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'''Adolf von Harnack''' was a German (Lutheran) theologian of the late ninteenth and early twentieth centuries who taught at the University of Berlin.  Harnack was one of a select few theologians who could be collectively regarded as the fathers of Protestant liberalism, a distinctively German movement whose influence rapidly spread throughout Europe, Britain, and North America.  His academic carreer was a spectacular success even though he labored under constant critical fire from the ecclesiastical authorities for his controversial ideas.  Nonetheless, his many students eventually went on to spread the ideas of liberalism throughout the church, thus setting the primary theological stage for the entirety of the twentieth century, particularly in the United States.   

'''Adolf von Harnack''' was a German (Lutheran) theologian of the late ninteenth and early twentieth centuries who taught at the University of Berlin.  His most enduring and popular work, '''What is Christianity?''', is still required reading for a basic theological education today.  In this book Harnack asserts that at the heart of Christianity was a simple message that was subsequently obscured, particularly by the philosophy and metaphysics of the post-apostolic and Nicean periods.  Harnack produced a wide ranging corpus of historical and biblical scholarship throughout his career, but the quest to answer the question in the title of his classic work remained the project closest to his heart.

 

Harnack was one of a select few theologians who could collectively be regarded as the fathers of Protestant liberalism, a distinctively German movement whose influence rapidly spread throughout Europe, Britain, and North America.  His academic carreer was a spectacular success even though he labored under constant critical fire from the ecclesiastical authorities for his controversial ideas.  Nonetheless, his many students eventually went on to spread the ideas of liberalism throughout the church, thus setting the primary theological stage for the entirety of the twentieth century, particularly in the United States.