The History of the Church: Year II
Unit 3.2:
Late 19 Century Liberal Protestantism and the Bible
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Review of Beginnings of Liberal Protestantism
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Christian response to the questions of the Enlightenment
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Immanuel Kant (1724-1804): Prussian philosopher
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He had been a firm rationalist: optimistic about human reason
David Hume shook him into realizing the limits of human reason
 Critique of Pure Reason (1781): the mind actively “constructs” reality
 We can’t really know reality in itself: this goes for God as well
Kant grounded belief in God in practical reason: morality
Spelled the end of simplistic Scholastic philosophy & “proofs” of God
The modern “turn to the subject”
Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834): Father of Liberal Protestantism
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Led by Popes of 19th century, Catholic Church took defensive attitude
Protestant churches took more engaged and optimistic approach
 Science & Industrial Revolution stirred belief in human progress
 Rethinking of traditional Christian belief in light of modern world
1799: Speeches on Religion to Its Cultured Despisers
 Belief in God grounded in non-rational “feeling for the infinite”: Romantic
 Religion as attempt to articulate & share this feeling of absolute dependence
 Christianity as clearest form of religion: Christ’s “God-consciousness”
 Theology & doctrine are the attempt to articulate this feeling and its implications for the self, relations with the world,
relations with God
G.W.F. Hegel (1770-1831): German Lutheran idealist philosopher
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Very optimistic belief in progress: history as progressive working out of reason
Christianity as the culmination of other religions’ search for truth: Incarnation
Thesis, antithesis, synthesis
Development of Modern Biblical Criticism
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Review of Biblical criticism before 18th century
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Prior to advent of “historical consciousness”
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Church Fathers (2nd to 8th centuries)
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Emphasis on spiritual & allegorical reading of Scriptures: preaching
Debate with Judaism, Greek philosophy, Muslims: proof-texting
Middle Ages (9th to 14th centuries)
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Bible viewed simplistically as heaven-sent collection of writings
Narrow view of Biblical inspiration: God “dictated” to sacred authors
Little understanding of the historical matrix of writers & community
Aquinas & Scholastic tradition: Scriptures as proof of doctrines
Static understanding of revelation: infallible propositions
Debate between Western Catholic & Eastern Orthodox interpretations
Renaissance & Reformation (15th to 17th centuries)
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Renaissance interest in language, culture, and the human person
Shift in philosophical interest from metaphysics to epistemology
Humanists develop tools for analyzing literature & history
Reformers sought return to real meaning of the Scriptures
 Translations & printing press made Bible accessible to many
Debates between Catholic & Protestant interpreters
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Enlightenment (17th to 18th centuries)
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Rationalism: optimism about ability of human reason to dispel all darkness
 Extreme form rejected the supernatural as unknowable
 Skeptical about the role of Tradition & authority in interpretation
Empiricism: all knowledge grounded in experience & senses
 Extreme form led to subjectivism & skepticism
Advances in science led to questioning of Biblical cosmogony: inerrancy?
 Galileo, the sun-centered solar system, and Genesis 1
Archeological discoveries of ancient ruins and texts
 Other ancient accounts of creation, gods, history
Deists emphasized natural religion: God known by observing the world
 Denial of revelation and rejection of miracles & the supernatural
Development of Old Testament criticism
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French Oratorian priest Richard Simon (1638-1712)
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Jean Astruc (1684-1766): physician at court of Louis XIV
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Influence of Hegel’s philosophy of history: progressive “salvation history”
Christianity as culmination of salvation history: OT religion empty
Schleiermacher emphasized gulf between Hebrew & Christian consciousness
Prophets seen as culmination of OT history: monotheism, prepare for Christ
E. Reuss (1804-91) & K.H. Graf (1815-69): Univ. of Strasburg
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Believed theological preoccupations hindered true comprehension of OT
Expanded on Astruc’s work: “Documentary Hypothesis for Pentateuch”
 Moses was editor of Pentateuch, used two earlier written sources he called J (Yahweh) & E (Elohim): different
divine names
Careful study of poetry & historical milieu of the prophetic writings
 Role of oral tradition
First to point out the “mythic” genre in ancient literature: present in OT
Denigration of the Old Testament
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God disclosed himself progressively in history, thru human instrumentality: climaxed in the Incarnation of the Son of
God
He emphasized the poetic nature of many OT writings: divine truth expressed in a variety of literary “forms”
His romanticism tempered the rationalism of his age
J.G. Eichhorn (1752-1827) at University of Gottingen
