Zwei der bedeutendsten um im Folgenden besonders einflussreichen Hörer des Religionsphilosophen und Theologen Ernst Troeltsch aus der Heidelberger Zeit, die Dichterin Gertrud von le Fort und der Theologe Friedrich Gogarten, die sich 1911/12 begegnet waren, traten nach drei Jahren in einen zunehmend vertrauensvollen Briefwechsel und eine familiäre Beziehung zueinander. Ihre Korrespondenz reicht über die Kriegszeit, krisenhafte Kirchenzustände und die Verhältnisse im untergehenden Kaiserreich mit allen Facetten der Not und Orientierungslosigkeit hin zu den Anstrengungen theoretischer und religiöser Neugestaltung. Während (...) le Fort bis zu Troeltschs Tod und darüber hinaus in geistig enger Beziehung zu dem prägenden Lehrer blieb, versuchte Gogarten im Umgang mit Schweizer Freunden die neuen Wege der sog. ‚dialektischen‘ Theologie mitzubestimmen, auch mit Buber und Guardini in Beziehung zu kommen. Die Dichterin trat mit rasch von der katholischen Öffentlichkeit rezipierten ‚Hymnen an die Kirche‘ hervor und arbeitete gleichzeitig nachdrücklich an der Edition von Troeltschs ‚Glaubenslehre‘. Als sie 1926 konvertierte, schien der Briefverkehr zu erlöschen. In ihm, wie in den beigegebenen Texten bildet sich subtil und eindrücklich ein dramatisches und erregendes Zeitgeschehen im überschaubaren Feld reflexiver Subjektivität ab. (shrink)

This chapter treats in roughly chronological order ten Lutheran theologians other than Rudolf Bultmann and Paul Tillich, who were examined in the previous chapter. All of these figures can be discussed in relation to their reception of Søren Kierkegaard's writings, even though the level of appropriation of Kierkegaard varies significantly. They include German national Lutheran theologians Karl Holl, Friedrich Gogarten, Paul Althaus, and Emanuel Hirsch, Scandinavian Lutheran theologians Anders Nygren, Knud Løgstrup, Regin Prenter, and Gustaf Wingren, and contemporary (...) German Lutheran theologians Wolfhart Pannenberg and Eberhard Jüngel. The chapter attempts to identify distinctive characteristics of each thinker and their connections to Kierkegaard. (shrink)

Written during the period of his emigration to the United States, during and just after World War II, the originality of Karl Löwith's book Meaning in History lies in its resolute critique of all forms of philosophy of history. This critique is based on the now famous idea that modern philosophies of history have only extended and deepened an illusion fabricated by a long tradition of Christian historical reflection: the illusion that history itself has an intrinsic goal. This modern extension (...) and deepening of the chimera propagated by Christian historical reflection is what Löwith terms "secularization." Drawing on the arguments in Meaning in History as well as those proposed in other contemporaneous and earlier writings, including Löwith's heretofore unpublished correspondence with Leo Strauss, this article attempts to set in relief the frequently neglected, yet eminently political implications of Löwith's idea of secularization. Among the problems implicitly considered in relation to the theory of secularization in Meaning in History is a theme frequently addressed in earlier writings: the motives that led German intellectuals like Friedrich Gogarten, Martin Heidegger, and Carl Schmitt to adhere to the Nazi movement. (shrink)

This essay concentrates on the reception of Oswald Spengler's book, „Der Untergang des Abendlandes” by German Protestant theologians in the early 1920s, who were more susceptible to the influence of this book than were philosophers. Just after the First World War, for example, Werner Elert, Karl Heim and Ernst Troeltsch – not to mention Emanuel Hirsch, Friedrich Gogarten and others – had to cope with deeply interconnected crises in faith, church, theology and nation. Spengler's idea of cycles in (...) history seemed to help them understand Germany's 1918 defeat not as due to military exhaustion but to a sort of divine destiny. But it also gave hope that this destiny would help to overcome the crisis. The authors drew epon certain aspects of Spengler's thinking to establish their theory of Christianity. However, the influence of Spengler vanished soon enough. As a result, the story of his reception is an example of the struggle to locate Christianity within post-war German society. (shrink)

The four books under consideration in this article exemplify the impact of historical thinking on Christian thought. Friedrich Gogarten's essay on Demythologizing and History, while it is ostensibly intended to clarify some of the problems of the controversy between Rudolf Bultmann and his critics, is actually an analysis of the significance for Christian theology of two quite different ways of understanding the nature of history. Similarly, John Baillie's Idea of Revelation in Recent Thought makes very clear, particularly in (...) the first two chapters, that the whole conception of how God makes himself known to man has become radically different in the past generation or so from the views of centuries preceding: the dominant contemporary view holds that God reveals himself in and through the events of sacred history, not that he reveals eternal truths through the words of the Bible or the creeds of the church. Even the two French Roman Catholic symposia on mysticism and asceticism, though not explicitly concerned with the problem of history at all, nevertheless show the impact of the historical point of view. A central contention of the one is that all mystical experience must be mediated through the historical Christ if it is to be regarded as Christian, and the other is critical of any form of asceticism which involves a repudiation of historical life simply for its own sake: Christian asceticism must always culminate in a concrete historical love for one's concrete historical neighbor. (shrink)

