RATIONALISM, the interpretation of scripture truths upon the principles of human reason; which has become famous in the present day by the theological systems to which it has given birth in Germany. The history of the progress of the opinions of the reformed churches of that country may be found in Dr. Prisey's essay upon this subject. Ile con ceives the polemical discussions which prevailed throughout those communities in the 17th and first half of the following century to have prepared the way for the reception of the low views of Christianity, ms a moral system, which were derived from the writings of the concealed or avowed deists of England. From the middle of the last century there have arsen in Germany a succession of di vines—Banrogarten, Michaelis, Semler, Eichhorn, Paulus, Bretsehneider, &e., who have endeavored either to affix a lower and more human character to the invisible operations of God upon men through Christianity, or to reduce the accounts which we have of the foundation of our religion to the mixture of truth and error natural to fallible men. They have
questioned the genuineness of almost all the separate parts of Scripture, and the accuracy of all their supernatural narra tives. The discredit into which these theologians appear to have fallen arises, in a great measure, from the inability they have shown to produce a connected and consistent system of religion upon the low ground whieh they have taken up. Of later years ainuch more spiritual con ception of the nature of Script tire promises and Christian assistances is observable in the writings of German divines, under the operation of which their theological criti cism has already assumed a inore dig nified and exalted tone. The sensa Gun created. by Strauss's Life of Christ, the latest, and in sonic respects the most remarkable production of the Rationalist sehoot. may probably have aided in this reaction