Baltic German theologian and church historian (1851–1930)
Adolf von Harnack
Born
Carl Gustav Adolf Harnack
7 May [O.S. 25 April] 1851
Dorpat, Kreis Dorpat, Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire (present-day Tartu, Tartu County, Estonia)
Died
10 June 1930(1930-06-10) (aged 79)
Heidelberg, Republic of Baden, Weimar Republic
Other names
Adolf Harnack
Education
University of Dorpat
University of Erlangen
University of Leipzig
Occupation(s)
theologian and church historian
Notable work
The Essence of Christianity (Das Wesen des Christentums)
The History of Dogma
The History of Ancient Christian Literature
The Mission and Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries
Spouse
Amalie Thiersch (1858–1937)
Children
7, including Agnus and Ernst
Relatives
Theodosius Harnack (father)
Axel (brother)
Arvid Harnack (nephew)
Institutions
University of Leipzig (1874—1879)
University of Giessen (1879—1886)
University of Marburg (1886—1888)
University of Berlin (1888—1921)
Notable students
Karl Barth
Wilhelm Bousset
William Adams Brown
Adolf Keller
Rudolf Handmann
Emanuel Hirsch
William Miller Macmillan
Arthur Cushman McGiffert
Friedrich Loofs
Wilhelm Pauck
Friedrich Rittelmeyer
Carl Schmidt (Coptologist)
Nathaniel Schmidt
Elisabeth Schmitz
Heinrich Scholz
Henry Nelson Wieman
Carl Gustav Adolf von[1] Harnack (born Harnack; 7 May 1851 – 10 June 1930) was a Baltic German Lutheran theologian and prominent Church historian. He produced many religious publications from 1873 to 1912 (in which he is sometimes credited as Adolf Harnack). He was ennobled (with the addition of von to his name) in 1914.
Harnack traced the influence of Hellenistic philosophy on early Christian writings and called on Christians to question the authenticity of doctrines that arose in the early Christian church. He rejected the historicity of the Gospel of John in favor of the Synoptic Gospels, criticized the Apostles' Creed, and promoted the Social Gospel.
In the 19th century, higher criticism flourished in Germany, establishing the historical-critical method as an academic standard for interpreting the Bible and understanding the historical Jesus (see Tübingen school). Harnack's work is part of a reaction to Tübingen, and represents a reappraisal of tradition.
Besides his theological activities, Harnack was a distinguished organizer of sciences. He played an important role in the foundation of the Kaiser Wilhelm Gesellschaft and became its first president.
^In German personal names, von is a preposition which approximately means of or from and usually denotes some sort of nobility. While von (always lower case) is part of the family name or territorial designation, not a first or middle name, if the noble is referred to by his last name, use Schiller, Clausewitz or Goethe, not von Schiller, etc.
Carl Gustav AdolfvonHarnack (born Harnack; 7 May 1851 – 10 June 1930) was a Baltic German Lutheran theologian and prominent Church historian. He produced...
generation, Barth was educated in a liberal theology influenced by AdolfvonHarnack, Friedrich Schleiermacher and others. His pastoral career began in...
His twin sons were the German theologian AdolfvonHarnack (1851–1930) and mathematician Carl Gustav Axel Harnack (1851–1888). His other two sons were also...
He was the son of the theologian Theodosius Harnack and the twin brother of theologian AdolfvonHarnack (who long outlived him) - all of them from Dorpat...
German mathematician AdolfvonHarnack (1851–1930), German theologian Johann Adolph Hasse (1699–1783), German composer Adolf Hedin (1834–1905), Swedish...
years of the Third Reich. Theodosius Harnack (1817–1889), German theologian Anna Harnack (1849–?) AdolfvonHarnack (1851–1930), German liberal theologian...
several scholars, including August Hahn (1832), Theodor Zahn (1892), AdolfvonHarnack (1921), Kenji Tsutsui (1992), Jason BeDuhn (2013), Dieter T. Roth...
Nazi Germany. Harnack came from an intellectual family and was originally a humanist. He was strongly influenced by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe but progressively...
Heresies, book 7, ch. 19 AdolfvonHarnack, History of Dogma, vol. 1, ch. 5, p. 269 Harnack, idem., p.271 Article on AdolfvonHarnack G. R. S. Mead, Fragments...
Brill. King 2003, p. 162. Magris 2005, p. 3518. "AdolfVonHarnack: Marcion". gnosis.org. Harnack, Adolf (2007-12-01). Marcion: The Gospel of the Alien...
manifestations. The term Modalism was first used by Trinitarian scholar AdolfvonHarnack, referencing this belief. In this view, all the Godhead is understood...
word may be included among those mysterious expressions discussed by AdolfvonHarnack, "which belong to no known speech, and by their singular collocation...
services to society is the Harnack Medal, first awarded in 1925. The Harnack Medal is named after the theologian AdolfvonHarnack, who was the first president...
followers of Ritschl include Wilhelm Herrmann, Julius Kaftan and AdolfvonHarnack. Catholic forms of theological liberalism have existed since the 19th...
political opposition to the Nazi Party. Harnack was born in Marburg as the son of the theologian AdolfvonHarnack (1851–1930) and Amalie Thiersch (1858–1937)...
financial responsibilities for the mission, or personal dislike". AdolfvonHarnack was of the view that Diotrephes was the earliest monarchical bishop...
f.) The Marcionite Prologues to the Pauline Epistles, AdolfvonHarnack, 1914. Moreover, Harnack noted: "We have indeed long known that Marcionite readings...
Theodosius Harnack and the brother of theologian AdolfvonHarnack, mathematician Carl Gustav Axel Harnack and literary historian Otto Harnack. Die Bedeutung...
edited "The Miniatures of the Ashburnham Pentateuch" (1883); with AdolfvonHarnack, "Texte und Untersuchungen zur Gerschichte der altchristlichen Literatur"...
school in Schaffhausen, studied theology in Basel and Berlin with AdolfvonHarnack and Adolf Schlatter, and philosophy, art history and later psychology in...
"Adolf Butenandt – Bremerhaven.de". Seestadt Bremerhaven (in German). 15 August 2011. Retrieved 13 December 2023. "The Max Planck Society and Harnack House"...
Gesellschaft (KWG) on the initiative of its first president, the theologian AdolfvonHarnack, and of its then chairman, Friedrich Glum. The project was supported...
Eusebius of Caesarea, was a bishop, c. 314–339. F. J. A. Hort and AdolfvonHarnack have argued that the Nicene Creed originated in Caesarea. The Caesarean...
Deutsche Christen drew parallels between Martin Luther and the "Führer" Adolf Hitler. Some scholars, such as Mark U. Edwards in his book Luther's Last...
Walter Harnack was the younger son of the painter Clara Harnack (née Reichau) and literary historian Otto Harnack; a nephew of the theologian Adolfvon Harnack...
Humboldt University of Berlin where his teachers were Karl Holl and AdolfvonHarnack. He earned his PhD with the thesis Fichte's Philosophy of Religion...
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