Ferdinand Christian Baur and the History of Early Christianity PDF
Preview Ferdinand Christian Baur and the History of Early Christianity
FERDINAND CHRISTIAN BAUR AND THE HISTORY OF EARLY CHRISTIANITY Ferdinand Christian Baur and the History of Early Christianity Editedby MARTIN BAUSPIESS, CHRISTOF LANDMESSER, AND DAVID LINCICUM Translatedby ROBERT F. BROWN AND PETER C. HODGSON 1 3 GreatClarendonStreet,Oxford,OX26DP, UnitedKingdom OxfordUniversityPressisadepartmentoftheUniversityofOxford. ItfurtherstheUniversity’sobjectiveofexcellenceinresearch,scholarship, andeducationbypublishingworldwide.Oxfordisaregisteredtrademarkof OxfordUniversityPressintheUKandincertainothercountries ©FirstpublishedinGermanbyMohrSiebeckGmbH&Co.KGTübingen2014. ©EnglisheditionOxfordUniversityPress2017 Themoralrightsoftheauthorshavebeenasserted FirstEditionpublishedin2017 Impression:1 Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthispublicationmaybereproduced,storedin aretrievalsystem,ortransmitted,inanyformorbyanymeans,withoutthe priorpermissioninwritingofOxfordUniversityPress,orasexpresslypermitted bylaw,bylicenceorundertermsagreedwiththeappropriatereprographics rightsorganization.Enquiriesconcerningreproductionoutsidethescopeofthe aboveshouldbesenttotheRightsDepartment,OxfordUniversityPress,atthe addressabove Youmustnotcirculatethisworkinanyotherform andyoumustimposethissameconditiononanyacquirer PublishedintheUnitedStatesofAmericabyOxfordUniversityPress 198MadisonAvenue,NewYork,NY10016,UnitedStatesofAmerica BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationData Dataavailable LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2016949495 ISBN 978–0–19–879841–5 PrintedinGreatBritainby ClaysLtd,StIvesplc Preface to the English Edition The German edition of this book, Ferdinand Christian Baur und die Geschichte des frühen Christentums (Tübingen, 2104) contains ten essays writteninGermanandfiveinEnglish.RobertF.BrownandIhavetranslated the German essays and are pleased to offer this collection in an English edition. Not only is it the first significant publication about Baur to appear in English for many years, but also it introduces a new generation of Baur scholarshiptoEnglishreaders.Justoverhalfacenturyagomyownbook,The Formation of Historical Theology: A Study of Ferdinand Christian Baur, was published(NewYork,1966).IntheAnglophoneworld,Baurisstillthemost neglected and least appreciated of the major German theologians of the nineteenth century, and this collection makes an important contribution to correctingthatdeficit.(EmanuelHirschregardedBauras“thegreatestandat the same time the most controversial theologian in German Protestant the- ologysinceSchleiermacher,”andothershaveexpressedsimilarjudgments.)In recent years I have returned to Baur by issuing translations, with Brown, of Baur’s History of Christian Dogma and Lectures on New Testament Theology (Oxford University Press). If time and health permit, more translations will follow. In the present volume the translators have added in square brackets clarifying, or supplementary information to existing footnotes (without dis- turbing the footnote order), as well as a bibliography of works by and about Baur. We appreciate the help provided by the authors themselves. The five chapters written in English (Lincicum, Gerdmar, Morgan, Zachhuber, and Paget) have been reprinted with minor revisions. German personal names using ß in lower case (“Strauß”) are spelled with double-s (“Strauss”) in this translation.Theßisretainedwhenitoccursincommonnouns. PeterC.Hodgson Nashville,Tennesee October2016 Preface to the German Edition Ferdinand Christian Baur (1792–1860) may be regarded as one of the most resolute advocates of the development of historical–critical research in the nineteenthcentury.Baur’sessentialandstillrelevantcontributiontohistorical theologymaybeseeninthefactthatheworkedoutasystematicallyreflective approach to history and was able to transpose this approach into a quite specific methodology. From our perspective today, this methodology is the mainthing,asopposedtotheconcretematerialresultsthatBaurobtainedby his