Associate professor of church history princeton theological seminary baker book house

GOOD WORKS.

Ethnic and Jewish Conception (§ 1). The Teaching of Jesus (12).

I Pauline Teaching (.§ 3).

Patriotic and Roman Catholic Doctrine (§ 4).

In the Eastern Church (§ b).

The Teaching of Luther and Melanchthon (§ 8).

Modern Lutheran Teaching (§ 7).

Roman Catholic Doctrine Criticised (§ 8).

There are only faint traces among the Babylo­

mans of the conception of a judgment of the dead,

but Babylonian prayers contain peti­

:. Ethnic tiona that the " table of good works "

and Jewish might be written upon and the " table

Conception. of sine " destroyed. The former table

is identical with the " table of life "

upon which Nebo registers man's length of life.

In the Egyptian religion Thoth corresponds to this

writing god, the heart of the dead is weighed in a

scale and Thoth notes the result. The dead man

puts in a claim, for example, for charity, " I have

given bread to the hungry, water to the thirsty,

clothes to the naked, and passage to those without

ship." The Greek conception of the judgment of

the dead was influenced by the Babylonians (cf.

L. Rub], De mortuorum judicio, Giessen, 1903). In

the Zoroastrian eschatology the conceptions, good

thoughts, good words, good works, are important

(Bee ZOROAaTER, ZOROAaTRIANIaM). These accom­

pany the soul in its flight to heaven. At the judg­

ment of the dead good works are weighed against

bad works. Here may be found the idea of a treas­

ury of superfluous good works and that works of

pity are decisive. These ideas probably had an

influence upon the Jewish religion. Their influence

upon Islam is well known. These parallel features

are especially noteworthy: books of good and bad

works, the' weighing of them, and emphasis on

works of pity. God accepts repentance. Faith

and good works moat follow in order to drive away

former evil (J. B. Ruling, Eschotologie des Islam,

pp. 18 25, Leipaic, 1895). In the Jewish religion

ma'oaim forum, "good works," are frequently men­

tioned along with mizwoth, " fulfilment of the law."

Ma'aseh signifies the practical fulfilment of the law,

and comes neat to its study, and might include the

conception of mizwoth. It was not limited to the

giving of alms and acts of kindness. It can not be

Good Works THE NEW SCHAFF HERZOG 20

maintained that all good works of these two sorts were regarded as extralegal (cf. Dent. xv. 7 sqq.). But although they were commanded by the law, the measure and degree in which they were to be performed were left'to individual initiative. The idea of `deeds= ofleiselaes~tc~e ~asadhim3­first appears in Ecclesiasticus and Tobit; these acts relate to the dead, mourners, the sick, strangers, and prisoners, and are dependent upon personal motive. They have justifying and atoning power. They are written down in books in heaven, and on the judgment day God opens the books and judges accordingly (Jubilees, xxx. 19 sqq.). Another con­ception is that of the garnering up of good works. On the judgment day they " awake " (IV Ezra. vii. 35, 77). In Pirke Aboth iv. lla, vi. 9b, good works are represented as companions of the departing soul and witnesses in his favor before the judgment seat. The idea sometimes appears of the super­fluity of the good works of the Fathers being vica­riously accredited to Israel (IV Ezra 8, 26 aqq.).

On the expression kala or agatha ergs., which occurs in the New Testament first in Matt. v. 16, cf. H.

