Ferdinand Christian Baur on Religion: A Historicist Approach in an Idealist Context
In this article, I consider F.C. Baur’s conception of religion. This has not yet been done because Baur is generally regarded as a historical theologian rather than a theorist of religion. Yet I argue that, if we observe Baur’s own historical work, we discover there a remarkably original conceptual...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
MDPI
2024
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| In: |
Religions
Year: 2024, Volume: 15, Issue: 2 |
| Further subjects: | B
Schleiermacher
B Idealism B F.C. Baur B Hegel B Philosophy of religion B Religion B Mythology B Gnosis |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (kostenfrei) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | In this article, I consider F.C. Baur’s conception of religion. This has not yet been done because Baur is generally regarded as a historical theologian rather than a theorist of religion. Yet I argue that, if we observe Baur’s own historical work, we discover there a remarkably original conceptual work on the notion of religion. For Baur, I argue, religion was a key concept, in that it aided him in his attempt to bring together theological, historical, and philosophical work. Yet the concept of religion had to be of a particular kind in order to suit his agenda. Therefore, the identification of Baur’s concept of religion will also help ascertain the coherence of his intellectual activity. In the article, I focus on two of Baur’s works, his first monograph, Symbolik und Mythologie (1824/5) and his magisterial Die christliche Gnosis (1835). I show that fundamental ideas across these two books should be seen as Baur’s own (rather than merely borrowed from Schleiermacher and Hegel), and that there is more continuity between them than readers have often found. In a final section, I discuss briefly an essay Baur devoted to the Begriff der Religionsphilosophie (1837). |
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| ISSN: | 2077-1444 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religions
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.3390/rel15020210 |