Difference between revisions of "Albrecht Ritschl" - New World Encyclopedia

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Albrecht Ritschl (March 25, 1822 - March 20, 1889) was a German theologian.

Ritschl was for many people the epitome of Protestant liberalism, living at a time when historical criticism of the Bible made great advances and the Christian church had to cope with the problems of industrialism and a potentially revolutionary proletariat. For many years Ritschl was the most renowned theologian in Europe. He established an influential theological movement that exerted serious ecclesiastical influence. Not primarily a preacher or a philosopher, his fame resisted mainly on his abilities as a professor and churchman.

Ritschl awakened in his pupils an intense confidence and joy about their work as preachers. His own religious and moral spirit enabled them to renew their faith in a time deep skepticism about religion. Ritschl stressed moral experience, in contrast to the mystical experience emphasized by Friedrich Schleiermacher, whose teachings Ritschl studied. Where Schleiermacher stressed the worship of God in nature, Ritschl emphasized reforming the world in practical ways.

Biography

Ritschl was born in Berlin. His father, Georg Karl Benjamin Ritschl (1783-1858), became the pastor of the church of St. Mary in Berlin 1810, and from 1827 to 1854 was general superintendent and Evangelical bishop of Pomerania. Albrecht thus grew up in an atmosphere dominated by the spirit of the Lutheran Church, which stressed the centrality of family morality and Reformation spirituality. Fellowship with God, trust in divine providence, patience, and cheerful moral striving were hallmarks of his childhood education.

By the age of 17, Ritschl was urgently committed to a theological vocation. He studied at Bonn, Halle, Heidelberg and Tübingen. At Halle he came under Hegelian influences, especially that of the church historian F.C. Bauer. He wrote on the relationship between the teachings of the heretic Marcion and the Gospel of Luke in 1841, and his most important work of this period is considered to be his book on the origins of the Old Catholic Church in 1850.

Ritschl's greatest impact, however, came as a teacher. He was professor of theology at Bonn from 1852-64, concentrating on New Testament studies and later on systematic theology. He move to the Yniversity of Göttingen from 1864. Here, he attracted a notable group of disciples who themselves went on to became influential teachers, among them Julius Kaftan and Adolf Harnack.

During this time Ritschl wrote a three-volume work on the Christian doctrine of justification and atonement, Die Christliche Lehre von der Rechtfertigung und Versöhnung, published during the years 1870-74. These work contains his basic theological views and is considered a classic of systematic theology. In 1882-86 he wrote a major history of pietism (Die Geschichte des Pietismus).

He died at Göttingen on March 20, 1889 of a heart attack at the age of 66. His son, Otto Ritschl, was also a theologian.

Theology

Ritschl saw himself as carrying on the work of Luther and Schleiermacher, especially in ridding faith of the tyranny of scholastic philosophy. His system shows the influence of Kant's criticism of the claims of Pure Reason and a recognition of the value of morally conditioned knowledge. He rejected theoretical knowledge in favor of practical reason and held that religion must not be reduced to a speculate science. Neither Hegelianism nor Aristotelianism is "vital" enough to sound the depths of religious life. In other words, religion is not about abstract ideas or rigorous intellectual constructs, but about moral imperatives. Value judgments are at the very core of both religion and theology. God's inner nature is beyond human comprehension, but moral reality is not.

Thus, for Ritschl, true Christianity is not about creeds and dogmas such as the attributes of God, the nature of the Trinity, or the definition of the "two natures" of Christ. A new theology must be promulgated dealing with the practical moral realities experienced by Christians: the ethics of the the Kingdom of God. For Ritschl, the goal was a "theology without metaphysics."

Ritschl claimed that God revealed himself in the life and work of Jesus. By calling God "Father," Jesus showed that God is personal and has both love and will who cares for humans as His children. The fulfillment of God's will is the realization of His kingdom, as demonstrated by Jesus in the Lord's prayer. He emphasized that Christians must return to the religion "of" Jesus, not the religion "about" Jesus which evolved after his death. Emphasizing Jesus' moral example rather than his divinity per se, Ritschl denied the doctrine of the Virgin Birth and the Incarnation. Yet, Jesus perfectly revealed God to humans.

Ritschl also criticized the traditional doctrine of original sin. He held that we should not compare our own moral standing to a theoretical ideal of Adam before the Fall, but to the practical example shown by Jesus, the second Adam. Sin, defined as a break in our relationship with God, results not from fallen nature or the influence of the devil, but from ignorance. God does not hate sinners, but we naturally feel fearful an guilty when we violate our consciences and thus feel separate from God.