Cremer, Wbrterbuch der neutestament 

2. The lichen Grdcitat (Goths, 1902), and Teaching of Zahn, Das Evangedium deg Matthdus,

Jesus. p. 203 (Leipsic, 1905). The image of a

" treasure in Heaven " is used also by Jesus (Matt. vi. 20), who retains the conceptions relating to the reward for good works. The image of bookkeeping with reference to good works appears in Rev. xx. 12; that of the companionship of good works in Rev. xiv. 13. Jesus' criticism of the righteousness of good works is aimed at the Pre­sumption of claiming credit with God, at the con­fusion of the distinction between moral and ritual­istic works, at the increasing of the necessary number of good works to an intolerable degree, and at the pride and love of glory accompanying it. The Jews commonly associated almsgiving, prayer, and fasting as types of good works. Jesus approved of fasting as an expression of a sorrowful mood, but not as a means of purification. He emphasized the importance of words as indications of the character of the spirit (Matt. xii. 36 37), but he also praised the doing of the will of God in contrast to the mere utterance of words (Matt. vii. 21, xxi. 28 aqq.). He taught also that only those acts of love are good that arise from adequate motives (Matt. xxv. 37 aqq.). In Luke x. 20 he uses the old image of a book of life, meaning that his disciples had cOn­feseed God and been chosen to salvation.

Paul was not only a man of deep religious feel­ing, but an active character and an ethical genius.

It is an exaggeration to assert that

3. Pauline his denial of justification by works

Teaching. meant an alienation from works (A.

Sehlatter, Der Glaube im N. T., pp. 327 sqq., 381 aqq., Stuttgart, 1905). Paul opposes the doctrine that man may demand recompense from God for doing that which God has bidden him do. It is impiety from the standpoint of the religion of sal­vation and faith in Christ. He opposes to the Jewish formula, " works and faith," the principle " out of faith alone." Faith is trust in .the grace of God, which alone brings salvation and would no longer

be grace if the principle " by works " were valid. The sole efficacy of predestined grace is lauded in Rom. xi. 6; its relation to works in Eph. ii. 9 10. Paul certainly valued highly the activity of Chris­tians in works, which, religiously considered, is nothing less than God's " good works." The saving power of good works arises from the fact that at the judgment decision will be based upon them. This seems contradictory of the doctrine of justification by faith alone. It will not do to regard the former of these views as a mere survival in Paul of a Jewish mode of thought., Paul not only felt that Christ was producing all those heroic works which he, Paul, was able to do through love of Christ, but he also recognized in himself freedom, power, and responsibility. He was filled with the spirit of self­sacrifice and joy because he was able to do something for the love of Christ, for which he hoped to receive not " reward "from Christ, but favor and friendly recognition. Faith in Christ as judge because of his " meekness and gentleness " (II Cor. x. 1) made the idea of man's hoping in his littleness to deserve anything of God because of his works seem less presumptuous. The ethical conception that sal­vation must be dependent upon activity, respon­sibility, and duty was developed in Paul's mind by the idea of the atonement. The pastoral letters mention frequently the idea of good works, which then passed into church doctrine and terminology. While these letters do not contain the phrase " faith and works," they do contain the phrase " faith and love."

For the evolution of the idea of justification by works see JUSTIFICATION. The best material bearing

on the common postapostolic view of 4. Patristic good work is presented in A. Titius, and Roman Die neutestamentliche Lehre von der

Catholic Seligkeit, vol. iv., chap. iv. (Tilbingen,

Doctrine. 1900). For the apostolic fathers, E. J.

Goodspeed, Index patristicus (Leipsic, 1907) is valuable. Their ethicism is currently ex­plained as due to Jewish influence. The significance of Tertullian, Cyprian, and Augustine for the Roman Catholic doctrine of good works is very great (see JUSTIFICATION). Augustine's De ,fide et operibus established in the Church Paul's doctrine of " faith which worketh by love " (Gal. v. 6). The specific Roman Catholic combination of a religion of salva­tion and a religion of justice began after the time of Tertullian to be formed by means of an elastic and complicated conception of Merit (q.v.). The thesis of Augustine that God crowns as human desert his own gifts of grace made the combination possible. The scholastics treat many problems relative to this subject not under the title of bona opera, " good works," but under actus humani, " human ac­tivities," as belonging to ethics. As they recognized seven principal virtues, seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, and as especially good acts, eight evangelical beatitudes, so also they counted seven corporal and seven spiritual works of charity. The corporal were the Jewish " deeds of kindness " (Lactantius, Epitome, Ix.; Augustine, De moribm eeclesim catholicce, xxvii.). These works of pity especially, but also the other categories mentioned, are still important in the Roman Church. The prevailing,

