Albrecht Ritschl

Albrecht Ritschl Benjamin ( born March 25, 1822 in Berlin, † March 20, 1889 in Göttingen ) was a Protestant theologian and professor in Bonn and Göttingen.

Life and work

Albrecht Ritschl Benjamin was the son of Georg Carl Benjamin Ritschl, General Superintendent and Bishop of the Province of Pomerania. His ancestors came from the original Bohemian knights Ritschl Hart Bach. He studied from 1839 Protestant Theology in Bonn, Halle, Heidelberg and Tübingen. As a student of Hegel, Ritschl was thrilled (the first book that the young student in 1839 bought in Bonn, was Hegel's logic). Ritschl worked after his studies in the New Tübingen school environment by Ferdinand Christian Baur. In the first edition of his major work, The Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation (1870 ) is a return to Kant unmistakable. For Ritschl now provides Kant " by the incessant exchange of theological directions for the proper appreciation of the basic idea of Christianity the unshakable Maass bar ", where a 3rd edition finally know Ritschl of the philosophy of his Göttingen University colleagues and university friend R. H. Lotze's influence and developed following Lotze's philosophy of value, a theory of religious value judgment, he productively integrated into its essential definition of religion. Religion conveys loud Ritschl the two ways of being human: to be part of nature and can rise as spirit over nature. Religion is the place where people of a supernatural value of their own can make: " The religious world view is set out in its species, that the human mind in some degree from the surrounding phenomena and invading him effects of nature in value is different ".

Ritschl was initially 1846-1852 Associate Professor of Ancient Church History and later associate professor of New Testament in Bonn ( 1852-1864 ). Beginning in 1864, he was until his death professor of dogmatic theology and church and history of dogma in Göttingen. At times, he has been Vice-Rector of the University. One focus of his teachings was the concept of the kingdom of God, which is reflected in the actions of Christians by charity and duty. He pointed out the practical elements of religion and rejected the retaliation righteousness of God in favor of a run in the spirit of Jesus Christ moral life. Only through the latter the kingdom of God can be realized and that the here and now of the world. In this respect he developed his theory of " moral action in the civilian job ": the universal mission of the kingdom of God is elaborated individually by the adaptation of the individual, in so far now " everyone acts morally, by fulfilling the general law in his particular profession or in Combination of those professions that you summarize in his way of life is capable. " Ritschl's commitment to the radical worldliness of the kingdom of God to him much criticism has not entered last through the Religionsgeschichtliche school. Next to him was blamed on an ethical shortening of Christianity because of its emphasis on the practical dimension of the kingdom of God thought. In particular, the Tübingen dogmatists Franz Hermann Reinhold von Frank has repeatedly opposed, claiming that Ritschl's theology would " personal Christian faith [ ... ] the root of life " rip out against Ritschl. Ritschl himself did not accept such pleas. He was to have returned to a balance on the contrary the conviction dogmatics and ethics. In this respect, used the ( now famous ) picture of the ellipse: " [ T] his Christianity is not like a circular line, which would run around a center, but an ellipse, which is dominated by two focal points ".

Ritschl contributed greatly to the renewal of Reformation thought. As part of its Reformation interpretation he rejects the term pair of formal and material principle. The principle of the Reformation, for him is the mediation of subjective certainty of salvation with the objective faith of the Christian community: "In the right expression of the principle of ecclesiastical Reformation Both must be connected in an inseparable interaction, the idea of self- assurance of salvation of the individual believer, which is self-, and rises above all detectable negotiations because it is normalized in Christ, and the thought of the set by God and guaranteed in advance community of believers under Christ. "

Ritschl was from 1874, the head of a school of theologians ( Ritschlians ). These included, inter alia, Wilhelm Herrmann (1846-1922) and Adolf von Harnack ( 1851-1930 ). Ritschl and his school shaped the views in the Protestant theology until the beginning of the 20th century. Reflection on Ritschl's theology in the second half of the 20th century. ( S. Weyer - Menkhoff, J. Richmond, R. Schäfer) is also referred to as " Ritschl - Renaissance". Even in contemporary discussions play central moments of Ritschl's thinking partly an important role: its determination of faith and morals, his entry for the interpretation and the concept of value in the theological debate, to be more specific decline in the theology of the Reformers, its relationship to metaphysics and revelation, his understanding of the church and its situation in the cultural Protestantism.

On the part of Catholic connections he is sometimes seen as opponents.

From 1880 to 1889 Ritschl was extraordinary spiritual member of the national consistory in Hanover.

He lived in Göttingen that he purchased in 1865, at the beginning of the heart Chaussee the city garden opposite situated house, which was later acquired by the fraternity Hannovera as a fraternity house. There now hangs a plaque Göttingen for him.

His son was the liberal Bonn oriented evangelical theology professor Otto Karl Albrecht Ritschl (1860-1944), who published a two-volume biography of his father.

Works

• The formation of the Old Catholic Church. A church and dogma- historical monograph. Adolph Marcus, Bonn 1850 ( 2nd edition 1857) ( Faksimile-Druck. Adamant Media, Boston MA 2005, ISBN 1-4212-4947-2 ), digitized version of the original edition.
• On the relationship of commitment to the church. A vote against the neulutherischen doctrines. Bonn 1854.
• The justification Return of Andreas Osiander. In: Yearbooks for German theology (1857 ), pp. 795-829.
• The Christian doctrine of justification and reconciliation. 3 volumes ( Vol 1: The history of the doctrine Vol 2:. Biblical material to the teachings Vol 3:. , The positive development of the doctrine. ). Marcus, Bonn 1870-1874 ( his main work ).
• Schleiermacher's Speeches on Religion and its aftermath on the Evangelical Church in Germany. Bonn 1874.
• Institutes of the Christian Religion. Marcus, Bonn 1875 ( study edition initiated after the 1st edition of 1875, together with the deviations of the 2nd and 3rd edition and edited by Christine Axe Piscalar. ( = UTB. Theology 2311 ). Mohr Siebeck, Tübingen 2002, ISBN 3-8252 -2311-6 ).
• About the conscience. A lecture. Marcus, Bonn 1876 ( Nachdruck. Edited and with an introductory essay by Klaus H. Fischer. Fischer, Schutter Forest / Baden 2008, ISBN 978-3-928640-87-9 ).
• History of pietism. 3 volumes ( Vol 1: ... in the Reformed Church Vol 2-3:. . ... In the Lutheran Church of the 17th and 18th century division 1-2) Marcus, Bonn 1880-1886 ( Unchanged photomechanical reprint de Gruyter. , Berlin 1966).
• Theology and metaphysics. For communication and defense. Marcus, Bonn 1881 ( Nachdruck. Edited and introduced by Klaus H. Fischer. Fischer, Schutter Forest / Baden 2009, ISBN 978-3-928640-86-2 ).
• Fides implicita. A study on blind faith, knowledge and belief, faith and church. Bonn 1890.