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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 July 2009
There are growing evidences of a sense of concern with respect to the interpretation accorded Adolf Harnack and his liberal colleagues in the three decades since his death. As a result, appeals have been made for a re-evaluation of liberal theology, and of Harnack in particular. Certainly one of the tasks which is pre-requisite to such a reassessment is a consideration of the historical situation which shaped Harnack's thought and in some measure, at least, determined the options for his own position. Perhaps this article may contribute to this preliminary discussion, and nothing more ambitious than a consideration of Harnack's background and cultural environment, with a concluding characterization of his position, will be attempted here.
1. Zahn-Harnack, Agnes von, Adolf von Harnack (Berlin: Hans Bott, 1936), pp. 28–32Google Scholar. Hereafter all references to this work will be designed AZH.
2. Op. cit., p. 48.
3. Oettingen, Von “could recite Faust from beginning to end from memory.” AZH, p. 48.Google Scholar
4. Op. cit., pp. 93–94.
5. Ibid.
6. Ibid.
7. Op. cit., p. 95.
8. Op. cit., p. 96.
9. Op. cit., p. 98.
10. Op. cit., pp. 56–64.
11. Particularly through the founding, with Sehürer, of the Theologische Literaturzeitung.
12. AEH, p. 108.
13. Op. cit., p. 325.
14. As he said of Luther, it could be said of him, “Never did he think to fight against the Church, but always for the Church against a false and souldangerous practice; never did he dream that the Gospel had been really lost—no, but it was to be freed from a captivity into which … the theologians had led it.” Quoted from Abbott, Lyman et al. , The Prophets of Christian Faith (New York; The Maemillan Company, 1896), p. 115Google Scholar. Hasnack's essay in this volume is entitled “Martin Luther, The Prophet of the Reformation.”
15. cf. AZH, p. 146.
16. Op. cit., p. 171.
17. Cf. infra, pp. 163ff. for the opponents of Christianity” whom Harnack undoubtedly had in mind.
18. AZH, pp. 196–201.
19. Op. cit., p. 201.
20. Op. cit., p. 202.
21. Ibid.
22. Op. cit., p. 203.
23. Harnack received at this time his second call to Harvard. AZH, p. 210.
24. However, as a concession to orthodoxy, Adolf Schlatter, a conservative, was appointed to the Berlin faculty. AZH, pp. 208–09.
25. Op. cit., p. 212.
26. Harnack, , What Is Christianity? trans. Saunders, Thomas Bailey (4th ed. rev.; New York: G. P. Putnam's Sons, 1923), p. 125.Google Scholar
27. AZH, pp. 295f.
28. Op. cit., p. 300.
29. Op. cit., pp. 39f.
30. Harnack, , Christianity and History, trans. Saunders, Thomas Bailey (London: A. and C. Black, 1896), p. 30.Google Scholar
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32. Harnack, , “Des doppelte Evangelium im Neuen Testament,” RA, II, NF: Aus Wissenschaft and Leben, 211–24.Google Scholar
33. Ibid., pp. 222–23.
34. Ibid.
35. Ibid.
36. AZH, p. 516.
37. Quoted with no source given in Mackintosh, H. B., Types of Modern Theology: Schleiermacher to Barth (London: Nisbet and Company, 1937), p. 160.Google Scholar
38. cf. Harnack, , “Des doppelte Evangehum im Neuen Testament,” RA, II, NF: Aus Wissensehaft und Leben,Google Scholar for Harnack's development of this identification.
39. Cf. Ibid., pp. 228–24.
40. Harnack, , What Is Christianity? pp. 45–55Google Scholar.
41. Cf. op. cit., pp. 63–64.
42. Ernst, Troeltsch, “The Dogmatics of the Religionsgeschichtliche Schule,” American Journal of Theology, XVII (01, 1913), 12.Google Scholar
43. AZH, p. 90.
44. Ibid.
45. Cf. the critique of liberalism by Niebuhr, H. Richard, Christ and Culture (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1951), pp. 15–19.Google Scholar
46. Troeltsch, Ernst, “Adolf v. Harnack und Ferd. Christian v. Baur,” Festgabe zu Harnacks 70. Geburtetag, p. 282Google Scholar. I was unable to secure this work except on microfilm from the Deutsche Staatsbibliothek, Berlin. No publication date was given on the microfilm.
