Gotthold Julius Rudolph Sohm (29 October 1841 in

Rostock Rostock (), officially the Hanseatic and University City of Rostock (german: link=no, Hanse- und Universitätsstadt Rostock), is the largest city in the German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and lies in the Mecklenburgian part of the state, c ...

– 16 May 1917 in

Leipzig Leipzig ( , ; Upper Saxon: ) is the most populous city in the German state of Saxony. Leipzig's population of 605,407 inhabitants (1.1 million in the larger urban zone) as of 2021 places the city as Germany's eighth most populous, as wel ...

) was a German

jurist A jurist is a person with expert knowledge of law; someone who analyses and comments on law. This person is usually a specialist legal scholar, mostly (but not always) with a formal qualification in law and often a legal practitioner. In the Uni ...

and

Church historian Church Historian and Recorder (usually shortened to Church Historian) is a priesthood calling in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The role of the Church Historian and Recorder is to keep an accurate and comprehensive record of th ...

as well as a

theologian Theology is the systematic study of the nature of the divine and, more broadly, of religious belief. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of analyzing the ...

. He published works concerning

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a letter ...

and German law,

Canon law Canon law (from grc, κανών, , a 'straight measuring rod, ruler') is a set of ordinances and regulations made by ecclesiastical authority (church leadership) for the government of a Christian organization or church and its members. It is th ...

and Church History.

Biography

Lutheran Lutheranism is one of the largest branches of Protestantism, identifying primarily with the theology of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German monk and reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practice of the Catholic Church launched th ...

, Sohm studied Law in Rostock, Berlin, Heidelberg and Munich between 1860 and 1864. His doctoral dissertation in 1864 at the

University of Rostock The University of Rostock (german: link=no, Universität Rostock) is a public university located in Rostock, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany. Founded in 1419, it is the third-oldest university in Germany. It is the oldest university in continen ...

was on

Roman Law Roman law is the law, legal system of ancient Rome, including the legal developments spanning over a thousand years of jurisprudence, from the Twelve Tables (c. 449 BC), to the ''Corpus Juris Civilis'' (AD 529) ordered by Eastern Roman emperor J ...

; he then worked on German legal history and devoted himself to ecclesiastical law. He lectured in German Law and Commercial Law at the

University of Göttingen The University of Göttingen, officially the Georg August University of Göttingen, (german: Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, known informally as Georgia Augusta) is a public research university in the city of Göttingen, Germany. Founded ...

from 1866 to 1870, before being appointed professor at that university in 1870. He was professor in Canon Law and German Law at the

University of Freiburg The University of Freiburg (colloquially german: Uni Freiburg), officially the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg (german: Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg), is a public university, public research university located in Freiburg im Breisg ...

1870 to 1872, and at the

University of Strasbourg The University of Strasbourg (french: Université de Strasbourg, Unistra) is a public research university located in Strasbourg, Alsace, France, with over 52,000 students and 3,300 researchers. The French university traces its history to the ea ...

from 1872 to 1887, and was appointed Rector in 1882. From 1887 until his death in 1917 he was professor of Canon Law and German Law in the Faculty of Law at the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

.Sohm
on the

website In 1892 he published the first volume of his great work ''Kirchenrecht'' (''Canon Law''). The second volume was published posthumously in 1923. In this work Sohm argued that the

Early Church Early Christianity (up to the First Council of Nicaea in 325) spread from the Levant, across the Roman Empire, and beyond. Originally, this progression was closely connected to already established Jewish centers in the Holy Land and the Jewish ...

had no legal constitution. He stated that "ecclesiastical law stands in contradiction to the nature of Ecclesia." The Early Church, he argued, was ruled not by legal concepts but by a power he called "

charisma Charisma () is a personal quality of presence or charm that compels its subjects. Scholars in sociology, political science, psychology, and management reserve the term for a type of leadership seen as extraordinary; in these fields, the term "ch ...

" (from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

'charis'), which is "a gift of grace" bestowed by the

Holy Spirit In Judaism, the Holy Spirit is the divine force, quality, and influence of God over the Universe or over his creatures. In Nicene Christianity, the Holy Spirit or Holy Ghost is the third person of the Trinity. In Islam, the Holy Spirit acts as ...

. In his work Sohm explored how the charismatically based Jesus movement of the

changed into the legalistic bureaucracy of

Roman Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwide . It is am ...

. The sociologist

Max Weber Maximilian Karl Emil Weber (; ; 21 April 186414 June 1920) was a German sociologist, historian, jurist and political economist, who is regarded as among the most important theorists of the development of modern Western society. His ideas profo ...

derived his concept 'charismatic authority' from Sohm's 'charismatic organization,' a term Sohm had coined in ''Kirchenrecht'' to describe the social organization of primitive Christianity. ''Kirchenrecht'' was immediately recognized in Germany as an epoch-making work. It also stimulated a debate between Sohm and leading theologians and religion scholars which lasted more than twenty years and stimulated a rich

polemic Polemic () is contentious rhetoric intended to support a specific position by forthright claims and to undermine the opposing position. The practice of such argumentation is called ''polemics'', which are seen in arguments on controversial topics ...

al literature. Sohm was one of the committee of 22 members, comprising not only

s but also representatives of financial interests and of the various ideological currents of the time, who compiled a second draft of the

Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch The ''Bürgerliches Gesetzbuch'' (, ), abbreviated BGB, is the civil code of Germany. In development since 1881, it became effective on 1 January 1900, and was considered a massive and groundbreaking project. The BGB served as a template in sev ...

