Pfleiderer, Otto

PFLEIDERER, pflai´der-er, OTTO: German Protestant; b. at Stetten (a village near Cannstadt, 4 m. n.e. of Stuttgart), Württemberg, Sept. 1, 1839; d. at Grosslichterfelde, Berlin, July 19, 1908. He was educated at the University of Tübingen from 1857 to 1861, and after being for a short time vicar at Eningen, a village near Reutlingen, traveled extensively in North Germany, England, and Scotland until 1864. He was then lecturer and privat-docent 7at Tübingen until 1868, after which he was a pastor at Heilbronn till 1870, when he went to Jena as chief pastor and university preacher. In 1870 he was appointed professor of theology at the University of Jena, and from 1875 till his death he was professor of practical theology at the University of Berlin. He was one of the most learned and vigorous defenders of the non-miraculous origin of Christianity. He lectured in England on both the Hibbert (1885) and the Gifford (1892–93) foundations. He wrote Die Religion, ihr Wesen and ihre Geschichte (2 vols., Leipsic, 1869); Moral and Religion (Haarlem, 1870); Der Paulinismus (Leipsic, 1873; Eng. transl. by E. Peters, Paulinism, 2 vols., London, 1877); F. G. Fichte, Lebensbild eines deutschen Denkers and Patrioten (Stuttgart, 1877); Religionsphilosophie auf geschichtlicher Grundlage (Berlin, 1878; 2d ed., 2 vols., 1883–84; Eng. transl. by A. Stewart and A. Menzies, Philosophy of Religion, 4 vols., London, 1886–88); Zur religiösen Verstandigung (1879); Grundriss der christlichen Glaubens and Sittenlehre (1880); The Influence of the Apostle Paul on the Development of Christianity (Hibbert lectures; London, 1885); Das Urchristentum, seine Schriften and Lehren (Berlin, 1885; 2d ed., 1902; Eng. transl., Primitive Christianity. Its Writings and Teachings, 2 vols., New York, 1906–09); The Development of Theology in Germany since Kant, and its Progress in Great Britain since 1825 (London, 1890; German ed., Der Entwickelung der protestantischen Theologie in Deutschland seit Kant und in Grossbritannien seit 1825, Freiburg, 1891); Die Ritschlsche Theologie kritisch beleuchtet (Brunswick, 1891); The Philosophy and Development of Religion (Gifford lectures; 2 vols., Edinburgh, 1894); Evolution and Theology, and other Essays (New York, 1900); Das Christusbild das urchristlichen Glaubens (Berlin, 1903; Eng. transl., The Early Christian Conception of Christ: Its Value and Significance in the History of Religion, London, 1905); Die Entstehung des Christentums (Munich, 1905; Eng. transl., Christian Origins, London,1906); Religion und Religionen (1906; Eng. transl., Religion and Historic Faiths, London, 1907); and Die Entwicklung des Christentums (1907; Eng. transl., The Development of Christianity, London, 1910).