Albrecht Ritschl (theologian)

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Albrecht B. Ritschl, approx. 1880

Albrecht Benjamin Ritschl (born March 25, 1822 in Berlin ; † March 20, 1889 in Göttingen ) was a Protestant theologian and professor in Bonn and Göttingen .

Live and act

Albrecht Benjamin Ritschl was the son of Georg Carl Benjamin Ritschl , General Superintendent and Bishop of the Province of Pomerania . His ancestors came from the originally Bohemian knight family Ritschl von Hartenbach . From 1839 he studied Protestant theology in Bonn , Halle , Heidelberg and Tübingen . As a student, Ritschl was enthusiastic about Hegel (the first book the young student bought in Bonn in 1839 was Hegel's logic ). After completing his studies, Ritschl worked around Ferdinand Christian Baur in the New Tübingen School . In the first edition of his main work The Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation (1870), a return to Kant is unmistakable. For Ritschl, Kant now represents "after the incessant change of theological directions for the correct appreciation of the basic idea of ​​Christianity the immovable standard". Finally, in the 3rd edition, Ritschl knows that he is influenced and developed by the philosophy of his Göttingen university colleague and university friend R. H. Lotze Following Lotse's philosophy of value, a theory of religious value judgment, which he productively integrates into his definition of the essence of religion. According to Ritschl, religion conveys the two ways of being of humans: being part of nature and being able to rise above nature as a spirit. Religion is the place where people can assure themselves of a supernatural value for themselves: “The religious world view in all its forms is based on the fact that the human spirit is in some degree away from the phenomena surrounding it and the effects of nature penetrating it in Werth differs ”.

Ritschl was initially 1846-1852 Associate Professor of Ancient Church History and later associate professor of New Testament in Bonn (1852-1864), where his relative, the classical scholar of world renown Friedrich Ritschl , since 1839 held a professorship. From 1864 until his death he was a full professor for dogmatics and church and dogma history in Göttingen. At times he was Vice Rector of the university . One focus of his teaching was the concept of the kingdom of God , which is reflected in the actions of Christians through charity and the fulfillment of duty . He highlighted the practical elements of religion and rejected God's retributive justice in favor of a moral life led in the spirit of Jesus Christ. Only through the latter can the kingdom of God be realized in the here and now of the world. In this connection he developed his doctrine of “moral action in the civil profession”: The universal task of the kingdom of God is individually concretized through the adaptation of the individual, insofar as “each individual acts morally by fulfilling the general law in his particular profession or in that combination of professions which one is able to summarize in one's lifestyle ”. Ritschl's advocacy of the radical secularity of the kingdom of God earned him a lot of criticism, not least from the school of religious history . Furthermore, due to his emphasis on the practical dimension of the Kingdom of God idea, he was charged with an ethical shortening of Christianity. In particular, the Tübingen dogmatist Franz Hermann Reinhold von Frank repeatedly opposed Ritschl and claimed that Ritschl's theology would "tear out the roots of personal Christian faith [...]." Ritschl himself refused to accept such objections. On the contrary, he was convinced that he had brought dogmatics and ethics back into balance. In this regard he used the (now famous) image of the ellipse: "[T] he Christianity cannot be compared to a circle that runs around a center, but to an ellipse that is dominated by two focal points".

Ritschl contributed significantly to the renewal of the Reformation idea. In the context of his interpretation of the Reformation, he rejects the conceptual pair of formal and material principles. For him, the principle of the Reformation is the mediation of subjective assurance of salvation with the objective faith of the Christian community: “In the correct expression of the principle of the ecclesiastical Reformation, the two must be linked in inseparable interaction, the idea of ​​the independent assurance of salvation of the individual believer, who is independent , and rises above all verifiable mediation, because it is standardized to Christ, and the thought of the community of believers under Christ set by God and guaranteed in advance ”.

From 1874 Ritschl became the head of a school of theologians ( Ritschlians ). These included u. a. Wilhelm Herrmann (1846–1922) and Adolf von Harnack (1851–1930). Ritschl and his school shaped the views in Protestant theology up to the beginning of the 20th century. The reflection on Ritschl's theology in the second half of the 20th century ( Stephan Weyer-Menkhoff , J. Richmond, R. Schäfer) is also known as the “Ritschl Renaissance”. Central moments in Ritschl's thinking also play a role in contemporary discussions. In part, an important role: his determination of faith and morality, his entry of the concept of interpretation and value in the theological debate, his specific return to the theology of the Reformers, his relationship to metaphysics and revelation, his understanding of the church and his situation in cultural Protestantism .

