Ernst Troeltsch: Political Ethics and Comparative Religions

Chung, Paul S.

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-17172-8_9

Paul S. Chung²

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Abstract

This chapter is a study of public theory of religion and ethics in Troeltsch’s historicism and comparative study of world religions. Unlike Weber, Troeltsch did not find an interest in critical theory and political theology. I re-examine Troeltsch’s social ethical theology and historical, critical method for the correlation model for political theology and comparative study of religions. Troeltsch in the European modernist framework can be a potential pioneer for breaking through a path of multiple modernities, which can be found in his comparative study of religions. His Christian sociology can be compared to Weber’s sociology, and his evaluation of Calvinist ethics and social humanism is differentiated from Weber. However, his limitation does not go unnoticed. For the correlation between critical theory and political theology, Troeltsch’s historical, critical method can be critically renewed with attention to hermeneutical theory (Gadamer) and the sociology of lifeworld (Habermas) for critical social ethics, religious humanism, and alternative modernities.

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Notes

1.
Foreword by James Luther Adams, Troeltsch, The Social Teaching of the Christian Churches, I.
2.
Ogletree, Christian Faith and History, 13.
3.
“My Books (1922),” in Religion in History, 374–5.
4.
Drescher, Ernst Troeltsch, 102.
5.
Ibid., 101.
6.
Troeltsch, The Social Teaching I, 36. Footnote 7.
7.
“My Books (1922),” in Religion in History, 372.
8.
Troeltsch, The Social Teaching I, 25. 37. Footnote 9.
9.
“The Dogmatics of the History-of-Religions School (1913),” in Religion in History, 93.
10.
Welch, Protestant Thought in the Nineteenth Century II, 14–5, 22.
11.
Troeltsch, The Social Teaching II, 34.
12.
Foreword by Troeltsch, The Social Teaching I.
13.
Troeltsch, The Social Teaching II, 994–5.
14.
Ibid., 1013.
15.
Chapman, Ernst Troeltsch and Liberal Theology, 4–8.
16.
Ibid., 152.
17.
Troeltsch, The Social Teaching I, 19.
18.
Gayhart, The Ethics of Ernst Troeltsch, 182.
19.
Troeltsch, The Social Teaching II, 993.
20.
Sharot, A Comparative Sociology of World Religions.
21.
Weber, “The Social Psychology of the World Religions,” in From Max Weber, 288–99.
22.
Weber, The Sociology of Religion, 290.
23.
Weber, “The Nature of Social Action,” in Weber Selections in Translation, 8.
24.
Weber, “Protestant Asceticism and the Spirit of Capitalism,” in ibid., 172.
25.
Weber, Sociology of Religion, 291.
26.
Ibid., 257.
27.
Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 121.
28.
Weber, “The Social Psychology of the World Religions,” in From Max Weber, 270.
29.
Ibid., 280.
30.
Weber, “Politics as a Vocation,” ibid., 78.
31.
Ibid., 79.
32.
Ibid., 96.
33.
Ibid., 122.
34.
Ibid., 127.
35.
Ibid., 139.
36.
Ibid., 143.
37.
Ibid., 147.
38.
Ibid., 149.
39.
Ibid., 155.
40.
Troeltsch, The Social Teaching II, 993.
41.
Ibid., 1009.
42.
Troeltsch, The Social Teaching I, 25.
43.
Troeltsch, The Social Teaching II, 1013.
44.
Ibid., 1002.
45.
Ibid.
46.
Ibid., 1013.
47.
Ibid., 626. 628.
48.
Ibid., 628.
49.
Ibid., 629.
50.
Ibid., 643.
51.
Ibid., 646.
52.
Ibid., 648.
53.
Ibid., 649.
54.
Weber, “Religious Rejections of the World and their Directions,” in From Max Weber, 332–3.
55.
Bellah , “Max Weber and World-Denying Love,” in The Robert Bellah Reader, 123.
56.
Troeltsch, The Social Teaching II, 1000.
57.
“On the Question of the Religious A Priory (1909),” in Religion in History, 35.
58.
Ibid., 35–6.
59.
Ibid., 40–1.
60.
Ogletree, Christian Faith and History, 24.
61.
Drescher, Ernst Troeltsch, 81–2.
62.