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Made radical distinction between divine truth contained in the Bible and the human writings in which that truth is
expressed
J.G. Herder (1744-1803): German poet (like Lessing & Goethe)
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Noticed the variations in the divine name in the Pentateuch
Indicates weaving together of various sources by later editor
J.S. Semler (1721-1791): Protestant scholar
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Inaugurated the era of modern biblical criticism
Expert on ancient languages and manuscripts
Moses not the only author of the Pentateuch: result of long process
Unwritten traditions lie at heart of biblical narrative: not first-hand account
Bossuet & other leaders of French church attacked him: works on Index
Ritualistic regulations of Leviticus do not correspond to desert wanderings
 No mention of these by the pre-exilic prophets (8th to 6th century BC)
Thus much of the Pentateuch was written after the prophets
P (priestly) document as 3rd source for editors of Pentateuch (J, E, P)
 The Priestly source is post-exilic (after 539 BC)
Darwin’s Origin of Species (1859) & The Descent of Man (1871)
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Further questioned biblical account of creation and the fall
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Julius Wellhausen (1844-1918): 4-Source Theory of Pentateuch
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Bernard Duhm (1847-1928): expanded on Wellhausen’s work
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Recovery of religious literatures of ancient Near-East
 Hegelian philosophy of progress applied to ancient religions
Influence upon religion of ancient Israel by its Near-Eastern neighbors
 The Babylonian Flood Epic (Gilgamesh) & creation stories (Enuma Elish)
 Influence of Egyptian monotheism under reforms of Pharaoh Akenhaton
 Importance of ancient genre of “myth” in telling deepest truths about the creation of the world and its eventual end
Hermann Gunkel (1862-1932): development of “form criticism”
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British scholars began to espouse Wellhausen & Duhm’s theory
Also began to influence Biblical interpretation in France and America
“History of Religions” movement (Religiongeschichte)
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Focused on the work of the classical OT prophets
First to divide Isaiah into three different authors: Isaiah 1-39 / 40-55 / 56-66
Beginning with Amos in 8th century BC, prophets moved Israel toward ethical monotheism
 Movement away from cult and ritual to ethics
By 1880’s this German scholarship began to spread
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His Prolegomena to the History of Israel (1883) enshrined this system
Added D (Deuteronomic) source to theory of J, E, & P
 J (Yahwist): at court of Solomon circa 920 BC
 E (Elohist): connected with prophets in N. Kingdom circa 750 BC
 D (Deuteronomic): refugees from N. Kingdom to Jerusalem in 722 BC
 P (Priestly): by priestly leaders in Jerusalem after Babylonian Exile (587-539)
The classical OT prophets were the founders of monotheism, not its renovators
He felt that biblical criticism was too focused on the written documents
He asked what the pre-literary & oral traditions were, from which the written documents developed
What was the sitz im leben (life situation) from which the oral tradition arose?
Enshrined in different forms: myth, legend, epic, poetry, narrative, genealogy
He analyzed the different forms in the Psalms: from different sitz im leben
His form criticism had profound effect on 20th century NT criticism
Development of New Testament criticism
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Augustine
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16th century Reformers
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17 -18 centuries
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Influence of ideas of OT criticism on NT studies
Importance of oral traditions about Jesus at root of written gospels
H.S. Reimarus (1694-1768): begins quest for “historical Jesus”
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Erasmus and Luther emphasized need to study NT in original Greek
of sola scriptura focused attention on text of NT
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He noticed differences between the 4 gospels: words of Jesus reported in a way that preserves their “sense”, rather than
verbatim
General recollection rather than strict chronology
Distinguished between Jesus of history and Christ of faith (gospels & Church)
Jesus was Jewish revolutionary who failed in attempt to establish earthly messianic kingdom
Christ is a deception created by disciples who stole body from tomb, invented doctrines of resurrection and 2nd Coming
Reimarus was prejudiced by rationalist rejection of the supernatural
But first to try to pierce thru faith-encrusted gospels to historical Jesus
Even Thomas Jefferson took a shot at reconstructing life of Jesus
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As a rationalist he cut out of gospels all supernatural elements: miracles, exorcisms, resurrection
Jesus as essentially a wise ethical teacher
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Tubingen School of New Testament studies
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Hegel’s system applied to NT & early Church history
F.C. Baur (1792-1860): development of NT
 Peter’s Judaizing Christianity as thesis, Paul’s more universal perspective as antithesis: synthesis in John, early
Catholicism, & NT canon
 Led to scholarly debates on date & authorship of books of NT
 Other than Paul’s letters, he dated most NT writings to 2nd century
 Refinement of scholarly tools: historical-critical method
 NT writings product of the history of early Church
