5 results
2 - Protestantism
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- By Friedrich Wilhelm Graf, University of Munich
- Edited by Hans Joas, University of Erfurt and University of Chicago, Klaus Wiegandt, Founder and CEO of the foundation Forum für Verantwortung
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- Book:
- Secularization and the World Religions
- Published by:
- Liverpool University Press
- Published online:
- 05 June 2015
- Print publication:
- 01 August 2009, pp 46-76
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Summary
Strictly speaking, the above title is incorrect. It is certainly possible to speak of ‘Catholicism’ to designate that form of Christianity which, alongside the Orthodox churches on the one hand and those decisively inspired by the sixteenth-century Reformation, together with religious revivalist movements and ‘sects’ on the other, represents the third strand of Christian tradition: the Roman Catholic ‘world church’ centred on the office of the Pope. But there is neither a Protestant ‘world church’ comparable to Roman Catholic centralism nor any other kind of globally organized institution that might be in a position to unite the factual diversity of Protestant churches and groups. Since its beginnings in the reformist movements of the sixteenth century, ‘Protestantism’ has been a highly plural, multi-layered, even contradictory phenomenon, and there are many good reasons, from both a sociology of religion and a theological perspective, for consistent use of the plural ‘Protestantisms’ rather than the overly abstract collective singular. For ‘Protestantism’ or the adjective ‘Protestant’ exist solely within an almost overwhelming profusion of thousands of churches, voluntary communities, charismatic movements and groups. Despite elementary differences in piety, liturgical tradition, theological doctrine and moral behaviour, however, these converge in the fact that their roots can be traced back to the reformist protest of the sixteenth century and that, as a result, they understand the Christian church not as a powerful institution of salvation in which the ordained bishops and priests take spiritual precedence over the laity, but as a community of blessed sinners living the ‘priesthood of all the faithful’ and constituted by the Holy Spirit.
God's Brain. Some Critical Remarks on Modern Neurotheology
- FRIEDRICH WILHELM GRAF
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- Journal:
- European Review / Volume 15 / Issue 2 / May 2007
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 04 April 2007, pp. 257-264
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The author starts from an observed increase in theoretical contributions to the debate on neurotheology, illustrated by the example of the moral implications of certain discourse types in the novel God's Brain (Johler and Burow). Central scriptural passages of the Judeo-Christian tradition are then interpreted; a crucial shared aspect of these is the implication of an eternal divine memory, the physiological dimension of which has fostered, not just in terminology, a general openness of theology from the ‘neuronal turn’ to the neurotheological diagnostics since the late 19th century. Once the question of a possible self-reflection by the neurologist is systematically excluded, it becomes obvious that the ‘twilight of neurosciences’ still contains a considerable ideological potential. This is particularly evident in light of the questions addressed since the 1970s, despite the most modern methods in imaging and measurement.
Le politique dans la sphère intime Protestantisme et culture en Allemagne au XIXe siècle
- Friedrich Wilhelm Graf, Nicole Taubes
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- Journal:
- Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales / Volume 57 / Issue 3 / June 2002
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 04 May 2017, pp. 773-787
- Print publication:
- June 2002
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L’article examine la relation entre le protestantisme et la culture moderne de la classe moyenne, un sujet de discussion déjà en vigueur, au début du XIXe siècle, chez les théologiens universitaires protestants allemands. Ces débats ont d’abord et avant tout porté sur la légitimité religieuse des Lumières et leurs conséquences politiques. Les confrontations qui ont suivi ont conduit à une politisation des conflits déjà existants entre luthériens et calvinistes. Au début du XIXe siècle, le protestantisme s’est ainsi divisé en deux camps hostiles: celui des représentants libéraux d’un «christianisme de la culture», et le camp conservateur, défendant l’ancienne foi ecclésiastique. L’article montre que ces controverses au sein du protestantisme ont joué un important rôle socio-politique en faveur du renforcement de l’opposition idéologique et de parti entre les libéraux et les conservateurs après 1848. De plus, est abordée la question du potentiel de rationalisation économique de la religiosité protestante, qui a été très discutée, notamment depuis les travaux de Max Weber et de Ernst Troeltsch, ainsi que celle des valeurs protestantes dans les domaines de la culture et des études. L’auteur situe la signification culturelle du protestantisme dans la «sémantique de l’intériorité» qui lui est propre. Cependant, l’intériorisation de l’expérience religieuse dans le protestantisme, estime-t-il, n’a pas débouché sur un détachement naïf du monde, mais plutôt sur une haute considération pour le monde extérieur («Weltfrömmigkeit»). Elle a produit une réévaluation du monde, en en faisant le lieu décisif de l’épreuve chrétienne, et ainsi apporté une contribution cruciale à la rationalisation des modes de vie protestants et à la régénération religieuse de la culture et de la connaissance («Bildungsreligion»).
