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THE RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OF THE EDUCATED CLASSES IN PROTESTANT GERMANY... In making this distinction he did not believe that he was introducing anything new. He thought that he was merely bringing up to date a tradition that had long existed. For old Protestant theology, subscribing to the true doctrine as revealed in the Bible, to the theologia vera, defined a Christian. Semler, however, distinguished between religion and theology in the sense that subscribing to a Christian religion was what made a Christian, while the term “theology” was reserved for the specialized knowledge possessed only by the Christian teachers, professors, or clergy. In making this distinction Semler’s aim was to establish theology as an academic discipline, define its place in the Church, and deprive it of the right it claimed to represent the generality and universality of Christian belief and thinking. In addition to discriminating between theology and religion, Semler drew a distinction between “public” and “private religion”? and between “public” and “private theology”.”’ The notion of “private religion” as opposed to “public religion” meant a personal belief in God, acommitment to the word of God as it had been expressed in the Bible. The element of personal choice and private religion meant that in his beliefs and his practice, the individual was bound neither by traditional doctrines nor by the authority of the church. The private religion of the individual Christian who was prepared to think for himself was no longer committed to the official church dogma.”$ This “true, private Christian religion” followed no “prescribed forms”; everyone practiced it “according to his own conscience.”” Thus private religion expressed itself where Christians had found their own independent access to and appropriation of the fundamental truths of the Christian religion. It involved their conscience and feelings, understanding and will, whereas for many, official religion had degenerated into a habit which did not involve their inner selves. If, however, private religion was the individual’s personal matter, it was also subject to change as a result of new experiences, ideas and knowledge. But for Semler, private religion meant neither 26 SEMLER, Johann Salomo, Versuch zu einer freien theologischen Lehrartzur Bestätigung und Erläuterung seines lateinischen Buches, Halle, C. H. Hemmerde, 1777, 7ff., and passim; on the subject of “private religion” cf. esp. RENDTORFF, Trutz, Kirche und Theologie. Die systematische Funktion des Kirchenbegriffs in der neuen Theologie, Gütersloh, Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 1966, 36ff.; HoRNIG, Gottfried, Die Freiheit der christlichen Privatreligion. Semlers Begründung des religiösen Individualismus in der Protestantischen Aufklärungstheologie, Neue Zeitschrift für systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie, 21 (1979), 198-211. 27 Ibid., 181 and passim. 28 SCHÜTZ, C. Gottfried (ed.), Johann Salomo Semlers letztes Glaubensbekenntnis über natürliche und christliche Religion, Königsberg, Nicolovius, 1792, 137. 25 Ibid. p.139.
