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Heinrich Heppe: A Melanchthonian Liberal in the Nineteenth-Century German Reformed Church

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Lowell H. Zuck
Lowell H. Zuck
Affiliation:
Mr.Zuck is professor of church history in Eden Theological Seminary, Saint Louis, Missouri.
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Extract

In 1978 the first American publication of Heinrich Heppe's classic textbook of 1861 on Reformed dogmatics appeared. That occasion provides an opportunity to give an account of Heppe's place in nineteenth-century German Protestantism. An examination of Heppe's life and writings shows that, like August Vilmar, his Lutheran antagonist on the Marburg University faculty, Heppe was a confessionalist, defending the old Protestant church against modern rationalistic enemies. Unlike Vilmar, however, Heppe's confessionalism was inclusive rather than exclusive.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 51 , Issue 4 , December 1982 , pp. 419 - 433
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1982

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References

1. Heppe's, Reformed Dogmatics was first published as volume two of Schriften zur reformirten Theologie: Die Dogmatik der evangelisch-reformirten Kirche (Elberfeld, 1861)Google Scholar. A new edition was edited by Ernst Bizer in 1935 and republished in 1958. It was translated by G. T Thomson and published in England in 1950; this translation was reprinted by Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1978.

2. No biography of Heppe exists. Short encyclopedic articles about him can be found s.v. “Heppe, H.” in Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, Neue Deutsche Biographie (this article is abridged in the New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge, Evangelisches Kirchen-Lexikon, and Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart, and BiographischBibliographisches Kirchenlexikon.

3. See three handwritten pages from about 1843 concerning Heppe's studies entitled Vitae meae curriculum, folder 28, Rep. I E/H 78, Landeskirchenamt, Kurhessen-Waldeck, Kassel.

4. See Heppe, Heinrich, Geschichte der Theologischen Facultät zu Marburg (Marburg, 1873), pp. 63–64.Google Scholar

5. In faraway Saint Louis, Missouri, the biblical exegesis of the Eden Theological Seminary professor Karl Emil Otto also fell under Hupfeld's influence. Otto's work led to a censure vote in 1880 within the Evangelical Syod of North America and his banishment from the theological faculty but not from the synod. For the story of Otto's difficulties, see Schneider, Carl E., The German Church on the American Frontier (Saint Louis, 1939), p. 368;Google Scholar and Dunn, David, ed., A History of the Evangelical and Reformed Church (Philadelphia, 1961), pp. 223–229.Google Scholar

6. Heppe, , Geschichte der Theologischen Facultät, p. 63.Google Scholar

7. Hopf, Wilhelm, August Vilmar: Ein Lebens- und Zeitbild, 2 vols. (Marburg, 1913), 1:340.Google Scholar All translations from German are my own.

8. Ibid., 2: 203–204.

9. My own unpublished chronological bibliography of Heppe includes 92 items, many of them multivolume works.

10. Neue Deutsche Biographie, s.v. “Heppe, H.” Ernst Bizer, the author of this article, provides a longer discussion in “ H. Heppe,” in Lebensbilder aus Kurhessen und Waldeck, 1830–1930, ed. Ingeborg, Schnack, 6 vols. (Marburg, 1958), 6: 112–127.Google Scholar

11. Heppe, Heinrich, Thatsachen aus der kurhessischen Kirchengeschichte (Kassel, 1844).Google Scholar

12. Heppe, Heinrich, Historische Untersuchungen über den Kasseler Katechismus vom Jahr 1539, nach seiner Entstehung und kirchlichen Bedeutung (Kassel, 1847)Google Scholar.

13. Heppe, Heinrich, Die fünfzehn Marburger Artikel vom 3. Oktober 1529 (Kassel, 1847).Google Scholar

14. Heppe, Heinrich, Geschichte der hessischen Generalsynoden von 1568–1582, 2 vols. (Kassel, 1847).Google Scholar

15. Heppe, Heinrich, Die Einführung der Verbesserungspunkte in Hessen von 1604–1610 und die Entstehung der hessischen Kirchenordnung von 1657 (Kassel, 1849)Google Scholar.

16. Heppe, , Generalsynoden, pp. 12–13.Google Scholar

17. Consult Seeberg, Reinhold, Die Kirche Deutschlands im Neunzehnten Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1903), p. 78.Google Scholar

18. Details regarding Heppe's participation in the Jesberg Conference of 1849 can be found in “Ausserordentliche Beilage zum Hessischen Volksfreund Nr. 24: Die zweite allgemeine Conferenz gehalten zu Jesberg am 14. Februar 1849,” Marburg Staatsarchiv, Marburg.

