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ALBRECHT RITSCHL (1822-1889)

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 368 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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ALBRECHT See also:

RITSCHL (1822-1889)  , See also:German theologian, was See also:born at See also:Berlin on the 25th of See also:March 1822 . His See also:father, Georg Karl See also:Benjamin See also:Ritschl (1783-1858), became in 1810 pastor at the See also:church of St See also:Mary in Berlin, and from 1827 to 1854 was See also:general See also:superintendent and evangelical See also:bishop of See also:Pomerania . Albrecht Ritschl studied at See also:Bonn, See also:Halle, See also:Heidelberg and See also:Tubingen . At Halle he came under Hegelian influences through the teaching of See also:Julius Schaller (1810-1868) and J . H . See also:Erdmann (b . 1805) . In 1845 he was entirely captivated by the Tubingen school, and in his See also:work This Evangelium Marcions and das kanonische Evangelium See also:des Lukas, published in 1846, he. appears as a See also:disciple of F . C . See also:Baur . This did not last See also:long with him, however, for the second edition (1857) of his most important work, on the origin of the old See also:Catholic Church (See also:Die Entstehung der alt-kathol . Kirche), shows considerable divergence from the first edition (185o), and reveals an entire emancipation from F .

C . Baur's method . Ritschl was See also:

professor of See also:theology at Bonn (extraordinarius 1852; ordinarius 1859) and See also:Gottingen (1864; Consistorialrath also in 1874), his addresses on See also:religion delivered at the latter university showing the impression made upon his mind by his enthusiastic studies of See also:Kant and See also:Schleiermacher . Finally, in 1864, came the See also:influence of See also:Rudolf See also:Lotze . He wrote a large work on the See also:Christian See also:doctrine of See also:justification and See also:atonement, Die Christliche Lehre von der Rechtfertigung and Versohnung, published during the years 187o-74, and in 188o-86 a See also:history of See also:pietism (Die Geschichte des Pietismus) . His See also:system of theology is contained in the former . He died at Gottingen on the zoth of March 1889 . His son, See also:OTTO RITSCHL (b . 186o), after studying at Gottingen, Bonn and See also:Giessen, became professor at See also:Kiel (extraordinarius) in 1889 and afterwards at Bonn (extraordinarius 1894; ordinarius 1897) . He has published, amongst other See also:works, Schleiermachers Stellung zum Christentum in semen Reden caber die Religion (1888), and a See also:Life of his father (2bbols., 1829-96) . Ritschl claims to carry on the work of See also:Luther and Schleiermacher, especially in See also:ridding faith of the tyranny of scholastic See also:philosophy . His system shows the influence of Kant's destructive See also:criticism of the claims of Pure See also:Reason, recognition of the value of morally conditioned knowledge, and doctrine of the See also:kingdom of ends; of Schleiermacher's See also:historical treatment of See also:Christianity, regulative use of the See also:idea of religious fellowship, emphasis on the importance of religious feeling; and of Lotze's theory of knowledge and treatment of See also:personality .

Ritschl's work made a profound impression on German thought and gave a new confidence to German theology, while at the same See also:

time it provoked a See also:storm of hostile criticism: his school has grown with remarkable rapidity . This is perhaps mainly due to the bold religious See also:positivism with which he assumes that spiritual experience is real and that faith has not only a legitimate but even a See also:paramount claim to provide the highest See also:interpretation of the See also:world . The life of See also:trust in See also:God is a fact, not so much to be explained as to explain everything else . Ritschl's standpoint is not that of the individual subject . The See also:objective ground on which he bases his system is the religious experience of the Christian community . The " immediate See also:object of theological knowledge is the faith of the community," and from this See also:positive religious datum theology constructs a " See also:total view of the world and human life." Thus the essence of Ritschl's work is systematic theology . Nor does he painfully work up to his See also:master-See also:category, for it is given in the knowledge mystical See also:side of religion, See also:Harnack's criticism is very different from 1 Ritschl's arbitrary exegesis . They are See also:united on the value of faith-1 as opposed to " metaphysic." See A . Ritschl; Die Christliche Lehre von der Rechtfertigung and Versohnung (3rd ed., 1889) ; Unterricht in der Christlichen Lehre (very many See also:editions); and Theologie und Metaphysik (2nd ed., 1887), give his See also:main position . Many historical and other works besides.—E . See also:Bertrand, Une nouvelle conception de la redemption . La Doctrine de la justification et de la reconciliation See also:dens le systeme de Ritschl (1891); H .

