Permalink : http://hdl.handle.net/2115/91379

JaLCDOI : 10.14943/bfhhs.172.l93

This study explores the foundation of religious studies in Germany during the Weimar Republic and its relationship to religious movements, beginning with Friedrich Heiler (1892-1967). This paper forms a part of a larger study. Heiler was a German religious scholar and religious activist between the Weimar Republic and the post-World War II period. However, his activities were suspended during the war. Hence, his works can be classified as prewar and postwar, despite the overlap in its substance. We have confirmed that Heilerʼs writing activities shifted domains in the 1920s from the Liberal Protestant journal Die Christliche Welt to Hochkirche, a journal favoring the German High Church movement. The reasons for this transfer include Heilerʼs nostalgia for Catholicism, isolation at Marburg University, approach to the High Church movement for escaping this situation, active participation in ecumenical activities, and engagement in the liturgical and worship reform movement. Moreover, Nathan Söderblom, a supporter of Heiler, died in 1931. Heiler probably became increasingly isolated in the Protestant world after Söderblomʼs death. In such circumstances, Heiler became further involved in the German High Church movement and published numerous works on church history in Hochkirche, while writing little on general religious history and religious studies. The Nazi regime banned the publication of Hochkirche, which represented the foundation of Heilerʼs activities, thus stopping his pre-World War II activities.