Adolf von Harnack

Adolf von Harnack
Born	Carl Gustav Adolf Harnack 7 May [O.S.25 April] 1851 Dorpat,Kreis Dorpat,Governorate of Livonia,Russian Empire (present-day Tartu,Tartu County,Estonia)
Died	10 June 1930(1930-06-10)(aged 79) Heidelberg,Republic of Baden,Weimar Republic
Other names	Adolf Harnack
Education	University of Dorpat University of Erlangen University of Leipzig
Occupation(s)	theologian and church historian
Notable work	The Essence of Christianity(Das Wesen des Christentums) The History of Dogma The History of Ancient Christian Literature The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries
Spouse	Amalie Thiersch (1858–1937)
Children	7, includingAgnusandErnst
Relatives	Theodosius Harnack(father) Axel(brother) Arvid Harnack(nephew)
Institutions	University of Leipzig(1874—1879) University of Giessen(1879—1886) University of Marburg(1886—1888) University of Berlin(1888—1921)
Notable students	Karl Barth Wilhelm Bousset William Adams Brown Adolf Keller Rudolf Handmann Emanuel Hirsch William Miller Macmillan Arthur Cushman McGiffert Friedrich Loofs Wilhelm Pauck Friedrich Rittelmeyer Carl Schmidt (Coptologist) Nathaniel Schmidt Elisabeth Schmitz Heinrich Scholz Henry Nelson Wieman

Carl Gustav Adolf vonHarnack(bornHarnack;7 May 1851 – 10 June 1930) was aBaltic GermanLutheran theologianand prominentChurch historian.He produced many religious publications from 1873 to 1912 (in which he is sometimes credited asAdolf Harnack). He was ennobled (with the addition of von to his name) in 1914.

Harnack traced the influence ofHellenistic philosophyonearly Christian writingsand called on Christians to question the authenticity of doctrines that arose in theearly Christian church.He rejected the historicity of theGospel of Johnin favor of theSynoptic Gospels,criticized theApostles' Creed,and promoted theSocial Gospel.

In the 19th century,higher criticismflourished in Germany, establishing thehistorical-critical methodas an academic standard forinterpreting the Bibleand understanding thehistorical Jesus(seeTübingen school).Harnack's work is part of a reaction to Tübingen, and represents a reappraisal of tradition.

Besides his theological activities, Harnack was a distinguished organizer of sciences. He played an important role in the foundation of theKaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaftand became its first president.

Biography

He was born atDorpat(today Tartu) inLivonia(then a province ofRussia,now inEstonia) where his father,Theodosius Harnack,held a professorship ofpastoral theology.

He married Amalie Thiersch on 27 December 1879. Their daughterAgnes von Zahn-Harnackbecame an activist in theWomen's movement.

Harnack studied at the localImperial University of Dorpat(1869–72) and at theUniversity of Leipzig,where he took his degree; soon afterwards, in 1874, he began lecturing as aPrivatdozent.These lectures, which dealt with such special subjects asGnosticismand theApocalypse,attracted considerable attention, and in 1876 he was appointedprofessor extraordinarius.In the same year he began the publication, in conjunction withOscar Leopold von GebhardtandTheodor Zahn,of an edition of the works of theApostolic Fathers,Patrum apostolicorum opera,a smaller edition of which appeared in 1877.

In 1879 he was called to theUniversity of Giessenasprofessor ordinariusofchurch history.There he collaborated with Gebhardt inTexte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristlichen Litteratur(1882 sqq.), an irregularperiodical,containing only essays inNew Testamentandpatristicfields. In 1881 he published a work onmonasticism,Das Mönchtum – seine Ideale und seine Geschichte(5th ed., 1900; English translation, 1901), and became joint editor withEmil Schürerof theTheologische Literaturzeitung.

In 1885 he published the first volume of hisLehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte(3rd ed. in three volumes, 1894–1898; English translation in seven volumes, 1894–1899). In this work Harnack traced the rise ofdogma,which he understood as the authoritativedoctrinalsystem of the church and its development from the 4th century down to theProtestant Reformation.He considered that from its earliest origins, Christian faith and Greek philosophy were so closely intermingled that the resultant system included many beliefs and practices that were not authentically Christian. Therefore,Protestantsare not only free, but bound, to criticize it; Protestantism could be understood as a rejection of thisdogmaand a return to the pure faith that characterized the original church. An abridgment of this appeared in 1889 with the titleGrundriss der Dogmengeschichte(3rd ed., 1898).

In 1886 Harnack was called to theUniversity of Marburgand 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. In Berlin, somewhat against his will, he was drawn into a controversy on theApostles' Creed,in which the partisan antagonisms within thePrussian Churchhad found expression. Harnack's view was that the creed contains both too much and too little to be a satisfactory test for candidates forordination;he preferred a briefer declaration of faith which could be rigorously applied to all (cf. hisDas Apostolische Glaubensbekenntnis. Ein geschichtlicher Bericht nebst einer Einleitung und einem Nachwort,1892).

