RT Article
T1 A Republican of Faith: Adolf von Harnack's Public and Intellectual Activity, 1914-1930
JF Zeitschrift für neuere Theologiegeschichte
VO 31
IS 1
SP 18
OP 42
A1 Powers, Robert L. 1997-
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://ixtheo.de/Record/1888893915
AB This paper focuses on the prominent German theologian Adolf von Harnack in his capacity as a public intellectual during the Weimar Republic. The few works of scholarship that address Harnack's Weimar years at any length are in German, and the barely extant Anglophone literature, severely outdated, largely neglects to evaluate adequately the evolution and scope of Harnack’s pedagogical and theological positions as well as of the institutional power he commanded. Drawing principally from Harnack's writings, both personal and published, before World War I until his death in 1930, this essay seeks to chart his intellectual development during the final years of his life and to survey how he translated his liberal theological principles into loyalty to the Weimar constitution. Public intellectuals such as Harnack were able to serve the public good in multifaceted, unquantifiable ways without attaching themselves to a particular party or to an explicitly partisan cause. By examining Harnack's public and theological activity, I intend to provide a more holistic look at intellectual life in the Weimar Republic and to advocate for both a less restrictive definition of "public intellectual" and a broader conception of "political activism."
K1 Harnack, Adolf von : 1851-1930
K1 Adolf von Harnack
K1 German Theology
K1 Karl Barth
K1 Modern European Intellectual History
K1 Political Theology
K1 Weimar Republic
K1 World War I
K1 Werkanalyse
K1 Biografie
DO 10.1515/znth-2024-0002