Harnack, Adolf von

Harnack, Adolf von (ä`dôlf fən här`näk), 1851–1930, German theologian and church historian. He was professor of church history successively in the universities of Leipzig, Giessen, Marburg, and Berlin. He was director (1905–21) of the Royal Library, Berlin, and president of the scientific research foundation, Kaiser Wilhelm-Gesellschaft. His great work, Lehrbuch der Dogmengeschichte (4 vol., 1886–90; tr. The History of Dogma, 7 vol., 1895–1900), has exerted an important influence upon modern theological study. Other translated works include Monasticism (1895), What Is Christianity? (1901), The Apostles' Creed (1901), The Expansion of Christianity in the First Three Centuries (2 vol., 1904–5), and Luke the Physician (1907).

Bibliography

See studies by G. W. Glick (1967) and W. Pauck (1968).