21 RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA Good Works

external, reward hungry doctrine of the Middle Ages was undermined by mystics like Bernard, Eckhart, and Tauler (qq.v.). The Tridentine council de­fended the " regard for reward " (see REWARD) and the fear of hell and judgment. Christ is not only the Savior whom one should trust, but the lawgiver whom one must obey. The Gospel is not a bare and unconditioned promise of eternal life without the requirement of observing the commands of God and of the Church. As works of satisfaction are mentioned " fasting, works of charity, prayer, and other exercises of the spiritual life." The point of view is not alone that of the observance of the, commandments. Good works are regarded also as sufferings with Christ (Rom. viii. 17), as war with the flesh; and especially noteworthy is the connection with Johannean mysticism. The current Roman Catholic doctrine of good works may be sketched briefly as follows: even a man who has committed a sin deserving of death may perform naturally good works, which, although they will not bring him to Heaven, " are very useful in ob­taining from the Divine pity the grace of conversion, and in winning temporal reward or avoiding tem­poral punishment " (Katholischer Katechismus fiir das Apostolische Vikariat im KBnigreiche Sachsen, p. 89). The commands of God and of the Church, the performance of which will win Heaven for the doer, are to hear mass, to fast, to confess and partake of the communion, to pay church tithes, and not to marry at forbidden times. To the question, which works . are especially recommended by the Bible, the catechism quoted, p. 90, mentions prayer, fasting, and almsgiving, in which are included all works of reverence, mortification, and love of neigh­bors. A great theological ethical tradition beginning with Augustine lies back of the doctrine of the catechism that. God " especially regards the good intention, through which even with slight works we may obtain great reward of God." The good intention should be awakened every morning with prayer; to renew it frequently through the day increases the merit. A good intention that does not coincide with the proper aim and direction of a good work adds a new species of goodness to the good work, makes it doubly good. An alms, an action or suffering of anything irksome, is spoken of as being " brought as a sacrifice " to God. The good intention then makes doubly good the deed good in itself. The awakening of the good intention is an act of explicit love of God. The acts of faith and hope also should frequently be awakened. These three theological virtues are, together with sanctifying grace, an inpoured ornament of the soul disposing to a fulness of good works. It is evident how great is the number of possible good works. The Catholic needs many of them not only to obtain merit in order to attain blessedness, but also as acts of penance in order to escape temporal punishment for his sins. The acts of penance im­posed by the confessor (prayer, fasting, and alms) must be supplemented by voluntary deeds, which avail to help the poor soul suffering the fires of purgatory.

In the Eastern Church the spirit of an Augustine has been lacking to lead the way beyond the formula

" faith and good works." Faith and good works are regarded in that church as the two factors of all Christianity.. According to Metho 

g. In the dius "the praiseworthy are those who

Eastern adorn the inner man with the proper

Church. faith as well as the outer with good

works." The words of Cyril of Jerusa­

lem are well known: "The way of regard for God is

twofold, pious beliefs and good deeds; these beliefs

apart from good deeds are not acceptable to God;

nor are good works apart from right beliefs received

by him " (MPG, viii. 456 B). The " Confession "

of Mogilas names fourteen works of charity.

With Luther, it may be admitted, the ethical interest was secondary, in the sense that he preached the receptive power of faith with more 6. The enthusiasm than the effective power; Teaching of that faith is, according to him, ethio 

