Adolf Von Harnack
(Dorpat, 1851-Heidelberg, 1930) German Protestant historian and theologian, prestigious representative of liberal Protestantism.He began studying under the guidance of his father, a professor of theology.Entered the University of Leipzig, he graduated from it and later taught in the same Church History, as a free professor in 1873 and later supernumerary.From the beginning he was influenced by A.Ritschl and his historicist theology.
Moved in 1879 to Giessen and in 1886 to Marburg, under such influences he began the publication of the important Manual of the history of dogmas , which, in addition to confirming his merits as a historian, led him to be recognized as the head of liberal Protestantism.The success of the work, however, attracted the hostility of the authorities of the Prussian Church, who prevented his return to Leipzig; However, thanks to Bismarck's support, he was able to obtain, two years later, the chair of the History of Christianity at the University of Berlin, where he remained until 1921.
Master of strong attraction, brilliant writer and prodigious publicist fecundity (in terms of volume his work does not admit possible comparison in the field of historical-religious studies), Adolf Von Harnack was involved in famous controversies (those maintained on the evangelical substance of the Symbol of the Apostles and on the essence of the Christianity); but he stands out in a singular way as the most influential guide of the evangelical-Lutheran spirituality in the transition period from the last century to the present.
New Erasmus, was not alien to any of the cultural, pedagogical, political movements and social issues of your country.Naturally, he received all sorts of awards: member in 1890 and then president of the Preussische Akademie der Wissenschaften, director since 1905 of the Berlin Staatsbibliothek and president of the Kaiser-Wilhelm Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der Wissenschaften, he was finally elevated to the noble category (1914).
He acted as director and collaborator in editions and magazines of great importance; His most notable works are Das apostolische Glaubensbekenntnis (1892), Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur bis Eusebius (1893-94, 3 vols.), Das Wesen desistentums (1900, Essence of Christianity ) and Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums in drei ersten Jahrhunderten (1902).He devoted the last years of his life to the study of Marcion ( Marcion, the gospel of the foreign God ) and, above all, that of the New Testament (in 1931 three vols of Studien zur Geschichte des.NT und der alten Kirche ).
Harnack focused his exegetical studies on determining the primitive core of the Gospel in order to free it from all that it had lost from its original force, or it would have been added to it from the outside in the course of history.For Harnack, Jesus was mere man; He did not perform real miracles, since, understood as an infringement of the natural order, they are not possible.Jesus' preaching was essentially dogmatic, and in no way disciplinary; and the church, as an external hierarchical-monarchical society, is completely alien to the thought of Jesus.His ideas are largely exposed in his book on Marcion, whom he tries to vindicate against the negative judgment with which he has been treated, seeing in his anti-legalism and anti-Judaism a precursor of Luther.
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