Neo-Lutheranism

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The Neo-Lutheranism was a theological flow of the 19th century within the Lutheran Protestantism .

overview

Neo-Lutheranism was rooted in the revival movement and saw its task in "the scientific representation of the church confession" ( Gottfried Thomasius ). The adherence to scripture and creed was the main characteristic of neo-Lutheranism. There was a sharp demarcation against the reason demand of theological rationalism , but also against the union of the Lutherans with the Calvinists ( Claus Harms ), which differentiated the neo-Lutheranism from the revival.

development

The beginnings of the new Lutheran confessionalism are usually seen in Franz Volkmar Reinhard's Reformation sermon for the New Year 1800, which initially remained quite ineffective, and in Claus Harms ' theses on the anniversary of the Reformation in 1817. The latter already dealt sharply with the Union. Further representatives were August Hahn and Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg , whose approach to repristination should be counted.

In a similar way, in which the revival distinguished itself from neo-Lutheran anti-unionism, there was also a break with many old Lutherans , such as Johann Gottfried Scheibel . Neo-Lutheranism was represented for the first time in all theological differentiation in the Erlangen school . Your co-founders Adolf Harless and Konrad Hofmann also worked in Leipzig , where Professors Karl Friedrich August Kahnis , Christoph Ernst Luthardt and Franz Delitzsch then worked as the so-called "Lutheran triumvirate". In Neuendettelsau , Wilhelm Löhe was an important supporter of the new Lutheranism.

In Saxony , neo-Lutheranism was further enhanced by Andreas Gottlob Rudelbach , who was influenced by Grundtvig , in Mecklenburg by Theodor Kliefoth , in Kurhessen by August Vilmar and in Berlin , provided with politically conservative features by the brothers Leopold , Ernst Ludwig and Otto von Gerlach and Friedrich Julius Stahl represented. Ludwig Harms , Friedrich Münchmeyer , Ludwig Adolf Petri , Gerhard Uhlhorn and other followers of neo-Lutheranism found themselves in Hanover . The spread in the German-speaking Baltic States was most recently achieved by Theodosius Harnack as well as Ernst Sartorius and Friedrich Adolf Philippi . In Denmark and Sweden (especially in the theological faculty of Lund University ) neo-Lutheranism was found with a strong emphasis on the Hegelian idea of ​​the organism and in spiritual proximity to the Stahl group at ebb-tide Gustaf Bring , Wilhelm Flensburg and Anton Niklas Sundberg .

theology

With regard to the Bible , revelation was no longer seen as a (written) teaching, but as the living work of God. The word is the bearer of Christ (Thomasius, Vilmar). On this is built a "doctrine of two natures of the word" (according to Theodor Heckel about Harless), which allows the relationship between word and Christ to correspond to that between his human and divine nature: "In Christianity the word became flesh" ( Courtier ). This is where the great influence of Johann Georg Hamann on Erlangen theology comes into play.

Accordingly, there was a strong emphasis on the church (in extenso by Löhe, but in rejection of the concept of organism). The (progressive) formation of an understanding of Revelation manifested itself (in a clear adaptation of Hegel) in the formation of the creed. The creed could already reach the rank of writing here and there (most strongly in Löhe). In terms of content, it is partly limited to the Augsburg Confession (Vilmar), and partly understood as encompassing the entire Book of Concord (Thomasius).

Also the reception of the church fathers (especially the first five centuries) became important again, in which the relational “catholicity” of the church was secured (especially with Löhe, Vilmar, Delitzsch and also the Catholic Johann Adam Möhler and John Henry Newman ). One then wanted to advance from this secured tradition and pursue further development (clearly with Löhe, also with Kliefoth, Vilmar, Thomasius and others). Likewise, eschatology was viewed as an incomplete one (Kliefoth, Luthardt).

As a practical consequence, there was a lively struggle for an understanding of ministry and church. After the revolution of 1848 , the constitutional question of the church took center stage: Either the church is to be regarded as an assembly of believers, congregatio sanctorum (above all courtiers, including most of Erlangen and Leipzig) or it is an “institution” (steel ), a means (Kliefoth, Stahl, Vilmar, Löhe). In addition, the question of accentuating the invisible church (courtier and others) or the visible church (especially steel) arose . (In the case of Löhe, the invisible subset seems to be the visible). The office was seen more or less close to the general priesthood , but was partly understood as establishing a congregation (so Löhe against Harless). In the background moved predestination , justification and the question of law and gospel .

The awakening tendencies became visible in the accentuation of rebirth , in which the individual subjectively comprehends the objective content of the word. According to this, the act by which rebirth becomes possible is faith . The rebirth is the “continual incarnation of God” (Kliefoth, Thomasius). Neo-Lutheranism would then be theology of experience, and experience would lie in the objective event of revelation, which was expressed in the subjective act of faith and would become visible through it.

Romantic as well as idealistic content was recorded in this way . The concept of the organism and its conception of the development of the philosophy of Georg WF Hegel and Friedrich Schelling was borrowed.

The course of the history of Neo-Lutheranism is then quite heterogeneous. Orthodox biblical theology could be restored (“biblicism”) (as in the case of Friedrich Adolf Philippi and Carl Ferdinand Wilhelm Walther ) or repristination (in the case of Hengstenberg).

literature