Schoen, See also:

Les Origines historiques de la theologie de Ritschl (1893) ; G . Ecke, Die theologische Schiele, A . Ritschl's and die evangelische Kirche, der Gegenwart 11897); See also:James Orr, The Ritschlian Theology and the Evangelical Faith (See also:London 1898) ; and A . E . Garvie, The Ritschlian Theology (See also:Edinburgh 1899), in both of which the bibliography of the See also:movement is given Cf . Otto Pfieiderer, Development of Theology in See also:Germany since Kam (189o) . The German literature on the subject is very large; see of Jesus See also:Christ revealed to the comniunity . : That God is love and that the purpose of His love is the moral organization of humanity in the " Kingdom of God "—this idea, with its immense range of application—is applied in Ritschl's initial datum . From this vantage-ground Ritschl criticizes the use of Aristotelianism and speculative philosophy in scholastic and 'See also:Protestant theology . He holds that such philosophy is too shallow for theology . Hegelianism attempts to squeeze all life into • the categories of See also:logic: Aristotelianism deals with " things in general ' and ignores the See also:radical distinction between nature and spirit . Neither Hegelianism nor Aristotelianism is " vital enough to See also:sound the depths of religious life .

Phoenix-squares

Neither conceives " God " as correlative to human " trust " (cf . Theologie and Metaphysik, esp. p, 8 seq.) . But Ritschl's recoil carries him so far that he is See also:

left alone with merely " See also:practical " experience . " Faith " knows God in His active relation to the "kingdom," but not at all as " self-existent." His See also:limitation of theological knowledge to the See also:bounds of human need might, if logically pressed, run perilously near phenomenalism; and his See also:epistemology (" we only know things in their activities ") does not See also:cover this weakness . In seeking ultimate reality in the circle of " active conscious sensation," he rules out all " See also:meta-physic." Indeed, much that is See also:part of normal Christian faith—e.g. the Eternity of the Son—is passed over as beyond the range of his method . Ritschl's theory of " value-judgments " (Werthurtheile) illustrates this See also:form of See also:agnosticism . Religious judgments of value determine See also:objects according to their bearing on our moral and spiritual welfare . They imply a lively sense of radical human need . This sort of knowledge stands quite apart from that produced by theoretic " and " disinterested " judgments . The former moves in a world of " values," and See also:judges things as they are related to our " fundamental self-feeling . ' The latter moves in a world of cause and effect . (N.B .

Ritschl appears to confine Metaphysic to the category of Causality.) The theory as formulated has such See also:

grave ambiguities, that his theology, which, as we, have seen, is wholly based on uncompromising religious See also:realism, has actually been charged with individualistic See also:subjectivism . If Ritschl had clearly shown that judgments of value enfold and transform other types of knowledge, just as the " spiritual See also:man " includes and trans-figures but does not annihilate the " natural man," then within the See also:compass of this spiritually conditioned knowledge all other know-ledge would be seen to have a See also:function and a See also:home . The theory of value-judgments is part too of his ultra-practical tendency: both " metaphysic " and " See also:mysticism " are ruthlessly condemned . Faith-knowledge appears to be wrenched from its See also:bearings and suspended in See also:mid-ocean . Perhaps if he had lived to see the progress of will-See also:psychology he might have welcomed the See also:hope of a more spiritual philosophy . A few instances will illustrate Ritschl's positive systematic theology . The conception of God as Father is given to the community in See also:Revelation .. He must be regarded in His active relationship to the " kingdom," as spiritual personality revealed in spiritual purposiveness . His " Love " is His will as directed towards the realization of His purpose in the kingdom . His "Righteousness " is His fidelity to this purpose . With God as " First Cause " or Moral Legislator" theology has no concern; nor is it interested in the " speculative " problems indicated by the traditional doctrine of the Trinity . Natural theology " has no value See also:save where it leans on faith .

Again, Christ has for the religious life of the community the unique value of Founder and Redeemer . He is the perfect Revelation of God and the Exemplar of true religion . His work in See also:

founding the kingdom was a See also:personal vocation, the spirit of which He communicates to believers, " thus, as exalted See also:king," sustaining the life of His Kingdom . His Resurrection is a necessary part of Christian belief (G . Ecke, pp . 198-99) . " Divinity " is a predicate applied by faith to Jesus in His founding and redeeming activity . We See also:note here that though Ritschl gives Jesus a unique and unapproachable position in His active relation to the kingdom, he declines to rise above this relative teaching . The " Two Nature " problem and the eternal relation of the Son to the Father have no bearing on experience, and therefore stand outside the range of theology . once more, in the doctrine of See also:sin and redemption, the governing idea is God's fatherly purpose for His See also:family . Sin is the contra-diction of that purpose, and See also:guilt is See also:alienation from the family . Redemption, justification, regeneration, See also:adoption, forgiveness, reconciliation all mean the same thing—the restoration of the broken family relationship .

All depends on the See also:

Mediation of Christ, who maintained the filial relationship even to His See also:death, and communicates it to the brotherhood of believers . Everything is defined by the idea of the family . The whole apparatus of " forensic ideas (See also:law, See also:punishment, See also:satisfaction, &c.) is summarily rejected as See also:foreign to God's purpose of love..' Ritschl is so faithful to the standpoint of the religious community, that he has nothing definite to say on many inevitable. questions, such as the relation of God to See also:pagan races . His school, in which J . G . W . Herrmann, Julius Kaftan and Adolf Harnack are the See also:chief names, diverges from his teaching in many directions; e.g . Kaftan appreciates thearticle in See also:Herzog-Hauck, vol. xvii .

End of Article: ALBRECHT RITSCHL (1822-1889)
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