 New Testament shows the dynamic & developmental nature of revelation
 Rejection of Scholastic notion of revelation as static & eternal truth
 Sparked intense research into history of the Scriptures & Church doctrine
D. Strauss (1808-1874): student of F.C. Baur at Tubingen
 1835: Life of Jesus sought to reconcile literal reading of gospels and rationalist explanations
 Emphasized mythic alternative: gospels give us a basis of historical fact transformed & embellished by the faith of the
Church
 Strauss ended by holding impossibility of reconstructing historical Jesus
B. Bauer (1809-1882): influenced by Strauss
 No historical core to gospels & NT: only myth
 Jesus and Paul were non-historical literary fictions
E. Renan (1823-1892): also influenced by Strauss
 His 1863 Life of Jesus rejected the supernatural: gave readers purely human Jesus
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The Cambridge Three in England
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Albrecht Ritschl (1822-1889)
 Began as disciple of Baur and Tubingen School
 By 1858 he had abandoned the theories of this school
 Christianity is ultimately practical: yet also essentially grounded in history
 Search for the “historical Jesus”: foundation of Christian faith
 Center of Jesus’ teachings: Kingdom of God and its ethics (love)
 Kingdom of God not other-worldly, but this-worldly
 To be realized by active human engagement
Acceptance of historical-critical method for NT, but without rationalist presuppositions
J.B. Lightfoot (1828-1889): response to Baur’s late dating of NT writings
 Extensive study of early post-NT literature
 He proved early dates of Letters of Ignatius of Antioch (circa 107 AD) and 1 Clement (95 AD): these quoted gospels &
NT writings
 Linked Peter & Paul as great apostles: not conflict as in Baur’s theory
B.F. Westcott (1825-1901): great work on gospel of John
F.J.A. Hort (1828-1892): great critical edition of Greek NT
 Sorted thru the variant readings in the earliest manuscripts
 1859: discovery by Tischendorf of Codex Sinaiticus (oldest complete manuscript of NT, early 4th century)
Adolph von Harnack (1851-1930)
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Professor of early Church history at U. of Berlin
Most outstanding scholar of early Church Fathers of his generation
Traced the development of dogma: sense of history & change
Saw this development as progressive abandonment of pristine early faith: from teachings of Jesus to teachings about Christ
His What Is Christianity? (1900): classic exposition of liberal Protestantism
 Must peel away the husk to get to the real kernel of gospel
 Ethical truths preached by Jesus: fatherhood of God, brotherhood of humanity, infinite value of human soul
Greek philosophy & metaphysics of councils as corruption of original “pure” message of gospel: ethical emphasis like
Ritschl
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Relationships between the Synoptic Gospels (Mt, Mk, Lk)
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Direction of Liberal Protestantism in late 19th C.
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Long tradition of order of composition as Mt then Mk then Lk
1789: J.J. Griesbach arranges these gospels in a “synopsis”
 Mk as conflation of Mt & Lk
1835: K. Lachmann proposes Mark as earliest Gospel
 Mt & Mk used Mk as main source
1838: C.H. Weisse builds on Lachmann’s theory
 Posits early “sayings source” common to Mt & Lk (later called “Q”)
By 1900 many scholars held “Two-Source Theory” for Synoptic gospels
 Mk written first circa 65-70 AD
 Mt & Lk, writing independently in 80’s, used Mk & “Q”
Emphasis on God’s love, rejection of divine justice & wrath
 Characteristic of liberal Protestant thought
 Sense of God’s transcendence lost: God who questions all human activity
 World War I would call this into question
Sin and grace were significantly reduced in importance
 Sin seen essentially as ignorance, grace as general awareness of God’s love
Best way to find the “essence” of Christianity is through study of history
 Quest for “the historical Jesus”: development of Scriptures & Church
 Must “peel away” the encrustations of history to get to “pure gospel”
Emphasis on morality as center of religion: social gospel
 Tended to equate this with contemporary culture
 “Historical Jesus” looks like 19th century bourgeois German intellectual
Early 20th century questioning of liberal Protestant Biblical method
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W. Wrede (1859-1906): his classic work on Mk, The Messianic Secret (1901)
 Even this earliest Gospel was profound theological interpretation of the meaning of Jesus
 Liberalism was confident it could use Mk to construct accurate life of Jesus
 Wrede held that historical Jesus never made claim to be Messiah
 Only after the resurrection did disciples realize he was the Christ
 So they read back messiahship into account of Jesus’ earthly ministry
 Created “messianic secret” to explain how his messiahship was unknown to them prior to his death
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Albert Schweitzer (1875-1965): Biblical expert and humanitarian
 1906: The Quest of the Historical Jesus
 Survey of the life-of-Jesus research from Reimarus to Wrede
 Incisive critique of the liberal portrait of Jesus: “scholars looked into a deep well and saw their own reflection”
 Schweitzer stressed the apocalyptic & eschatological essence of Jesus
 He was not essentially the ethical teacher of the liberal “lives”
 He was a noble but deluded fanatic convinced that he was the Messiah
 Preached apocalyptic message of imminent end of world and went to his death to bring it about
 In pointing out the apocalyptic background of Jesus, Schweitzer sounded the death knell of the liberal quest for the
historical Jesus
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