Oxford History Of Modern German Theology

From the closing decades of the eighteenth century, German theology has been a major intellectual force within modern western thought, closely connected to important developments in idealism, romanticism, historicism, phenomenology, and hermeneutics. Despite its influential legacy, however, no recent attempts have sought to offer an overview of its history and development. Oxford History of Modern German Theology, Vol. I: 1781-1848, the first of a three-volume series, provides the most comprehensive multi-authored overview of German theology from the period from 1781-1848. Kaplan and Vander Schel cover categories frequently omitted from earlier overviews of the time period, such as the place of Judaism in modern German society, race and religion, and the impact of social history in shaping theological debate. Rather than focusing on individual figures alone, Oxford History of Modern German Theology, Vol. I: 1781-1848 describes the narrative arc of the period by focusing on broader intellectual and cultural movements, ongoing debates, and significant events. It furthermore provides a historical introduction to each of the chronological subsections that divides the book. Moreover, unlike previous efforts to introduce this time period and geographical region, the volume offers chapters covering such previously neglected topics as religious orders, the influence of Romantic art, secularism, religious freedom, and important but overlooked scholarly initiatives such as the Corpus Reformatorum. Attention to such matters will make this volume an invaluable repository of scholarship and knowledge and an indispensable reference resource for decades to come.

From the closing decades of the eighteenth century, German theology has been a major intellectual force within modern western thought, closely connected to important developments in idealism, romanticism, historicism, phenomenology, and hermeneutics. Despite its influential legacy, however, no recent attempts have sought to offer an overview of its history and development. Oxford History of Modern German Theology, Vol. I: 1781-1848, the first of a three-volume series, provides the most comprehensive multi-authored overview of German theology from the period from 1781-1848. Kaplan and Vander Schel cover categories frequently omitted from earlier overviews of the time period, such as the place of Judaism in modern German society, race and religion, and the impact of social history in shaping theological debate. Rather than focusing on individual figures alone, Oxford History of Modern German Theology, Vol. I: 1781-1848 describes the narrative arc of the period by focusing on broader intellectual and cultural movements, ongoing debates, and significant events. It furthermore provides a historical introduction to each of the chronological subsections that divides the book. Moreover, unlike previous efforts to introduce this time period and geographical region, the volume offers chapters covering such previously neglected topics as religious orders, the influence of Romantic art, secularism, religious freedom, and important but overlooked scholarly initiatives such as the Corpus Reformatorum. Attention to such matters will make this volume an invaluable repository of scholarship and knowledge and an indispensable reference resource for decades to come.

This is the first comprehensive, multi-author survey of German history that features cutting-edge syntheses of major topics by an international team of leading scholars. Emphasizing demographic, economic, and political history, this Handbook places German history in a denser transnational context than any other general history of Germany. It underscores the centrality of war to the unfolding of German history, and shows how it dramatically affected the development of German nationalism and the structure of German politics. It also reaches out to scholars and students beyond the field of history with detailed and cutting-edge chapters on religious history and on literary history, as well as to contemporary observers, with reflections on Germany and the European Union, and on 'multi-cultural Germany'. Covering the period from around 1760 to the present, this Handbook represents a remarkable achievement of synthesis based on current scholarship. It constitutes the starting point for anyone trying to understand the complexities of German history as well as the state of scholarly reflection on Germany's dramatic, often destructive, integration into the community of modern nations. As it brings this story to the present, it also places the current post-unification Federal Republic of Germany into a multifaceted historical context. It will be an indispensable resource for scholars, students, and anyone interested in modern Germany.

Publisher description

Theology and the University in Nineteenth-Century Germany examines the dual transformation of institutions and ideas that led to the emergence of theology as science, the paradigmatic project of modern theology associated with Friedrich Schleiermacher. Beginning with earlier educational reforms across central Europe and especially following the upheavals of the Napoleonic period, an impressive list of provocateurs, iconoclasts, and guardians of the old faith all confronted the nature of the university, the organization of knowledge, and the unity of theology's various parts, quandaries which together bore the collective name of 'theological encyclopedia'. Schleiermacher's remarkably influential programme pioneered the structure and content of the theological curriculum and laid the groundwork for theology's historicization. Zachary Purvis offers a comprehensive investigation of Schleiermacher's programme through the era's two predominant schools: speculative theology and mediating theology. Purvis highlights that the endeavour ultimately collapsed in the context of Wilhelmine Germany and the Weimar Republic, beset by the rise of religious studies, radical disciplinary specialization, a crisis of historicism, and the attacks of dialectical theology. In short, the project represented university theology par excellence. Engaging in detail with these developments, Purvis weaves the story of modern university theology into the broader tapestry of German and European intellectual culture, with periodic comparisons to other national contexts. In doing so, he Purvis presents a substantially new way to understand the relationship between theology and the university, both in nineteenth-century Germany and, indeed, beyond.

This book investigates the relationship between nineteenth-century German theological Wissenschaft and the emergence of confessional Lutheranism. This study argues that the first generation of confessional Lutherans contributed to the discourse over the nature of theological Wissenschaft. Part I examines the intellectual context of nineteenth-century theological Wissenschaft. Chapter 2 presents Kant’s and Schelling’s conceptions of Wissenschaft in relationship to theology. Chapter 3 analyzes Schleiermacher’s contribution to the debate about the integrity of theology as a Wissenschaft, and concludes by considering the developments represented by F.C. Baur and Albrecht Ritschl. Part II investigates the different Lutheran approaches to theological Wissenschaft represented by Adolf Harleß, August Vilmar, and Johannes von Hofmann. Chapter 4 examines Harleߒs Theologische Encyklopädie as the first expression towards a confessional Lutheran Wissenschaft. Chapter 5 highlights Vilmar’s antagonistic posture towards modern German theology, while attending to his construction of an alternative approach to modern theology. Chapters 6 and 7 contextualize Hofmann against the landscape of German theology, while situating his theological Wissenschaft within his contentious work Der Schriftbeweis. Chapter 8 reflects upon these efforts at establishing a theological Wissenschaft in service to the church and the university.

'Modern European thought' describes a wide range of philosophies, cultural programmes, and political arguments developed in Europe in the period following the French Revolution. This handbook charts and explores recurring themes and approaches to this broad and complex topic, particularly with regard to Theology.

Questions surrounding the genesis, development, and viability of modern academic theology have drawn renewed and heightened interest in recent years. Over the past decade, an increasing number of detailed studies have inquired into the emergence of scientific theology (wissenschaftliche Theologie) in the nineteenth century and its uneasy relationship with the shifting intellectual culture of the modern research university. This volume presents a unique contribution to this developing conversation, offering a focused treatment of the many-sided debate surrounding the tasks and limitations of historical and critical theology as it develops in the modern German university during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The fifteen chapters of the volume examine the challenges of the historical study of theology and the contested concept of scientific theology in the writings of foundational figures such as Kant, Schleiermacher, Baur, Ritschl, Harnack, Troeltsch, Barth, and Bonhoeffer. Yet it also attends to ongoing debates concerning the relationship between supernatural revelation and empirical-historical research, the rise and fall of historicism in theology, the competing locales of church and university, the appropriation of historical methods within Protestant and Catholic theological faculties, and the place and function of theology in the increasingly specialized modern research university. As the essays demonstrate, the implications of this conversation continue to resound in contemporary discussions of the place of the study of theology and religion in the modern university.