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BAUR, FERDINAND CHRISTIAN (1792-1860)

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Originally appearing in Volume V03, Page 541 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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BAUR, See also:FERDINAND See also:CHRISTIAN (1792-1860) , See also:leader of the See also:Tubingen school of See also:theology, was See also:born at Schmiden, near Canstatt, on the 21st of See also:June 1792. After receiving an earlytraining in the theological See also:seminary at See also:Blaubeuren, he went in 1809 to the university of Tubingen. Here he studied for a See also:time under See also:Ernst See also:Bengel, See also:grandson of the eminent New Testament critic, Johann Albrecht Bengel, and at this See also:early See also:stage in his career he seems to have been under the See also:influence of the old Tubingen school: But at the same time the philosophers Immanuel See also:Fichte and See also:Friedrich See also:Schelling were creating a wide and deep impression. In 1817 Baur returned to the theological seminary at Blaubeuren as See also:professor.. This move marked a turning-point in his See also:life, for he was now able to set to See also:work upon those investigations on which his reputation rests. He had already, in 1817, written a See also:review of G. Kaiser's Biblischc Theologie for Bengel's Archie fiir Theologie (ii. 656); its See also:tone was moderate and conservative. When, a few years after. his See also:appointment at Blaubeuren, he published his first important work, Symbolik and Mythologic See also:oder See also:die Naturreligion See also:des Altertums (1824-1825), it became evident that he had made a deeper study of See also:philosophy, and had come under the influence of Schelling and more particularly of Friedrich See also:Schleiermacher. The learning of the work was fully recognized, and in 1826 the author was called to Tubingen as professor of theology. It is with Tubingen that his greatest See also:literary achievements are associated. His earlier publications here treated of See also:mythology and the See also:history of See also:dogma.

Das m¢nichdische Religionssystein appeared in 1831, See also:

Apollonius von Tyana in 1832, Die christliche Gnosis in 1835, and Uber das Christliche See also:im Platonismus oder See also:Socrates and Christus in 1837. As See also:Otto See also:Pfleiderer (Development of Theology, p. 285) observes, " the choice not less than the treatment of these subjects is indicative of the large breadth of view and the insight of the historian into the See also:comparative history of See also:religion." Meantime Baur had exchanged one See also:master in philosophy for another, Schleiermacher for See also:Hegel. In doing so, he had adopted completely the Hegelian philosophy of history. " Without philosophy," he has said, " history is always for me dead and dumb." The See also:change of view is illustrated clearly in the See also:essay, published in the Tiibinger Zeitschrift for 1831, on the See also:Christ-party in the Corinthian See also:Church, Die Christuspartei in der korinthischen Gemeinde, der Gegensatz des paulinischen and petrinischen in der altesten Kirche, der Apostel Petrus in Rom, the trend of which is suggested by the See also:title. Baur contends that St See also:Paul was opposed in See also:Corinth by a Jewish-Christian party which wished to set up its own See also:form of Christian religion instead of his universal See also:Christianity. He finds traces of a keen conflict of parties in the See also:post-apostolic See also:age. The theory is further See also:developed in a later work (1835, the See also:year in which See also:David See also:Strauss' Leben Jesu was published), Uber die sogenannten Pastoralbriefe. In this Baur attempts to prove that the false teachers mentioned in the Epistles to See also:Timothy and See also:Titus are the Gnostics, particularly the Marcionites, of the second See also:century, and consequently that the Epistles were produced in the See also:middle of this century in opposition to See also:Gnosticism. He next proceeded to investigate the Pauline Epistles and the Acts of the Apostles in the same manner, See also:publishing his results in 1845 under the title See also:Paulus, der Apostel Jesu Christi, sein Leben and Wirken, See also:seine Brief e and seine Lehre. In this he contends that only the Epistles to the See also:Galatians, See also:Corinthians and See also:Romans are genuinely Pauline, and that the Paul of Acts is a different See also:person from the Paul of these genuine Epistles, the author being a Paulinist who, with an See also:eye to the different parties in the Church, is at pains to represent See also:Peter as far as possible as a Paulinist and Paul as far as possible as a Petrinist. Thus it becomes clear that Baur is prepared to apply his theory to the whole of the New Testament; in the words of H.

