Troeltsch's Eschatological Absolute

Troeltsch's Eschatological Absolute
Author: Evan F. Kuehn
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2020-04-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0197506666

Ernst Troeltsch is widely recognized as having played an important role in the development of modern Protestant theology, but his contribution is usually understood as largely critical of traditional modes of theological inquiry. He is best known for his historicist critique of dogmatic theology, and seen either as the closing chapter of nineteenth-century liberalism, or as a proto-postmodernist. Central to this pivotal period in modern theology stands the problem: how can we articulate a doctrine of ultimate reality such that a meaningful and coherent account of the world is available without our understanding of God thereby becoming conditioned by the world itself? Evan Kuehn demonstrates that historiographical assumptions about twentieth-century religious thought have obscured the coherence and relevance of Troeltsch's understanding of God, history, and eschatology. An eschatological understanding of the Absolute, Kuehn contends, stands at the heart of Troeltsch's theology and the problem of historicism with which it is faced. Troeltsch's eschatological Absolute must be understood in the context of questions that were being raised at the turn of the twentieth century both by research on New Testament apocalypticism, and by modern critical methodologies in the historical sciences. His theory of the Absolute is central to his views on religion and religious ethics and provides practitioners of constructive studies in religion with important resources for engaging with sociological and historical studies, where Troeltsch's status as a classical figure is widely recognized.

Troeltsch's Eschatological Absolute

Troeltsch's Eschatological Absolute
Author: Evan F. Kuehn
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 256
Release: 2020-04-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0197506674

Ernst Troeltsch is widely recognized as having played an important role in the development of modern Protestant theology, but his contribution is usually understood as largely critical of traditional modes of theological inquiry. He is best known for his historicist critique of dogmatic theology, and seen either as the closing chapter of nineteenth-century liberalism, or as a proto-postmodernist. Central to this pivotal period in modern theology stands the problem: how can we articulate a doctrine of ultimate reality such that a meaningful and coherent account of the world is available without our understanding of God thereby becoming conditioned by the world itself? Evan Kuehn demonstrates that historiographical assumptions about twentieth-century religious thought have obscured the coherence and relevance of Troeltsch's understanding of God, history, and eschatology. An eschatological understanding of the Absolute, Kuehn contends, stands at the heart of Troeltsch's theology and the problem of historicism with which it is faced. Troeltsch's eschatological Absolute must be understood in the context of questions that were being raised at the turn of the twentieth century both by research on New Testament apocalypticism, and by modern critical methodologies in the historical sciences. His theory of the Absolute is central to his views on religion and religious ethics and provides practitioners of constructive studies in religion with important resources for engaging with sociological and historical studies, where Troeltsch's status as a classical figure is widely recognized.

Troeltsch's Eschatological Absolute

Troeltsch's Eschatological Absolute
Author: Evan Kuehn
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2020
Genre: Absolute, The
ISBN: 9780197506684

""This study argues that the core of Ernst Troeltsch's theological project is an eschatological conception of the Absolute. Troeltsch developed his idea of the Absolute from post-Kantian religious and philosophical thought, and applied it to the Christian doctrine of eschatology. Troeltsch's eschatological Absolute must be understood in the context of questions being raised at the turn of the twentieth century by research on New Testament apocalypticism, as well as by modern critical methodologies in the historical sciences. The study is a revisionist response to common approaches to Troeltsch that read him as introducing problematic historicist and immanentist assumptions into Christian theology. Instead, it argues that Troeltsch's theological modernism presents a compelling account of the meaningfulness of history while retaining a commitment to divine transcendence that is unconditioned by history. As such, his theology remains relevant to theological research today, well beyond theological circles that normally take Troeltsch's legacy to contribute in a constructive way to their work. ""--

Ernst Troeltsch and the Future of Theology

Ernst Troeltsch and the Future of Theology
Author: John Clayton
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 244
Release: 1976-08-12
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780521210744

