oa Adolf Harnack, Das Wesen des Christentums (1900)

Adolf Harnack’s Das Wesen des Christentums (1900) sold more than 100.000 copies. The first English edition What is Christianity? appeared already in 1902. In the preface, the church historian and liberal theologian Harnack (1851-1930) characterized the book as a ‘short and plain statement of the Gospel and its history’. The present article explores Harnack’s career, the defining historical approach (historicism), his characterisation of the essence of Christianity (‘God and the human soul, the soul and its God’), and the reception of Das Wesen des Christentums (Alfred Loisy, Leo Baeck). Finally, its strengths (a contextualised, thick description of the Christian faith) and weaknesses (its hegemonial liberal stance) are outlined.