The Oxford History Of Modern German Theology Volume 1 1781 1848

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.

Oxford History of Modern German Theology, Vol. I: 1781-1848 offers a multi-author overview of the development of modern German theology from 1781 to 1848. Across 36 chapters, Kaplan and Vander Schel underline important movements in German theology during this period and highlight unresolved questions which have shaped subsequent discussion.

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.

It is impossible to understand the history of Christian theology without taking into account the relationship between faith and reason. Many works give an overview of faith and reason, or outline key principles, while others put forward a thesis about how one should understand the relationship between faith and reason. In this theological essay, Grant Kaplan revisits the key figures and debates that shape how faith and reason relate. Divided into three parts, Kaplan invites readers into a conversation rather than a drive-by. Readers will encounter the words and arguments of some of Christianity’s greatest thinkers, some well-known (Augustine, Aquinas, Newman) and others nearly forgotten. Readings of these figures bring them to life in an accessible manner. In Faith and Reason through Christian History, the roughly fifty figures treated are given sufficient room to breathe. Rather than simply summarizing their thought, Kaplan traces their arguments through key texts. This book will appeal to a range of audiences: theologians and philosophers, instructors, graduate students, seminarians, lay study groups, and undergraduate theology majors. No book today accomplishes what this book does!

Did the twentieth-century patristic renewal come from nowhere? Was all nineteenth-century theology neo-scholastic? Do theologians’ personal failings invalidate their theologies? These are the questions that guide the contributors to this volume as they reassess the legacy of the so-called Roman School, a nineteenth-century theological network centered in the Jesuit Roman College. Though not entirely uncritical, The Roman College represents a collective effort at sympathetic historical retrieval. It shows how various figures connected to the Roman School—Perrone, Passaglia, Schrader, Franzelin, Newman, Scheeben, and Kleutgen—engaged theologically the problems of their own day and set the stage for later theological renewal.

American Aurora explores the impact of climate change on early modern radical religious groups during the height of the Little Ice Age in the seventeenth century. Focusing on the life and legacy of Johannes Kelpius (1667-1707), an enormously influential but comprehensively misunderstood theologian who settled outside of Philadelphia from 1604 to 1707, Timothy Grieve-Carlson explores the Hermetic and alchemical dimensions of Kelpius's Christianity before turning to his legacy in American religion and literature. This engaging analysis showcases Kelpius's forgotten theological intricacies, spiritual revelations, and cosmic observations, illuminating the complexity and foresight of an important colonial mystic. As radical Protestants during Kelpius's lifetime struggled to understand their changing climate and a seemingly eschatological cosmos, esoteric texts became crucial sources of meaning. Grieve-Carlson presents original translations of Kelpius's university writings, which have never been published in English, along with analyses and translations of other important sources from the period in German and Latin. Ultimately, American Aurora points toward a time and place when climate change caused an eruption of esoteric thought and practice-and how this moment has been largely forgotten.