German Theologians Research Articles

Religieuse ervaring: Aspoestertjie van teologiese besinning

Religious experience: Cinderella of theological Reflection How is the concept ‘experience’ to be understood, a concept frequently used but which defies clearcut definition? How is religious experience, which is not a terminus technicus, to be understood? These questions are addressed from a historic survey of developments in the interpretation of the nature and understanding of religious experience, spanning Aristotle to modern German theologians. Stressing the fundamental importance for theology of reflection on religious experience, this article describes religious experience as feeling plus a religious conceptual framework, constituted by recollection and embodied in hope.

From Strauss To Holtzmann and Meijboom

The discussion of the synoptic problem, which had been promoted by Griesbach's publication of a Greek synopsis in A.D. 1774, was largely intensified among German Protestants during the years 1830-70. It was a period of academic liberalism, historical positivism, national enthusiasm, and political consolidation. During these years German theologians produced critical and challenging studies of the synoptic question with an enormous assiduity. Their contributions gained wide importance for later generations occupied with the synoptic Gospels, and the circumstances under which the German discussion took place is therefore of interest.

Schleiermacher in Britain

IN the early nineteenth century visits by German philosophers and theologians to Britain were rare, rarer still when the visitor was of Friedrich Schleiermacher's distinction. However, Schleiermacher spent three weeks in London in September 1828, and the occasion provides a fascinating sidelight on this period of English Church history. It was his first and last visit: though Schleiermacher had learned English early in life, and translated two volumes of sermons and written various articles for the Athenaeum, he had felt no urge to cross the Channel before. The reasons now were political rather than religious. He lodged in London with his wife's cousin, Ludwig von Miihlenfels, a writer and critic who had been arrested for ‘demagogic’ activities in Germany and had subsequently escaped and settled in England. From this point of view the visit was a success; Schleiermacher appears to have reinstated von Mühlenfels in the eyes of the Prussian authorities since he was allowed to return home in 1830.

The First German Church Faces the Challenge of the Holocaust: A Report

After 20 years of discussion about the relationship of Christians and Jews, caused by the reflection of the Holo caust, the Evangelische Kirche im Rheinland, regional church of the Evangelische Kirche in Deutschland, has passed a resolution. It states the responsibility of Christianity for the Holocaust, the everlasting election of Israel as the people of God, and the common vocation of Jews and Christians to be witnesses of God to the world and to each other; it refutes the opinion that the Jewish people have been rejected by God and accordingly have been substituted by the church; and it stresses the impossibility of Judenmission. Furthermore, the synod demands better information on Judaism and wishes to build up a new partnership between Jews and Christians. First impulses in this direction came from the Reformed churches of the Netherlands and from the Deutsche evan gelische Kirchentag in Berlin, 1961. Since then, many Jewish teachers have helped the Evangelische Kirche im Rheinland to reach a new understanding of Judaism and of the Christian guilt for the Holocaust. The American Holocaust research has vastly affected German theologians, one of whom, Eber hard Bethge, has composed thesis I for the committee "Christians and Jews" of the Landessynode, thereby pre paring the resolution aforementioned.

Luther and the right of resistance to the emperor

Like most problems connected with Luther, the question of his attitude to the right of resistance to the emperor is one that has attracted a great deal of attention from german scholars. Sixty years ago, at the height of the first world war, Karl Müller published his pioneering essay,Luthers Äusserungen über das Recht des bewaffneten Widerstands gegen den Kaiser,in which he provided the first detailed analysis of the development of Luther’s views: since then the problem has been extensively debated by a succession of german historians and theologians. Yet it is perhaps typical of the insularity of so much english historical writing on the continental reformation that these debates have largely been ignored on this side of the Channel. Even to-day there is no adequate study of the problem in english.

The Christology of Wolfhart Pannenberg

One of the most interesting works on Christology to appear in recent years is Wolfhart Pannenberg's Grundzüge der Christologie. The reviewer in the Scottish Journal of Theology could speak of it as ‘a theological thriller’ and ‘very satisfying on account of its erudition, constant confrontation with Roman and Protestant, German and non-German theologians of the past and present’. Certainly we have here a Christology based on a striking knowledge of Scripture, the Councils, the Fathers and a large range of theologians and philosophers, both ancient and modern. Its originality consists perhaps most of all in the way it understands Christ's role as Revealer.

Et af Grundtvig på tysk skrevet tilbageblik på sig selv fra vinteren 1813-1814

A survey of his past life written by Grundtvig in German and dating from the winter of 1813-14. With an introduction and notes. By Steen Johansen. In January, 1812, German theologians had an opportunity of reading in the periodical “ Theologische Annalen” an article containing information about the young Dane N. F. S. Grundtvig and his fight for a kind of Christianity different from the old rationalistic type. The article first came to Grundtvig’s notice in the winter 1813-14, and he then immediately wrote in German the rough draft of an answer. His draft (which never became anything more) is reproduced here (p. 74 ff.) . Grundtvig begins by justifying certain statements about himself in the German article, but his draft soon grew to be a survey of his own life on a large scale, an account of his conception of Christianity and his plans for the immediate future. He admits that he himself was for a time a rationalist, then that Schiller and Fichte awakened him to a critical consideration of the form of Christianity wrhich then prevailed. After this followed three years during which Grundtvig lived chiefly with the ancient North and its gods and heroes. However, the study of history led him to rethink his position once again, and he realised that his task was to speak to the present generation, not to dream of reviving the past. Grundtvig then describes his spiritual crisis in 1810-11, which gave him the desire to become a clergyman, and he now found the truth in Biblical Christianity. As regards a renewal of the hymn-singing of the Danish Church, Grundtvig for a time thought only of wakening older hymn-writers up from oblivion. In conclusion he declares that he would be glad to see a new Luther arise in Denmark (in the German article he had been called Denmark’s new Luther), but adds that we must not pass our time in waiting for a new Luther, but must ourselves work and fight for the honour of the Crusified One.