(German Civil Code) which was accepted by the Reichstag in 1896. Also in 1896, with

Friedrich Naumann Friedrich Naumann (25 March 1860 – 24 August 1919) was a German Liberalism in Germany, liberal politician and Protestant parish pastor. In 1896, he founded the National-Social Association that sought to combine liberalism, nationalism and ...

and

Caspar René Gregory Caspar René Gregory (November 6, 1846 – April 9, 1917) was an American-born German theologian. Life Gregory was born to Mary Jones and Henry Duval Gregory in Philadelphia. He was the brother of the American zoologist Emily Ray Gregory. After ...

, he founded the

National-Social Association The National-Social Association (german: Nationalsozialer Verein, NSV) was a political party in the German Empire, founded in 1896 by Friedrich Naumann. It sought to synthesise liberalism, nationalism and non- Marxist socialism with Protestant C ...

(National-Sozial Partei), based on Socialist Christianity.Short article on Sohm on bookrags.com
/ref> The party failed in the elections of 1898 and 1903 and was then dissolved into the

Freeminded Union The Free-minded Union (german: Freisinnige Vereinigung; FVg) or Radical Union was a liberal party in the German Empire that existed from 1893 to 1910. Emergence Inside its predecessor, the German Free-minded Party, there had always been tension ...

. He was a Member of the

Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium The Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium (RASAB) is a non-governmental association which promotes and organises science and the arts in Belgium by coordinating the national and international activities of its constituent academies su ...

Brussels Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

, was a Corresponding Member of the

Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities The Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities (german: Bayerische Akademie der Wissenschaften) is an independent public institution, located in Munich. It appoints scholars whose research has contributed considerably to the increase of knowledg ...

in Munich between 1875 and 1917, and a member of the Philology and History class of the Royal Saxon Society of Sciences in Leipzig from 1892 to 1917. In 1914 the book ''Festgabe für Rudolph Sohm, dargebracht zum goldenen Doktorjubiläum von Freunden'' was published in celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Sohm receiving his doctorate.Published by Schülern und Verehrern'' in Leipzig, (1914) Sohm was awarded the

Pour le Mérite The ' (; , ) is an order of merit (german: Verdienstorden) established in 1740 by Frederick the Great, King Frederick II of Prussia. The was awarded as both a military and civil honour and ranked, along with the Order of the Black Eagle, the Or ...

(civil class) in 1916. One of his students was

Walter Simons Walter Simons (24 September 1861 – 14 July 1937) was a German lawyer and politician. He was Foreign Minister of the Weimar Republic in 1920-21 and served as president of the ''Reichsgericht'' from 1922 to 1929. Early life Walter Simons was bor ...

. Rudolph Sohm died in

in 1917 aged 75.

Selected publications

*''Das Verhältniss von Staat und Kirche, aus dem Begriff von Staat und Kirche entwickelt'' Tübingen, (1873) *''Institutionen des Römischen Rechts'' Leipzig, (1884) *''Die Deutsche Genossenschaft'' Academia Lipsiensis - Juristische Fakultaet, Leipzig, (1888) *''Kirchenrecht'' München & Leipzig 2 vols. (1892) and (1923) *''Kirchengeschichte im Grundriss'' E. Ungleich, Leipzig, (1894) *''Institutionen ... Elfte neu durchgearbeitete Auflage'' Leipzig, (1903) *''Wesen und Ursprung des Katholizismus'' (1909) *''Die altdeutsche Reichs- und Gerichtsverfassung'' Leipzig, (1911) *''Weltliches und geistliches Recht'' Academia Lipsiensis - Juristische Fakultaet, Leipzig,(1914)

Bibliography

* Adams, James Luther. "Rudolf Sohm's Theology of Law and the Spirit." In ''Religion and Culture: Essays in Honor of Paul Tillich'', edited by Walter Leibrecht, pp. 219–235. New York, 1959. * Haley, Peter. "Rudolf Sohm on Charisma." In ''Journal of Religion'', 60 (1980): 185–197. * Sohm, Rudolf. ''Outlines of Church History'' (1888). Boston, 1958. * Köhler, Wiebke. ''Rezeption in der Kirche: begriffsgeschichtliche Studien bei Sohm, Afanas'ev, Dombois und Congar.'' Göttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1998.
Lease, Gary ''"Odd Fellows" in the Politics of Religion - Modernism, National Socialism and German Judaism'' - 'A Protestant "Modernist"? A reevaluation of Rudolph Sohm'
''

Google Books Google Books (previously known as Google Book Search, Google Print, and by its code-name Project Ocean) is a service from Google Inc. that searches the full text of books and magazines that Google has scanned, converted to text using optical c ...

'' (pg 44)

References

External links

*
ebook of Sohm's ''Outlines of Church History''Professorenkatalog der Universität Leipzig , catalogus professorum lipsiensisSohm on Sächsische Akademie der Wissenschaften zu Leipzig
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sohm, Rudolf 1841 births 1917 deaths German Lutheran theologians People from Rostock Legal historians Recipients of the Pour le Mérite (civil class) German legal scholars 19th-century jurists 20th-century jurists 19th-century German Protestant theologians 20th-century German Protestant theologians University of Rostock alumni Academic staff of the University of Göttingen Academic staff of the University of Freiburg Academic staff of the University of Strasbourg Academic staff of Leipzig University 19th-century German male writers German male non-fiction writers 19th-century Lutherans