THEOLOGISCHE LITERATURZEITUNG. - A Protestant theological journal devoted to extensive and scholarly reviews of the whole of theological and related literature; founded in 1876 by E. Schürer (v.).
From 1881 to 1887 it was edited by A. Harnack (v.), from 1887 to 1910 by E. Schürer, together with Harnack, from 1911 to 1920 by A. Titius with a co-editor, from 1921 to June 1930 by E. Hirsch (a theologian later close to the "Deutsche Christen") and others, from July 1930 to March 1939 by W. Bauer (well-known author of a Dictionary of New Testament Greek) and others, among them H. Lietzmann and G. Wobbermin (author of useful studies in religious and experimental psychology). From March 1939, under H. G. Opitz, who later fell in the war, certain well-known "Deutschchristen" collaborated with it, such as W. Grundmann, yet the journal never fell into their hands. From 1941 it has been edited by Kurt Aland, and from 1942 it has been merged with the Theologisches Literaturblatt, whose editor, E. Sommerlath, was taken on as co-editor.
From 1921 to 1941 it was accompanied by a "Bibliographisches Beiblatt," an extensive and annotated bibliography of the whole of theology. From March 1939 onward it has borne the subtitle Monatschrift für das Gesamtgebiet der Theologie und Religionswissenschaft (previously it had almost always been a fortnightly). It underwent an interruption in the years 1945-1946. It is published by the house of J. C. Hinrichs, of Leipzig.
Among the editors, E. Schürer and A. v. Harnack exercised the greatest influence (cf. the latter's programmatic statement in T. L., 35 [1910], col. 706 ff., and his own exposition, ibid., 50 [1925], coll. 1-4). Since the journal arose at a time when Protestant systematic theology was receiving from Albrecht Ritschl a precise aim of its own, and rigid historical research was establishing itself as a recognized requirement of theology thanks to Wellhausen, Weizsäcker, Ritschl and others, its tradition rests above all on the "Ritschlians" and on the historical-critical and later comparative school of exegesis. It is no accident that the neo-orthodox schools, for example the one that stems from K. Barth, have influenced the journal less. Naturally the ideal of "Voraussetzungslosigkeit" (freedom from presuppositions) aired by Harnack and Schürer is based on an illusion. The journal, among other prejudices, had inherited part of the violent anti-Catholicism of the Kulturkampf (v.), and only from 1912 onward does it become more serene and benevolent toward Catholics; in the last period even Catholic literature is often reviewed by Catholics. In other reviews of Catholic works one notices the fact that the Protestant apologetics of today, present in all theological research, is "eristic" in nature.