DRAESEB.E, dr@-ai'ke, JOHANN HEINWCH
BERNHARD: German preacher; b. at Brunswick Jan. 18, 1774; d. at Potsdam Dec. 8, 1849.
He studied at the University of Hehnet5dt, where
he was influenced by humanitarianism rather than
by rationalism, and during this period wrote a
drama which was produced at Dresden, while in
his
Des Heilige auf der Biihne
(1817) he defended
the representation of sacred subjects on the stage.
At the age of twenty-one he was called as deacon
to MSlln, being made preacher three years later,
and being appointed pastor of R,atzeburg in 1804.
There he published his
Predigten
. fur
denkenie
Yerehrer Jesu
(5 vole., Liineburg, 1804-12) and
his catechetical
Glaube, Liebe and Hoffnung (1813),
while his patriotic sermons caused such excitement that he narrowly escaped arrest by French
troops. In 1814 he was called to Bremen, and to
this period belong his
Predigten fiber Deutachlanda
Wiedergeburt
(3 vole., Liineburg, 1814);
PredigtEnttoiirfe fiber freie Texte (2
vole., Bremen, 1815);
Ueber die letzten Schicksale unseres Hewn (2 vole.,
Liineburg, 1816);
Ueber frei gew6hlle Abschnitte
der heiligen Sehrift (4
vole., 1817-18);
Christus an
das Geschlecht dieser Zeit
(1819);
Gemalde aus der
heiLigen Schrift (4
vole., 1821-28); and Yom
Retch
(Cotter, Betrachtungen nach der heiligen Sehrift
(3 vole., Bremen, 1830). The political tone of his
sermons, however, caused many of them to be
suppressed by the authorities. His addresses on
the kingdom of God, on the other hand, attracted
the attention of Frederick William III., and when
Weatermaier, bishop of Sa~,ony, died in 1832,
Draseke was, appointed to hll the vacancy. As
bishop he gained wide popularity by his eloquence, impartiality, and geniality. Avoiding the
extremes of rationalism, on the one hand, and Pietism, on the other, he was welcomed as a true Evangelical. The year 1840, however, brought an eventful change, when the assertion of a rationalistic
pastor named Sintenia that prayer should not be
offered to Christ forced Draseke to take a decided
stand. The government checked the episcopal
protest, but the rationalistic attacks were pushed
so far that Draseke felt that his usefulness was at
an end. In 1843 the king permitted him to resign,
and he spent the remainder of his life in Potsdam.
The only occasion on which he came again before
the public was in 1845, when he signed the protest
of Sydow, Jones, and others against the
Evangeliache Kirehenzeitrng. His Nachgelassene Schriften
IV.-1
were edited by T. H. T. Draseke (2 vole., Magdeburg, 1850-51).
The earliest theological position of Draseke was
the humanism of Herder on a Pelagian basis, where
Christianity was merely the highest product of
the human race; but gradually he attained a more
positive attitude, and a deeper insight into the
depths of the soul. As a preacher he must be
reckoned among the foremost of German pulpitorators, rising from restriction to the higher cultivated classes to a more popular and intelligible
style which attracted all types of men.
(AUOU6T THOLUCgt.)
Btst.toattArar: His life is in
ADB, v. 373 eqq.
DRAGON: A mythical creature, belief in the
existence of which is attested by the folk-lore and
literature of nearly all nations, ancient and modern.
The creature is usually, but not always, pictured as
a modified serpent, with legs and feet terminating
in talon-like claws, and it is generally regarded as
hostile to gods and the human species. Its habitat
is variously described: in the heaven, where it often
is regarded as causing the eclipse of the sun and
the moon; on the earth, where it inhabits deserts,
mountain recesses, and places nearly or quite inaccessible to man; and the sea, whence it issues to
work evil or to receive an offering which alone averts
its anger and the destruction consequent upon this
(cf. the Greek story of Perseus). As an agent of
evil it is sometimes assigned in myths to the guardianship of things precious or under the care of
wizards, witches, or wonder-workers (cf. the Greek
story of Medea and the Golden Fleece). By a transformation not usual in the development of religion,
it sometimes attains to a position of honor in the
religion of the people and becomes beneficent (as
in China), and indeed receives worship and honor
(cf. Bel and the Dragon, which, though unhistorical,
yet attests the possibility of existence of such a cult;
see
APOCRYPHA, A, IV., 3).
Tiamat, the representative of chaos in Babylonian mythology, is
perhaps the earliest form in which this belief has
gained mention in extant literature; the dragoncharacter of Tiamat hardly admits of question, in
spite of the doubts of Baudissin (Hauck-Herzog,
RE,
v. 4 sqq.), based largely on the fact that serpentine form was not given to this creature in the
monuments-the character of hostility to the gods
is well marked. The existence of belief in dragons
in other Semitic realms is easily susceptible of
uu`uy ewctotts 1 cne tettans sad
tieGOUtn. '1'hia is 9
large quadrsn-
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York Tribune 1875-92, and edited the
Report of the
Ecumenical Conference on Foreign Missions (New
York, 1900). He was editor-in-chief of the
Encyclopedia of Missions (New York, 1904) and has
written
Turkish Life in War Time (New York,
1881);
Treaty Rights of American Missionaries in
Turkey (1893);
Constantinople and its Problems
(Chicago, 1901); and
Blue Book of Missions (New
York, 1905-09, a biennial).
