Ferdinand Christian Baur
Baur, Ferdinand Christian
Born June 21, 1792, in Schmiden, near Stuttgart; died Dec. 2, 1860, in Tübingen. German theologian, Protestant, and founder and head of the Tübingen school of theology. Beginning in 1826, a professor in the theological faculty of the University of Tübingen.
Under the influence of Hegel, Baur viewed the history of early Christianity as a struggle of contradictory tendencies (Petrinism, which opposed the complete separation of Christianity from Judaism, and Paulinism, which favored a radical break with Judaism). Baur and the Tübingen school, of which he was the leader, discovered sharp contradictions among the gospels, as well as the falseness of many Christian texts, and they historically dated the various parts of the New Testament. Freeing the New Testament of all its contradictions and still working from a theological position, Baur and those who shared his views fought to preserve religion. Characterizing the Tübingen school, F. Engels wrote: “It tries ’to save what can be saved’ ” (K. Marx and F. Engels, Soch., 2nd ed., vol. 22, p. 473).