I. GERMANY.

1. Exegetical Literature.

Delitzsch, Franz, Commentar über die Genesis. 8vo., pp. 648. 3d edit. Leipsic, 1860. The second edition of this commentary appeared about seven years ago, since which time the author has without interruption made preparations for the new edition which has just been issued. Only a few pages have remained unaltered, so that the new edition may almost be regarded as an entirely new work. The introduction treats of the high significance of the Genesis; of the Thora and the postmosaic history and literature of the Thora regarded as a book of revelation and as a whole; of the Genesis as a part of this whole and of its division; of the authenticity of the Deuteronomium; of the change of the divine names; of the history of the critical attacks on the Genesis, and of the refutations of these attacks; and finally, a survey of the history of its interpretation. Professor Delitzch is well known as ranking among the best commentators of the Bible now living, and this revised edition of one of his best works will therefore be welcomed by all biblical scholars.

Credner, C. A., Geschichte des Neutestamentlichen Kanon. Herausgegeben von G. Volkmar. 8vo., pp. 424. Berlin, 1860. Professor Credner of Giessen, a chief representative of the rationalistic party of Germany, intended to conclude his literary activity with a comprehensive history of the canon of the New Testament, but death (July 16, 1857) prevented his finishing the work.

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to

uscript was complete, but it had been written at different periods of his life. It was therefore the task of the editor to compare the literature of the last years, and to bring the whole work up the present state of theological science. The work is divided into four parts; the first treats of the formation of the canon in the ancient Church, the second of the oldest collections, the third of the final fixation of the canon in the Eastern Church, and the fourth of the final fixation of the canon in the Latin Church. The name of the editor, as well as that of the author, indicates that the book will be full of rationalistic assumptions and speculations.

Of the Commentary on Genesis, by A. Knobel, (Rationalist,) a second edition has been issued. It forms the eleventh volume of the collection of commentaries on the Old Testament, published by various scholars under the name Kurzgefasstes exegetisches Handbuch zum Alten Testament. (Leipsic, 1860.)

"The Passage of the Israelites from Egypt to Canaan" has been made. the subject of a special work by G. Unrah. (Der Zug der Israeliten, etc. Langensalsa, 1860.) A map illustrating the discussions of the text is added. C. Schulze has published a volume on Biblical Proverbs. (Die Biblischen Sprichwoerter. Goettingen, 1860.)

Of the Introduction to the Bible by the late De Wette, (Lehrbuch der Historisch-kritischon Einleitung in die Bibel. Berlin, 2 vols., 1860,) the sixth edition has been published. The new editions of the commentaries of the De Wette have been thoroughly revised and greatly altered by young theologians, who reject his rationalistic views. We do not know whether the same is the case with the introduction.

A new Commentary on the Revelation has been published by a Roman Catholic theologian, M. Benno. (Die Offenbarung des heiligen Johannes Erklaert. Munich, 1860.)

2. Historic Theology.

The ter-centenary anniversary of the death-day of Melancthon has called forth an exceedingly numerous Melancthon literature. We have noticed in the last numbers of the German Bibliography more than a dozen different biographies, several of which are only small tracts, while others are in book form. Among the latter are the works of Czerwenka, (Erlangen,) Shultz, (Berlin,) Heppe, (Marburg,) and others.

The work of Rev. C. Strack, "Missionary History of Germany, or, How Germany became a Christian Country," (Missions geschichte von Deutschland. Leipsic, 1860,) is the first popular Protestant work on the introduction of Christianity into all Germany, and therefore fills a real desideratum. Chapter I describes the pagan

Germans; ch. ii reports on the spreading of Christianity under the dominion of the Romans; chaps. iii, iv, and v are occupied with the conversion of the Franks, the Alemanni, and the Bavarians; ch. vi is devoted to Boniface and his forerunners from England; ch. vii to Charlemagne ; ch. viii to Ansgarius, the Apostle of the North; ch. ix treats of the conversion of the Sclavonians in Germany, and ch. x of the conversion of the Prussians. An additional chapter discusses the question, What influence has the introduction of Christianity exercised on Germany?

A curious book, which well characterizes the relation of the European Churches to the state, has been published by Dr. Vilmar, the well-known Romanizing Lutheran, on the history of the denominational character of the Church of the Hessian states, especially of the Electorate of Hesse Kassel. (Geschichte des confes sionstandes der evang. Kirche in Hessen. Marburg, 1860.) The Church of HesseKassel is a model of all state Churches; it does not know itself whether it is Lutheran and Reformed, and to decide this question, not the personal faith of the clergy and the congregations is consulted, but old parchments, two and three hundred years old. The controversy is carried on between the Lutheran and Reformed theologians with the utmost acrimony.

The Struggle of Luther with the AntiChristian Principles of the Revolution (Luthers Ringen mit den Anti-Christlichen Principicn der Revolution. Halle, 1860) is the title of a work by H. Vorrester. The subject is one which has often occupied the attention of Protestant writers of various schools, and has received from them the most diverging answers. The ideas of right, reformation, and resolution; the nature of the Apostolic Church: Christianity and Anti-Christianity in their mutual development; Humanism in general, and German Humanism in particular; the revolutionary knighthood, and, in particular, Ulric von Hutten; Luther's reformatory mission, and his deviations from the purity of this mission, and the lasting influences which the period of this deviation had on the religious and theological position of Luther in the Church, are the attractive headings of the several chapters.

