Abstract

The emergence of a school around the theology of Albrecht Ritschl remains an important aspect of modern Protestant theology. On the basis of previously unpublished correspondence between Ritschl and some of his most celebrated students, we are able to investigate anew the circumstances under which the Ritschlian school was formed, and to ask why Ritschl's theology attracted a new generation of theologians and historians of theology. By focusing on Wilhelm Herrmann, one of the most significant systematic theologians of the Ritschlian school, this article shows how Ritschl's attempt to overcome apologetics and classical metaphysics as well as his way of correlating religion and morality opened a distinctive and appealing alternative to the various theological schools of his time.