While mainstream Protestant theology may not go as far as Ritschl did in these ideas, his teaching resulted in many Christian leaders and believers agreeing with the conclusion that salvation is best understood in terms of God's love rather than His justice. In other words, salvation is not primarily a matter of justification (based on law) but reconciliation (base on love).

Ritschl's work made a profound impression on German thought and gave a new confidence to German theology, while at the same time it provoked a storm of hostile criticism. His bold religious positivism showed that spiritual experience, understood as a morally live life, is absolutely real. The life of trust in God is a fact, not so much to be explained as to explain everything else.

The essence of Ritschl's work is systematic theology. Yet, this is not the work of trained theologians alone, for it is easily perceived in the knowledge of the historical Jesus revealed to the community.

References
ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
This article is partly based on the essay on Ritschl in Types of Modern Theology by Young Oon Kim.

Other

In his autobiography, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (1963), Carl Jung wrote that Ritschl's theology "irritated me, especially the comparison with a railway train" (p.91) ISBN 0-679-72395-1.

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@@ Line 10: / Line 10: @@
 By the age of 17, Ritschl was urgently committed to a theological vocation. He studied at [[university of Bonn|Bonn]], [[university of Halle|Halle]], [[university of Heidelberg|Heidelberg]] and [[university of Tübingen|Tübingen]]. At Halle he came under [[Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel|Hegelian]] influences, especially that of the church historian F.C. Bauer. He wrote on the relationship between the teachings of the heretic [[Marcion]] and the [[Gospel of Luke]] in 1841, and his most important work of this period is considered to be his book on the origins of the [[Old Catholic Church]] in 1850.
-Ritschl's greatest impact, however, came as a teacher. He was professor of theology at Bonn from 1852-64, concentrating on New Testament studies and later on systematic theology. He move to the [[university of Göttingen|Yniversity of Göttingen]] from 1864-74. Here, he attracted a notable group of disciples who themselves went on to became influential teachers, among them [[Julius Kaftan]] and [[Adolf Harnack]].
+Ritschl's greatest impact, however, came as a teacher. He was professor of theology at Bonn from 1852-64, concentrating on New Testament studies and later on systematic theology. He move to the [[university of Göttingen|Yniversity of Göttingen]] from 1864. Here, he attracted a notable group of disciples who themselves went on to became influential teachers, among them [[Julius Kaftan]] and [[Adolf Harnack]].
 During this time Ritschl wrote a three-volume work on the Christian doctrine of justification and atonement, ''Die Christliche Lehre von der Rechtfertigung und Versöhnung'', published during the years 1870-74. These work contains his basic theological views and is considered a classic of systematic theology. In 1882-86 he wrote a major history of pietism ''(Die Geschichte des Pietismus)''.
-Ritschl's theology rests on the Kantian theory of knowledge. He rejected theoretical knowledge in favor of practical reason and held that religion must not be reduced to a speculate science. In other words, religion is not about abstract ideas, but moral imperatives. Value judgments are at the very core of both religion and theology. God's inner nature is beyond human comprehension, but moral reality is not.
+He died at [[Göttingen]] on March 20, 1889 of a heart attack at the age of 66. His son, [[Otto Ritschl (theologian)|Otto Ritschl]], was also a theologian.
+==Theology==
+Ritschl saw himself as carrying on the work of [[Martin Luther|Luther]] and [[Schleiermacher]], especially in ridding faith of the tyranny of [[scholastic philosophy]]. His system shows the influence of Kant's criticism of the claims of [[Critique of Pure Reason|Pure Reason]] and a recognition of the value of morally conditioned knowledge. He rejected theoretical knowledge in favor of practical reason and held that religion must not be reduced to a speculate science. Neither Hegelianism nor Aristotelianism is "vital" enough to sound the depths of religious life. In other words, religion is not about abstract ideas or rigorous intellectual constructs, but about moral imperatives. Value judgments are at the very core of both religion and theology. God's inner nature is beyond human comprehension, but moral reality is not.
 Thus, for Ritschl, true Christianity is not about creeds and dogmas such as the attributes of God, the nature of the Trinity, or the definition of the "two natures" of Christ. A new theology must be promulgated dealing with the practical moral realities experienced by Christians: the ethics of the the Kingdom of God. For Ritschl, the goal was a "theology without metaphysics."
@@ Line 24: / Line 27: @@
 While mainstream Protestant theology may not go as far as Ritschl did in these ideas, his teaching resulted in many Christian leaders and believers agreeing with the conclusion that salvation is best understood in terms of God's love rather than His justice. In other words, salvation is not primarily a matter of justification (based on law) but reconciliation (base on love).
-He died at [[Göttingen]] of a heart attack at the age of 66. His son, [[Otto Ritschl (theologian)|Otto Ritschl]], was also a theologian.
+Ritschl's work made a profound impression on German thought and gave a new confidence to German theology, while at the same time it provoked a storm of hostile criticism. His bold religious positivism showed that spiritual experience, understood as a morally live life, is absolutely real. The life of trust in [[God]] is a fact, not so much to ''be'' explained as ''to explain'' everything else.
