Modern Reinterpretations of Regeneration
and an "external" covenant of grace and by reducing the sacraments to signs and seals of the latter. Baptism neither secured nor presupposed regeneration but only included children in the covenant of grace to the extent that they received through it an assurance of God's universal love and goodwill and were invited and obligated to accept the gospel and to turn to God in repentance.38 In that way, just as in Methodism,
Pietism, and rationalism, the relationship between regeneration and faith was again reversed. Human beings were obligated, and, according to the increasingly prevailing view, also still possessed the moral strength to believe and repent. The "you must" ("du sollst") presupposed and demanded the "you can"
("du kannst"). By that faith a person was then regenerated and amended his or her life. In the Enlightenment, finally, people got to the point where they preferred to avoid the term "rebirth" altogether. "Enlightenment," "culture," "development," "moral nurture," and "amendment of life," it was said, were greatly superior terms and also materially much more apt.
Modern Reinterpretations of Regeneration But after the Enlightenment had exchanged the term "rebirth" for that of moral amendment, it was picked up again by idealistic philosophy. Just as this philosophy sought to disentangle itself everywhere from the rule of the intellect and with the aid of speculative reason to track down the deeper meaning in nature and history, so it also strove to bring out the hidden idea inherent in Christian dogmas. Accordingly, words like "Trinity," "incarnation," "atonement," "redemption," and similarly the word "regeneration" or "rebirth" returned in the vocabulary of Kant and Fichte, Schelling and Hegel, and later also in that of Schopenhauer and von Hartmann.39 Of course, they filled these terms with a meaning that was far removed
from the view of the church. Yet this tie-in with Christian truths remains very remarkable. With respect to the term "rebirth," what came out in it was the conviction that the moral corruption of humans was much more deep-rooted than in the intellect alone. There is in human beings "a bent toward evil," and therefore no enlightenment and development was sufficient for their restoration; what was needed was nothing less than a radical reformation, a revolution of their minds, a total reversal in the maxims of their lives and conduct. Kant and Fichte (in his first period) considered such a revolution possible by a free intelligible act of the will. But later, when idealistic philosophy developed in a pantheistic direction, such a rebirth of humans was viewed simultaneously as their own deed and a work of God: it was a "divine transmutation."40
Similar thoughts also occur in later philosophers 41 and have in recent years been developed especially by Rudolf Eucken.
According to this philosopher, the spiritual life in humans nevertheless plays a unique role. It manifests itself in the ideals of the true, the good, and the beautiful, which it shapes; in the norms in conformity to which it seeks to develop; and in the profuse cultural labors on which it puts its stamp. All these manifestations prove the independence, unity, and freedom of the life of the spirit vis-à-vis the mechanism of nature but at the same time demonstrate the rights of religion. For religion is not a means to happiness but the "self-preservation" and "selfassertion" of the life of the spirit in the power of God. "Religion rests on the presence of a Divine Life in man; it unfolds itself through the seizure of this Life as one's own nature. Religion, too, subsists in the fact that man in the inmost foundation of his own being is raised into the Divine Life, and participates in the Divine Nature."42
When Christianity acts as a religion of redemption, it by implication assumes the existence of a sharp contrast between what humans are and what they ought to be. It expresses their
inability to reach the summit by gradual self-improvement, and proclaims a transformation and elevation by an immediate intervention of the divine. And this is confirmed by the general experience of the spiritual life. For it shows "how the Spiritual
Life is unable to find its necessary self-reliance in the world of ordinary experience; we have seen a breach between genuine spirituality and the world taking place; and we have seen how the effects of all this carry a new world within themselves. In spiritual things every pathway of man leads to a Yea through a Nay, and all toil is in vain without an inner elevation through the energy of an Absolute Life."43
In theology the concept of regeneration was again restored by Schleiermacher. In his thought the concept even became the center of the redemptive order for religion. Specifically,
Christianity was not a revealed doctrine, nor a moral code that enjoins activity upon us, but life, personal life in communion with God. In keeping with this, redemption consisted objectively in the impartation of the holiness and blessedness of Christ's
God-consciousness, to which regeneration then corresponds subjectively, with the assumption of humans into living fellowship with Christ. When Christ encounters us and vigorously exerts his influence in us, the previously feeble and oppressed God-consciousness is raised up, reinforced, and brought to dominion in us. Within us there then arises a new religious personality who breaks with the old state, starts a new life, and develops and completes it in sanctification.
