Ferdinand Christian Baur

The German theologian Ferdinand Christian Baur (1792-1860) combined historical, philosophical, and linguistic approaches in his pioneering work on the history and philosophy of Christianity. He and his followers are known as the Tübingen school of theology.

Ferdinand Christian Baur, the son of a Protestant minister and dean of the theological seminary at Blaubeuren, was born at Schmiden, near Stuttgart, on June 21, 1792. He received his early schooling at Blaubeuren and attended the University of Tübingen from 1809 to 1814. After serving as country vicar and teacher, he was professor of theology at Blaubeuren from 1817 until 1826.

Influenced by B.G. Niebuhr's history of Rome, Baur became involved in the study of ancient history and the history of religion. This led to his first major work, Symbolism and Mythology, or the Nature Religion of Antiquity (3 vols., 1824-1825), and to his appointment as professor of theology at Tübingen in 1826. There he settled down to a life of teaching, preaching, and scholarship.

In 1833 Baur published Contrast between Catholicism and Protestantism according to the Principles and Main Dogmas of the Two Teachings. This work criticized attempts to polarize the differences between Catholic and Protestant dogma. In it Baur also presented for the first time one of his most important concepts—the distinction between the Petrine (Jewish-Christian) and Pauline (Gentile-Christian) interpretations of early Christian development. This concept was expanded in his famous Christian Gnosticism (1835).

Baur's studies during the 1830s and early 1840s culminated in the important Paulus, der Apostel Jesu Christi (2 vols., 1845) and in the Textbook of the History of Christian Dogma (1847). In Paulus Baur established a new chronology of St. Paul's New Testament writings. He recognized only the Epistles to the Galatians, Corinthians, and Romans as genuinely Pauline. He attributed the writings on Paul in Acts of the Apostles to a later Paulinist writer who attempted to overcome Petrine-versus-Pauline party differences in the early Church. Continuing study of the literary sources of the Gospels led to the publication of Critical Investigations concerning the Canonical Gospels (1847), in which the Petrine and Pauline differentiation was further developed.

During the last decade of his life Baur published three volumes of his projected five-volume church history. The last two volumes were compiled from his lectures and were published posthumously. Baur died on Dec. 2, 1860, at Tübingen, having suffered a stroke during a meeting of the Academic Senate. He was one of the most dedicated and fruitful scholars of his time, and his major contribution was the freeing of Protestant theology from the fetters of supranatural and pietistic conservatism.

Further Reading

The most up-to-date study on Baur in English is Peter C. Hodgson, The Formation of Historical Theology: A Study of Ferdinand Christian Baur (1966). A modern translation by P.C. Hodgson, ed., Ferdinand Christian Baur on the Writing of Church History (1968), contains a lengthy and useful introduction to Baur and his work. □

Baur, Ferdinand Christian (1792–1860), German Protestant theologian, founder of the Tübingen School. He taught in Tübingen University from 1826 until his death. From 1835 he was inspired by G. W. F. Hegel's theory of historical development; this guided his interpretation of Gnosticism (1835) and various works on doctrine. He had also recognized the fact of conflict in the early Church and later made this the key to his understanding of early Christianity. In 1835 he denied the Pauline authorship of the Pastoral Epistles, dating them in the 2nd cent. on account of the historical situation they presuppose. His monograph on St Paul (1845) went on to deny the authenticity of all the Pauline Epistles except Gal., 1 and 2 Cor., and Rom., and assigned Acts to the later 2nd cent. In his work on the Gospels (1847) he gave the earliest dating to Mt., as representing the Judaizing party, and the latest to Jn., as depicting the final reconciliation. This last Gospel, he argued, reflected the Gnostic and Montanist controversies of the 2nd cent. and was devoid of historical value. Such views aroused a storm of controversy.

Baur, Ferdinand Christian (1792–1860) German NT scholar and Church historian of Tübingen University. He denied the authenticity of many of the letters ascribed to Paul and maintained that a bitter struggle in the apostolic Church between Peter and Paul was concealed by the author of the Acts in the interests of reconciliation. The conflict was resolved in the form of Catholic Christianity in the 2nd cent., when the fourth gospel was compiled (150 CE). It was an interpretation resembling the dialectical philosophy of history developed by Hegel (of thesis, antithesis, and synthesis). The principal English antagonist of Baur's view was J. B. Lightfoot. Today it is widely conceded that NT literature should be understood in terms of its diversity and that the differences within the early Church are of a piece with the contradictions and tensions of universal and ecclesiastical history—and to that extent Baur has some modern support.

Baur, Ferdinand Christian (1792–1860). German Protestant theologian, who was Professor of Theology at Tübingen from 1826 to his death, and founded the ‘Tübingen school’. Influenced by F. D. E. Schleiermacher and by G. W. F. Hegel's understanding of history, he saw conflict and synthesis as the key to understanding early Christianity. So, e.g. in his controversial work on Paul (1845; Eng. tr. 1873–5), he held that only the letters reflecting his lifelong opposition to the older disciples (viz., Galatians, 1–2 Corinthians, Romans) were authentic. He applied similar historical criticism to the development of Christian doctrines, especially the atonement, Trinity, and incarnation.

Ferdinand Christian Baur , 1792–1860, German Protestant theologian. He was from 1826 on the theological faculty of Tübingen. He became convinced of Hegel's philosophy of history and studied Christian history and doctrines and the Bible from that point of view. In New Testament criticism he rejected the authenticity of most of the books, using philosophical and literary criteria. His methods and disciples were referred to as the Tübingen School.

Bibliography: See study by P. C. Hodgson (1966) and J. Fitzer (1974).