19. Heppe, Heinrich, “Der Charakter der deutsch-reformirten Kirche und das Verhältniss derselben zum Luthertum und zum Calvinismus,” Theologische Studien und Kritiken 23 (1850): 669–706;Google Scholar translated as “The Character of the German Reformed Church, and Its Relationship to Lutheranism and Calvinism,” Mercersburg Quarterly Review 5 (1853): 181–207.Google Scholar

20. Ibid., p. 181.

21. Good, James I., History of the Reformed Church of Germany, 1620–1890 (Reading, Pa. 1894), pp. 555, 556, 591–593.Google Scholar

22. Alexander Schweizer published both a Reformed dogmatics and a general dogmatics: Die Glaubenslehr der evangelisch-reformirten Kirche dargestellt und aus den Quellen Belegt, 2 vols. (Zurich, 1844);Google Scholar and Die Christliche Glaubenslehre nach protestantischen Grundsätzen, 2d ed. (Leipzig, 1877).Google Scholar

23. Heppe, , “Character of the German Reformed Church,” pp. 185–188.Google Scholar

24. Ibid., p. 188.

25. Ibid., pp. 188–189.

26. Ibid., p. 197.

27. Ibid., pp. 205–206.

28. Ernst Ranke categorized Heppe's publications in his funeral oration. Ranke, Ernst C. and Wolff, Wilhelm D., Zur Erinnerung an Heinrich Heppe: Reden an seiner Grabe gehalten 27. Juli 1879(Marburg, 1879).Google Scholar

29. See Kähler, Martin, Geschichte der protestantischen Dogmatik im 19. Jahrhundert (München, 1962), p. 118.Google Scholar These lectures originally were delivered in 1898.

30. Ibid., p. 169.

31. Heppe, Heinrich, Gebetbüchlein zur täglichen Uebung der Andacht im christlichen Hause (Frankfurt, 1852)Google Scholar. Later editions followed in 1853, 1860, 1876, and 1888.

32. Sardemann, and Blackert, W., Geschichte des hessischen Diakonissenhauses zu Cassel (Cassel, 1915);Google ScholarHeppe, Heinrich, Zwei Predigten über das evangelische Diaconissenamt (Marburg, 1865).Google Scholar

33. Heppe, Heinrich, Geschichte der quietistischen Mystik in der katholischen Kirche (Berlin, 1875)Google Scholar

34. Heppe, Heinrich, Geschichte des Pietismus und der Mystik in der reformirten Kirche, namentlich der Niederlande (Leiden, 1879).Google Scholar

35. Heppe, Heinrich, Geschichte des deutschen Protestantismus in den Jahren 1555–1581 (Marburg, 1852).Google Scholar Volume one covers the years 1555 to 1562; volume two, 1563 to 1574; volume three, 1574 to 1577; and volume four, 1577 to 1581. An addition covering 1582 and 1583 was published in 1859.

36. Heppe, Heinrich, Die confessionelle Entwicklung der all protestantischen Kirche Deutschlands, die altprotestantische Union und die gegenwärtige confessionelle Lage and Aufgabe des deutschen Protestanlismus (Marburg, 1854).Google Scholar

37. Rendtorff, J., ed., Due Verhandlung des sechsten deutschen evangelischen Kirchentages zu Berlin im Sept. 1853 (Berlin, 1853), p. 55.Google Scholar

38. Ibid., p. 153.

39. See Hermelink, Heinrich, Das Christentum in der Menschheitsgeschichte von der französischen Revolution bis zur Gegenwart, 3 vols. (Stuttgart, 1953), 2: 339.Google Scholar

40. Heppe, , Geschichte des deutschen Protestantismus, 1: 6–9.Google Scholar

41. Ibid., p. 10.

42. See Maurer, Wilhelm, “Das Bild der Reformationsgeschichte bei August Vilmar und Heinrich Heppe,” Kirche und Geschichte: Gesammelte Aufsätze (Göttingen, 1970), 2: 78–102.Google Scholar

43. Heppe, Heinrich, Denkschrift über den Untergang des kurhessichen Staates (Marburg, 1866).Google Scholar

44. Heppe, Heinrich, “Die Einführung der Presbyterial-und Synodal-Verfassung in Kurhessen,” (1869)Google Scholar Landeskirchenamt. Note the frequent references to Heppe, in the Verhandlungen der nach Allerhöchster Verordnung vom. 9 Aug. 1869 berufenen Ausserordentlichen Synode für die Evangelischen Gemeinden des Regierungsbezirks Cassel (Cassel, 1870).Google Scholar

45. On Vilmar, Wilhelm, consult Müller, Gerhard, “August und Wilhelm Vilmar, Ein Beitrag zu ihrem Verhältnis,” in Traditio—Krisis”Renovatio aus theologischer Sicht, ed. Berndt, Jaspert and Rudolf, Mohr (Marburg, 1976), pp. 317–324.Google Scholar

46. Consult Wicke, Karl, Die hessische Renitenz: Ihre Geschichte und ihr Sinn (Kassel, 1930).Google Scholar For a brief contemporary survey of Hessian church history, see Hederich, Michael, Um die Freiheit der Kirche: Geschichte der Evangelischen Kirche von Kurhessen- Waldeck, 2d ed. (Kassel, 1977).Google Scholar