Regeneration, accordingly, is "the turning point at which the earlier life as it were breaks off and the new begins."
Schleiermacher's virtue is that he again included regeneration in dogmatics, understood by it a religious-ethical process of change, and also related it to the person of Christ. But in the process he was not able to disentangle himself completely from the influence of pantheistic philosophy. This is apparent, in the first place, in the fact that, in connection with his view of sin as sensuousness and of Christ's appearance as the rebirth of the
human race, he views the rebirth of the individual as a moment, be it a very significant moment, in the process in which the human spirit, in fellowship with God, elevates itself above and frees itself from the dominion of the sensuous nature. On the other hand, this again carries within itself the consequence that Justification is made dependent on repentance. The assumption into a fellowship of life with Christ, which is regeneration, has two dimensions. On the one hand, it brings about a change in one's relationship to God, which is Justification; on the other hand it consists in a change of life and is called conversion
(further differentiated into repentance and faith). The moment a person is reborn, repenting and believing, one no longer as in the past faces God as the Holy and Righteous One but experiences his love and grace and loses the consciousness of guilt and doom by which one was burdened in the past.
Regeneration includes a change of consciousness and in that respect is called Justification. But in Schleiermacher's doctrine, there is no room for an objective Justification that precedes conversion, is based on the righteousness of Christ, and is accepted and enjoyed by faith alone.44
It was "Mediating Theology" (Vermittelungstheologie)45 that sought to make provision for the first void by taking sin more seriously (Julius Müller) and by doing more justice to the totally unique divine nature of Christ (I. A. Dorner). But it remained nevertheless true to Schleiermacher's basic idea that Christianity had primarily introduced a new life. It worked this out by saying that what Christ's coming did for the human race, regeneration does for the individual. Christ as Logos was already the life and light of human beings and by his incarnation and further by his resurrection made this life the possession of all humanity. As the central individual he became the head of a new humanity. But this life must also be transplanted from him into the individual human being, which is what happens in regeneration. After Christ by his resurrection and ascension has himself been perfected, he by his Spirit successively guides the individual,
humanity, and the entire cosmos into communion with his divine-human life. He expands his individual life to the dimensions of a universal divine-human life. Regeneration, accordingly, though it does not constitute a transubstantiation, is nevertheless a representation of the divine human personality of Christ in us. By it the personal life of human beings is transformed into a divine-human life—life in its loftiest and fullest reality. And when God looks thus at a person in Christ, incorporated into his fellowship and a participant in his life, he pronounces him or her righteous.46 In this connection some thinkers even took a theosophical direction and attributed to regeneration a substantial effect on the whole person. Luther had already stated that the real enjoyment of the flesh and blood of Christ in the Lord's Supper also renews the body, and that the water of baptism prepares the body for eternal life. Originally these expressions could indeed be given a good sense, but in the circles of Pietism, particularly by Bengel and his pupil Fr. Chr.
Oetinger, they were later construed very realistically. By his suffering and death, Christ—it was said—was elevated to become the prince of life, a high priest according to the law of an incorruptible life, and as such possesses the power, by his blood
(which he took to heaven with him and with which he sprinkles his own), to impart spirit, life, and glory to a fallen, carnal, and unspiritual nature. Regeneration, accordingly, consists in a process in which an unspiritual, carnal, sin-corrupted, and worldly person, is totally spiritualized, divinized, and glorified in spirit, soul, and body. Serving as a means to that end is the Word, but especially the sacrament, for in the sacrament Christ himself, with his flesh and blood, is present and creates in us an entirely new person, not only spiritually but also physically.
