Heinrich Julius Holtzmann (1832-1910) was one of the outstanding Biblical scholars of his time. In his influential monographs, commentaries, and textbooks traditional exegesis is transformed into purely historical research, far removed from all biblicism. The New Testament is read as a collection of sources pinning down the origin and early developments of Christianity as a process in the ancient history of religion. Holtzmann's historiography focused on religious and intellectual notions. That is why he required a system of elaborate conceptions for his analyses and reconstructions. Consequently, he spent considerable efforts (academic lectures and numerous essays) on the philosophy of religion. Contrary to other historist theologians, Holtzmann resisted tendencies to separate scholarly theology from practical theology. He maintained that the historical approach to Biblical texts was an indispensable requirement for preaching these texts to contemporary congregations, whose way of life and thought is separated by a wide mental and intellectual gap from the documents of original Christianity. Nevertheless the Bible alone, read historico-critically, represents the authentic documents testifying to the beginnings of Christian faith in their original purity, and at the same time the Bible contains the basic, universally accepted concepts and images which constitute the foundation and the material of religious communication in Christian congregations. So, Holtzmann claimed that preachers had to acquire a thorough historical understanding of biblical texts, which would lead them to the basic religious motives in and behind them. Obviously, in this respect, too, philosophy is paramount - understood as the diagnostic instrument for the religious implications of contemporary mentalities. For this mediating approach to biblical texts, Holtzmann used the term "Practical Exegesis", the roots of which he traced back to Immanuel Kant's program of "moral exposition of the Scriptures".

Enthalten in:
Kerygma und Dogma; 2022/4 Zeitschrift für theologische Forschung und kirchliche Lehre (2022)

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Serie / Reihe: Kerygma und Dogma

Personen: Ohst, Martin

Schlagwörter: Exegese Predigt Theologie Bibel Holtzmann, Julius