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Group of German Protestant theologians in the 1890s
The
history of religions school
(German:
Religionsgeschichtliche Schule
) is a term applied to a group of German
Protestant theologians
associated with the
University of Gottingen
in the 1890s.
[note 1]
Ideas
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The
Religionsgeschichtliche Schule
used the methodologies of
higher criticism
,
[web 1]
a branch of criticism that investigates the origins of ancient texts in order to understand "the world behind the text."
It compared Christianity to other religions, regarding it as one religion among others and rejecting its claims to absolute truth, and demonstrating that it shares characteristics with other religions.
[web 1]
It argued that Christianity was not simply the continuation of the Old Testament, but syncretistic, and was rooted in and influenced by Hellenistic Judaism (Philo) and Hellenistic religions like the mystery cults and
Gnosticism
.
[web 2]
Influence
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The school initiated new areas of research into Biblical history and textual analysis.
Members
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The circle included
Bernhard Duhm
(1873),
Albert Eichhorn
(1856?1926; 1886),
Hermann Gunkel
(1888),
Johannes Weiss
(1888),
Wilhelm Bousset
(1890),
Alfred Rahlfs
(1891),
Ernst Troeltsch
(1891),
William Wrede
(1891),
Heinrich Hackmann
(1893), and later
Rudolf Otto
(1898),
Hugo Gressmann
(1902) and
Wilhelm Heitmuller
(1902). Related were
Carl Mirbt
(1888),
Carl Clemen
(1892),
Heinrich Weinel
(1899), and in his early years
Paul Wernle
(1897).
Rudolf Bultmann
(1884?1976) may be considered as a third-generation member of this school.
[web 2]
See also
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Notes
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- ^
Baird: "A new approach to the study of the NT was advanced by the "history of religions" school (religionsgeschichtliche Schule)". It was a school without a teacher and without pupils."
References
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Sources
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- Printed sources
- Baird, William (2002),
History of New Testament Research: From Jonathan Edwards to Rudolf Bultmann
, Ausgburg Fortress
- Kurtz, Paul Michael.
Kaiser, Christ, and Canaan: The Religion of Israel in Protestant Germany, 1871?1918.
Forschungen zum Alten Testament I/122. Tubingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2018.
- Rudolph, Kurt (1987),
"Religionsgeschichtliche Schule"
, in Gale, Thomson (ed.),
Encyclopedia of Religion
- Soulen, Richard N. (2001),
Handbook of biblical criticism
(3rd ed., rev. and expanded ed.), Louisville, Ky.: Westminster John Knox Press,
ISBN
0-664-22314-1
- Web-sources
External links
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