Even now already there is being formed in us "a highly refined spiritual body" that will one day manifest itself in its full glory, for corporeality is the end of God's ways and works.47
These ideas, which lived on in pietistic circles, again came to the fore in the theosophical speculations of Schelling, von Baader,
Hamberger, and also registered with a number of meditation theologians. In Rothe, regeneration begins with conversion, which is a work of divine grace but also a free human act. In conversion, human beings align themselves with God, lose their consciousness of guilt, and are not only justified but also gain a new life. Regeneration consists in a person's becoming spirit: achieving an absolute union between thought and existence, idea and nature. It starts at a certain central point in one's personality but continues, especially under the influence of the sacraments, in a process of spiritualization until a person's entire organism is spiritualized, and Christ or the Spirit completely indwells him or her.48 According to Franz Delitzsch, regeneration consists in a work of Christ by which he, who by his resurrection became a life-giving spirit, transforms the antidivine being of human persons into divine being and not only changes our consciousness by faith but also imparts to us his spirit, soul, and flesh, so that around our believing ego a new human-in-process-of-becoming is formed who participates in the divine nature. Regeneration, therefore, is simultaneously an ethical and a substantial restoration of human beings.49 In this view, which as such already strikes one as strange, the Reformation doctrine of Justification by faith is not given its due and is even switched onto a Roman Catholic track.
Given this defect of the Mediating Theology, which took its cue from Schleiermacher, Ritschl tried to compensate for it when he again put Justification into the limelight, conceived it as a synthetic judgment, and regarded it as a possession of the church.50 Among the objections that in time were raised against his system, however, was that the individual subjects, in other words, regeneration and mysticism, did not come into their own.
Justification, after all, at least the Justification that is once for all pronounced on the church in the gospel of Jesus, becomes a person's own possession when—usually in the way of a Christian upbringing—one joins the church, lets go of all distrust toward
God by trusting in the person of Jesus, and in one's moral
calling makes the ultimate goal of God (the kingdom of God) one's own life task. That's really all that can be said about it, for a penitential struggle (German: Busskampf) is far from being necessary for everyone and remains an exception, and the story of how a person comes to the faith is too individual for it to be closely examined and objectively described. It should be sufficient, therefore, to say that those who join the church are justified and born again. The two are essentially identical.51
Herrmann similarly equates regeneration with the experience of Justification in the faith. In his book Der Verkehr des Christen mit Gott,52 he aims to eliminate all mysticism from religion. A Christian's communion with God, he argues, in no way consists in any stirrings and impressions of the emotions. If that were the case, such feelings would have to be sought out and cultivated, and the rest of life, such as one's work and occupation, would be slighted as being inferior. Furthermore, religion itself would be robbed of its content, for all mysticism is in the nature of the case monotonous. Communion with God is objectively available to us in the person of Christ. In him, and in him alone, God is present to us, comes to us, makes himself known as a God of grace who forgives sins, enters into communion with us, and effects our moral deliverance. Another kind of communion with God, apart from the historical Christ, does not exist, nor is it needed. If we let the image of Jesus have its impact on our inner lives, if in his person we experience God's forgiving love by faith, we at that very moment and as a result of it become totally new people. We are freed from feelings of guilt, fear, and dread, are assured of God's love, and calmly and courageously proceed to do our moral work. Herrmann, accordingly, does not deny that a transformation has to occur in the "natural man." On the contrary, he emphasizes personal experience and one's personal religious life as strongly as he can. But this transformation is brought about in us by looking up to Jesus, by faith in the love of God revealed in him. A different rebirth, distinct from the one just described and concurrent to it, consisting for example in our