DEEP CALLS TO DEEP
ADOLPH SAPHIR AND HERMAN DOOYEWEERD
(2) Influence of Friedrich Christoph Oetinger?
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General Contextual Note
(by J Glenn Friesen):
‘Abraham Kuyper expresses the wish that modernism would have allowed itself to be led by Franz von Baader to the “Biblical realism” of the Incarnation, as expressed in the life-giving proverb “Embodiment is the goal of the ways of God.”. The original maxim is by Friedrich Christoph Oetinger (1702–1782), one of Baader’s influences. Oetinger refers to the ‘works’ of God instead of the ‘ways’ of God: “Leiblichkeit ist das Ende der Werke Gottes.” The theologian Daniël Chantepie de la Saussaye introduced Baader’s Christian theosophy [no connection with Madame Blavatsky (FMF)] to Reformed theology in the Netherlands. His son said that he saw Chantepie de la Saussaye go about every day with the writings of Oetinger, Hamann and Baader.’ (‘Neo-Calvinism and Christian Theosophy: Franz von Baader, Abraham Kuyper, Herman Dooyeweerd', [Kindle] by J. Glenn Friesen, 2015/2016, pp 76, 94)
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Note on Johann Georg HAMANN (1730-1788)
(by Herman Dooyeweerd):
Herman Dooyeweerd writes of Hamann:
“This irrational philosophy of feeling, predominating especially in Hamann, the young Herder and Jacobi, and of which Goethe makes his Faust the mouth-piece in the utterance: ‘Gefühl ist alles’, is the true Humanistic counter-pole of the rationalistic line of thought characteristic of the ‘Enlightenment’ […] Rationalism and irrationalism in their modern sense are merely polar contrasts in the basic structure of the Humanistic cosmonomic Idea. The tension, the inner antinomy that originates for the irrationalist types between absolutized subjective individuality and law, led HAMANN and early romanticism to a dialectical conception of reality which ascribed the character of absolute reality to logical contradiction.” (A New Critique of Theoretical Thought, Vol 1 [Direct 608-pages pdf download] pp 412, 510)
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Note on Friedrich Christoph OETINGER (1702–1782)
and Adolph SAPHIR (1831-1891)
(by Rev Dr Ian Maxwell, Church of Scotland):
Oetinger is an interesting Biblical commentator. He was writing in the mid 18th century in Germany, but almost all of his works were republished in the early 19th century, following Gustav Auberlen's work on Oetinger's thought. Saphir had written the English translation of Auberlen's work on the prophetic relation between Daniel and Revelation, which T & T Clark published (1854?).
Saphir was chiefly interested in Oetinger's book Etwas Ganzes vom Evangelio which had been republished in a new German edition in 1850. The book consists of a collection of writings and papers by Oetinger. One significant study is on Isaiah 40-66. Rather than theologise, Oetinger carefully works through each chapter of Deutero-Isaiah, producing a single term summary of each chapter. He then brings the summaries together into three main themes: Belief (Isaiah 40-49); Righteousness (50-59); and Glory (60-66). At this point he links Belief, Righteousness and Glory to major themes in the Epistles. However, he states that he will not summarise to a higher level, as this bordered on abstraction.
So, there are three essential levels in Oetinger's study: the text of Scripture; a single term summary of a chapter of the text of Scripture; and a final single term uniting the chapter summaries. This, he declared, was the final limit, since abstraction lay beyond.
In Christ and the Scriptures, the Saphir quotes of Oetinger are from the Notes concerning Catechetical Teaching (one of the works included in Etwas Ganzes), and Auberlen's work on Oetinger.
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SAPHIR's OETINGER QUOTES
COMPARED with DOOYEWEERD
1) 'Scripture and Abstraction',
2) 'Heart, Root, Branches, and
3) 'Lookout Tower & Biblical Ground-Motive'.
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THEME 1)
SCRIPTURE AND ABSTRACTION
SAPHIR QUOTES OETINGER:
‘We all must agree with the quaint remarks of old Oetinger: “The writers of Scripture observe all rules without having rules, because their word proceeds from Life; they never bring forth old things without new, which have never been thus uttered. They avoid abstract definitions like a pestilence; they clothe their ideas and give them a body, but such a body as never misleads us to the sensual.”’
DOOYEWEERD WRITES:
“It is human personality that operates in cognition; it is not one or more of its abstracted modal functions. In its religious root this personality transcends its temporal acts and modal functions. This holds good no matter whether the cosmological self-consciousness, in the cognitive activity, is directed in Christ to the true Origin of all things, to the sovereign Creator and Heavenly Father, or, in sinful apostasy, seeks itself and the Origin in the temporal. (A New Critique of Theoretical Thought, Vol 2 pp 473, 474).
