DANIEL

See also:

• DANIEL SCHENKEL (1813—1885)

SCHENKEL (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 Protestantismus aus den Quellen des Ref ormationszeitalters beleuchtet (3 vols . 1846—1851, 2nd 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 truththose 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- and Charaklerbild (1868) ; Christentum and Kirche (2 vols., 1867–1872) ; Die Grundlehren des Christentums aus dem Bewusstsein des Glaubens dargestellt (1877); and Das Christusbild der Apostel and der nachapostolischen Zeit (1879) . See Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie, Otto Pfleiderer, Development of Theology (189o); and F . Lichtenberger, History of German Theology (1889) . (M . A .