investigations, results for the most part superseded. Baur belongs among those theologians of the nineteenth century who consciously accepted the challenge of viewing Christianity historically, a challenge unavoidable for theology at least since the Enlightenment and one that must be worked through in its own way. Today, at the beginning of the twenty-first century, thehistoricalissuehasincertainrespectsbeenreopened.Ithasbecomeclear that historical–hermeneutical and methodological questions are indeed to be distinguishedfromeachother,butcannotbekeptapart.Bauralreadyhadin view precisely this connection between philosophy of history and method- ology. Thus it is appropriate, within the horizon of contemporary issues, to inquireintoBaur’scontribution. Closer inspection reveals that a reconstruction of Baur’s thinking cannot proceed simply on the basis of the fundamental explanations he provided in thevarious“forewords”tohisindividualpublications.ForBaurdevelopedhis conceptions through his concrete labors on historical details. This way of working can thoroughly complicate access to Baur’s ideas. Whoever wants to track down his thinking must work through lengthy and also frequently long-windedinvestigations.Uptonowtherehavebeenawealthofsurveysof Baur’sideas.Incontrast,thecontributionoftheessaysinthisvolumeconsists inilluminatingBaur’sthinkingfromdiverseaspectsand,bydoingso,inaug- urating, for specific fields of research, quite concrete approaches for the reconstruction of his investigations. We are sometimes reminded, implicitly orexplicitly,ofcontemporary questions,but theyarealways subordinatedto theportrayalofBaur’sviewofhismaterial.Sothisvolumeofessaysoffersin itsmultiplicityvariouspossibilitiesforbecomingengagedwithBaur,andfrom these possibilities readers can themselves ask how Baur might contribute to contemporarydiscussions. EventhoughBaur,from1827on,wasprofessionallyresponsibleforchurch history and history of dogma as a whole, many of his contributions were concentratedintheareaofearlyChristianityandtheNewTestament.Mostof the essays in this volume are focused on this area of study. But the thematic viii PrefacetotheGermanEdition multiplicity of Baur’s work justifies giving voice to systematic and practical theologians, who from their perspective illuminate another aspect of Baur’s thinking in addition to that provided by scholars of the New Testament and churchhistory. Ferdinand Christian Baur developed his thought by connecting it to, and demarcating it from, specific conceptual perspectives. The first part of the volume focuses on three such constellations: Ulrich Köpf illuminates once again the many-faceted relationship between Baur and his student from Blaubeuren days, David Friedrich Strauss (1808–74). It is clear that, in add- itiontosubstantivedifferences,thepersonalrelationshipbetweenthetwowas not unproblematic,as becomesevident fromthevarious waysinwhich Baur undertook to articulate his relationship to Strauss. Notger Slenczka recalls Baur’s theological controversy with Johann Adam Möhler (1796–1838), against the background of how the Protestant principle was understood at thattime,throughathoroughexplorationoftheecclesiologicalimplicationsof theProtestantandCatholicpositions.MartinWendtepresentsBaurasultim- ately a “historically informed idealist of a distinctive kind” and poses the questionabouttheconnectionsofBaur’sthinkingtoidealism,andinparticu- lartothephilosophyofGeorgWilhelmFriedrichHegel(1770–1831). ThemajorpartofthevolumeisconcernedwiththereconstructionofBaur’s contributionstospecificfieldsofresearch.DavidLincicuminvestigatesBaur’s conception of the “Introduction” to the study of the New Testament (Einlei- tungswissenschaft)asa“critiqueofthecanon,”and,indialoguewithBaur,offers some reflections on the contemporary state of discussion of New Testament Introductions. Anders Gerdmar subjects Baur’s controversialreconstructionof the early Christian movement to a thorough examination, by indicating the extenttowhichhistheorydependsonanassumeddivisionbetweenJudaism andHellenismandonatendentiousreadingof“Hebrews”and“Hellenists”in