Tübingen School


The Tübingen School is a scientific school of Protestant and Roman Catholic theologians who developed the foundations for the historical-critical method of biblical research at the University of Tübingen in the 19th century.

Protestant and Catholic Tübingen schools

The Tübingen School emerged around 1826 in the circle of the Protestant theologian Ferdinand Christian Baur, who worked as Professor of Church and Dogmatic History from 1826 to 1860 and as Rector of the University of Tübingen in 1841 and 1842. Baur and his students laid the foundations for the historical-critical method of biblical research in the 19th century. Baur's students included, among others, David Friedrich Strauß, Johann Tobias Beck, and Baur's student Eduard Zeller. Beck, however, rejected Baur's speculative view and founded a more biblically based school, while Albert Schwegler switched from theology to philology in 1841 following conflicts with Württemberg church authorities.

Catholic school

Roman Catholic theologians with a similar line of research to Baur were Johann Sebastian von Drey, Johann Adam Möhler, Johann Baptist von Hirscher as well as Franz Anton Staudenmaier and Johannes von Kuhn. They engaged in controversial discussions with Baur and his students, which is why the Catholic Tübingen school can be clearly distinguished from the Protestant school. Inspired by the philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, it also dealt with the issue of divine revelation vs. human reason. In doing so, it endeavored to unite historical and speculative theology.
The Protestant Tübingen school was involved in a long and fierce dispute with its Tübingen colleague Heinrich Ewald. Albrecht Ritschl, who strove to strike a balance between orthodox and liberal theology, ultimately parted ways with the Tübingen school. Around 1860, the Anglican New Testament scholar and philologist Brooke Foss Westcott took up Baur's methods and developed a historically sharpened critical method of biblical research.

Three Tübingen schools

Some historians distinguish between three Tübingen schools:
  • The Older Tübingen school, founded by Gottlob Christian Storr. It essentially represented Kant's supernaturalism, according to which divine revelation is above all human reason. Therefore, the formal authority of the Bible also has its place in research.
  • The Catholic Tübingen school, founded around 1819 by J.S. Drey, further developed by Möhler and Hirscher.
  • The New Tübingen School, founded around 1826 by F.C. Baur. In contrast to the older school, it advocates a historical-critical theology free of dogmatic presuppositions.