The Awakening and Theology

This chapter analyzes how new developments within early nineteenth-century, university-based, academic theology were expressions of religious awakenings that had occurred in Protestant communities in Germany. The respective schools of thought reflected many university theologians’ own personal religious experiences of awakening. These considerably shaped the aims and methods of their scholarship. Recognizing how university professors were influential leaders in the Awakening movement through their lecturing, writing, and roles in new religious voluntary societies underscores an important point about the social composition of the movement. It was not simply a phenomenon of popular religious culture. Rather, different theological varieties of awakened Protestantism were fostered by some of the most learned members of the Protestant churches of Germany. They used their status and authority to promote such beliefs and assumed doing so was a responsibility of the academic and ecclesiastical offices that they held.