47. Ibid.
48. Ibid.
49. Op. cit., p. 283.
50. Troeltsch, “The Dogmatics ⃜,” p. 9.
51. Cf.Barth, Karl, Die protestantische Theologie im 19. Jahrhundert. Ihre Vorgesckichte und ihre Geschichte (Zweite Auflage, verbesserte; Zürich: Zollikon, 1952), p. 487Google Scholar for an assessment of Feuerbach's influence in this respect.
52. Löwith's, Karl “L'achevement de la phiosophie classique par Hegel et en dissolution chez Marx et Kierkegaard,” Recherches Philosophiques, IV (1934–1935), 232–67,Google Scholar is a suggestive essay which points out that Hegel departed from his own early declared principle, “Fini absolu centre infini absolu,” in his achieved system. Kierkegaard held that Hegel's “existence” was, therefore, always abstract and ideal rather than real.
53. Barth, , in Die protestantische Theologie, p. 453Google Scholar, declares that such a history of dogma as that of Harnack, basing everything on the Gospel of Jesus, would have been regarded by Baur as hopeless; for it rested essentially on a pragmatism by means of which the riches of history could never be possessed.
54. Cf. also Hirsch, Emanuel, Geschichte der nevern evangelischen Theologie in Zusammenhang mit den allgemeinen Bewegungen des europäischen Denkens (Fünf Bände; Gutersloh: C. Bertelsmann Verlag, 1950) V, 625.Google Scholar
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56. Op. cit., p. 222.
57. Harnack, , Christianity and History, p. 25.Google Scholar
58. Hirsch, , Geschichte, IV, 446.Google Scholar
59. Ibid.
60. Troeltsch, Ernst, Gesammelte Schriften, Band III: Der Historismus und seine Probleme (Tübingen: Mohr, 1922), p. 529.Google Scholar
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62. Ritschl, Albrecht, Die Entstehung der altkatholischen Kirche (Zweite Auflage, ausgearbeitete; Bonn: Marcus, 1857), p. v.Google Scholar
63. Niebuhr, H. Richard, The Meaning of Revelation (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1941), p. 26.Google Scholar
64. Ibid.
65. Ibid.
66. Op. cit., p. 29.
67. Hirsch, , Geschichte, V, 558.Google Scholar
68. Supra, p. 159.
69. Harnack, , “Ritschl und seine Schule,” RA, II, 355.Google Scholar
70. Quoted, in Mackintosh, , Types of Modern Theology, p. 150.Google Scholar
71. Koenig, Robert, “The Use of the Bible in Albrecht Ritsehl's Theology and the Significance of His Method for Today” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, The Divinity School, The University of Chicago, 1953), p. 30.Google Scholar
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73. Ibid.
74. Op. cit., p. 141.
75. Schweitzer, Albert, The Quest of the Historical Jesus: A Critical Study of Its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede, trans. Montgomery, W. (London: A. and C. Black, 1911), p. 141.Google Scholar
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77. Ibid.
78. Kattenbusch, Ferdinand, Die deutsche evangelische Theologie seit Schleiermacher: ihre Leistungen und ihre Schäden (Vierte Auflage, umgearbeitete; Giessen: Töpelmann, 1924), p. 51.Google Scholar
79. Ibid.
80. Lyman, , “Ritschl's Theory,” p. 508.Google Scholar
81. Although, of course, he rejected this solution.
82. AZH, pp. 127–28.
83. Ibid.
84. Op. cit., p. 129.
85. Op. cit., p. 135.
86. Op. cit., p. 143.
87. Op. cit., pp. 39f.
88. Op. cit., p. 69.
89. Op. cit., pp. 81–85.
90. Op. cit., p. 87.
91. Sapra, pp. 165–66.
92. Supra, p. 166.
93. AZH, p. 90.
94. Op. cit., p. 91.
95. Ibid.
96. Harnack, , Thoughts on the Present Position of Protestantism, trans. Saunders, Thomas Bailey (London: A. and C. Black, 1899), p. 54.Google Scholar
97. Ibid.
98. Op. cit., p. 56.
99. Harnack, , “Über die sicherheit,” RA, IV, NF: Erforschtes und Erlebtes, passim.Google Scholar