A reassessment of the theology of the German Protestant theologian, Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923) and of his significance for contemporary theology. The six papers here presented were originally delivered at an international colloquium on Troeltsch held at the University of Lancaster. The contributors focus on the fundamental issues raised by Troeltsch which remain central to theology today and seek to engage him as a discussion partner in a continuing debate. Troeltsch has been unduly neglected as a theologian, a fact which is due partly to the dominance of the 'dialectical' theology of Barth and Bultmann in Germany after the First World War. This book seeks to remedy this state of affairs by dealing critically with Troeltsch's theology as well as constructively with the issues. The papers fall into three groups: in the first Troeltsch is considered as a Christian theologian; in the second are studied the possibilities of systematic and historical theology along Troeltschian lines; in the third the questions of what makes Christianity Christian and of Christian claims to exclusive truth are examined in the light of Troeltsch's work. Each of the contributors is a noted Troeltsch scholar and the book contains an extensive bibliography, which adds to its usefulness to students and scholars alike.

Christ, History and Apocalyptic

Christ, History and Apocalyptic
Author: Nathan R. Kerr
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2008-10-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1606081993

This book offers a comprehensive reflection on what it means that Christians claim that Jesus is Lord by engaging in a defense of Christian apocalyptic as the criterion for evaluating the truth of history and of history's relation to the transcendent political reality that theology calls the Kingdom of God. The heart of this work comprises an original genealogical analysis of twentieth-century theological encounters with the modern historicist problematic through a series of critical engagements with the work of Ernst Troeltsch, Karl Barth, Stanley Hauerwas, and John Howard Yoder. Bringing these thinkers into conversation at key points with the work of Walter Benjamin, Carl Schmitt, John Milbank, and Michel de Certeau, among others, this genealogy analyzes and exposes the ideologically Constantinian assumptions shared by both modern liberal and contemporary post-liberal accounts of Christian politics and mission. On the basis of a rereading of John Howard Yoder's place within this genealogy, the author outlines an alternative apocalyptic historicism, which conceives the work of Christian politics as a mode of subversive, missionary encounter between church and world. The result is a profoundly original vision of history that at once calls for and is empowered by a Christian apocalyptic politics, in which the ideologically reductionist concerns for political effectiveness and productivity are surpassed by way of a missionary praxis of subversion and liberation rooted in liturgy and doxology.

Christianity, Tolerance, and Pluralism

Christianity, Tolerance, and Pluralism
Author: Michael Jinkins
Publisher: Psychology Press
Total Pages: 278
Release: 2004
Genre: Christianity and other religions
ISBN: 9780415329088

This book explores the social, political and religious differences among Christians and asks the question: can Christians be pluralists?

Niebuhr, Hromadka, Troeltsch, and Barth

Niebuhr, Hromadka, Troeltsch, and Barth
Author: Kosuke Nishitani
Publisher: Peter Lang Incorporated, International Academic Publishers
Total Pages: 432
Release: 1999
Genre: History
ISBN:

Just as history of the twentieth century experienced dramatic events - World War I, Communism, Nazism, World War II, the Cold War, and the ruin of the Soviet Union - Christian theology underwent significant phases: dialectic theology, de-mythologization, theology of hope, theology of liberation, and post-liberal theology of narrative. One of its most important advances is the recognition that the departure point of theology is nothing, but God's self-revelation. While evaluating this vantage point, the author explores a new, necessary perspective for relevant Christian social ethics by analyzing the theological relations of Niebuhr, the American theologian of liberal democracy; Hromadka, the Czech theologian of communism; Barth, the Swiss theologian of revelation; and Troeltsch, the German theologian of history.

The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches

The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches
Author: Ernst Troeltsch
Publisher: Westminster John Knox Press
Total Pages: 580
Release: 1992-01-01
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 9780664253202

In this landmark work, Ernst Troeltsch offers a history of Christian ethics. This expansive volume relates Christian ethical ideas to the changing structures of church and society from the period of early Christianity to the end of the eighteenth century. Troeltsch's classic work, first published in 1931, continues to speak to the present condition of the church and culture. The Library of Theological Ethics series focuses on what it means to think theologically and ethically. It presents a selection of important and otherwise unavailable texts in easily accessible form. Volumes in this series will enable sustained dialogue with predecessors though reflection on classic works in the field.