“Thus the central theme of the Holy Scriptures, namely, that of creation, fall into sin, and redemption by Jesus Christ in the communion of the Holy Spirit, has a radical unity of meaning, which is related to the central unity of our human existence. It effects the true knowledge of God and ourselves, if our heart is fully opened by the Holy Spirit so that it finds itself in the grip of God's Word and has become the captive of Jesus Christ. So long as this central meaning of the Word-revelation is at issue, we are beyond the scientific problems both of theology and philosophy. Its acceptance or rejection is a matter of life or death to us, and not a question of theoretical reflection. In this sense, the central motive of Holy Scripture is the common supra-scientific starting-point of a truly biblical theology and of a truly Christian philosophy. It is the key of knowledge of which Jesus spoke in his discussion with the Scribes and lawyers. It is the religious presupposition of any theoretical thought which may rightly claim a biblical foundation. But, as such, it can never become the theoretical object of theology - no more than God and the human I can become such an object.
“...I am sorry if my explanation concerning the scientific field of research of dogmatic theology seem not clear at first sight. The difficulties and questions to which it gives rise do not concern the divine Word-revelation, but exclusively the scientific character and bounds of a theological dogmatics and exegesis. And it is necessary 'ad humanam salutem' to go into these difficulties in a serious way. For dogmatic theology is a very dangerous science. Its elevation to a necessary mediator between God's Word and the believer amounts to idolatry and testifies to a fundamental misconception concerning its real character and position. If our salvation be dependent on theological dogmatics and exegesis, we are lost. For both of them are a human work, liable to all kinds of error, disagreement in opinion, and heresy. We can even say that all heresies are of a theological origin. Therefore, the traditional confusion between God's Word as the central principle of knowledge and the scientific object of theological dogmatics and exegesis must be wrong in its fundamentals. For it is this very confusion which has given rise to the false identification of dogmatic theology with the doctrine of Holy Scripture, and to the false conception of theology as the necessary mediator between God's Word and the believers.
“[...]Let us first consider how the Word of God presents itself to us in its full and actual reality. The divine Word-revelation has entered our temporal horizon. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. This was the 'skandalon' which was equally raised by the incarnation of the Word-revelation in the Holy Scriptures, a collection of books written by different men in the course of ages, be it through divine inspiration, yet related to all the modal aspects of our temporal horizon of experience. It is, however, only under the modal aspect of faith that we can experience that this Word-revelation in the Scriptures has been inspired by the Holy Spirit. And the actual belief through which we know with an ultimate certainty that it is so, cannot be realized in the heart, that religious center of our consciousness, except by the operation of the Word itself, as a spiritual power. What makes the diversity of books of the Old and New Testament into a radical spiritual unity? Their principle of unity can only be the central theme of creation, fall into sin, and redemption by Jesus Christ in the communion of the Holy Spirit, since it is the key to true knowledge of God and self-knowledge. We have established that, in its central spiritual sense, as divine motive power addressing itself to our heart, this theme cannot become the theoretical object of theological thought, since it is the very starting point of the latter, insofar as theology is really biblical.
“From the foregoing it may appear that there must be a difference in principle between creation, fall and redemption in their central sense as the key to knowledge, and in their sense as articles of faith which may be made into the object of theological thought. Insofar as Reformed theology, too, was influenced by the scholastic basic motive of nature and grace, it also developed dogmatic views which must be considered unbiblical. The Jewish Scribes and lawyers had a perfect theological knowledge of the books of the Old Testament. They wished, doubtless, to hold to the creation, the fall, and the promise of the coming Messiah as articles of the orthodox Jewish faith which are also articles of the Christian faith. Nevertheless, Jesus said to them: "Woe unto you, for ye have taken away the key of knowledge!" (Luke 11:52).
“This key of knowledge in its radical and integral sense cannot be made into a theoretical problem. The theologian can only direct his theological thought to it with respect to its necessary supra-theoretical presupposition, if he is really in the grip of it and can bear witness to its radical meaning which transcends all theological concepts. But when he does so, he is not in any different position than the Christian philosopher who accounts for his biblical starting-point, or the ordinary believer who testifies to the radical sense of God's Word as the central motive power of his life in Jesus Christ. In other words, the true knowledge of God in Jesus Christ and true self-knowledge are neither of a dogmatic-theological, nor of a philosophical nature, but have an absolutely central religious [ultimate, supratemporal] significance. This knowledge is a question of spiritual life or death. Even orthodox theological dogmatics, however splendidly elaborated, cannot guarantee this central spiritual knowledge.” (Herman Dooyeweerd, In the Twilight of Western Thought [direct pdf download], from pp 86,87, 100, 134-146).
