German Historicism and the Changing Image of the Church, 1780–1820

Abstract

ADICHOTOMY seems to exist between the ecclesiology of the Enlightenment, based on rational, natural law, which perceived the Church or any institution as a juridical societas having rights and obligations, and the ecclesiology of Sailer and the Tubingen School, which under the influence of the Sturm und Drang as well as romantic idealism concentrated on the religious and ethical aspects of the Church. In this latter view, the Church became a dynamic mediatrix of a living spirituality. Generally, this genesis of German romantic idealism and its implications for Catholic theology have been interpreted as a revolt against a weak and imitative Aufklarung, supposedly merely a reflection of the FrancoBritish Enlightenment experience. The Aufklarung, however, was not merely a poor imitation of the Western model. There is a strong continuity between the Aufklarung and succeeding movements. A modern sense of historical consciousness emerged in the Aufklarung tradition and has connected the German Enlightenment with Hegel and romantic idealism. It is within this emergence of historicism that the ecclesiology of the Church experienced a transformation with implications even into the post-Vatican II era. To analyze a religious issue from the perspective of individuals is reasonable, since theology is concerned with speculation. But a sense for the whole movement may be lost. To interpret on the basis of a specific program may also lose a sense for the relationship of the issue to the historical epoch. Hence the levels of interpretation represented by individuals, schools, programs, or movements must be completed by an appeal to such notions as theological or mood. Denoting mood expresses lines of affinity that are as important as adherence to a specific movement. Within a given epoch the term strategy helps specify a level above that of program or of method in the technical sense. In studying the response of such reformist Catholics as Johann Michael Sailer and Johann Sebastian von Drey, the focus should be on their efforts to respond to the German Aufklarung rather than merely to the FrancoBritish Enlightenment and romantic idealism. Viable answers to theolog-