Luther and ally effective only when it is not too Melanch  far removed from its idealization, as he thon. himself for the most part experienced it; and that he should have avoided his apparently antinomian modes of expression. His principal work, Von den guten Werken (1520), begins with " It is to be understood in the first place that those things commanded by God are not the only good works." 'Luther believed that faith brought all religious activities along with it. He refers several times in this tract to the charge that he forbade good works. While he had condemned mere legal good works, intended to procure blessed­ness for the doer, he defended good works &,rising from faith. Good works are, according to him, the end and aim of faith, which reenforces the natural human motives to good works. Faith, especially that in the beneficence of God, disposes the re­created man to be beneficent to his neighbor. Good works are not necessary to blessedness; they flow of necessity from the beatific faith. He who has been baptized and believes is just and happy, and has received heaven and eternal life. But in order to remain so, he must retain, exercise, complete, and test his faith, and for this good works are necessary. Good works are a means, at the judg­ment, for measuring the degree of faith, but are not in themselves causes of blessedness. Luther continued the fight of the mystics against the " regard for reward," but in practise he did not take away the motives of reward. Melanchthon, on the other hand, defended the principle of obligation in the good works of believers they are not " forced " but " owed." In the Augsburg Confession, VI., the statutory motive, the necessity arising from command and obligation, is placed beside the more idealistic bringing forth of good fruits, and the " thus hath God commanded " contains a third thought it is aimed at the former emphasis upon " childishly unnecessary works,, of which Melanch­thOn Complains in articles XX. 3, XXVI.2, XXVII. 13. In §f bodii. sqq. of the " Apology " the ideas of merit and reward are brought in good works are meritorious, but deserve neither justification nor I eternal life, but only "other corporal and spiritual rewards in this life and afterward."

For the controversies about the necessity of good works in the seventeenth century see ANTINOMIAN 

Good Works

Goodwin THE NEW SCHAFF HERZOG 82

IBM AND ANTINOMIAN CoNTRovicRslza, II.; SYNCRE­TISTIC CONTROVERSIES; and HoRNIcrus, CONRAD. The doctrine of the orthodox dogmatists is given in H. Schmid, Die Dogmatik der evangeliseh ltttheri­achen Kirche, ¢ 49 (Giitersloh, 1893). For the Reformed doctrine of good works see CALVIN, JOHN; PROTESTANTISM; and ZWINGLI, HULDREICH.

Few Lutherans to day adhere to Luther's dogma that "good works are to be excluded not only when

the discussion concerns justification, q. Modern but also when our eternal salvation is

Lutheran the question." Most of them would

Teaching. assert that we have no right to inter 

pret the numerous Scriptural expres­sions concerning God's judgment as showing that he regards good fruits only as indications of faith, upon which alone everything depends, but that he appreciates them and the good conscience from which they proceed according to the value which the good in itself has for him. Man, possessing per­fection only in a measure, may, and should, find favor in a measure with God. In view of the ideal of perfection, his state will bring him no joy, but only shame and pain and anxiety. It is not "per­fection " at all from the point of view of the law. It has value only in the Father's loving eyes, upon which the mortal has no claim. Does this do justice to the certainty of salvation ? It is a common Lutheran misunderstanding of the Lutheran cer­tainty of salvation to assume that the Christian is as sure of his salvation as he is, say, of his mortality. The Christian is heir to salvation, but not necessarily possessor of it. His faith is the key to a priceless treasure, but in order to possess that treasure he must guard and perfect the key. .He does not, it is true, according to Luther, attain to blessedness because of his perfected faith, but because of the Savior who is the judge that pronounces happiness. The perfected faith, however, is the means of ascending to the Savior. Luther himself in his wrestling with his own soul had no such certainty of salvation. He placed so much emphasis upon faith because in his view everything depends upon Christ, "which fact must be believed and can not be attained or grasped in any other way by any work, law, or merit." But the Christian believer, for whom the rule of grace obtains, can and should bring fruits which, though not according to the dispensation of the law, pass for a certain "per fection" according to the dispensation of grace. That the anxiety concerning the persistent imper­fection of this "perfection" threatens the certainty of future blessedness does not make this view a kind of sub Lutheran Christianity. According to Luther, this very imperfection of the receptive power of faith is the never failing point of concern. The shattered certainty of Salvation becomes whole again through the faith that " God is greater than the heart and knows all things."

