Baur, Ferdinand Christian

Baur, Ferdinand Christian (fĕr`dĭnänt krĭs`tēän bour), 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).

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Baur, Ferdinand Christian 

Born June 21, 1792, in Schmiden, near Stuttgart; died Dec. 2, 1860, in Tübingen. German theologian, Protestant, and founder and head of the Tübingen school of theology. Beginning in 1826, a professor in the theological faculty of the University of Tübingen.

Under the influence of Hegel, Baur viewed the history of early Christianity as a struggle of contradictory tendencies (Petrinism, which opposed the complete separation of Christianity from Judaism, and Paulinism, which favored a radical break with Judaism). Baur and the Tübingen school, of which he was the leader, discovered sharp contradictions among the gospels, as well as the falseness of many Christian texts, and they historically dated the various parts of the New Testament. Freeing the New Testament of all its contradictions and still working from a theological position, Baur and those who shared his views fought to preserve religion. Characterizing the Tübingen school, F. Engels wrote: “It tries ’to save what can be saved’ ” (K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 22, p. 473).

REFERENCE

Kryvelev, I. Kniga o biblii. Moscow, 1958. Pages 107–10.