Ernst Troeltsch
Troeltsch held that Christianity must be understood as a historical force that takes the form of church, sect or mysticism and shapes society accordingly, and he asked how binding norms are still possible once all thought is seen as historically conditioned.
Placement
Protestant theologian and historian of religion, Weber’s close colleague in Heidelberg: he traced how churches and sects shaped Western society and asked how norms can hold once all thought is seen as historical.
Key ideas
- Church, sect and mysticism as forms of Christian community
- Historicism and the problem of norms
Influence
Influenced by 2
Wilhelm Dilthey
influenced by disputed
Troeltsch tried to join Dilthey’s hermeneutic tradition with the neo-Kantian methodology of Windelband and Rickert, and is reported to have dedicated his last book to Dilthey and Windelband; the dedication was not checked in the book. Article “Para além do neokantismo: o conceito de ciências ético-históricas em Ernst Troeltsch” (revistas.ufg.br/teoria/article/view/44811), read via summary; dedication not checked in the book
Evidence: AI draft
Wilhelm Dilthey › 1833–1911
Max Weber influenced
influenced by
Troeltsch developed his programme of theology as a historical-ethical cultural science chiefly in exchange with Weber at Heidelberg, out of which came the Social Teaching of 1912. Deutsche Biographie, “Troeltsch, Ernst” (F. W. Graf, NDB 26, 2016, p. 433 f.); NDB “Weber, Max” (F. W. Graf, NDB 27, 2020, pp. 474–479), on the Fachmenschenfreundschaft
Evidence: AI draft
influenced
Weber became acquainted through his Heidelberg colleague Troeltsch with the theological debate between Lutheran and Calvinist positions that lies behind the Protestant Ethic. SEP “Max Weber” (S. H. Kim), §2.2
Evidence: AI draft
Max Weber › 1864–1920
Works
Historical study of the social teachings of the Christian churches, sects and mystical groups and of how they shaped Western society; it develops the typology of church, sect and mysticism and grew out of Troeltsch’s exchange with Max Weber in Heidelberg.
First volume of an unfinished work on the logic of the philosophy of history: Troeltsch asks how norms and values can still bind once all thought and culture are seen as historically conditioned.
Position
Troeltsch is on the map as the theologian who became one of the classics of the historical sociology of religion. His Social Teaching of the Christian Churches and Groups (1912) follows how churches, sects and mystical groups from the early church to Protestantism have related to society, and develops the typology of church, sect and mysticism; it grew out of his exchange with Max Weber, which the NDB describes as a friendship between specialists (Fachmenschenfreundschaft). Weber in turn learned from him the theological debate between Lutheran and Calvinist positions that lies behind the Protestant Ethic. Troeltsch sought a new binding force for norms in inherited cultural traditions while accepting the relativity that historicism brings; his unfinished main work, Historicism and Its Problems (1922), asks how this is possible. He is reported to have tried to join Dilthey’s hermeneutic tradition with the neo-Kantian method of Windelband and Rickert; that link has not been checked in the sources and is marked as disputed. After his death his work fell into relative obscurity and regained attention from the 1970s.
Life & context
Ernst Troeltsch was born on 17 February 1865 in Haunstetten near Augsburg. He studied Protestant theology in Erlangen, Berlin and Göttingen and habilitated in Göttingen in 1891 with a study of reason and revelation in Johann Gerhard and Melanchthon; there he joined the circle of the History of Religions School as its systematic theologian. In 1892 he became associate professor in Bonn and in 1894 full professor of systematic theology in Heidelberg, where he became a close colleague of Max Weber. He sat in the Baden First Chamber from 1909 and on the Heidelberg city council from 1912 to 1915. In 1915 he moved to a newly created chair in Berlin for the philosophy of religion, social and historical philosophy and the history of the Christian religion. From March 1919 to June 1920 he was parliamentary undersecretary in the Prussian Ministry of Science, Arts and Education. He died in Berlin on 1 February 1923.
Further main works
- The Absoluteness of Christianity and the History of Religions (Die Absolutheit des Christentums und die Religionsgeschichte, 1902)
- Protestant Christianity and Church in the Modern Age (Protestantisches Christentum und Kirche in der Neuzeit, 1906/09)
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