Bruno Bauer was a German philosopher and theologian. As a student of G. W. F. Hegel, Bauer was a radical Rationalist in philosophy, politics and Biblical criticism. Bauer investigated the sources of the New Testament and, beginning with Hegel's Hellenophile orientation, concluded that early Christianity owed more to ancient Greek philosophy (Stoicism) than to Judaism. Bruno Bauer is also known for his association and sharp break with Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, and by his later association with Max Stirner and Friedrich Nietzsche. Starting in 1840, he began a series of works arguing that Jesus was a 2nd-century fusion of Jewish, Greek, and Roman theology.
Ferdinand Christian Baur was a German Protestant theologian and founder and leader of the (new) Tübingen School of theology. Following Hegel's theory of dialectic, Baur argued that second century Christianity represented the synthesis of two opposing theses: Jewish Christianity and Gentile Christianity. This and the rest of Baur's work had a profound impact upon higher criticism of biblical and related texts.
Friedrich Christoph Oetinger was a German Lutheran theologian and theosopher.
Hermann Cohen was a German Jewish philosopher, one of the founders of the Marburg school of neo-Kantianism, and he is often held to be "probably the most important Jewish philosopher of the nineteenth century".
Ernst Bloch was a German Marxist philosopher.
Walter Burkert was a German scholar of Greek mythology and cult.
Peter Schäfer is a prolific German scholar of ancient religious studies, who has made contributions to the field of ancient Judaism and early Christianity through monographs, co-edited volumes, numerous articles, and his trademark synoptic editions. He was a Professor of Religion and the Ronald O. Perelman Professor of Judaic Studies at Princeton University from 1998 to 2013.
Birger A. Pearson is an American scholar and professor studying early Christianity and Gnosticism. He currently holds the positions of Professor Emeritus of Religious Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara and Professor and Interim Director of the Religious Studies Program at the University of California, Berkeley.
God-fearers or God-worshippers were a numerous class of Gentile sympathizers to Hellenistic Judaism that existed in the Greco-Roman world, which observed certain Jewish religious rites and traditions without becoming full converts to Judaism. The concept has precedents in the proselytes of the Hebrew Bible.
Hans-Josef Klauck is a German-born theologian, religious historian, and Franciscan priest. He is Naomi Shenstone Donnelley Professor Emeritus of New Testament and Early Christian Literature at the University of Chicago Divinity School.
Gustav Adolf Deissmann was a German Protestant theologian, best known for his leading work on the Greek language used in the New Testament, which he showed was the koine, or commonly used tongue of the Hellenistic world of that time.
The origins of Judaism according to the traditions of the Jews and the teachings of Judaism are described and explained in the Torah that regards Abraham the Hebrew as the first "Jew", and hence of Judaism as a monotheistic religion, and then through his descendants, namely Jacob and the Children of Israel, as the originators of the Jewish people following the Exodus and of their religion as given in the Torah, traditionally based on the 613 commandments, that the Hebrews/Israelites/Jews were commanded by God to believe in, observe and practice as instructed in the Torah. See the main article about Judaism for the origins of the term and meaning.
Loren T. Stuckenbruck is an historian of early Christianity and Second Temple Judaism, currently professor of New Testament at the University of Munich, in Germany. His work has exerted a significant impact on the field.
Eberhard Jüngel was a German Lutheran theologian. He was Emeritus Professor of Systematic Theology and the Philosophy of Religion at the Faculty of Protestant Theology of the University of Tübingen.
Karl Holl was a Professor of theology and church history at Tübingen and Berlin and is considered one of the most influential church historians of his era.
Jörg Rüpke is a German scholar of comparative religion and classical philology, recipient of the Prix Gay Lussac-Humboldt in 2008, and of the Advanced Grant of the European Research Council in 2011. In January 2012, Rüpke was appointed by German Federal President Christian Wulff to the German Council of Science and Humanities.
Guy Gedalyah Stroumsa is an Israeli scholar of religion. He is Martin Buber Professor Emeritus of Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Emeritus Professor of the Study of the Abrahamic Religions at the University of Oxford, where he is an Emeritus Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall. He is a Member of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
Jan Assmann is a German Egyptologist.
Markus Nikolaus Andreas Bockmuehl is a biblical scholar specialising in Early Christianity. He has been the Dean Ireland's Professor of the Exegesis of Holy Scripture at the University of Oxford since 2014, and a Fellow of Keble College, Oxford, since 2007.
The Göttingen Faculty of Theology is the divinity school at the University of Göttingen, officially denominated the "United Theological Departments" but commonly referred to as the "Theological Faculty" . It was instituted at the foundation of the University, in 1737, along with the three other original faculties of Law, Medicine, and Philosophy. Over the centuries, the Göttingen Faculty of Theology has been home to many influential scholars and movements, including the rise of historical criticism, Ritschlianism, the History of Religions School, and Dialectical Theology. Its members were also involved in the Göttingen School of History.
