The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-07-10
Science and Orthodoxy in Prussia.
Tho london Star says:-


"a very pretty little quarrel l,etween sci
ence and orthodoxy seems to ,5e at present agi-
tating the people of Berlin. 1t is hardly ne
cessary to tell our readers that in the capital
of Prussia science is strong, orthodoxy OF the
most old-fashioned kind is strong, philosophy
is strong, and neo.evangelism which aims at
reconoiling all and bringing them to complete
unity is also strong. Therefore, there are in
such city materials much more complete for
a controversy between science and orthodoxy
than would be found in most great towns, say
of England, where the extreme OF both views
would be probably left to have the light all to
themselves, and the general public would re-
main utterly unconCerned. AT the present
moment, then, the municipality Of Berlin,
taking up the cause of certain body of the
olergy-a certain school, perhaps, we should
rather say-seem to have come into direct and
somewhat angry collision with another great
section of the clergy, whose orthodox views
are of the most rigid character.
'About the close of last autumn, at the
synod of the principal evangelical diocese OF
Berlin. a pastor named Lsco read lecture or
report on the state of faith and morals in the
diocese. In this report the reverend gentle
man branched out into panegyric on natural
science which he declared had banished, with
out possibility of return, even among those
who called themselves most orthodox, the
ideas of the universe, which people formerly
supposed they extracted from the Bible.
sharp controversy sprang up then and there,
in which one young pastor of another
Berlin church specially distinguished him
self by the rigor of his uncompromising
orthodoxy. To this latter LiscO addressed
question which seems to have furnished the
keynote or motto of the controversy. Be
lieving, doubtless, that he was about to pro-
pound reductio dd GJSTdum, LscO asked
''Do you believe that the earth is fixed in the
! of nriv md bat tha
round it p YES was the indignant reply, Il
do believe it. My faith requires no other
guide than the Bible Why the orthodox
! believer was not called on to point out any
passage in the Bible which suggests that the
! earth is fixed in the middle of tue universe,
and that the sun goes round it, we are un-
able to guess. From that time, however, be-
! gan the controversy.
''The Rev. Lisco published a report of his
| lecture, and of the debate which followed, in
| Guiding, of course, the speech of his foremost
adversary. He followed this up by pamphlet,
expressing, it is said, with unmistallable clear
ness his views on miracles and the Mosaic
cOsmogony. We have not read the publication,
and do not even know what are the precise
views it expressed. But the clergymen who
had condemned its utterances in the synod
hastened to publish a formal declaration
against him and his supporters. solemn
protest, signed by twenty-One pastors of Ber-
lin churches, declared that the utterance or
sanction of such doctrines implied retraction
of the pastoral VOWS of those who expressed
them, and that the pulpits of evangelical
churches ought not to be open to such persons.
"On the other hand, the Protestant Associ-
alton, the body representing what we may call
the newer school of evangelicism i'll Germany,
and which holds its meetings periodically in
all the principal German cities, declared
against the protest. and against those who
would suppress the free Protestant spirit o.
inquiry. A great number of the municipal
deputies of Berlin took up the quarrel,
alarmed about the religious superintendent
of their schools, if left, says the account we
have been reading, lin the hands of men who
profess to belieye that the sun goes round the
historian, Won Baumer, in which the writeI
remarked that the inquisitor who imprisoned
Calico might well have reioiced could h,
have known that more than two eenturie.
later his judgment would receive from the
mouth of an evangelical pastor in the iutellec
tual capital of North Germany striking and
surprising confirmation.
"Ihe municipal assembly finally adopted
formal declaration against the too rigid orthO
doXy Of some of the clergy, and beggei the
magistracy of Berlin, as patrons of the
churches and schools, to protect the religious
and scientific instructions of the city ag4ins
the pTe-Galileo theory. However one NAV
municipal body, it would be impossible not tC
smile, as we are told that the Berlin public
generally did, when we read in their protest
formal record of their conviction that the eartl
moves round the sun. On that same day the
Pastoral Conference of Berlin, presided over
by the highest ecclesiastical dignitary of the
city, adopted a declaration against the free
thinking section of the Church, and while ex
pressing no opinion on the astronomical ques
tiOn collaterally raised, denounced the Pro
testant Association as entertaining ideas in
compatible with the full recognition of the
Scriptures as the sole and only authority and
guide of belief and life
$50 we understand the controversy now
rests. 1t is not unlikely that it may result il
some modification of the system of Church
government in Berlin, at all events, and some
alteration in the relationship which exists be-
tween the Church and the schools"