Ritschl - Justification And Reconcilliation

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Albrecht Ritschl (Early Life and Education)

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Dates: (1822–1889)
Studied at Vonn, Halle, Heidelberg, and Tübigen
Influenced by Hegel, Tübingen school, Kant, Schleiermacher, and Lotze.

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Barth on Ritschl

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Barth says that Ritschl’s idea of reconciliation is “the realized ideal of human life” (Protestant Thought, 393)

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Ritschl's initial datum:

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The "immediate object of theological knowledge is the faith of the community," and from this positive religious datum theology constructs a total view of the world and human life." That God is love and that the purpose of His love is the moral organization of humanity in the "Kingdom of God" (209)

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A Critical History of the Doctrine of Justification and Reconciliation

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Published: 1872

R. sets out against “the weight of almost all the traditions of dogmatic theology” in preference for “the whole idom and thinking of the new testament” (9). He criticizes Baur for treating the “fancies of the Church Fathers” as legitimate parts of the doctrine of reconciliation (11).
R. is very opposed to “the appearance of the theological ‘Illumination’” (19).

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Anselm and Abelard

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Anselm confuses things by discussing the legal aspects of redemption by Satisfaction, but the moral aspects towards man by Christ’s merit, while Abelard has the simpler and clearer presentation of the moral motive of the Love of God in effecting mans redemption (40)

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Lutherans

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Unhelpful discussion of law and grace, as taught to "the common rude man" (181).

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Epistemology

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Influenced by the philosophy of Kant rather than of Lotze, Ritschl denies human reason the power to arrive at a scientific knowledge of God. Consequently religion cannot have an intellectual, but merely a practical-moral foundation. Religious knowledge is essentially distinct from scientific knowledge. It is not acquired by a theoretical insight into truth, but, as the product of religious faith, is bound up with the practical interests of the soul. Religion is practice, not theory. (Catholic Enc.)

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Ritschl on Justification and Reconciliation:

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The returning sinner is at first passively determined by God, whereupon justification achieves its practical success in reconciliation and regeneration, (185) which in their turn lead to Christian activity. Justification and reconciliation are so related that the former is also the forgiveness of sin and as such removes man's consciousness of guilt (i.e., mistrust of God), while the latter, as the cessation of active resistance to God, introduces a new direction of the will calculated to develop Christian activity in the true fulfilment of one's vocation. (Catholic Enc.) cf. 576–77

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Ritschl on the Church:

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This is a unique emphasis in his circles, that the community of faith places a central and necessary role (183; 195, 604). This Church is without the impediments of clergy, or sacraments.