TÜBINGEN. - A city in Germany in Württemberg; famous for its university, which made it from the humanist period one of the principal beacons of learning.
I. THE UNIVERSITY
It was founded on 13 July 1477, by virtue of the plenary powers granted by Sixtus IV in the bull of 13 Nov. 1476, by Eberhard im Bart, Duke of Württemberg, at the suggestion of his former friend and teacher Johannes Naukler, and received imperial confirmation from Frederick III in 1484. The first rector (1482–1509) was Naukler himself; papal commissioner was Heinrich Fabri, Abbot of Blaubeuren. There were four faculties: theology, law, medicine and philosophy, staffed by 14 chosen professors (among whom, besides Naukler, were J. Heylin, J. Stöffler, J. Reuchlin, F. Bebel, F. Melanchthon) who soon brought it to a brilliant flowering.In 1534 the whole region had to pass to the Reformation by the will of Duke Ulrich; hence the university also changed its orientation and became solely a state institution; many professors were dismissed, and others took their place, favourable to the new ideas (J. Camerarius, P. Phrygius, S. Schnepf, A. and L. Osiander) who transformed it into a stronghold of Lutheran orthodoxy. To give it fame and students the so-called Stipendium was erected in 1536 (later called the Stift and today the Evangelical seminary). In the 18th century the rigid orthodoxy gave way to a broader freedom of thought in the theological faculty, until towards the end of the century the profound influence of Christian Gottlieb Storr made itself felt, giving rise to what is called the “Tübingen School.”
C. Celestino Testore
II. THE “TÜBINGEN SCHOOL.” - The Tübingen School had two periods: the first (the old school), begun by G. Ch. Storr (1777–97) with the abandonment of the rigid orthodox position that had characterised the faculty of Tübingen in the 16th–17th centuries during the internal controversies of Lutheranism (v.), accepting Enlightenment viewpoints and Kantian criticism, but maintaining a firm biblical foundation for the dogmatic system, so that its orientation can be defined as rational supernaturalism; it was in this atmosphere that, among others, Hegel and Schelling were formed, pupils of the celebrated university college (Stift), reserved for aspirants to the Lutheran pastoral profession.
The second period (the “New School”) began with the revival of the theological faculty after the crisis of the Napoleonic era, within the framework of the reorganisation of the universities that took place around 1830 with a new redistribution of teaching among the various chairs, which were increased in number. Its founder and head is considered to be F. C. Baur (v.), who, following the line of the left-wing Hegelians, gave the fullest development to the critical-rationalistic revision of the dogmatic system and its historical-biblical foundations. But the one who gave the Tübingen School its greatest renown was D. F. STRAUSS, D (v.), who in his historical studies of New Testament texts affirmed the expression of the faith of the primitive communities in Christ and a history of the myth of Christ. Strauss thus justified the shift of the centre of Christian history from Jesus to Paul, as the formulator and witness of the faith of the primitive communities.
These positions, which created the school’s renown, were not however without contestation even within the faculty of Tübingen; Strauss himself failed to obtain a chair and remained a lecturer in the theological college; from the mid-19th century the faculty thus had an eclectic orientation, inasmuch as all theological trends were represented among the teaching staff. Yet the professors who achieved the greatest fame were those of the radical historical-critical trend, with greater or lesser efforts to find a compromise with the official theology of the Church, to which the faculty had to supply pastors. Such was the case of the historian of religions A. Bertholet (1913–14), holder of the chair of Old Testament; of the Church historian G. Weizsäcker (1861–90); of the professors of New Testament exegesis A. Schlatter (1898–1922) and W. Heitmüller (1923–25); the appointment of the latter aroused controversies similar to those surrounding D. F. Strauss, because of the radicalism of his historical-critical position. The organ of the new Tübingen School, representative of the period of its most pronounced theological liberalism, was the Theologische Jahrbücher (1842–57).
III. THE CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL FACULTY OF TÜBINGEN (1812–1857). The Catholic theological faculty of Tübingen was founded in 1812 by its father, Frederick I, at Ellwangen and was incorporated into the university as a Catholic theological faculty, also establishing a college or seminary for Catholic students in response to the seminary for the Protestant ones. The characteristic orientation of the new faculty (often called the “Catholic School of Tübingen”) lies, as regards theology, in the harmonious fusion of the historical-positive method with the speculative method; as regards philosophy, in the thorough study of modern spiritual currents and in the exploitation of modern philosophy, duly corrected and supervised by Catholic thought, in the service of theology. The influence exerted throughout Germany by the chosen professors (among whom it is well to mention: J. S. Drey, J. B. Hirsche, J. A. Möhler, J. G. Herbst, J. Kuhn, C. J. Hefele) and by numerous pupils, including F. A. Staudenmayer, F. Probst, P. B. Gams, F. X. Funk, P. Schanz, etc., has always been very considerable. The Catholic faculty has as its organ the journal: Theologische Quartalschrift (v.).