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==The Movement==

==The Movement==

Harnack was one of a select few theologians who could collectively be regarded as the fathers of [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Liberal_Christianity Protestant liberalism], which began as a distinctively German [[movement]] and whose influence was primarily rooted in the development of critical biblical scholarship as well as for its association of the [[Social Gospel|Gospel]] with social compassion.  Harnack's academic career was a spectacular success even though he labored under a constant firestorm from the ecclesiastical authorities for his insistence on complete academic freedom in the study of the Christian [[scripture]]s.  In spite of the church's resistance his [[ideas]] were ultimately spread from the pulpit as his many admiring students found their way into the professional ministry.  Harnack's theology was especially influential in Europe, Britain, and North America.  The rise of liberalism set the stage for the Fundamentalist/Modernist controversy, a theological drama that dominated American Christianity throughout much of the twentieth century.  The hallmark of Protestant liberalism can be seen, in simplest terms, as the inversion of [[authority]].  Dating from the Reformation, authority for the Protestant faith was rooted in the [[concept]] of ''sola scriptura'', in which the Christian [[canon]] of scripture was considered to be an epistemological given backed by a [[divine]] guarantee, thus assuring an unquestionable source of certainty for Christian faith and practice.  While [[human]] [[reason]] was considered by the reformers to be part of the ''imago dei'' (the image of God within man), they nevertheless insisted that [[truth]] could only be understood when reason submitted to the authority of scripture.  Harnack and his colleagues essentially reversed this equation and proceeded on the assumption that truth could only be understood when everything, including scripture, submitted to the authority of reason.

Harnack was one of a select few theologians who could collectively be regarded as the fathers of [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=Liberal_Christianity Protestant liberalism], which began as a distinctively German [[movement]] and whose influence was primarily rooted in the development of critical biblical scholarship as well as for its association of the [[Social Gospel|Gospel]] with social compassion.  Harnack's academic career was a spectacular success even though he labored under a constant firestorm from the ecclesiastical authorities for his insistence on complete academic freedom in the study of the Christian [[scripture]]s.  In spite of the church's resistance his [[ideas]] were ultimately spread from the pulpit as his many admiring students found their way into the professional ministry.  Harnack's theology was especially influential in Europe, Britain, and North America.  The rise of liberalism set the stage for the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fundamentalist-Modernist_Controversy Fundamentalist-Modernist] controversy, a theological drama that dominated American Christianity during the first half of the twentieth century.  The hallmark of Protestant liberalism can be seen, in simplest terms, as the inversion of [[authority]].  Dating from the Reformation, authority for the Protestant faith was rooted in the [[concept]] of ''sola scriptura'', in which the Christian [[canon]] of scripture was considered to be an epistemological given backed by a [[divine]] guarantee, thus assuring an unquestionable source of certainty for Christian faith and practice.  While [[human]] [[reason]] was considered by the reformers to be part of the ''imago dei'' (the image of God within man), they nevertheless insisted that [[truth]] could only be understood when reason submitted to the authority of scripture.  Harnack and his colleagues essentially reversed this equation and proceeded on the assumption that truth could only be understood when everything, including scripture, submitted to the authority of reason.

==The Method==

==The Method==

==The Answer==

==The Answer==

In spite of sometimes being demonized by their ecclesiastical detractors, most of the German liberals were faithful men of the church who understood themselves to be working in the service of the Christian Gospel.  For Harnack, the historical-critical method was more than an end in itself.  The rigorous application of reason was essentially a way of serving truth and restoring authentic Christianity, and the historical-critical method was the best tool for that purpose.  Harnack spoke of the Christian religion in terms of "the kernel and the husk¹," a [[metaphor]] for the missing [[heart]] of Christianity in which the "kernel" had come to be buried beneath the "husk" of church [[tradition]] as well as obscured by the Greek philosophy that became the [[language]] of doctrine.  For Harnack, the [[spiritual]] path taught by Jesus, a carpenter surrounded by fishermen, was very simple, practical, and altogether devoid of metaphysics and the supernatural.  It was a simple life of loving God, loving one's neighbor, and discovering the Kingdom of God within.  In [http://books.google.com/books?id=ozgkbKjXQIEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=adolf+von+harnack&lr=#PPP2,M1 '''''What is Christianity?'''''] Harnack spells out what he believes to be the kernel underlying the [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Origins_Of_Religion_in_Universal_Consciousness religious impulse] in general, and why the Christian Gospel uniquely satisfies the hearts and [[mind]]s of [[humanity]].  He reveals that the human heart, more than anything else, longs for the [[presence]] of the [[eternal]] within [[time]], and that the Gospel validates its own [[truth]] by satisfying this longing for all that come to Jesus Christ and follow his simple teachings on the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and the [[infinite]] worth of the [[soul]].

In spite of sometimes being demonized by their ecclesiastical detractors, most of the German liberals were faithful men of the church who understood themselves to be working in the service of the Christian Gospel.  For Harnack, the historical-critical method was more than an end in itself.  The rigorous application of reason was essentially a way of serving truth and restoring authentic Christianity, and the historical-critical method was the best tool for that purpose.  Harnack spoke of the Christian religion in terms of "the kernel and the husk¹," a [[metaphor]] for the missing [[heart]] of Christianity in which the "kernel" had come to be buried beneath the "husk" of church [[tradition]] as well as obscured by the Greek philosophy that became the [[language]] of doctrine.  For Harnack, the [[spiritual]] path taught by Jesus, a carpenter surrounded by fishermen, was very simple, practical, and altogether devoid of metaphysics and the supernatural.  It was a simple life of loving God, loving one's neighbor, and discovering the Kingdom of God within.  In [http://books.google.com/books?id=ozgkbKjXQIEC&printsec=frontcover&dq=adolf+von+harnack&lr=#PPP2,M1 '''''What is Christianity?'''''] Harnack spells out what he believes to be the common factor underlying the [http://nordan.daynal.org/wiki/index.php?title=The_Origins_Of_Religion_in_Universal_Consciousness religious impulse] in general, and why the Christian Gospel uniquely satisfies that impulse in the hearts and [[mind]]s of [[humanity]].  He reveals that the human heart, more than anything else, longs for the [[presence]] of the [[eternal]] within [[time]], and that the Gospel validates its own [[truth]] by satisfying this longing for all that come to Jesus Christ and follow his simple teachings on the fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man, and the [[infinite]] worth of the [[soul]].

==Other titles by Harnack==

==Other titles by Harnack==