Volume 18, Issue 2

In the beginning of the 1780 s the Berliner popular pastor und foremost „Neologe“ Johann Joachim Spalding (1714–1804) was involved into a conflict which was about the implementation of a new hymnbook. Spalding defended this new hymnbook against all critics in his „Predigt von dem, was erbaulich ist“ (1781). The analysis of this conflict can be seen as a contribution to a precise understanding of the controversities in the late enlightenment. Furthermore it shows how Spalding argued against his critics and how he tried to convince his congregation.

This article discusses the educational context of John Henry Newman's earlier writings. Through a detailed analysis of the character of Oxford University it traces the development of his educational theory in his practice of teaching. Oxford, which remained a wholly Anglican institution until the 1870s, functioned as a microcosmfor the broader issues of church and state which dominated the writings of the leaders of the Tractarian (or Oxford) Movement in the 1830s. The article helps explain why English theology developed completely differently from theology in continental Europe. For Newman, education was a pastoral and religious task where faith and life were connected through a common ‘catholic’ ethos: the quest for truth was a religious duty. This idea, where the intellect and will were mutually determinative of one another, remained central to his theology and theory of education after his conversion to the Roman Catholic Church, especially in his plans for the University of Dublin, published in The Idea of a University . Newman's insight was that authentic education required a ‘religious’ disposition, and learning was a moral and spiritual task. This may still be of some relevance in educational policy in the present day.

The aim of this contribution is to give a comprehensive and readable account of the first World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893. The Parliament was organised in the context of the Columbian World Exhibition and attracted 150,000 people, according to one of the lenghty reports. Various aspects are addressed: the objectives of the organisers, the character of the various reports of this mega-event, the participation of women (who were among the speakers), the relationship between the Christian organisers and the representatives of the East, the various – opposing – claims about the superiority of specific forms of religion and culture, the tendency to spiritualize religion, and the role of the emerging field of religious studies versus the ‘interfaith’ character of the Parliament. The participants were convinced of the ultimate meaning of ‘religion’ as a force against indulging in consumerism and materialism (which form in this view the core of irreligion).

The article explores for the first time the theological relevance of the work of the artist Karl Bauer (1868–1942), who specialized in portraits of those he called „Great Men“. Influenced by the pseudo-science of phrenology, he believed that „greatness“ manifested itself in certain features of the skull. Luther, for example, he painted with a prominent forehead as a sign of strong will and Germanic defiance, presenting him as a national hero whose translation of the bible into German had laid the foundation of Bismarck's Empire of 1870. Bauer's Luther-portraits became a trademark of national Protestantism until well into the 20 th -century and were used in the mass media of popular culture. Their enormous popularity points to the relevance of non-logocentric means of theological communication which have not yet been sufficiently appreciated as an important source of church history.

This edition makes available the correspondence between Paul Tillich and his friend, the philosopher Richard Kroner, who were colleagues at the Technische Universität Dresden from the winter semester of 1925/26. They were to meet again in New York after Tillich's emigration to the United States in 1933, and Kroner's six years later. In 1941 Tillich was able to secure Kroner a visiting lecturer position at Union Theological Seminary. The exchange of letters, which also includes contributions from their wives Hannah Tillich and Alice Kroner, covers the period from 1942 to 1964. It offers a remarkable account of the struggle for self-assertion and reorientation of two very different personalities who escaped the destructive will of the National Socialists. While Kroner and Tillich shared an enthusiasm for the philosophical legacy of German Idealism, they expressed it very differently in their respective works.