 366-88.
_____. “Ethics as Fundamental Theology: The
Function of Ethics in the Theology of Wilhelm Herrmann.” In The Annul of the Society of Christian Ethics 1992. Boston, MA: The
Society of Christian Ethics, 1992.
Van Pelt, John R. “Herrmann’s ‘Dogmatik.’” The
Methodist Review 108 (1925): 867-74.
_____. “Wilhelm Herrmann” The Methodist Review 105 (1922): 972-975.
Voelkel, Robert T. The
Shape of the Theological Task. Philadelphia, PA: The Westminster
Press, 1968.
Welch, Claude. Protestant
Thought in the Nineteenth Century, Vol. 2: 1870-1914. New Haven, CT:
Yale University Press, 1985.
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