Thomas Arnold's Debt to German Theologians: A Prelude to Matthew Arnold's "Literature and Dogma"

that he wished make some beginnings of Biblical criticism in England,2 he expressed a desire which had been stimulated by his contacts with a particular kind of German theologian. This desire was later implemented by many of the Broad Churchmen and by Matthew Arnold. I propose here to point out that Thomas Arnold's knowledge of these Germans conditioned much of his religious thought, changed some of his opinions, and gave him specific materials for his writings, and that both he and his son were aware of the nature and direction of

The Blind ‘Doctor Scotus’

On the 10th November 1540 considerable attention was excited in the imperial city of Worms by the arrival of a blind Scot. He came with Bishop Tommaso Campeggio of Feltre, Papal Nuncio Extraordinary, to take part as a papal theologian in the discussion between Catholics and Protestants arranged by the Emperor Charles V. The German theologians, who were already there awaiting the opening of the discussion, had difficulty in concealing their surprise, and a jest—‘Legatus caecus oculatis Germanis’—was soon coined.

Conference of German and English Theologians

Conference of German and English Theologians

Book Review: Mysterium Christi

Book Review: Mysterium Christi

Book Review: Mysterium Christi. Christological studies by British and German theologians

Book Review: <scp>Mysterium Christi</scp>. Christological studies by British and German theologians

Conference of German and English Theologians

Conference of German and English Theologians

Theology and Psychology

The recent extension of scientific psychology to religious life could not leave the theologian unconcerned. “What theological problems can the psychological treatment of religion solve?” “According to what method must the psychology of religion proceed?” These and other questions have become, especially among German theologians, frequent topics of discussion.

The Teaching of Ernst Troeltsch of Heidelberg

In these days of world-wide intercommunication, the hope of unity and demand for it among men are very strong, so strong that the optimistically inclined often think they already see the rosy hues of a dawn heralding the day of universal harmony. Perhaps these good people are right; but in no respect do modifying considerations appear more clearly than in matters of religion and religious thought. In these things racial as well as individual differences exist; and even between nations so near akin as Germany and the United States mutual understanding seems hard to attain. No doubt the average religious man in America looks upon Germany as a hot-bed of religious radicalism, opposed to all those principles of piety which good men wish to see preserved. There is ground for this opinion, in that German theologians have led the way in the application of the critical method to the facts of religion, and it is often still true, though far less than a few decades ago, that the theories advanced contain poison for the springs of pure religion. But this is not the whole of the picture. Besides the forces of stanch conservatism, which are as strong and as active in Germany as elsewhere, there exists also there at present a vigorous and increasing body of men, as much interested in religion as any conservatives, who are attempting to mediate the great truths of religion to the modern man, whose views are no longer in agreement with orthodoxy. To some these teachers may seem radical, but to those who realize that the great crux is the religious life itself and not this or that particular formulation of it, they convey a distinct impression of constructive renewal—renewal, because they reckon with the knowledge and forces of the new day; constructive, because they build upon and further the knowledge which the past has bequeathed and the forces to which man has ever turned for help and strength.Such a man is Ernst Troeltsch of Heidelberg, too little known on this side of the Atlantic, but a man to be reckoned with in the future here, as he already is in his own land. That a new school will form itself about him is unlikely; his teaching is too individualistic for that. But many a student is attracted by his powerful reasoning, fearlessly critical of all the prevailing tendencies—orthodox, Ritschlian, Hegelian, pragmatic—and gets from him a deeper hold on the realities of the spiritual life and a stronger faith in Christianity as the permanent expression of that life. It is this broad aspect of Troeltsch's teaching which will interest us here rather than his views concerning the history of Protestant Christianity, which is his special field.

Present Religious Conditions in Germany

In considering the present religious conditions and prospects in Germany, the main problem appears to be this: Can the church, which up to the eighteenth century had been the chief promoter and embodiment of culture, remain and be preserved over against a culture which has now become independent, or is this independent modern culture destined to sweep the church away? And if the latter be the case, what then will become of religion? This problem of the prospects of religion and church in the modern world has nowhere more significance than in Germany; for there, as nowhere else, an immensely rich and highly developed intellectual culture stands absolutely independent over against a strong and living church. Neither in France nor in England nor in America is the issue so burning as in Germany. In France secular culture faces no strong church filled with profound spiritual forces, but an outgrown institution governed by Roman spiritual tyranny; and therefore it has triumphed over the church. In England and America secular culture has not developed in opposition to the church, but is in the main friendly to it. In Germany, however, national culture since the eighteenth century has stood outside of the church and in a certain opposition to it; Goethe, who in his own person embodies our national culture, took a cool und unsympathetic attitude towards the church, and so have in a greater or less degree the other creators of our modern thought,—Kant and Schiller, the Darwinists and Karl Marx, the Naturalists and Nietzsche, the Liberals of 1848 and Bismarck. On the other hand the church made very great progress in the nineteenth century. German theologians—Schleiermacher, Strauss, Baur, Ritschl, Harnack—utilized for the church the best spiritual results of modern culture, and gave to German theology undisputed leadership in the Protestant world; piety in the church was profoundly deepened and enriched by Schleiermacher, Claus Harms, Löhe, Wichern, von Bodelschwing, Stöcker; while the external power of the church increased greatly in consequence of the restoration movement, the political leadership of the pious Hohenzollerns, and the establishment of a new and more democratic ecclesiastical constitution with synods and presbyteries.