Ibid., 83.
63.
“Historical and Dogmatic Method in Theology (1898),” in Religion in History, 13.
64.
Ibid., 14.
65.
“The Dogmatics of the History-of-Religions School (1913),” in Religion in History, 93.
66.
Ibid., 88.
67.
“Political Ethics and Christianity (1904),” in Religion in History, 179.
68.
Drescher, Ernst Troeltsch, 105.
69.
“Political Ethics and Christianity (1904),” in Religion in History, 181.
70.
Ibid., 181.
71.
Ibid., 184.
72.
Ibid., 185.
73.
Ibid., 189.
74.
Ibid., 192–3.
75.
Ibid., 198–9.
76.
Ibid., 209.
77.
Ibid., 176.
78.
Ibid., 195.
79.
Chambon, Der Französische Protestantismus.
80.
Scholl, Reformation und Politik, 87–102.
81.
Constitutionalism and Resistance in the Sixteenth Century, 79, 107. Resistance to tyrants was elevated to the status of Christian responsibility, which was to support the oppressed, especially in the Scots Confession (1560).
82.
Ibid., 143.
83.
Fenseke, et al. Geschichte der politischen Ideen von Homer bis zur Gegenwart, 276–81, 306–9.
84.
Moltmann, God for a Secular Society, 26–31.
85.
Troeltsch, The Social Teaching II, 1005.
86.
“The Dogmatics of the History-of-Religions School (1913),” in Religion in History, 99. 107.
87.
Husserl, “The Mathematization of Nature,” in The Essential Husserl, 360.
88.
Husserl, “Elements of a Science of the Life-World,” ibid., 373–4.
89.
Gadamer, Truth and Method, 324. 388.
90.
Habermas, The Theory of Communicative Action II, 119.
91.
“Hermeneutics and the Critique of Ideology,” in Ricoeur, Hermeneutics and the Human Sciences, 74.
92.
Ibid., 97.
93.
Habermas, Between Naturalism and Religion, 245.
94.
Ibid., 137.
95.
Ibid., 131.
96.
Ibid., 137.
97.
Ibid., 269–70.
98.
Ibid., 311.
99.
“The Dogmatics of the History-of-Religions School (1913),” in Religion in History, 90, 94.
100.
Ibid., 95–6, 98.
101.
Troeltsch, The Absoluteness of Christianity and the History of Religions, 112.
102.
Ibid., 114.
103.
Ibid., 115. “The Dogmatics of the History-of-Religions School (1913),” in Religion in History, 105.
104.
Troeltsch, The Absoluteness of Christianity and the History of Religions, 71.
105.
Troeltsch, ‘The Place of Christianity Among the World Religions,’ in Hugel, Christian Thought, 1–35.
106.
Troeltsch, The Absoluteness of Christianity, 89.
107.
Troeltsch, “The Place of Christianity among the World Religions,” in Christian Thought, 10.
108.
Ibid., 15–7.
109.
Ibid., 20–1. 23.
110.
Ibid., 29.
111.
Ibid., 30.
112.
Ibid., 32.
113.
“Faith and History (1910),” in Religion in History, 141.
114.
Ibid., 142.
115.
“On the Possibility of a Liberal Christianity (1910),” in Religion in History, 347.
116.
Ibid., 348.
117.
Ibid., 349.
118.
Ibid., 350.
119.
Giddens, Central Problem in Social Theory.
120.
“Eschatology (1910),” in Religion in History, 153, 155.
121.
Ibid., 153.
122.
Troeltsch, The Social Teaching II, 1005.
123.
“Political Ethics and Christianity (1904),” in Religion in History, 184.
124.
Habermas, The Theory of Communicative Action II, 153–97.
125.
Bellah , “Max Weber and World-Denying Love,” in The Robert Bellah Reader, 148.
126.
Troeltsch, The Social Teaching II, 1006.

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Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA
Paul S. Chung

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Chung, P.S. (2019). Ernst Troeltsch: Political Ethics and Comparative Religions. In: Critical Theory and Political Theology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17172-8_9

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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-17172-8_9
Published: 03 May 2019
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
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Online ISBN: 978-3-030-17172-8
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