Boschwitz on Wellhausen

Julius Wellhausen was a monumental figure in the field of biblical studies, but his work has been denounced as antisemitic in recent years. This book offers a nuanced view of Wellhausen’s scholarship through a critical edition and translation of one of the last doctoral dissertations by a Jew in Nazi Germany: Friedemann Philipp Boschwitz’s Julius Wellhausen: Motives and Measures of His Historiography.

Boschwitz presents a deep, holistic analysis of Wellhausen's thought, examining his work on ancient Judaism, early Christianity, and formative Islam within the framework of comparative religion and cultural history. He also situates Wellhausen in the context of German intellectual history, tracing the influence of Johann Gottfried Herder on Wellhausen and Wellhausen on Friedrich Nietzsche.

In addition, Paul Michael Kurtz provides incisive commentary and archival materials that highlight Boschwitz’s scholarly achievements and open new vistas onto Jewish intellectual history. Piecing together fragments from private letters and official documents, Kurtz shows the formidable challenges Boschwitz faced as a Jewish scholar under a discriminatory political and academic regime. The correspondence also reveals Boschwitz’s rich social life and connections with major émigré thinkers such as Salo Baron, Leo Strauss, and Karl Löwith.

Boschwitz on Wellhausen brings together a fascinating wealth of published and unpublished material to tell an original story of great importance to scholars of the Hebrew Bible, the New Testament, and the Quran as well as those interested in German Judaism and modern philosophy.

“Boschwitz on Wellhausen makes a major contribution to intellectual history for the fields of biblical studies, history of religions, and German Jewish studies. Paul Michael Kurtz brings a fascinating wealth of archival material together that sheds light on a crucial period of modern German research. This volume helps break Julius Wellhausen out of the boxes that he has generally been placed in and provides a much more integrated reading of his work and thought.”—Bernard M. Levinson, coeditor of Betrayal of the Humanities: The University During the Third Reich

Paul Michael Kurtz is Associate Research Professor of History at Ghent University. His work has appeared in Critical Inquiry, History and Theory, Harvard Theological Review, and The New Cambridge Companion to Biblical Interpretation, among other publications.

List of Illustrations

Preface

Acknowledgments

Part 1. Introduction

The Life and Work of Friedemann Uri Boschwitz

Part 2. Translation

Editorial Note on the Translation

Content Overview

Introduction: [Biography and Methodology]

Chapter 1. [Originality and History]

Chapter 2. [The Religious and the Secular]

Chapter 3. [Law, State, Church]

Chapter 4. [Politics and Culture]

Excursus I. On Wellhausen’s Gospel Criticism

Excursus II. Wellhausen and Nietzsche

Bibliography

Editorial Note on the Documentation

Section A. Letters by Boschwitz

Section B. Letters on Boschwitz

Section C. Letters to Boschwitz

Section D. Dossier of Boschwitz

Part 3. Documentation

Appendix 1. Inventory of the Boschwitz–Meister Correspondence .

Appendix 2. Mentions of Boschwitz in the Strauss–Klein–Löwith Letters

Appendix 3. Overview of Major Personages

Appendix 4. Chronology of Key Events in Boschwitz’s Career

Subject Index

Name Index

Introduction