Tübingen School

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Tübingen School. A group of scholars of early Christianity who were influential in the mid-19th cent. They were led by F. C. Baur and included E. Zeller, A. Hilgenfeld, A. Schwegler, and (for a time) A. Ritschl. In their view, influenced by Hegel's conception of history, the early church was divided into a Jewish party led by Peter and a gentile party led by Paul. The opposition of the two parties was resolved only in the ‘catholic’ synthesis of the 2nd cent., at which time the bulk of the New Testament was written. Baur's influence declined after the 1840s, and the work of A. Harnack and J. B. Lightfoot is usually said to have led to the abandonment of its positions.

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