S. See also:

Nash, " he carried a sweeping See also:hypothesis into the examination of the New Testament." Those writings alone he considers genuine in which the conflict between Jewish-Christians and See also:Gentile-Christians is clearly marked. In his Kritische Untersuchungen fiber die kanonischen Evangelien, ihr Verhaltniss zu einander, ihren Charakter and Ursprung (1847) he turns his See also:attention to the Gospels, and here again finds that the authors were conscious of the conflict of parties; the Gospels reveal a mediating or conciliatory tendency (Tendon) on the See also:part of the writers or redactors. The Gospels, in fact, are adaptations -' 5 or redactions of an older See also:Gospel, such as the Gospel of the See also:Hebrews, of Peter, of the Egyptians, or of the See also:Ebionites. The Petrine See also:Matthew bears the closest relationship to this See also:original Gospel (Urevangelium); the Pauline See also:Luke is later and arose independently; See also:Mark represents a still later development; the See also:account in See also:John is idealistic: it " does not possess See also:historical truth, and cannot and does not really See also:lay claim to it." Baur's whole theory indeed starts with the supposition that Christianity was gradually developed out of Judaism. Before it could become a universal religion, it had to struggle with Jewish limitations and to overcome them. The early Christians were Jewish-Christians, to whom Jesus was the See also:Messiah. Paul, on the other See also:hand, represented a See also:breach with Judaism, the See also:Temple, and the See also:Law. Thus there was some antagonism between the Jewish apostles, Peter, See also:James and John and the Gentile apostle Paul, and this struggle continued down to the middle of the 2nd century. In See also:short, the conflict between Petrinism and Paulinism is, as Carl See also:Schwarz puts it, the See also:key to the literature of the 1st and 2nd century. - But Baur was a theologian and historian as well as a Biblical critic;. As early as 1834 he published a strictly theological work, Gegensatz des Kathalicismus and Protestantismus nach den Prinzipien urzd Hauptdogmen der beiden Lehrbegrife, a strong See also:defence of Protestantism on the lines of Schleiermacher's Glaubenslehre, and a vigorous reply to J.

Phoenix-squares

See also:

Mohler's Symbolik (1833). This was followed by his larger histories of dogma, Die christliche Lekre von der Versohnung in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung bis auf die neueste Zeit (1838), Die christliche Lehre von der Dreieinigkeit and Menschwerdung Galles in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung (3 vols., 1841-1843), and the Lehrbuck der, christlichen Dogmengeschiclzte (1847). The value of these See also:works is impaired somewhat by Baur's See also:habit of making the history of dogma conform to the formulae of Hegel's philosophy, a See also:procedure " which only served to obscure the truth and profundity of his conception of history as a true development of the human mind " (Pfleiderer). Baur, however, soon came to attach more importance to See also:personality, and to distinguish more carefully between religion and philosophy. The change is marked in his Epochen der kirchlichen Geschichtschreibung (1852), Das Ckristenthum and die christliche Kirche der drei ersten Jahrhunderte (1853), and Die christliche Kirche von Anfang des vierten bis zum Elide des sechsten Jahrhunderts (1859), works preparatory to his Kirchengeschichte, in which the change of view is specially pronounced. The Kirchengeschichte was published in five volumes during the years 1853-1863, partly by Baur himself, partly by his son, Ferdinand Baur, and his son-in-law, Eduard See also:Zeller, from notes and lectures which the author See also:left behind him. Pfleiderer describes this work, especially the first See also:volume, as " a classic for all time." " Taken as a whole, it is the first thorough and satisfactory See also:attempt to explain the rise of Christianity and the Church on strictly historical lines, i.e. as a natural development of the religious spirit of our See also:race under the combined operation of various human causes " (Development of Theology, p. 288). Baur's lectures on the history of dogma, Ausfiihrlichere Varlesungen fiber die christliche Dogmengeschiclzte, were published later by his son (1865-1868). Baur's views were revolutionary and often extreme; but, whatever may be thought of them, it is admitted that as a critic he, rendered a See also:great service to theological See also:science. " One thing is certain: New Testament study, since his time, has had a different See also:colour " (H. S.

Nash). He has had a number of disciples or followers, who have in many cases modified his positions. A full account of F. C. Baur's labours, and a See also:

complete See also:list of his writings will be found in the See also:article in See also:Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopadie, in which his work is divided into three periods: (i) " Philosophy of Religion," (2) " Biblical See also:criticism," (3) " Church History." See also H. S. Nash, The History of the Higher Criticism of the New Testament (New See also:York, 1901) ; Otto Pfleiderer, The Development of Theology in See also:Germany since See also:Kant (trans., 189o); Carl Schwarz, Zur Gesehichte der neuesten Theologie (See also:Leipzig, 1869) ; R. W. See also:Mackay, The Tubingen School and its Antecedents (1863) ; A. S. See also:Farrar, A See also:Critical History of See also:Free Thought in reference to the Christian Religion (See also:Bampton Lectures, 1862) ; and cf. the article on " The Tubingen Historical School," in Bibliotheca Sacra, vol. xix. No.

73, 1862. (M. A.

End of Article: BAUR, FERDINAND CHRISTIAN (1792-1860)

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