RT Article
T1 Creation, Fall and Political Order: Prussian Conservatism and the Old Testament
JF Journal of the bible and its reception
VO 8
IS 2
SP 163
OP 181
A1 Achtelstetter, Laura Claudia
LA English
PB De Gruyter
YR 2021
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1786232898
AB This article examines differences within the theological basis of early nineteenth-century Prussian conservatism. By exploring the usage of the Old Testament in the writings of conservative thought leaders Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg, Ernst Ludwig von Gerlach, and Friedrich Julius Stahl, this article contributes to scholarship of both traditions of biblical interpretation and that of the relation of theology and political theory. The focus of this article centers on three concepts of the Old Testament and their implementation in conservative political doctrine. I will discuss Hengstenberg’s concept of biblical historicity and unity of Scripture, Gerlach’s use of the Old Testament as the source of a role model for just religious wars and a theocratic concept of law, as well as Stahl’s bible-based political philosophy of history and the resulting model of political order. Thus, the basis for different, resulting concepts of church, state, and nation that were merged into an overall religion-based political conservative doctrine in pre-1848 Prussia are analyzed.
K1 Christian philosophy of the state
K1 Evangelische Kirchen-Zeitung
K1 Prussia
K1 Prussian church constitution
K1 biblical historicity
K1 Conservatism
DO 10.1515/jbr-2021-0009