The Oxford History of Modern German Theology. Volume 1 1781–1848 ed. by Grant Kaplan and Kevin M. Vander Schel (review)

Reviewed by: The Oxford History of Modern German Theology. Volume 1 1781–1848 ed. by Grant Kaplan and Kevin M. Vander Schel Mark Mattes The Oxford History of Modern German Theology. Volume 1 1781–1848. Edited by Grant Kaplan and Kevin M. Vander Schel. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2023. 813 pp. + xv. This volume is the first in a series of three that explores the legacy of German theology in the modern world, from Kant until recent times. Its thirty-six articles explore German theology from the late eighteenth century until the revolutions of 1848. The book seeks to correct a reading of theological history that focuses solely on Protestant theological giants and instead wants to situate these thinkers within the social, economic, and political movements in which they originated and to which they contributed. Hence, some figures, such as Kant or Schleiermacher, appear in several chapters but each new entrance marks a different spin on the thinker. As the editors explain, "the volume pursues a broadly diachronic approach to the subject matter by situating individual figures and works within larger historical patterns and trajectories. At the same time, it balances this approach with synchronic perspectives that offers detailed treatments of specific themes, controversies, and debates" (9). The book is divided into five subsections. The first deals with background material, introducing movements such as Orthodoxy, Pietism, Enlightenment, Historicism, and the Erweckungsbewegung. The second, from 1781, the year Kant published The Critique of Pure Reason, until 1806, the demise of the Holy Roman Empire, examines the reception of Kant, the "Pantheism Controversy," Romanticism, and the changing place of Catholic religious orders. The third, from 1806, the capture of Berlin by the French, until 1815, the defeat of Napoleon, investigates the debate about the place of theology in the university, Herder's appreciation of the mythological aspect of religion and culture, and the rise of early historicism. The fourth, from 1815 until 1830, the beginning of small-scale uprisings by the working class, deals with conservative political movements in reaction to the Napoleonic invasion, the rise of secularism, rationalistic biblical interpretation, Schleiermacher and Protestant Liberalism, the upsurge of conservative, "supernaturalistic" perspectives, and Roman Catholic rationalists. The fifth, from 1830 until the revolution of 1848, looks at important figures like Hegel, Schelling, End Page 108 F. C. Baur, D. F. Strauss, and L. Feuerbach, but also movements such as mediating theology, atheism, nationalism and race, major editing projects such as the Corpus Reformatorum, the equality of Jews in German-speaking lands, and Roman Catholic historical criticism. For the most part, this volume is designed for researchers and students. It does a superb job accomplishing its goal of situating great thinkers within a wider social perspective. That said, the book briefly interprets crucial texts of the period such as Kant's Religion within the Limits of Reason Alone or Schleiermacher's The Christian Faith. The opening section does a thorough job setting the stage of understanding the issues with which these thinkers wrestled. Uniquely, it presents the thinking of J. G. Hamann, whose criticism of rationalism was so crucial both for construing philosophical thought as historically conditioned, and also for the rise of existentialism in the thinking of Kierkegaard. Likewise, the book remarkably focuses not just on the great Protestant Liberal theologians, but also on Roman Catholics and Jews, and, surprisingly, conservative Protestant figures, such as E. W. Hengstenberg and Claus Harms. No matter how expert you are in this period, this volume will teach you something new. My example is the Prussian Patent of 30 March 1848 which allowed "Prussian citizens to leave the state churches without having to join a new religion" as well as welcomed admission of new religious movements to the circle of established, state-recognized churches (418). This book is for scholars. As such it is a superb resource helping us to understand the intensity and power of German theological research in the first half of the nineteenth century. Mark Mattes Grand View University Des Moines, Iowa Copyright © 2024 Johns Hopkins University Press and Lutheran Quarterly, Inc.