Gottlieb Christoph Adolf von Harless
Adolf Gottlieb Christoph Harless of (* November 21, 1806 in Nuremberg, † September 5, 1879 in Munich) was a German Protestant theologian and one of the founders of the so-called Erlangen school.
Life
Harless was born the son of a wealthy merchant and shaped by the parents in the usual moderate rationalist direction. At age 16, he graduated from high school and wanted to be a musician, but while his parents objected.
So Harless studied, but for which theology and especially the pulpit were excluded from 1823 in Erlangen, philosophy and law, but then changed her, allegedly after a snide remark Ludwig Döderleins, but to theology. Here he was especially Georg Benedikt Winer and then also on the theology also influenced by the personality August Tholuck. Of great importance for Harless also have the thoughts Georg WF Hegel, Friedrich Schelling, and Baruch Spinoza. With baseline, Harless has been a member of the Erlanger fraternity.
From 1826 to 1828 Harless was then at the University of Halle, where he also belonged to the fraternity. Apparently he fell asleep at that time rarely more than three hours to the history of theology to appropriate the problem of freedom and hereafter to distinguish with a sharpened view critical theology of fashionable speculation. In 1828 he then joined as a lecturer in philosophy back to Erlangen, 1829, he was Associate Professor of Systematic Theology and 1833 associate professor of New Testament.
1834 appeared the Commentary on the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians in the application of the methods ( the grammatical precision) and Winer ( altkirchlicher involvement in design tradition ) Tholuck. Even here Harless came to his experience theological approach, the forerunner in thinking Theodor Lehmus ' and Claus Harms ' had. In addition to the work of Johann Georg Hamann from afar also Christian Krafft, ( the associate since 1818 professor in Erlangen was ) now began and Karl Georg influence ( who worked as a professor of natural history at precisely that university from 1827) ' Thinking Harless Raumer.
1836 Harless was then appointed Professor of Systematic Theology. During this time, in addition to Georg Benedikt Winer and those mentioned above also Gottfried Thomasius, Isaac Rust (1796-1862), Veit Engelhardt, among others in Erlangen. As Extraordinarien also Philipp ( 1834 ) and Hermann Olshausen ( 1832 for Winer ) came from Ammon, the son of Christoph Friedrich Ammon, Johann Wilhelm Friedrich courtier at the university. ( further see Bachmann 1905). From 1836 Harless was also university preacher. Then he published the critical editing of the life of Jesus of DF Strauss illuminated by its scientific values , one of the many conflicts of the time with David Strauss. In 1837 he co-founded the Journal of Church and Protestantism ( CICR ), which became a forum for the Erlangen theology. In addition, he published the Theological Encyclopaedia and Methodology, which he, like the Ephesians commentary explicitly turned on church floor: Revelation is Harless here in terms of the theology of experience in faith tangible. If Harless but then wants to objectively in the common faith of the Church witnesses in their confessions, find the subjectivity of faith, yet a close to Hegel's remarks on the subject and the substance is obvious.
His polemical confrontation with the Society of Jesus, Jesuits to fear ( in: CICR , 93 ff and 101 ff), led Harless in 1838 to the brink of prosecution. In 1839 he then moved as a Member of the University of Erlangen in the Munich parliament. The radically negative attitude in the so-called squat dispute led to heated controversies that were out on the side of the young Catholicism mainly by Ignaz von Dollinger and Joseph von Gorres. As a result of the dispute Interior Minister Charles Abel then refused the appeal Harless ' to Erlanger ( Pro ) Rector ( the principal was formally the king himself ) from criminal and offset Harless 1845 consistory to Bayreuth.
Harless was the before, by accepting in 1845 a call to Leipzig. The appeal was, however, enforced against the will of the faculty from the Saxon minister of worship and public instruction of Edward Wietersheim. Here he established a now Dependence of Erlangen theology, which should continue his colleagues Karl Friedrich August Kahnis, Franz Delitzsch and Christoph Ernst Luthardt. Harless ' students in the true sense were here Reinhold Frank and Gerhard Zezschwitsch ( the Elder ). Here, he was also leading the way in the Quorum of the Leipzig Mission. 1847 took over Harless also the parish of St. Nicolai. In the March Revolution of 1848/1849 he organized military resistance in Leipzig and made his name as the third (or according to other sources the fifth ) place the list for the gallows Scheduled.
After holding several sermons in Dresden (1847 in the Protestant Hofkirche, 1849 in the orphanage church), Harless was 1850 then court preacher (comparable to today's Bishop ) in the Saxon residence. In 1852, he was ( and for the first time not a lawyer ) recalled by King Maximilian II as president of the Upper Consistory to Bavaria. The occasion was the ongoing dispute with Wilhelm Lohe and his followers (especially AFO münchmeyer ). The clashes were sparked by the question of understanding the ministry, from which the community grew after Löhe ( and not vice versa). But that should not only be achieved to produce an elitist Lutheranism, but was ultimately the rejection of any secular ( sovereign ) Church regiment before. Loehe followers went so far as to threaten to tell their story if necessary in the separation advantage.
First attempts at mediation from Erlangen ( courtier, Hofmann, Thomasius ) failed. The latest, proposed that the Protestant clergy of Bavaria to the Lutheran Confessions to bind ( entry of 16 May 1849). In the simmering dispute in now was Harless, friends since the period of study with Wilhelm Lohe, called to be Church President. And last Harless could also integrate Löhe in the state church to (re). The far-reaching consequences of cleavage were avoided.
Specifically, first, the small Reformed confessional minority of Bavaria was released, bringing the Evangelical Lutheran Church was the right of the Rhine. ( The Uniate Church of the Palatinate on the left bank, belonging equally to Bavaria, had become independent in 1849. Since 1847 the development was in line a newly designed " Reformed " Institute in Erlangen, held first August Ebrard ). Loehe views were tolerated, but remained limited in their effectiveness because it could Harless, to draw the attention of the friend on diaconal tasks. Then, in 1853 made at the Bayreuth General Synod of Harless numerous reforms to bring together on a confessional basis since 1803 scattered Kirchenpratiken. Courtier presented with his Bavarian Lutheran liturgy the restoration of the early Christian church service ( that is, the unity of word and sacrament worship) restores. Only against the hymnal reform that sought to use only an outdated version of vorrationalistischen hymnal again, then rose from 1856 in the so-called " agendas storm" nationwide protest.
To the outside could Harless to establish a stand firm and faithful confession against the Prussian Union all-German Lutheranism. 1879 Adolf became Professor Emeritus of Harless and died in the same year after agonizing suffering, loneliness and blindness.
Writings
(Selection)
- Commentary on the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians, 1834 ( digitized )
- Theological Encyclopedia and Methodology from the standpoint of the Protestant Church, 1837 ( digitized )
- The book of the Egyptian mysteries, Munich 1858 ( digitized; Reprints: salt water, ISBN 978-3-8460-2500-0 )