FRIEDRICH AUGUST THOLUCK: “SALVATION COMES FROM THE JEWS”

Professor Friedrich August Gottreu Tholuck (1799–1877) became a central fi gure in three areas: the neo-Pietist awakening, the defence against the emerging Bible criticism, and missions to the Jews, a triad that was representative of this research tradition. As noted, the Pietist awakening had its roots in Philipp Jakob Spener’s , and he constructed his in such a way that an appreciation of the Jews is intrinsic to Pietist theology after him. To Spener, the conver- sion of the Jews was an urgent matter, and so he urged the German universities to put greater effort into teaching Oriental languages.1 In especially, intensive missionary work was carried out among the Jews.2 As this revival grew cold, however, so did its missions, leading to the closing of the main base, Institutum Judaicum in Halle, in 1792.3 The new Pietist awakening in early nineteenth-century meant not only the reappearance of revivalist Christianity but also a renewed interest in the Jews. Tholuck was a product of this revival. A man of exceptional linguistic ability—by the age of seventeen, he knew nineteen languages—Tholuck arrived in Berlin to study Oriental languages and, through the Oriental- ist von Diez, came into contact with the neo-Pietist movement.4 Here he met Baron von Kottwitz,5 the ‘patriarch’ of this movement, who became Tholuck’s spiritual father and later also a fellow worker.6 Through him,

1 Ibid., 27. 2 Ibid., 57–71. 3 Ibid., 81. 4 Günther Wenz, “Erweckte Theologie”, in Profi le des neuzeitlichen Protestantismus. Band 1. Aufklärung, Idealismus, Vormärz, ed. Friedrich Wilhelm Graf (Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus Gerd Mohn, 1990), 254–255; Clark, The Politics of Conversion. Missionary and the Jews in Prussia 1728–1941, 127–128. 5 On von Kottwitz, see Peter Maser, Hans Ernst von Kottwitz. Studien zur Erweckungs- bewegung des frühen 19. Jahrhunderts in Schlesien und Berlin, ed. Peter Hauptmann, vol. 21, Kirche im Osten. Studien zur osteuropäischen Kirchengeschichte (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1990), who also uses the term ‘patriarch’, 124. The revival had roots in e.g. the Moravian Brethren, but the igniting spark probably came from the revival in Bavaria, Maser, 144. 6 Wenz, “Erweckte Theologie”, 255. For the close relationship between the baron and Tholuck, see Maser, Hans Ernst von Kottwitz. Studien zur Erweckungsbewegung des frühen 196 part ii. salvation-historical exegesis and the jews

Tholuck got involved in work among Jews,7 for example becoming the founding editor of the missionary paper Der Freund Israels.8 With his learned Bible expositions and polemic against Schleier- macher, among others, Tholuck became the leading theologian of the awakening. None of his texts was more infl uential than Lehre von der Sünde und vom Versöhner, oder: die wahre Weihe des Zweifl ers (“Guido and Julius; or Sin and the Propitiator Exhibited in the True Consecration of the Skeptic”). As Clark puts it, this text was “as important for the awakening in Prussia as Spener’s Pia Desideria had been for the pietist movement 150 years earlier”.9 A novel, it contains letters between the two heroes Guido and Julius, revolving around repentance and faith. Numerous references to the works of classical literature and theology, including documents of other religions, as well as of modern philosophy and theology, show a man of great learning. It was thus well suited to his audience, which probably consisted mainly of educated Prussians—yet with a very clear agenda to present the gospel of the awakening. The novel was also directly aimed at countering the message of de Wette’s famous theological novel, Theodor oder des Zweifl ers Weihe (“Theodore, or the Skeptic’s Conversion”). Published anonymously until the third edition, Tholuck’s book was printed in nine editions in the course of the century and was translated into fi ve languages. Although Judaism is not a major motif in the book, a few references may intimate some of Tholuck’s thinking. According to him, Israel—in its stubbornness constantly refractory to the loving God until it is humili- ated by the irate God—is an image of proud humanity. The Law is a means through which God impresses on people the consciousness of standing under a Lord,10 and Judaism and Christianity are regarded by Tholuck as having revelation in common.11 Returning to the idea of divine economy, he suggests that the destiny of the Eskimos, the devastation of Palestine and the fact that “Japheth lives in the tents of

19. Jahrhunderts in Schlesien und Berlin passim. On the frequent meetings of the conven- ticlers, see Maser, 151. 7 Ibid., 166–169. 8 Clark, The Politics of Conversion. Missionary Protestantism and the Jews in Prussia 1728– 1941, 127–128. 9 Ibid., 129. 10 A. Tholuck, Läran om Synden och Försonaren eller Tvifl arens sanna Inwigning (Göteborg: Samuel Norberg, 1829), 38–39. 11 Ibid., 69.