Albrecht Ritschl
Albrecht Ritschl (March 25, 1822 - March 20, 1889) was a German Lutheran theologian and one of the great teachers of the liberal Protestant tradition. He created a systematic theology that emphasized the moral nature of religion as opposed to doctrine, and he popularized the idea that salvation should be understood as a matter of reconciliation (love) rather than justification (law). He also stressed the religion practiced by Jesus himself as distinct from teachings about Jesus, such as the Trinity and the Incarnation.
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 he was the most renowned theologian in Europe. He established an influential theological movement that exerted strong ecclesiastical influence, awakening in his pupils an intense confidence and joy about their work as preachers.
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 Die Entstehung der altkatholischen Kirche (The Origin of the Old Catholic Church) in 1850.
Ritschl's greatest impact, however, came as a teacher. He was professor of theology at Bonn from 1852-1864, concentrating on New Testament studies and later on systematic theology. He moved to the University 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 (The Christian Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation), published during the years 1870-1874. This monumental work contains his basic theological views and is considered a classic of systematic theology. In 1882-1886 he wrote a major history of pietism (Die Geschichte des Pietismus). Here, he argued against pietism's emphasis on individual righteousness, stressing instead the idea of moral development in the context of community.
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 emphasized 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 focussed on reforming the world in practical ways.
Ritschl saw himself as carrying on the work of both Luther and Schleiermacher, especially in ridding faith of the tyranny of scholastic philosophy. His system also shows the influence of Emmanuel 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, he said. In other words, true 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" (divine an human) 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 most fully in the life and work of Jesus. By calling God "Father," Jesus showed that God is personal and has both love and will. God thus 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: "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven." Ritschl insisted 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, he believed that 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 ethical example shown by Jesus, the "second Adam." Sin, which Ritschl 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 guilty when we violate our consciences and thus sense our separateness from God.
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 lived life, is absolutely real. A life of trust in God is a fact, not so much to be explained as to explain everything else.
While mainstream Protestant theology did not go as far as Ritschl did in rejecting traditional theological 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 (based on love). The essence of Ritschl's work is systematic theology. Yet he believed 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. By following Jesus' example and living a truly moral life, even the simplest Christian is behaving theologically.
Legacy
Ritschl's teachings challenged the theological conservatism of nineteenth century established churches by emphasizing moral experience over theological correctness. His theory of salvation emphasized the concept of reconciliation over the idea of justification which had so obsessed theologians from Paul to Augustine to Luther. In so doing, he made Christianity a faith to be lived in one's moral and community life rather than through metaphysical speculation or church ritual.
Theoretically, Ritschl's ideas were strongly challenged by the "historical Jesus problem." In promoting the idea that true religion was revealed in the way that Jesus lived, Ritschl had presumed that Jesus' life was more or less objectively discernible in the biblical record through using the methods of historical criticism. This view, however, did not survive long into the twentieth century, when even the historical existence of Jesus came to be doubted. Moreover, to reach an understanding of the what the historical Jesus taught requires a rigorous study of church history and dogma, a task which ordinary Christians are not equipped to undertake. Today a movement to reconstruct the historical Jesus has gathered some momentum through such institutions as the Jesus Seminar, but the prospects of reaching consensus on what Jesus truly taught and did remain dim.
On a practical level, Ritschl's optimistic liberalism would be severely challenged by the experience of Christian Europe in World War I and even more damaged by the horrors of the second World War. However, in his day, Ritschl's influence as a teacher was unequaled, and his importance should not be underestimated. Ideas that he boldly pioneered are now commonplace. His contribution to systematic theology and his basic proposition—that Christianity is to be lived through a moral commitment to realize God's kingdom in community—make him one of giants of modern theology, whose influence continues to be felt today.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
- Jodock, Darrell. Ritschl in Retrospect: History, Community, and Science. Minneapolis, Minn: Fortress Press, 1995. ISBN 9780800626068
- Kim, Young Oon. The Types of Modern Theology. New York: Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, 1983. ISBN 9780910621328
- Marsh, Clive. Albrecht Ritschl and the Problem of the Historical Jesus. San Francisco: Mellen Research University Press, 1992. ISBN 9780773498228
- McCulloh, Gerald W. Christ's Person and Life-Work in the Theology of Albrecht Ritschl. Lanham [Md.]: University Press of America, 1990. ISBN 9780819178855
- Mueller, David L. An Introduction to the Theology of Albrecht Ritschl. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1969. ISBN 9780664208738
- 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 (1983).
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