5 Theologia between Science and the State

Abstract

Abstract This chapter examines the conflicted renown of 19th-century German academic theology even as it charts the theological faculty’s steady diminution as a component of the overall university system. Five principal lines of inquiry contribute to this broader task. First, the chapter calls attention to how dominant intellectual, political, and social trends of the mid- and late 19th century affected university development. Second, in an effort to penetrate the internal dynamics of university theology, it focuses on Protestant theological education, that is, to what young theology students actually were supposed to learn during their university years. Third, it examines a number of histories of universities written in the late 19th and early 20th century, along with various documents from university commemorative celebrations and from international exhibitions on German higher education. Fourth, it examines the reactions of a number of foreigners to German universities, broaching also the broader international influence of German theology. Finally, it considers several issues that precipitated a crisis of identity for theology in the late 19th century.