HARNACK, ADOLF von. - Protestant theologian, b. at Dorpat (Livonia) on 7 May 1851, d. at Heidelberg on 10 June 1930. Professor at Giessen, Marburg and, in 1888, at Berlin, from 1890 he was an influential member of the Berlin Academy and in 1905 director-general of the Royal Library. Educated in an orthodox Lutheran family (his father Theodosius was the author of a book, written from the orthodox point of view, on Luther's theology), he broke away from the traditions of his father's house in order to adhere to the theology of A. Ritschl, a typical representative of Bismarck's liberal Germany. From Ritschl he took his distrust of metaphysics, which led him to condemn Greek philosophy as a formative element of the early Church, and from Ritschl he also learned the moralistic interpretation of eschatological concepts such as the kingdom of God, etc. Ritschl had formulated his theology in opposition to the so-called Tübingen school (F. Chr. Baur and his disciples), which had employed Hegelian dialectic in the field of ecclesiastical history and had explained the formation of the Catholic Church as the synthesis between Jewish Christianity and Hellenistic Christianity. With his adherence to Ritschl's point of view, H. saw unilaterally the Greek elements in the formation of ancient Christianity and did not recognize the importance of Jewish Christianity, just as his theology likewise had no understanding for the Jewish religion or for the Old Testament, an important fact, because it explains his later adherence to the anti-Jewish theology of Marcion.
H. wanted to be and to remain a theologian. He was not truly a philologist (the famous Wellhausen, a critic of the Old Testament, wrote about a book by H.: "For me the weak point of H. is what according to him is his strength: philology") and this lack of philological sense made him blind also in the face of the problems of the comparative school of religions, developed for the most part by classical philologists. But he also lacked any understanding for philosophy, not even in the form of Dilthey's historicism. Thus he remained within the sphere of a form of Protestant and liberal Christianity, which, however, was increasingly disintegrating. When Barth's theology began to attack the positions of the old liberalism, H., once the head of a very powerful current of German Protestantism and protected by the favour of William II (also against the leaders of the Protestant Churches), was already quite isolated. His progressive liberalism, moreover, distanced him ever more from any form of Church; in a letter to E. Peterson, he openly expressed his sympathy for sectarian Christianity (Quakerism), and so it is not surprising that the Protestant Churches in Germany no longer speak with enthusiasm of the author of the once very famous book on The Essence of Christianity (1st ed., Leipzig 1900).
Set within the history of German Protestant theology, one now sees how outdated are the guiding ideas of his great Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte (1st ed., Tübingen 1886, 1888; 4th ed., 1910). Two great publications of H. still retain their value today: Geschichte der altchristlichen Literatur bis Eusebius. I. Die Überlieferung und der Bestand (Leipzig 1893). II. Die Chronologie (ibid. 1897-1904). Volumes of great erudition, but which are more a repertory than a history of ancient patristic literature. The other publication is the Mission und Ausbreitung des Christentums in den ersten drei Jahrhunderten (1st ed., ibid. 1902, 4th ed., 1924). Important for the material collected, unacceptable in the part that explains the diffusion of ancient Christianity. He also wrote Marcion. Das Evangelium vom fremden Gott (1st ed., ibid. 1921; 2nd ed., 1924).
Marcion is, in this book, in contrast with ancient tradition, detached from Gnosis. In Marcion's dualism H. sees a kind of Lutheranism, thereby approaching, without knowing it, Moehler's judgment on Lutheran doctrine. H. was a great organizer. To him belongs the merit of having organized the edition of the Griechisch christlichen Schriftsteller, without however assuming responsibility for the edition of a Greek patristic text in this series. In the collection of Texte und Untersuchungen, which accompanies the publication of the series, he published a large part of his investigations.
H. was a most prolific publicist and a brilliant writer, but often inclined to put forward poorly founded hypotheses. He truly loved the most ancient Christian writers. He said to Peterson: "The early Church is my true wife, everything else was only concubines for me"; which makes it clear that he had no true interest either in the Middle Ages or in the classical phase of Protestantism. Personally a man who could fascinate, in the humanism of his person he resembled Erasmus more than one of the classical figures of German Protestantism. In his studies on the New Testament he pursued a more traditional path. The return to tradition placed him in this field in open conflict with the comparative school of religions.
Bibliography
Erik Peterson