Commission for Research into the History of Theology
Only in the 18th century did theology begin to see itself from a specifically historical perspective and only then did the historical approach to theological reflection become an independent academic topic. A strong concentration on the present day was always dominant. It was precisely this special focus on present-day interpretation and self-reassurance that in the 19th century led to Protestantism – and modern liberal Judaism, too – increasingly narrowing down the term "history of theology" to the interpretation and representation of the period after the Age of Reason. Since then it has been possible to observe significant differences in the way the term is used by Roman-Catholic and Protestant theologians, which is the result of a diverging conception of church dogma and of a difference in the willingness to open themselves to the historical positivism of the period. Only as a result of massive efforts to become more professional, in particular since the 1960s, did research into the history of theology in German-speaking countries gradually free itself from denominational constraints and turn to the examination of wider historical horizons with a growing consciousness of methodology.
The Commission for Research into the History of Theology has made it its prime aim to accompany this development critically and where necessary to encourage it. In its initial phase it is devoting itself above all – with a concentration certainly to be seen as programmatic and with a decidedly interdisciplinary approach – on a critical edition of the collected works of Ernst Troeltsch. Research projects, planned editions, and colloquiums on figures from the history of theology and the science of religion will follow at a later date, and it is expected that their importance, transcending the individual denominations, will provide significant impulses in particular for the discourse concerning the orientation of the science of civilisation at the start of the 21st century.
Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923), religious, social and historical philosopher and influential German political scholar (about 1921).