TUBINGA. — City of Germany in Württemberg; renowned for its University, which made it one of the principal beacons of the sciences from the humanist period onward.
I. THE UNIVERSITY
It was founded on 13 July 1477, by virtue of the full powers granted by Sixtus IV in the bull of 13 November 1476, by the duke of Württemberg, Eberardo im Bart, on the advice of his old friend and teacher Giov. Nauclero, and received imperial confirmation from Frederick III in 1484. Its first rector was (1482–1509) Nauclero himself; the papal commissioner was Enrico Fabri, abbot of Blaubeuren. There were 4 Faculties: theology, law, medicine, and philosophy, served by 14 distinguished professors (among whom, besides Nauclero, were J. Heylin, J. Stöffler, J. Reuchlin, E. Bebel, and F. Melantone), who soon brought it to splendid florescence.In 1534 the entire region had to adopt the Reformation at the will of Duke Ulrico; consequently, the University too changed its orientation and became solely a state institution; many professors were dismissed, while others, favorable to the new ideas, took their place (J. Camerarius, P. Phrygius, S. Schnepf, A. and L. Osiander), transforming it into a stronghold of Lutheran orthodoxy. Its fame and its student body were furthered by the establishment, in 1536, of the so-called «Stipendium» (later called «Stift» and today an evangelical seminary). In the 18th century, rigid orthodoxy gave way to a broader freedom of thought in the Faculty of Theology, until toward the end of the century the profound influence of Christian Gottlieb Storr became manifest; he gave rise to what is called the «School of T.».
Celestino Testore
II. THE «SCHOOL OF T.». — The «School of T.» had two periods: the first (the old school), initiated by G. Ch. Storr (1777–97) through the abandonment of the rigid orthodox position that had characterized the Faculty of Theology in the 16th and 17th centuries during the internal controversies of Lutheranism (v.), and through the acceptance of Enlightenment viewpoints and Kantian criticism, while maintaining the biblical foundation of the dogmatic system, so that its orientation may be defined as rational supernaturalism; it was in this atmosphere that, among others, Hegel and Schelling were formed, as students of the celebrated University College (Stift), reserved for those aspiring to the profession of Lutheran pastors.
The second period (the «New School») began with the revival of the Faculty of Theology, after the crisis of the Napoleonic era, within the framework of the reorganization of the universities that took place around 1830, with a new redistribution of teaching among the various chairs, which had been increased in number. Its founder and head should be considered F. C. Baur (v.), who, along the lines of the Hegelian left, gave the fullest development to the critical-rationalistic revision of the dogmatic system and of its historical-biblical foundations. But the person who gave the school of T. its greatest resonance was D. F. STRAUSS, D (v.), who denied the historical value of the New Testament texts, asserting that they were an expression of the faith of the primitive communities in Christ and a history of the «myth of Christ». Strauss thus justified the shifting of the center of the history of Christianity from Jesus to Paul, as the formulater and witness of the faith of the primitive communities.
These positions, which established the school’s renown, did not remain uncontested even within the Faculty of T.; Strauss himself was unable to obtain a chair and remained a «repetitor» in the theological college; from the middle of the 19th century, therefore, the Faculty had an eclectic orientation, since all theological tendencies were represented among its teaching staff. Nevertheless, the professors who enjoyed the greatest fame were those belonging to the radical historical-critical tendency, with greater or lesser efforts to find a compromise with the official theology of the Church, for which the Faculty was to train pastors. Such was the case with the historian of religions A. Bertholet (1913–14), holder of the chair of the Old Testament; the Church historian G. Weizsäcker (1861–99); and the professors of New Testament exegesis A. Schlatter (1898–1922) and W. Heitmüller (1923–25). The appointment of the latter provoked controversies analogous to those surrounding the name of D. F. Strauss, because of the radicalism of his historical-critical position. The organ of the new school of T., representative of the period of its most pronounced theological liberalism, was the Theologische Jahrbücher (1842–57).
III. THE «CATHOLIC THEOLOGICAL FACULTY OF T.». — It arose in 1817, when King Guglielmo I of Württemberg transferred to T. the «Theological Academy» founded in 1812 by his father, Federico I, at Ellwangen, and incorporated it into the University as a Catholic theological faculty, also founding a college or seminary for Catholic students, corresponding to the seminary for Protestant students. The characteristic orientation of the new Faculty (often called the «Catholic School of T.») lies, in theology, in the harmonious fusion of the historical-positive method with the speculative method; and, in philosophy, in the profound study of modern spiritual currents and in the use of modern philosophy, suitably corrected and supervised by Catholic thought, in the service of theology. The influence exerted throughout Germany by distinguished professors (among whom it is worth mentioning J. S. Drey, J. B. Hirscher, J. A. Möhler, J. G. Herbst, J. Kuhn, C. J. Hefele) and by numerous students (among them F. A. Staudenmayer, F. Probst, P. B. Gams, F. X. Funk, P. Schanz, etc.) has always been considerable. The Catholic Faculty has as its organ the journal: Theologische Quartalschrift (v.).