School of religious history
The name Religionsgeschichtliche school is a group of German Protestant theologian who is 1890 mainly in Göttingen habilitation .
Her circle consisted of Bernhard Duhm (1873), Albert Eichhorn (1856–1926; 1886), Hermann Gunkel (1888), Johannes Weiß (1888), Wilhelm Bousset (1890), Alfred Rahlfs (1891), Ernst Troeltsch (1891), William Wrede (1891), Heinrich Hackmann (1893) and Rudolf Otto (1898), Hugo Greßmann (1902) and Wilhelm Heitmüller (1902), who later qualified as professors . Mentally related were Carl Mirbt (1888), Carl Clemen (1892), Heinrich Weinel (1899) and - at least at a young age - the Swiss Paul Wernle (1897).
Initially influenced by Albrecht Ritschl , they soon consciously turned away from his historical-critical biblical exegesis based on dogmatic considerations . The members of that school advocated a radical historicism in theological research, which also included philological and ancient studies approaches, which placed the Bible and early Christian testimonies created at the same time in a universal spiritual and cultural-historical context. An attempt was made to prove Jewish, Babylonian, Persian and Hellenistic influences on the emerging Christianity. This approach consequently led to an increased preoccupation with foreign religions. A comparison of the different religions with one another was not sought; The only endeavor was to understand the origin of Christianity by examining the external influences that could be demonstrated in it.
The significance of the school of religious history now extended far beyond the area of internal theology. The endeavors of its representatives to make the sometimes revolutionary results of their research work available to the broadest possible public became constitutive. This was based on the conviction that the popular communication of their theological research results must lead to an expansion of religious consciousness in broad sections of the population. So they developed a lively lecture activity. Her popular science publications - book series such as the " Religionsgeschichtliche Volksbücher ", the " Lebensfragen ", the " Research on Religion and Literature of the Old and New Testaments " (FRLANT) or the " Göttinger Bibelwerk ", but also her large encyclopedia " The Religion in History." and the present ”(RGG) - found brisk sales after the turn of the century.
The turning away from historicism in Protestant theology led to the decline of the School of Religious History after the First World War , especially since several of its leading representatives had died early. However, terms developed by them and established in theology such as “history of tradition ”, “ history of form ”, “ seat in life ”, “ late Judaism ”, “ Hellenistic community ” refer to an ongoing history of impact.
Due to a careful reflection on the issues of theological historicism in today's “post-dialectic” phase of German theology, however, the research approaches of the “School of Religious History” are attracting increased interest.
literature
- Carsten Colpe : The religious history school. Presentation and criticism of her picture of the Gnostic redemption myth , Göttingen 1961.
- Gerd Lüdemann / Martin Schröder: The religious history school in Göttingen . Goettingen 1987.
- Gerd Lüdemann [ed.]: The "Religious History School". Facets of a theological upheaval , Frankfurt am Main a. a. 1996.
- Gerd Lüdemann / Alf Özen: Art. School of religious history . in: Theologische Realenzyklopädie 28 (1997), pp. 618-624.
- Gerhard Wolfgang Ittel: Early Christianity and Foreign Religions in the Judgment of the School of Religious History , inaugural dissertation of the phil. Faculty Erlangen 1956.