3. Other Branches of Theology. Ehrenfeuchter. Fr. (Professor of Goettingen) Practical Theology (Practische Theo

logie) 1 vol., pp. 460. Goettingen, 1859. The author assigns to practical theology the task to represent the life of the Church, and to show that its existence is intimately connected with the highest aims of man, and that therefore every deviation from the Church is an injury of our best interests. This first volume is divided into two parts. The first part treats of the essence, the appearance and present condition of the Church, of the ministry, and of practical theology as a system. The second book is devoted to the missionary efforts of the Church, and speaks of the pagan world, or the object of the mission; of Christianity, or the principle of the mission; and of the historical law, which is observable in the epochs of the mission. To this is added a chapter on the doctrine of the mission, on missionary preaching, and on the relation of the mission to the Church.

The question of divorce, which is at present agitated in nearly all the Protestant Churches of Europe, has been again treated of in a small work of E. Huschke, Professor of Law at the University of Breslau. (Was lehrt Gottes Wort von der Ehescheidung. Leipzic, 1860.) The author

one of the leaders of the Separated Lutherans of Germany, who chose rather to secede from the established Church than to give up any of the doctrinal or ecclesiastical landmarks of their theology. In this question the strict Lutherans have maintained a very honorable contest against the laxity of the Prussian legislation in behalf of what they consider, in common with most evangelical denominations, the true Scriptural doctrine on divorce.

II. FRANCE.

Saint René Taillandier, Histoire et Philosophie Religieuse. Paris, 1860.

Mr. Taillandier, Professor in Montpelier, has collected in this volume the frequent contributions which for years he has furnished to the Revue des Deux Mondes. Though mostly devoted to purely literary questions, his contributions have awakened a great interest also in religious circles, as the author is of a deeply religious turn of mind, and belongs to that school of French scholars who desire and seek to promote the union between faith and science, between Christianity and philosophy. As the number of French Protestants is so small, and their own literary publications cannot, therefore, be numerous, it is a good sign of the times

that so many leading scholars of France proclaim the necessity of a return of the science to faith, and acknowledge at the same time the great merits of Protestantism, and the superiority of the Protestant civilization.

Le R. P. Felix, S. J. Le Progrès par le Christianisme. Conferences de Notre Dame de Paris. 4 vols. Paris, 1859.

This volume contains the Lent Sermons, held in the Church of Notre Dame of Paris in 1856, 1857, 1858, and 1859 by Father Felix, who is generally regarded as the best pulpit orator of the Roman Church in France now living. His extraordinary oratorical gifts are attested by the Parisian press of all shades of opinion. The last number of the Revue Chrétienne makes the following remarks on the Lent Sermons preached by him in the same church this year : "Father Felix, whose conférences are always attended by an immense crowd, treated this year of the family. We shall not repeat what we have said before of his oratorical gifts, of the clearness of his plans, of the lucidity of his conclusions, and of the charm of his delivery. Father Felix has shown himself very strong when stigmatizing the open or secret vices of modern society, but has been less so when pointing out the remedy that can save it. When he rolls up before us the ideal picture of the Catholic world, when he desires to make us admire those times of profound faith when marriage was respected, and disorder appeared but rarely like a monster which chilled the heart, he might have seen a smile steal upon the mouths of many of his hearers, who sought in vain in their historic reminiscences that golden age to which he alluded. Instinctively the hearers of every Catholic sermon now-a-days distinguish two different parts. As long as the orator castigates the evil, they feel that he is right, and his appeals will bear fruit; but when the man of the Church endeavors to bring back his generation to the papal theocracy, modern intelligence recoils and acts on the defens

ive. We are certain that Father Felix must have observed himself these different impressions succeeding each other in his hearers."

Among the recent Protestant publications the Revue Chrétienne mentions the following:

Reuss, (Professor at the Theological Faculty of Strasbourg,) Histoire de la Théologie Chrétienne au siècle apostolique.

Schwalb, Étude comparative des Doc trines de Mélancthon, Zwingle et Calvin.

La Papauté en présence de l'Evangile et de l'histoire.

E. Casalis (formerly missionary in South Africa, now director of the missionary seminary in Paris) Les Bassoutos, ou vingt-trois ans d'expériences et d'observations au sud de l'Afrique.

Among the announcements of Roman Catholic literature we find a complete edition, in 14 vols., of the works of one of the favorite modern saints of the Roman Church, Francis of Sales, Bishop of Geneva. (Puvres complètes de St. Francois de Sales.)

Cretineau Joly, J. (the ultramontane author of a comprehensive history of the Jesuits) l'Eglise Romaine en face de la Revolution.

Bautain, L. Philosophie des lois au point de vue Chretien. The author is favorably known to Protestants no less than to his coreligionists as a man of profound learning, evangelical views, and deep piety. A work of his on eloquence was published last year in an English translation in New York. Ponlevoy, le P. A. de Ravignan.

Vie du R. P. Xavier

Lacordaire, le R. P. Sainte Marie-Made

leine.

Nicholas, Auguste. La Vierge Marie. The work is now complete in four volumes. The author, one of the most active ultramontanes in France, is a high officer of the government. His son became, at the beginning of the present year, a Dominican friar.