1 - The German Theological Sources and Protestant Church Politics
- Edited by Hartmut Lehmann, German Historical Institute, Washington DC, Guenther Roth, Columbia University, New York
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- Book:
- Weber's Protestant Ethic
- Published online:
- 05 January 2013
- Print publication:
- 30 July 1993, pp 27-50
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In the dispute surrounding The Protestant Ethic in 1907, Max Weber explained that an “objective, fruitful critique” of his investigation of the genetic connection between Protestant asceticism and the spirit of capitalism “is only possible - in this field of endlessly intertwined causal relations - through a mastery of the source material.” “Although it may seem to some as an outdated attitude, I expect a critique from the theological sphere to be the most competent.” In later years, Weber repeatedly emphasized that for him the most important participants in the debate over The Protestant Ethic were the “experts” in religious matters, the theologians. From them alone he expected a “fruitful and instructive critique.”
How can we explain Weber's obvious esteem for academic theology? There is, first of all, a biographical reason. From the beginning of his university studies, Max Weber cultivated strong contacts with Protestant theologians. He spent his first semester in a close living and working relationship with his cousin Otto Baumgarten, a Protestant theologian, who was six years older than Weber. From 1894 on, Baumgarten taught as a professor of practical theology in Kiel, maintaining a very close relationship with his cousin in Heidelberg and also with Marianne Weber. Through his connection with Baumgarten, Weber met numerous religious liberals and Protestant theologians who were critical of the church, and after 1890, together with his “favorite cousin,” he was involved with the Protestant Social Congress. His work with the Protestant Social Congress intensified his involvement with liberal Protestantism. When Weber moved from Freiburg to Heidelberg in 1896, a theologian in the circle of young Heidelberg professors, Ernst Troeltsch, became his closest friend. Moreover, Weber established contact with other professors in the faculty of Protestant theology at the University of Heidelberg: in particular, the Old Testament scholar Adalbert Merx and the New Testament scholar Adolf Deissmann.
9 - ERNST TROELTSCH
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- By Trutz Rendtorff, The University of Munich, Friedrich Wilhelm Graf, The University of Munich
- Edited by Ninian Smart, John Clayton, Patrick Sherry, Steven T. Katz
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- Book:
- Nineteenth-Century Religious Thought in the West
- Published online:
- 26 January 2010
- Print publication:
- 03 October 1985, pp 305-332
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The great German historian Friedrich Meinecke (1862–1954) described Ernst Troeltsch as ‘one of the most outstanding and powerful minds of our time’. Such a comment from a contemporary historian makes it all the more remarkable, as has been recently pointed out, that Troeltsch's work was ‘not taken seriously for nearly forty years’ after his death in 1923. Only lately has interest been reawakened in Troeltsch's complex theological and philosophical position. It is true that Troeltsch worked largely within the ‘thought forms of the nineteenth century’. But he also posed questions with a growing intensity about the possibility of reconstructing theology in a way that would aid what he called a ‘fresh characterization of the essence of Christianity’. Thus Troeltsch must be seen today as an important and farsighted twentieth-century thinker. Certainly he did feel he was engaged with the great representatives of theology and philosophy since Kant, Hegel and Schleiermacher, but not merely in a historical way. For he realized more than virtually any other contemporary the necessity of interpreting this ‘classical’ heritage for a future in which the concepts and ideas of the nineteenth century would be fundamentally remodelled and reshaped through the force of a great historical upheaval.
Troeltsch saw himself as preparing the way for this future. He looked for ways of adapting academic work in theology, philosophy, history and sociology to this future, and of contributing to its construction, by taking an active part in the ecclesiastical and political debates of his time.
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