Karl Albert August Ludwig Eichhorn (1 October 1856,

Garlstorf Garlstorf is a municipality in the district of Harburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, ...

– 3 August 1926,

Braunschweig Braunschweig () or Brunswick ( , from Low German ''Brunswiek'' , Braunschweig dialect: ''Bronswiek'') is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany, north of the Harz Mountains at the farthest navigable point of the river Oker, which connects it to the Nor ...

) was a German

Protestant theologian Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

. He was the author of ''Das Abendmahl im Neuen Testament'' and one of the founders of the

history of religions school The history of religions school (German: ''Religionsgeschichtliche Schule'') is a term applied to a group of German Protestant theologians associated with the University of Göttingen in the 1890s. Ideas The ''Religionsgeschichtliche Schule'' used ...

, an approach that sought to understand all religions, including

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. It is the world's largest and most widespread religion with roughly 2.38 billion followers representing one-third of the global pop ...

and

Judaism Judaism ( he, ''Yahăḏūṯ'') is an Abrahamic, monotheistic, and ethnic religion comprising the collective religious, cultural, and legal tradition and civilization of the Jewish people. It has its roots as an organized religion in the ...

, as socio-cultural phenomena that developed in comparable ways. His pioneering work on the role of the contemporary needs, beliefs, and culture that shaped the

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Christ ...

reports of the

Last Supper Image:The Last Supper - Leonardo Da Vinci - High Resolution 32x16.jpg, 400px, alt=''The Last Supper'' by Leonardo da Vinci - Clickable Image, Depictions of the Last Supper in Christian art have been undertaken by artistic masters for centuries, ...

argued that this early Christian sacramental meal reflected the influence of Near Eastern

gnostic Gnosticism (from grc, γνωστικός, gnōstikós, , 'having knowledge') is a collection of religious ideas and systems which coalesced in the late 1st century AD among Jewish and early Christian sects. These various groups emphasized pe ...

ideas.

Publications

* Albert Eichhorn, ''Das Abendmahl im Neuen Testament.'' Leipzig: Mohr Siebeck, 1898. Translated by Jeffrey F. Cayzer as ''The Lord’s Supper in the New Testament.'' With an introductory essay by Hugo Gressmann, “Albert Eichhorn and the History of Religion School.” Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, forthcoming (2007). * Albert Eichhorn, ''Athanasii De vita ascetica testimonia collecta.''

Habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

, Halle, 1886. * Albert Eichhorn, “Etwas vom Predigen.” ''Die Christliche Welt'' (1895): cols. 273–76, 308–10. * Albert Eichhorn, “Heilige Geschichte,” in ''Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart'' (ed. Friedrich Michael Schiele and Leopold Zscharnack; 5 vols.; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1909–13), 2:2023–27. * Albert Eichhorn, “Die Rechtfertigungslehre der Apologie.” ''TSK'' 59 (1887): 415–91.

, "Eichhorn, Karl Albert August Ludwig," in ''Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation'' (ed. John H. Hayes; 2 vols.; Nashville: Abingdon, 1999), 1:324–25. * Suelzer, Alexa and J. Kselman, "Modern Old Testament Criticism," in ''The New Jerome Biblical Commentary'' (Prentice Hall: Englewood Cliffs) 1990. 1856 births 1926 deaths 19th-century German Protestant theologians 20th-century German Protestant theologians German Lutheran theologians German biblical scholars People from Harburg (district) German male non-fiction writers History of religions school 19th-century male writers {{Germany-theologian-stub

Publications

Further reading