“Scripture moves, describes, convinces. In Isaiah we have not formal sentences, but real addresses, which re-echo in the heart, calling on us to be comforted by God’s redemption: 'Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! All is full of the nearness of God’s Spirit: ‘Fear not, I am with thee.' The apostolic men had not the habit of prefixing their theme, even as a painter would not write above his picture of a horse, “This is a horse;’ and because divisions are chiefly of use to the learned, the prophets had another method of fastening the great points as nails into the heart, so that people did not require the art of remembering but, as Themistocles said of his bad conscience, the art of forgetting. Isaiah has perfect divisions, but not as a geometrical plane is divided into squares, but as a man consists of members, and a tree of trunk and branches. (Selected from various works of this eminent theologian (Oetinger].’“ (p 114)
“...I am sorry if my explanation concerning the scientific field of research of dogmatic theology seem not clear at first sight. The difficulties and questions to which it gives rise do not concern the divine Word-revelation, but exclusively the scientific character and bounds of a theological dogmatics and exegesis. And it is necessary 'ad humanam salutem' to go into these difficulties in a serious way. For dogmatic theology is a very dangerous science. Its elevation to a necessary mediator between God's Word and the believer amounts to idolatry and testifies to a fundamental misconception concerning its real character and position. If our salvation be dependent on theological dogmatics and exegesis, we are lost. For both of them are a human work, liable to all kinds of error, disagreement in opinion, and heresy. We can even say that all heresies are of a theological origin. Therefore, the traditional confusion between God's Word as the central principle of knowledge and the scientific object of theological dogmatics and exegesis must be wrong in its fundamentals. For it is this very confusion which has given rise to the false identification of dogmatic theology with the doctrine of Holy Scripture, and to the false conception of theology as the necessary mediator between God's Word and the believers.
“[...]Let us first consider how the Word of God presents itself to us in its full and actual reality. The divine Word-revelation has entered our temporal horizon. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. This was the 'skandalon' which was equally raised by the incarnation of the Word-revelation in the Holy Scriptures, a collection of books written by different men in the course of ages, be it through divine inspiration, yet related to all the modal aspects of our temporal horizon of experience. It is, however, only under the modal aspect of faith that we can experience that this Word-revelation in the Scriptures has been inspired by the Holy Spirit. And the actual belief through which we know with an ultimate certainty that it is so, cannot be realized in the heart, that religious center of our consciousness, except by the operation of the Word itself, as a spiritual power. What makes the diversity of books of the Old and New Testament into a radical spiritual unity? Their principle of unity can only be the central theme of creation, fall into sin, and redemption by Jesus Christ in the communion of the Holy Spirit, since it is the key to true knowledge of God and self-knowledge. We have established that, in its central spiritual sense, as divine motive power addressing itself to our heart, this theme cannot become the theoretical object of theological thought, since it is the very starting point of the latter, insofar as theology is really biblical.
“From the foregoing it may appear that there must be a difference in principle between creation, fall and redemption in their central sense as the key to knowledge, and in their sense as articles of faith which may be made into the object of theological thought. Insofar as Reformed theology, too, was influenced by the scholastic basic motive of nature and grace, it also developed dogmatic views which must be considered unbiblical. The Jewish Scribes and lawyers had a perfect theological knowledge of the books of the Old Testament. They wished, doubtless, to hold to the creation, the fall, and the promise of the coming Messiah as articles of the orthodox Jewish faith which are also articles of the Christian faith. Nevertheless, Jesus said to them: "Woe unto you, for ye have taken away the key of knowledge!" (Luke 11:52).
“This key of knowledge in its radical and integral sense cannot be made into a theoretical problem. The theologian can only direct his theological thought to it with respect to its necessary supra-theoretical presupposition, if he is really in the grip of it and can bear witness to its radical meaning which transcends all theological concepts. But when he does so, he is not in any different position than the Christian philosopher who accounts for his biblical starting-point, or the ordinary believer who testifies to the radical sense of God's Word as the central motive power of his life in Jesus Christ. In other words, the true knowledge of God in Jesus Christ and true self-knowledge are neither of a dogmatic-theological, nor of a philosophical nature, but have an absolutely central religious [ultimate, supratemporal] significance. This knowledge is a question of spiritual life or death. Even orthodox theological dogmatics, however splendidly elaborated, cannot guarantee this central spiritual knowledge.” (Herman Dooyeweerd, In the Twilight of Western Thought [direct pdf download], from pp 86,87, 100, 134-146).
