Abstract

‘The Anthem Companion to Ernst Troeltsch’ is the first collection of essays in English devoted to the thinking of Ernst Troeltsch. The eight essays are written by scholars who have been recognized as major contributors to works on Troeltsch; many of them have published books on his theology. These essays are devoted to exploring Troeltsch’s ethical, sociological and political ideas in addition to his theological concepts. The collection aims to depict Troeltsch as a major sociologist and important philosopher in addition to being one of the most significant German theologians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

‘The Anthem Companion to Ernst Troeltsch’ is a collection of eight essays devoted to many aspects of Troeltsch’s thinking. Each of the contributors is a well-respected scholar who has written extensively on Ernst Troeltsch. This collection is, therefore, groundbreaking in two ways: it brings together scholars of the highest caliber and provides the first compilation of essays on Troeltsch’s thought in English.

In the editor’s Introduction Christopher Adair-Toteff provides a brief overview of Troeltsch’s life and works and then discusses his contributions to theology, sociology, philosophy and cultural criticism. Hans Joas concentrates on one of Troeltsch’s early programmatic texts and demonstrates its relevance for a historical-sociological understanding of religion today. Arie L. Molendijk introduces Troeltsch’s famous typology of “Church, Sect, Mysticism” and demonstrates that they were crucial for addressing the “intrinsic sociological idea of Christianity.” Mark D. Chapman focuses on Troeltsch as a “systematic theologian in the History of Religion School” and offers a detailed analysis of his approach to the structure of Christian dogmatic theology. Christian Polke examines Troeltsch’s notion of personality and reveals it to be the normative core of his philosophical and theological thinking. He shows how this is important for the development of a society which is founded upon value-experience and the ethos of responsibility. Lori Pearson focuses on Troeltsch’s uses of the concepts of “modernity” and “Protestantism” and demonstrates that he offers an understanding of the latter which reduces much of the alienating individuality of the former. Ulrich Schmiedel studies Troeltsch’s attempt to combine theological and sociological accounts of the history of Christianity in order to identify the religion. He argues that instead of providing a conceptual definition of Christianity, Troeltsch offers a performative one. Jeffrey Kinlaw concentrates on Troeltsch’s contention that normative authority is the central problem of religious pluralism and shows how this is an epistemological problem with extensive theological consequences. In the concluding chapter Adair-Toteff examines Troeltsch’s conception of historicism and shows how he tried to combat the relativism and negativity present in the writings of the proponents of this philosophy of history.

The eight essays in this volume reveal the depth and scope of Ernst Troeltsch’s thinking and demonstrate that he was not only a first-rate theologian but also a co-founder with Max Weber of the sociology of religion. They also help establish Troeltsch’s place as a major philosopher and a significant critic of modern culture.

Christopher Adair-Toteff is a social theorist concentrating on social and political issues.