theActsoftheApostles.Inhiscontribution,VolkerHenningDrecollturnsto Baur’sportrayalofGnosticismandputsitintothecontextofthephilosophyof religioncurrentinBaur’sday.Herethephilosophicalandhistorical–theoretical implications of Baur’s historical labors become clear from his reflections on a concrete phenomenon.Christof Landmesser reconstructs Baur’s interpretation of Paul against the background of his methodologically reflective historical– critical labors on the New Testament texts. A discernible pattern in these labors is that Baur continually links the historical and exegetical details with interests oriented to his own time. Martin Bauspiess provides a survey of Baur’sviewoftheSynopticGospelsand,indoingso,showshowBaurportrays the process of development of the Synoptic tradition. The claim Baur makes on behalf of his historical work is seen here in his effort, in dealing with the originoftheSynoptictradition,totracethe“essenceofprimitiveChristianity” to the historical Jesus himself. Jörg Frey engages with Baur as a Johannine scholarandpresentshiscontributiontothehistoryofresearchontheGospel PrefacetotheGermanEdition ix of John. Here we are reminded of the question as to the extent to which Baur’s systematic thinking does justice to the historical details. Robert Morgan sets forth Baur’s theology of the New Testament as a historical– critical reconstruction, one having as its basis the ethical imprint of Jesus’ religion, and, at the same time intending to express an enduring religious truth that is to be understood against the background of Baur’s philosophy ofhistory.StefanAlkieroffers“historical–theologicalremarksonFerdinand Christian Baur’s critique of miracle.” In his engagement with Baur, Alkier substantiates his call for a “more complex understanding of reality,” as compared to the conceptual systems held by naturalism and supernatural- ism. Because he considers Baur in the context of European historicism, JohannesZachhuberproposesawayofreadingBaur’sDiechristlicheGnosis that points to the tensions in Baur’s thinking between his insistence on the objectivity of history on the one hand, and a covert historical relativism on the other hand. The final part of the book illuminates some of the effects of Baur’s work. James Carleton Paget offers an important survey of the history of Baur’s reception in Great Britain, in which he shows that indeed Baur sometimes had British sympathizers, but for the most part was received critically, if not always fairly. Daniel Geese inquires into the similarities between Baur and AdolfvonHarnack(1851–1930),whofurtheredinhisowntimetheresearch begunby Bauronthehistoryof dogma. Thereconstruction alsomakesclear how differently Baur and Harnack undertook their quest for an “essence” of Christianity.BirgitWeyelbringsintoplayafurtherfacetofhisworkwithher inquiry into Baur’s relationship to practical theology. She shows how Baur’s wayofreconstructinghistorycouldhaveprovidedtheimpulseforunearthing “religionlivedconcretely”initshistoricalcontextatagiventime. This volume offers a many-faceted picture of Ferdinand Christian Baur’s thinking,whichcanstimulateinnumerouswaysthecontemporarydiscussion ofissues,andwhichsimultaneouslyanimatesanengagementwithBaureven today. Contemporary reflections on the historical–critical method and its contribution to the understanding of early Christianity and the texts of the NewTestament,whicharefoundationalfortheChristiantradition,shouldnot simplyignoreBaur’sinitiativesiftheydonotwishtofallshortofthestandard setbyhisreflections. Theeditorsexpressheartfeltthankstotheauthorsofthevolumewhohave becomeinvolvedinthisproject.AspecialthanksgoestoProfessorJörgFrey, who from the beginning supported the idea of a volume of essays on Ferdi- nand Christian Baur, and recommended its publication in the series “Wis- senschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament.” We also thank Dr. Henning Ziebritzki of Verlag Mohr Siebeck who welcomed the project and guidedit;andMr.MatthiasSpitzner,whotookcareofpublishingdetailsand prepared the manuscript for the press. In addition, we thank the research
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