The group of Dialectical Theology (also known as Neo-Orthodoxy) included some of the most well-known theologians of the 20th century – Karl Barth, Rudolf Bultmann, Friedrich Gogarten, Eduard Thurneysen, Georg Merz und Emil Brunner. In the summer of 1922 they founded the journal Zwischen den Zeiten, which launched Dialectical Theology as the most influential avant-garde movement in Protestantism during the Weimar Republic. Due to internal strife and theological disagreements, the group began to lose strength in the early 1930s (...) and eventually split up and ceased publishing Zwischen den Zeiten in 1933. The individual members later became fierce critics of each other’s theological works. Gogarten and Barth became arch enemies during the so-called “church struggle” (Kirchenkampf), and Bultmann and Barth became each other’s nemesis in the Federal Republic of Germany.In this article I examine the rise and fall of this movement. I argue that the concept “generation” was central to the early self-understanding and selfjustification of the group. It allowed the group to forge an alliance and oppose an antagonistic group of influential theologians. The claim to speak up for a young generation of theologians and pastors – in opposition to an older, liberal generation – became the rallying cry for Dialectical Theology. Further, I argue that conferences, not only the theological writings, played a central, constitutive role in establishing the group as a theological movement. It was at conferences that the members of Dialectical Theology could challenge the older generation and assert their own theological stance. Instead of merely concentrating on the published theological writings of each of the members, I thus argue that one must additionally focus on the applied concepts and the role of conferences to understand the history of Dialectical Theology. It is only when we include these additional contexts that we understand how Dialectical Theology was able to be launched and sustained as a theological movement despite the irreconcilable differences amongst the members. (shrink)

The Voices of Wittgenstein brings for the first time, in both the original German and in English translation, over one hundred short essays in philosophical logic and the philosophy of mind. This text is of key historical importance to understanding Wittgenstein's philosophical thought and development in the 1930's. Transcribed from the papers of Friedrich Waismann and dating from 1932 to 1935, the majority are highly important dictations by Wittgenstein to Waismann. It also includes texts of redrafted material by Waismann, (...) closely based on these dictations. (shrink)

Two representative and important works in one volume by one of the greatest German philosophers. The Birth of Tragedy (1872) was Nietzsche's first book. Its youthful faults were exposed by Nietzsche in the brilliant "Attempt at a Self-Criticism" which he added to the new edition of 1886. But the book, whatever its excesses, remains one of the most relevant statements on tragedy ever penned. It exploded the conception of Greek culture that was prevalent down through the Victorian era, and it (...) sounded themes developed in the twentieth century by classicists, existentialists, psychoanalysts, and others. The Case of Wagner (1888) was one Nietzsche's last books, and his wittiest. In attitude and style it is diametrically opposed to The Birth of Tragedy. Both works transcend their ostensible subjects and deal with art and culture, as well as the problems of the modern age generally. Each book in itself gives us an inadequate idea of its author; together, they furnish a striking image of Nietzsche's thought. The distinguished translations by Walter Kaufmann superbly reflect in English Nietzsche's idiom and the vitality of his style. Professor Kaufmann has also furnished running footnote commentaries, relevant passages from Nietzsche's correspondence, a bibliography, and, for the first time in any edition, an extensive index to each book. (shrink)

Nietzsche referred to his critique of Judeo-Christian moral values as philosophizing with the hammer. On the Genealogy of Morals (originally subtitled A Polemic) is divided into three essays. The first is an investigation into the origins of our moral values, or as Nietzsche calls them moral prejudices. The second essay addresses the concept of guilt and its role in the development of civilization and religion. The third essay considers suffering and its role in human existence. What might be of most (...) value to today's reader is not necessarily Nietzsche's views on particular ethical issues, but rather his encouragement to think independently and to actualize the self. (shrink)

Written in 1888, a few weeks before his descent into madness, the book sub-titled 'How To Become What You Are' passes under review all Nietzsche's previous ...

Dieses Werk ist Teil der Buchreihe TREDITION CLASSICS. Der Verlag tredition aus Hamburg veröffentlicht in der Buchreihe TREDITION CLASSICS Werke aus mehr als zwei Jahrtausenden. Diese waren zu einem Großteil vergriffen oder nur noch antiquarisch erhältlich. Mit der Buchreihe TREDITION CLASSICS verfolgt tredition das Ziel, tausende Klassiker der Weltliteratur verschiedener Sprachen wieder als gedruckte Bücher zu verlegen - und das weltweit! Die Buchreihe dient zur Bewahrung der Literatur und Förderung der Kultur. Sie trägt so dazu bei, dass viele tausend Werke (...) nicht in Vergessenheit geraten. (shrink)

Contains the Greek texts of Phaedrus, Lysis, Protagoras, and Laches, with multiple recensions of Schleiermacher's German translations in parallel columns. Critical matter in German.

AN ATTEMPT AT SELF- CRITICISM. I. Whatever may lie at the bottom of this doubt- ful book must be a question of the first rank and attractiveness, ...