Description: As a historical inquiry and synthesis, this
intellectual history is the first study to apply the ideal-type or
model-building methodology of Otto Hintze (1861-1940) to Western
historical thought or to what R. G. Collingwood called ""The Idea
of History,"" for it contains succinct and useful models for seeing
and teaching classical, Christian, and modern professional
historiography. Religion and the Rise of History is also the first
work to suggest that, in addition to his well-known paradoxical,
simul, and/or ""at-the-same-time"" way of thinking and viewing
life, Martin Luther also held to a way that was deeply
incarnational, dynamic, and/or ""in-with-and-under."" This dual
vision and ""a Lutheran ethos"" strongly influenced Leibniz,
Hamann, and Herder, and was therefore a matter of considerable
significance for the rise of a distinctly modern form of historical
consciousness (commonly called ""historicism"") in Protestant
Germany. Smith's essay suggests a new time period for the formative
age of modern German thought, culture, and education: ""The
Cultural Revolution in Germany."" This age began in the early 1760s
and culminated in 1810 with the founding of the University of
Berlin, the first fully ""modern"" and ""modernizing"" university.
This university first became the recognized center for the study of
history, however, through the work of Leopold von Ranke
(1795-1886). Here the story shows how a young Ranke derived his
individualizing way of thinking and viewing life mainly from
Luther, how his life-work is the best example in Western literature
of the rise of history from a calling to a profession, and how the
three-way discussion between Troeltsch, Meinecke, and Hintze
concerning the nature of modern historical thought was of central
importance for the reorientation of Western social-historical
thought in the twentieth century. Endorsements: ""Leonard Smith's
book is, in its origins and goals, a deeply pedagogical work. He
addresses a central problem in the history of eighteenth-century
German and European thought, the emergence of a new, evolutionary
view of history called ""historicism."" Enabled by Luther's
incarnational theology, historicism received its first formulation,
Smith argues, from Leibniz and his successors and achieved its
public place in the new University of Berlin (est. 1810). This book
is a splendid marriage of classical themes with new and original
insights. Everyone interested in the evolution of European
historical thought should read it."" --Thomas A. Brady Jr.,
University of California, Berkeley ""This book breaks new ground in
showing how Martin Luther shaped the philosophical pioneers of a
new worldview based upon the study of history. A textbook for minds
curious about a philosophy of history."" --The Rev. Eric W.
Gritsch, Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary ""A wide-ranging intellectual
history of the emergence in Germany of a modern historical
consciousness. Smith argues that a Lutheran ethos was especially
conducive to this development, as it was transmitted through the
use of Luther's Small Catechism and generations of pastors and
teachers. Key figures in this transmission include Leibniz and
Hamann, leading to its flowering in Ranke and further elaboration
by Hintze and Meinecke in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Provocative and engaging."" --Dale A. Johnson, Buffington Professor
of Church History, Emeritus, Vanderbilt University About the
Contributor(s): Leonard S. Smith is Emeritus Professor of History
at California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, California.
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