In Berlin, Harnack continued writing. In 1893 he published a history ofearlyChristian literaturedown toEusebius of Caesarea,Geschichte der altkirchlichen Literatur bis Eusebius(part 2 of vol. 5., 1897); and in his popular lectures,Das Wesen des Christentumsappeared in 1900 (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 importantNew Testamentstudies (Beitrage zur Einleitung in das neue Testament,1906 sqq.; Engl. trans.:Luke the Physician,1907;The Sayings of Jesus,1908).

Adolf von Harnack (right) close toKaiser Wilhelm IIon the occasion of the inauguration of a newKaiser-Wilhelm-Institut(1913).

Harnack was one of the most prolific and stimulating of modern critical scholars, and brought up in his "Seminar" a whole generation of teachers who carried his ideas and methods throughout the whole of Germany and beyond.

From 1905 to 1921, Harnack was the General Director of theRoyal Library at Berlin(from 1918 called the Prussian State Library).

Like many liberal professors in Germany, Harnack welcomedWorld War Iin 1914, and signed a public statement endorsing Germany's war-aims (theManifesto of the Ninety-Three). It was this statement, with his teacher Harnack's signature on it, thatKarl Barthcited as a major impetus for his rejection of liberal theology.

Harnack was one of the moving spirits in the foundation, in 1911, of the Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft (KWG), and became its first President. The Society's activities were much constrained by the First World War, but in theWeimar Republicperiod Harnack guided it to be a major vehicle for overcoming the isolation of German academics felt as a result of the war and its aftermath. The society's flagship conference centre in Berlin, theHarnack House,which opened in 1929, was named in his honour. After a long period inU.S. Armyhands afterWorld War IIit has now resumed the role Harnack envisaged, as a centre for international intellectual life in the German capital, under the management of the KWG's successor organisation, theMax Planck Gesellschaft.

Biblical Criticism and Theology

Among the distinctive characteristics of Harnack's work were his insistence on absolute freedom in the study of church history and the New Testament (i.e. there were no taboo areas of research that could not be critically examined); his distrust of speculative theology, whetherorthodoxorliberal;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).

Harnack regarded all four gospels to be "not altogether useless as sources of history", but still, "not written with the simple object of giving the facts as they were; they are books composed for the work of evangelisation."

Harnack's suggested view on Biblical miracles was nuanced, and distinguished between certain types thusly:

"In the fourth place, and lastly, although the order of Nature be inviolable, we are not yet by any means acquainted with all the forces working in it and acting reciprocally with other forces. Our acquaintance even with the forces inherent in matter, and with the field of their action, is incomplete; while of psychic forces we know very much less. We see that a strong will and a firm faith exert an influence upon the life of the body, and produce phenomena which strike us as marvellous. Who is there up to now that has set any sure bounds to the province of the possible and the actual? No one. Who can say how far the influence of soul upon soul and of soul upon body reaches? No one. Who can still maintain that any extraordinary phenomenon that may appear in this domain is entifely based on error and delusion? Miracles, it is true, do not happen; but of the marvellous and the inexplicable there is plenty. In our present state of knowledge we have become more careful, more hesitating in our judgment, in regard to the stories of the miraculous which we have received from antiquity. That the earth in its course stood still; that a she-ass spoke; that a storm was quieted by a word, we do not believe, and we shall never again believe; but that the lame walked, the blind saw, and the deaf heard, will not be so summarily dismissed as an illusion."

Bibliography

• Kurt Nowak et al., (eds.),Adolf von Harnack. Christentum, Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft,Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2003,ISBN3-525-35854-7is the best recent assessment of Harnack and his impact from a variety of perspectives.

Selected works

• Harnack, Adolf (1904).The Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries.Vol. 1. New York: Putnam's Sons.
• Harnack, Adolf (1905).The Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries.Vol. 2. New York: Putnam's Sons.

See also

• Harnack medal

Further reading

• Glick, G. Wayne. "Nineteenth Century Theological and Cultural Influences on Adolph Harnack.Church History(1959) 28#2 157-182
• Pauck, Wilhelm.Harnack and Troeltsch: Two historical theologians(Wipf and Stock Publishers, 2015)

External links

• Works by or about Adolf von Harnackat theInternet Archive
• Harnack-Forum (German Website)
• Harnack, Adolf von,Works,CCEL.
• Harnack, Adolf von (1924) [1902].The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries.U. Penn. Archived fromthe originalon 2 November 2012.
• Adolf von Harnackin theGerman National Librarycatalogue
• Works by Adolf von HarnackatProject Gutenberg
• Adolf von Harnackat theMathematics Genealogy Project
• Newspaper clippings about Adolf von Harnackin the20th Century Press Archivesof theZBW