Albrecht Ritschl and the Tübingen School: A neglected link in the history of 19th century theology

Journal article

The article starts by observing a parallel between the identification of Christ's humanity and universal human nature, for which Harnack repudiates some church fathers, and David Strauss' claim, in his Life of Jesus, that the subject of the Incarnation must be all humanity. It is argued that this oppositional stance is indicative of fundamental philosophical and theological differences between the Tübingen School and the Ritschl School. Those differences, however, are then explained as emerging from what is ultimately a common project of a radical form of historical theology. This project, it is argued, Ritschl took over from Baur while correcting it in crucial ways. Taken together, the two central theological schools of the 19th century thus illustrate the potential and the limits of christian theology within the historicist paradigm. © 2011 Walter de Gruyter.

Authors: Zachhuber, J

• Journal: Journal for the History of Modern Theology
• Volume: 18
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 51-70
• Publication date: 2011-04-01
• DOI: 10.1515/ZNTH.2011.004
• EISSN: 1612-9776
• ISSN: 0943-7592
• Language: English