-==Theology==
-Ritschl saw himself as carrying on the work of [[Martin Luther|Luther]] and [[Schleiermacher]], especially in ridding faith of the tyranny of [[scholastic philosophy]]. His system shows the influence of Kant's criticism of the claims of [[Critique of Pure Reason|Pure Reason]] and a recognition of the value of morally conditioned knowledge. Schleiermacher's historical treatment of Christianity, regulative use of the idea of religious fellowship, emphasis on the importance of religious feeling; and of [[Lotze]]'s theory of knowledge and treatment of personality. Ritschl's work made a profound impression on German thought and gave a new confidence to German theology, while at the same time it provoked a storm of hostile criticism: his school has grown with remarkable rapidity. This is perhaps mainly due to the bold religious positivism with which he assumes that spiritual experience is real and that faith has not only a legitimate but even a paramount claim to provide the highest interpretation of the world. The life of trust in [[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 objective ground on which he bases his system is the religious experience of the Christian community. The "immediate object of theological knowledge is the faith of the community," and from this positive religious datum theology constructs a "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 master-category, for it is given in the knowledge of [[Jesus]] revealed to the community. That God is love and that the purpose of His love is the moral organization I of humanity in the "Kingdom of God" &ndash; 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 [[Protestant]] theology, He holds that such [[philosophy]] is too shallow for theology. Hegelianism attempts to squeeze all life into the categories of [[logic]]: Aristotelianism deals with "things in general" and ignores the radical distinction between nature and spirit. Neither Hegelianism nor Aristotelianism is "vital" enough to sound the depths of religious life. Neither conceives God "as correlative to human trust " (cf. ''Theologie und Metaphysik''). But Ritschl's recoil carries him so far that he is left alone with merely "practical" experience. "Faith" knows God in His active relation to the kingdom," but not at all as "self-existent."
-His limitation of theological knowledge to the bounds of human need might, if logically pressed, run perilously near [[phenomenalism]]; and his epistemology ("we only know things in their activities") does not cover this weakness. In seeking ultimate reality in the circle of "active conscious sensation," he rules out all "metaphysic." Indeed, much that is 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 form of [[agnosticism]]. Religious judgments of value determine 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 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 grave ambiguities, that his theology, which, as we have seen, is wholly based on uncompromising religious [[Philosophical realism|realism]], has actually been charged with individualistic [[metaphysical subjectivism|subjectivism]]. If Ritschl had clearly shown that judgments of value enfold and transform other types of knowledge, just as the "spiritual man" includes and transfigures but does not annihilate the "natural man," then within the compass of this spiritually conditioned knowledge all other knowledge would be seen to have a function and a home. The theory of value-judgments is part too of his ultra-practical tendency: both "metaphysic" and "mysticism" are ruthlessly condemned. Faith-knowledge appears to be wrenched from its bearings and suspended in mid-ocean. Perhaps if he had lived to see the progress of will-psychology he might have welcomed the 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 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 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 founding the kingdom was a personal vocation, the spirit of which He communicates to believers, "thus, as exalted king," sustaining the life of His Kingdom. His Resurrection is a necessary part of Christian belief ([[Gustav Ecke|G Ecke]], pp. 198-99). "Divinity" is a predicate applied by faith to Jesus in His founding and redeeming activity. We 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.
+The essence of Ritschl's work is systematic theology. Yet, this is not the work of trained theologians alone, for it is easily perceived in the knowledge of the historical [[Jesus]] revealed to the community.
-Once more, in the doctrine of sin and redemption, the governing idea is God's fatherly purpose for His family. Sin is the contradiction of that purpose, and guilt is alienation from the family. Redemption, justification, regeneration, adoption, forgiveness, reconciliation all mean the same thing-the restoration of the I broken family relationship. All depends on the Mediation of Christ, who maintained the filial relationship even to His death, and communicates it to the brotherhood of believers. Everything Is defined by the idea of the family. The whole apparatus of "forensic" ideas (law, punishment, satisfaction, etc.) is summarily rejected as 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 pagan races. His school, in which [[Wilhelm Herrmann]], [[Julius Kaftan]] and [[Adolf Harnack]] are the chief names, diverges from his teaching in many directions; e.g. Kaftan appreciates the mystical side of religion, Harnack's criticism is very different from Ritschl's arbitrary exegesis. They are united on the value of faith knowledge as opposed to "metaphysic."
 ==References==