The specifically Lutheran dogma which con­demns the principles that good works are necessary to blessedness and that it is impassible to attain blessedness without good works, does not do suffi­cient justice to the entire religion of the New Testa­ment. This is a combination of the religion of sal­vation or atonement with a religion of morality,

which makes the Roman Catholic decline into a combination of religion of salvation with a religion of legality comprehensible. According 8. Roman to the Council of Trent, the Savior, by

Catholic means of the power that constantly

Doctrine. streams from him into the justified,

brings it about that nothing of reward

is lacking to those who have fully accomplished the

Divine law and have deserved eternal life. In

opposition to the view of certain theologians that

at the judgment the merit of Christ will have to be

added anew, it is maintained that the justified can,

with his good works which are God's gifts of grace

as well as his own good deserts, make oneself secure

before the tribunal of God without any other im­

putation of justice (G. Thomasius, Die chrisaiche

Dogmengeschichte, eel. Bonwetsch and Seeberg, ii.

698, Leipsic, 1889). These views of a complete ful­

filment of the law and of a claim to a just reward

are unchristian. See CONSILIA EVANGELICA; ETH­

ras; LAw AND GOSPEL; and MAJOR, GEORG.

(KARL THIEME.)

BiHLIOGHAPHT: The subject is often treated in works on systematic theology, for a list of which see DOGMA, DoG­xATics; also in those upon ethics (q.v.). Consult also the literature on the articles to which reference is made in the text. For the Jewish doctrine consult: F. Weber, JUdisehe Theolopie, eel. F. Delitseah and G. 8chnedermann, Leipsic, 1897; P. Vols, Jadische Eschatolopie roan Daniel Us Akiba, Tabingen, 1903; W. Bousset, Die Religion doe Judentume im neuteatamentlichen Zeitolter, Berlin, 1908; O. Holtsmann, Neutestamentliche Zeitpeachichte, § 33, TObingen, 1906. For the doctrine in the New Testament consult the works in and under BzHLICAL THEOLOGY. On the doctrine in the Church and in ethics special treatment is in: B. Thieme, Die sittliehs Triebkraft des Glaubens, Lelpsic, 1895 (on Luther); C. E. Luthard, %ompendium der thedopischcn Ethik, § 42. Leipsic, 1898; Bensow, in Beitraye zur Fbrderunp chridlicher Theolopie, a. 2 (1908); F. Loafs, Doymenpeschichte, Halle, 1908; J. Gotteehiek, Ethik, i ¢ 14 sqq., Ttrbingen, 1907. For the Roman Catholic side consult: F. A. GSpfert, Moraltheoiopie, vol. i., Pader born, 1905; %L, rii. 132"1.

GOODELL, WILLIAM: Congregationalist mis­sionary; b. at Templeton, Mass., Feb. 14, 1792; d. in Philadelphia Feb. 18, 1867. He was gradu­ated from Dartmouth College in 1817, from the An­dover Theological Seminary in 1820, and was sent by the American Board as a missionary to Beirut in 1822. On account of the Greek revolution he was forced to retire to Malta in 1828, where he. continued his missionary work till 1831. In June 1831 he opened a new mission to the Armenians in Constantinople, where he labored with conspicuous r.u3cees till 1865, returning then to the United States. The crowning work of his life was his Armeno Turkish translation of the Bible, the final revision of which appeared in 1863.

BwwoGSAPH7: E. D. G. Prime, Forty Years in the Turkish Empire; or, Memoirs of Rev. William Goodell, New York, 1883 (by his son in law).

GOODWIN, CHARLES WYCLIFFE: English jurist and Egyptologist; b. at King's Lynn (26 m. n.e. of Ely), Norfolk, 1817; d. at Shanghai, China, Jan. 17, 1878. He studied at St. Cather­ine's Hall, Cambridge (B.A., 1838; M.A., 1842), and was admitted to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1848. He was the only lay contributor to Essays aced Reviews (q.v.). In 1865 he was appointed as­sistant judge of the supreme court for China and

RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA

Japan. In 1873 he was transferred to Yokohama as acting judge of the supreme court, a position which he retained when he returned to Shanghai in 1876. His works include: The Anglo Saxon Version of the Life of St. Guthlac . . . with a Trans­lation and Notes (London, 1848); The Anglo Saxon Legends of St. Andrew and St. Veronica . . . with an English Translation (Cambridge, 1851); Hier­atic Papyri (in Cambridge Essays, London, 1858); On the Mosaic Cosmogony (in Essays and Ravietas, 1860); The Story of Sanelui, an Egyptian Tale of Four Thousand Yearn ago, Translated from the Hieratic Text (1866), which, with other translations by Goodwin, was included in the first series of Records of the Past (12 vo1s., 1873 81); also a num­ber of contributions to the second eerier of Chabas' M 9angea 4gyptologiquea (Chalon sur '3afte, 1864), and to Lepsius and Brugech's Zeitachrzft ftlr agyp­tisehe Spraehe.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: DNB, mi. 14?r143.

GOODWIN, DANIEL RAYIPBS: Protestant Episcopalian; b. at North Berwick, Me., Apr. 12, 1811; d. at Philadelphia Mar. 15, 1890. He was educated at BowdoinCollege (B.A., 1832), and, after a year of study at Andover Theological Sem­inary and two years in Europe, became professor of modern languages in Bowdoin College in 1835. In that position he completed his theological studies, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1848. From 1853 to 1860 he was president of Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., where he was also professor successively of modern languages and mental and moral philosophy. In 1860 he was elected provost of the university of Pennsylvania, a position which he held eight years, resigning to accept the deanship and Holy Trinity professor­ship of systematic theology in the Philadelphia Episcopal Divinity School, both of which he held until his death. He was a deputy to the General Convention from Maine in 1853 and from Penn­sylvania after 1862. He wrote Christianity neither Ascetic nor Fanatic (New Haven, 1858); The Chris­tian Ministry (Middletown, Conn., 1880); Southern Slavery in its Present Aspects (Philadelphia, 1864); The Perpetuity of the Sabbath (1867); The New Ritualistic Divinity (1879); Notes on the late Revi­sion of the New Testamertl (New York, 1883); and Christian Eschatology (Philadelphia, 1885).

GOODWIN, JOHN: Arminian clergyman and controversialist; b. in Norfolk c.1594; d. in London, 1665. He was educated at Queen's College, Cam­bridge (M. A., 1817). He preached for a num­ber of years in his native county, officiated for a time at St. Mary's, Dover, and went to London in 1632, where he became vicar of St. Stephen's in 1633. Ejected from his living in 1645, he main­tained an independent church till he was restored by Cromwell in 1649. Under the influence of John Cotton (q.v.) he early sided with the Puritans s,nd was one of the first clergymen to go to the support of parliament on the appeal to arms in 1642, pub­lishing numerous tracts in the interest of the Puri­tan cause. At the Restoration he, with eighteen others, was incapacitated for any public office, ecclesiastical or civil. In theology be was an Ar 

minian, though he always maintained that he was independent of the system of Arminius. His most important works are: Imputatroo,fidei, or a Treatise

of Justification (London, 1842), held in high esteem

by John Wesley, and quoted extensively by Richard Watson in his Theological Institutes; The Divine Authority of the Scriptures Asserted (1648), which was commended by Beater; Might and Right Well Met (1648), a justification of the purging of the Parliament in 1648; "TpPwrodGcaa : The Obstruc­tor8 of Justice (1649), a vindication of the sentence against Charles L, a tract publicly burned at the Restoration, together with several by Milton; 'Ago­R4rpwaes 'AaoAurpG ecr, or RedemptiOft RsdseffW (1651) which called forth replies from John Oven, George Kendall, Robert Baillie, and others; Water­Dipgring no Firm Footing for Church Communion (1653); Cata Baptism (1655), the last two works being polemics against Baptists; and the Triumviri (1658), a reply to his critics.

Bnuaoassrer: T. Jackson, Life of John l)oodwin, London. 1872; A. b Wood, Atlvence OmnisnrW, ii. 86, 85, 188, 219, 288, 334, ib. 1892; D. Nest. Hint. of the Puritans, ii. 238, 305, iii. 230, 481, iv. 227, ad. of 1822; DNB, zai. 14Ci­148 (gives a number of other sources).