Adolf von Harnack
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Adolf von Harnack, German theologian |
Adolf von Harnack (
May 7,
1851–
June 10,
1930), was a
German theologian and science administrator.
He was born at
Tartu (then Dorpat) in
Livonia (then a province of
Russia, now in
Estonia) where his father,
Theodosius Harnack, held a professorship of
pastoral theology.
Harnack studied at the local
University of Tartu (
1869–
1872) and at the
University of Leipzig, where he took his degree; and soon afterwards (
1874) began lecturing as a
Privatdozent. These lectures, which dealt with such special subjects as
Gnosticism and the
Apocalypse, attracted considerable attention, and in
1876 he was appointed
professor extraordinarius. In the same year he began the publication, in conjunction with
Oscar Leopold von Gebhardt and
Theodor Zahn, of an edition of the works of the
Apostolic Fathers,
Patrum apostolicorum opera, a smaller edition of which appeared in
1877.
Three years later he was called to the
University of Giessen as
professor ordinarius of
church history. There he collaborated with Gebhardt in
Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur (1882 sqq.), an irregular
periodical, containing only essays in
New Testament and
patristic fields. In
1881 he published a work on
monasticism,
Das Mönchtum — seine Ideale und seine Geschichte (5th ed., 1900; English translation, 1901), and became joint editor with
Emil Schürer of the
Theologische Literaturzeitung.
In
1885 he published the first volume of his
Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte (3rd ed. in three volumes, 1894–1898; English translation in seven volumes, 1894–1899). In this work Harnack traced the rise of
dogma, by which he understands the authoritative
doctrinal system of the
4th century and its development down to the
Protestant Reformation. He considered that in its earliest origins
Christian faith and Greek
philosophy were so closely intermingled that much that is not essential to Christianity found its way into the resultant system. Therefore
Protestants are not only free, but bound, to criticize it; for a Protestant,
dogma cannot be said to exist. An abridgment of this appeared in
1889 with the title
Grundriss der Dogmengeschichte (3rd ed., 1898).
In
1886 Harnack was called to the
University of Marburg; and in
1888, in spite of violent opposition from the conservative church authorities, to Berlin. In
1890 he became a member of the Academy of Sciences. At Berlin, somewhat against his will, he was drawn into a controversy on the
Apostles' Creed, in which the party antagonisms within the
Prussian Church had found expression. Harnack's view is that the creed contains both too much and too little to be a satisfactory test for candidates for
ordination; he preferred a briefer symbol which could be rigorously exacted from all (cf. his
Das Apostolische Glaubensbekenntnis. Ein geschichtlicher Bericht nebst einer Einleitung und einem Nachwort, 1892).
In
Berlin, Harnack continued writing. In
1893 he published a history of
early Christian literature down to
Eusebius of Caesarea,
Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur bis Eusebius (part 2 of vol. 5., 1897); and in
1900 appeared his popular lectures,
Das Wesen des Christentums (5th ed., 1901; English translation,
What is Christianity? 1901). One of his later historical works,
Die Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten (1902; English translation,
The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries, in two volumes, 1904-1905), was followed by some important
New Testament studies (
Beitrage zur Einleitung in das neue Testament, 1906 sqq.; Engl. trans.:
Luke the Physician, 1907;
The Sayings of Jesus, 1908).
Harnack was one of the most prolific and stimulating of modern critical scholars, and trained up in his "Seminar" a whole generation of teachers, who carried his ideas and methods throughout the whole of
Germany and beyond. His distinctive characteristics were his claim for absolute freedom in the study of church history and the New Testament; his distrust of
speculative theology, whether
orthodox or
liberal; and his interest in practical Christianity as a religious life and not a system of theology. Some of his addresses on social matters were published under the heading "Essays on the Social Gospel" (1907).
Like many ostensibly liberal professors in Germany, Harnack welcomed the
First World War in 1914, and signed a public statement endorsing German war-aims. It was this statement, with his teacher Harnack's signature on it, that
Karl Barth cited as a major impetus for Barth's rejection of liberal theology.
Adolf von Harnack. Christentum, Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft, Kurt Nowak et al., eds., Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2003, ISBN 3525358547 is the best recent assessment of Harnack and his impact from a variety of perspectives.
*
Harnack-Forum (German Website)*
Works by Adolf Harnack at CCEL (English)
