Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Herms, Eilert

Titel

Neuprotestantismus

Ist Teil von

• Neue Zeitschrift für systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie, 2009-07, Vol.51 (3), p.309

Ort / Verlag

Berlin: Walter de Gruyter GmbH

Erscheinungsjahr

2009

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Troeltsch's concept of "neo-Protestantism" is regarded as an example of reflection - essential to Christianity of all times - on the present situation of Christianity which is achieved through a process of historical becoming. Such a form of, reflection is characteristic of Christianity throughout its history. Thereby the strengths of the' concept come into view, but also its opacities and systematic weaknesses. The strength of the concept is the emphasis on the breach in the entire social context in which Protestant Christianity existed at the turn from the 19th to the 20th century, compared to the social contexts of its origins and the first stage of this disruption in the 16th and 17th century. The ambiguities of the concept relate to the question of the decisive influences and originating factors of this breach. These uncertainties arise from the weaknesses of the concept. These lie at the level of historical knowledge and of leading categories of historiography which do not make it possible to perceive continuity and moments of identity which are, in fact, always presupposed in the perception of discontinuity in history. This proves that Troeltsch's claim to carry forward Schleiermacher's theory of Christianity must be seen as untenable. Because of its missing epistemological and ontological foundations Troeltsch's view remains inferior to that of Schleiermacher. On the basis of such epistemological and ontological foundations Schleiermacher was able to interpret the phenomena of the history of Christianity and its discontinuities in the horizon of the essence of Christianity and its identity in history. Therefore Schleiermacher is able to conceive of Christianity also in Protestant form as an active factor in its respective historical circumstances which is able to function both creatively and critically in relation to external factors. In contrast, Troeltsch can only conceive of Protestantism as the product of external circumstances. It is the position of Troeltsch, not that of Schleiermacher, which is part of the process of self-secularization in Protestantism. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]