On the part of Catholic connections he is sometimes seen as an opponent .

From 1880 to 1889 Ritschl was an extraordinary spiritual member of the state consistory in Hanover.

In Göttingen he lived in the house he had bought in 1865 at the beginning of Herzberger Chaussee opposite the Stadtgarten, which was later acquired by the Hannovera fraternity as a fraternity house . A memorial plaque from Göttingen hangs there today .

His son was the liberally oriented Protestant theology professor Otto Karl Albrecht Ritschl (1860–1944), who published a two-volume biography of his father.

Works

  • The emergence of the Old Catholic Church. A monograph on the history of the church and dogma. Adolph Marcus, Bonn 1850 (2nd edition 1857) (facsimile print. Adamant Media, Boston MA 2005, ISBN 1-4212-4947-2 ), digitized version of the original edition .
  • About the relationship of the creed to the church. A vote against the neo-Lutheran doctrines . Bonn 1854.
  • Andreas Osiander's doctrine of justification . In: Yearbooks for German Theology (1857), pp. 795–829.
  • De ira Dei . Bonnae 1859.
  • The Christian doctrine of justification and reconciliation. 3 volumes (Vol. 1: The history of teaching. Vol. 2: The biblical material of teaching. Vol. 3: The positive development of teaching. ). Marcus, Bonn 1870–1874 (his main work).
  • Schleiermacher's speeches on religion and its aftermath on the Protestant Church in Germany . Bonn 1874.
  • Lessons in the Christian religion. Marcus, Bonn 1875 (study edition after the 1st edition from 1875 along with the deviations of the 2nd and 3rd edition, introduced and edited by Christine Axt-Piscalar (=  UTB. Theologie 2311). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2002, ISBN 3-8252 -2311-6 ).
  • About conscience. A presentation. Marcus, Bonn 1876 (reprint, edited and with an introductory essay by Klaus H. Fischer. Fischer, Schutterwald / Baden 2008, ISBN 978-3-928640-87-9 ).
  • History of Pietism. 3 volumes (Vol. 1: … in the Reformed Church. Vol. 2–3: … in the Lutheran Church of the 17th and 18th centuries. Section 1–2). Marcus, Bonn 1880–1886 (unchanged photomechanical reprint; de Gruyter, Berlin 1966).
  • Theology and metaphysics. For communication and defense. Marcus, Bonn 1881 (reprint, edited and introduced by Klaus H. Fischer. Fischer, Schutterwald / Baden 2009, ISBN 978-3-928640-86-2 ).
  • Fides implicita. An investigation into charcoal belief, knowledge and belief, belief and church . Bonn 1890.
  • Collected Essays. 2 volumes. Freiburg 1893–1896 ( digitized in the Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Digital Library).
  • The Gospel of Marcion and the Canonical Gospel of Lucas : A Critical Inquiry. Osiandersche Buchhandlung , Tübingen 1846 [1] on books.google.de

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Albrecht Ritschl  - Sources and full texts

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Cf. Otto Ritschl: Albrecht Ritschls Leben , Bd. I. Freiburg i. Br. 1892, p. 26.
  2. ↑ Albrecht Ritschl: The Christian doctrine of justification and reconciliation . Vol. I. Bonn 1870, p. 408.
  3. ^ Albrecht Ritschl: Theology and Metaphysics. For communication and defense . Bonn 1881, p. 7.
  4. ↑ Albrecht Ritschl: The Christian doctrine of justification and reconciliation . Vol. III. Bonn 1874, p. 594.
  5. ^ Franz Hermann Reinhold von Frank: System of Christian morality . Vol. I. Erlangen 1884, pp. III-IV.
  6. ↑ Albrecht Ritschl: The Christian doctrine of justification and reconciliation . Vol. III. Bonn 1874, p. 6.
  7. ↑ Albrecht Ritschl: The Christian doctrine of justification and reconciliation . Vol. I. Bonn 1870, p. 163.
  8. ↑ Cf. Matthias Neugebauer: Albrecht Ritschl. Lessons in the Christian religion . In: Rebekka A. Klein, Christian Polke, Martin Wendte (eds.): Major works of systematic theology. A study book . Tübingen 2009, pp. 209-226, especially pp. 224-226.
  9. ↑ memorial plaques . City Archives Göttingen
  10. ↑ stadtarchiv.goettingen.de
  11. ↑ rheinische-geschichte.lvr.de
personal data
SURNAME Ritschl, Albrecht
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ritschl, Albrecht Benjamin (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH March 25, 1822
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH March 20, 1889
Place of death Goettingen