LITMIR.BIZ

"As we hoped, Hintze's further development made him one of the great ones in the discipline. To be sure, he was one of those who was only known in the circle of experts, like a very high mountain in a mountain range which one first noticed from the vantage point of a high pass." –Friedrich Meinecke, 1941 (translated by Leonard S. Smith) "What we call historicism is a new, unique, categorical-structure of the mind [des Geistes] that began to arise in the West in the eighteenth century and achieved authoritative currency in the nineteenth, particularly in Germany, though not in Germany alone. It is characterized by the categories of individuality and development, which postulate a view of historical reality based on the analogy of the life unit [Lebenseinheit] and the life-process [Lebensprozess]." –Otto Hintze, 1927 (translated by Leonard S. Smith) "If Hintze could be included, as he should be, as one of 'the great ones in the discipline' in historiography classes throughout the United States, this could greatly widen 'the circle of experts' in this and other English-speaking countries and/or encourage history teachers to lead students to reach 'the vantage point of a high pass' where they could see this 'very high mountain' for themselves." –Leonard S. Smith, 2012

Подробнее

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.

Подробнее

Like Leonard Smith's larger study, Religion and the Rise of History, this essay, Martin Luther's Two Ways of Viewing Life, asserts that Luther's well-known «at-the-same-time,» simul, or paradoxical way of viewing life does not capture Luther's thought as a whole, because it does not represent his deeply incarnational and dynamic, mystical and holistic, particularizing and historical way of viewing life based on the power of the Word and the Spirit of God either in his own life or in human history.
Smith contends (1) that the best way to capture Luther's «second» basic way of thinking and of viewing life is through the connected prepositions (connected especially for Lutherans) «in, with, and under»; (2) that this second basic way was based primarily on the Gospel of John and its great Prologue, which shows how God is acting, creating, and redeeming, and how Jesus is «the Word become flesh»; and (3) that understanding both of Luther's ways of viewing life is helpful for understanding Lutheran education and «a Lutheran ethos» since the sixteenth century. Since this brief essay is written primarly for a general audience, it can easily be used as a text or supplementary reading for a class, seminary, or group discussion.

Подробнее