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THEME 2)
HEART, ROOT, BRANCHES
SAPHIR QUOTES OETINGER:
“Scripture moves, describes, convinces. In Isaiah we have not formal sentences, but real addresses, which re-echo in the heart, calling on us to be comforted by God’s redemption: 'Say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God! All is full of the nearness of God’s Spirit: ‘Fear not, I am with thee.' The apostolic men had not the habit of prefixing their theme, even as a painter would not write above his picture of a horse, “This is a horse;’ and because divisions are chiefly of use to the learned, the prophets had another method of fastening the great points as nails into the heart, so that people did not require the art of remembering but, as Themistocles said of his bad conscience, the art of forgetting. Isaiah has perfect divisions, but not as a geometrical plane is divided into squares, but as a man consists of members, and a tree of trunk and branches. (Selected from various works of this eminent theologian (Oetinger].’“ (p 114)
DOOYEWEERD SAYS:
(transcribed from video interview translated by Jack Van Meggelen)
“And suddenly, as it were by accident, one afternoon, just after four o’ clock, as I was sitting in Kuyper’s old office, sitting at his enormous old desk, I noticed a stack of little booklets, and I picked the first one that came to hand, which was Kuyper’s Meditation on Pentecost. I wouldn’t have done this earlier in my life, but I thought I should see what he said there, and I was still reading by eight o’ clock at night, I was so moved by Kuyper’s meditations. I realized that in these meditations Kuyper was very different from the one in his systematic work. In theology he can be somewhat scholastic, but not at all in these meditations. Here he expressed really lively Biblical thought. And what really gripped me was Kuyper’s rediscovery of something lost in scholasticism, that is the Biblical conception that the center of human existence lies in the heart. In the heart one’s existence is centered. The Bible uses ‘heart’ comprehensively. But the heart has often been considered the seat of the affections, and there is a common dichotomy between head and heart, where the head is intellect, and the heart is emotional feeling. But Kuyper says clearly in one of those meditations that he is speaking of the heart, but not as the organ of feeling, but rather as that central point of one’s existence where God works, that unified point where life is not yet in differentiated expression. He used the example of the root and the branches that stem from it. So not the various branches but the very root of our existence. In this sense, this is the Biblical use of the word ‘heart’. For me this was a clear turning point in my life, and as I reflected on it, I realized that this insight overturned my whole view of man, and my whole view of the reality in which we live, since all reality has in humanity a central point of concentration. And when it comes to the question of man’s self-knowledge, once again, a topic of great interest, What is the Self? What does it mean when one says “I”? And Calvin, in his book ‘Institutes of the Christian Religion’ [cf Chapter 1], speaks of true self-knowledge as completely dependent on true knowledge of God. And this is the heart of the matter, since, if the self is this center, the heart of our existence, a center of all our temporal capabilities and functions, of thinking, of feeling, of biological life, if all these are related to the center, all focused there; so “I” believe, “I” think, “I” feel, “I” live, and all these functions of living, thinking, believing, feeling, and so forth, all of these are unified in the “I” as their center, indeed, as the religious [ultimate, supratemporal] center.’
View full 15 min interview (1973) in Dutch with English subtitles here:
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THEME 3)
LOOKOUT TOWER &
BIBLICAL GROUND-MOTIVE
SAPHIR QUOTES OETINGER:
“Scripture sees all things from a great height, therefore the expressions it uses are according to a different measure and perspective from those of the world, for which reason to the world the Scripture seems exaggerated. This absolute and perfect view and measure of Scripture, which we ought always to regard as the standard of all our thoughts and words, may be specially noticed in the Scripture description of the creation, redemption, and the end of all things. How paradoxical and above nature!*(*Oetinger, friend of Bengel, who died in 1782, as Prelate of the Würtemberg Church in Murrhardt. Etwas Ganzes vom Evangelio, p148)”.
DOOYEWEERD WRITES:
“The Archimedean point of philosophy and the tendency of philosophical thought towards the Origin: To speak in a figure: In the process of directing my philosophical thought in the idea towards the totality of meaning, I must be able to ascend a lookout-tower above all the modal speciality of meaning that functions within the coherence of the modal aspects. From this tower I must be able to survey this coherence with all the modal diversity of meaning included in it. Here I must find the point of reference to which this modal diversity can be related, and to which I am to return in the process of reflecting thought. In other words, if I am not to lose myself in the modal speciality of meaning during the course of philosophic thought, I must be able to find a standpoint which transcends the special modal aspects. Only by transcending the speciality of meaning, can I attain to the actual view of totality by which the former is to be distinguished as such. This fixed point from which alone, in the course of philosophical thought, we are able to form the idea of the totality of meaning, we call the Archimedean point of philosophy.” (A New Critique of Theoretical Thought VOL 1 p8)
“Since the fall and the promise of the coming Redeemer, there are two central mainsprings operative in the heart of human existence. The first is the dynamis of the Holy Spirit, which by the moving power of God's Word, incarnated in Jesus Christ, re-directs to its Creator the creation that had apostatized in the fall from its true Origin. This dynamis brings man into the relationship of sonship to the Divine Father. Its religious [time-transcending] ground-motive is that of the Divine Word-Revelation, which is the key to the understanding of Holy Scripture: the motive of creation, fall, and redemption by Jesus Christ in the communion of the Holy Spirit.” (A New Critique of Theoretical Thought VOL 1 p61) [Direct 608-pages pdf download]
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