Joachim Wach
Encyclopedia
Joachim Ernst Adolphe Felix Wach (January 25, 1898 – August 27, 1955) was a German
religious scholar from Chemnitz
, Kingdom of Saxony
, who emphasised a distinction between the history of religion
and the philosophy of religion.
He was descended on both sides from the famous Mendelssohn family
, both the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn
and the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
. He shared the latter's love of music and was said to have inherited some important papers and relics of his ancestor. After schooling in Dresden, he enlisted in the German army in 1916, where he served as a cavalry officer. After World War I, he studied at the Universities of Munich, Berlin, Freiburg, and Leipzig, where he received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1922. He taught at Leipzig University. His Habilitationsschrift, entitled Religionswissenschaft, is widely considered a landmark document in the field of the History of Religions.
Though his family had long since converted from Judaism to Christianity, he was nonetheless driven out of his teaching post by the Nazis in the early 1930s. He was able to emigrate to the United States, where he took up a post at Brown University, first as Visiting Professor of Biblical Literature (1935–1939) and then as Associate Professor (1939–1946). Raised as a Lutheran, he became an Episcopalian shortly after coming to the United States. He was granted United States citizenship in 1946.
He taught at the University of Chicago Divinity School
from 1945 to 1955, becoming the chair of the History of Religions area, which had just been moved to the Divinity School from its earlier home in the Division of the Humanities. In his lectures and his writings, he emphasized a comprehensive study of religion, focusing on a) religious experience, b) religious praxis, and c) religious communities.
According to the University of Chicago Archives, he used the methods of the social sciences to better understand religious thought. Developing the field known as the Sociology of Religion, he maintained that the founder of a new religion experienced a revelation illuminating the way the world worked. He then began to acquire disciples who became a closely knit circle directed towards the founder with whom they each had intimate contact. The solidarity of this relationship bound the disciples together, and differentiated them from other forms of social organization. Membership in the group required a break with past life and its everyday pursuits in order to focus on the new knowledge to the extent that ties of family and kinship would be relaxed or severed.
He died unexpectedly of a heart attack (though he had had a history of heart trouble) on August 27, 1955 in Locarno, Switzerland.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
religious scholar from Chemnitz
Chemnitz
Chemnitz is the third-largest city of the Free State of Saxony, Germany. Chemnitz is an independent city which is not part of any county and seat of the government region Direktionsbezirk Chemnitz. Located in the northern foothills of the Ore Mountains, it is a part of the Saxon triangle...
, Kingdom of Saxony
Kingdom of Saxony
The Kingdom of Saxony , lasting between 1806 and 1918, was an independent member of a number of historical confederacies in Napoleonic through post-Napoleonic Germany. From 1871 it was part of the German Empire. It became a Free state in the era of Weimar Republic in 1918 after the end of World War...
, who emphasised a distinction between the history of religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
and the philosophy of religion.
He was descended on both sides from the famous Mendelssohn family
Mendelssohn family
The Mendelssohn family are the descendants of the German Jewish philosopher Moses Mendelssohn, and include his grandson, the composer Felix Mendelssohn....
, both the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn
Moses Mendelssohn
Moses Mendelssohn was a German Jewish philosopher to whose ideas the renaissance of European Jews, Haskalah is indebted...
and the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy
Felix Mendelssohn
Jakob Ludwig Felix Mendelssohn Barthóldy , use the form 'Mendelssohn' and not 'Mendelssohn Bartholdy'. The Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians gives ' Felix Mendelssohn' as the entry, with 'Mendelssohn' used in the body text...
. He shared the latter's love of music and was said to have inherited some important papers and relics of his ancestor. After schooling in Dresden, he enlisted in the German army in 1916, where he served as a cavalry officer. After World War I, he studied at the Universities of Munich, Berlin, Freiburg, and Leipzig, where he received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1922. He taught at Leipzig University. His Habilitationsschrift, entitled Religionswissenschaft, is widely considered a landmark document in the field of the History of Religions.
Though his family had long since converted from Judaism to Christianity, he was nonetheless driven out of his teaching post by the Nazis in the early 1930s. He was able to emigrate to the United States, where he took up a post at Brown University, first as Visiting Professor of Biblical Literature (1935–1939) and then as Associate Professor (1939–1946). Raised as a Lutheran, he became an Episcopalian shortly after coming to the United States. He was granted United States citizenship in 1946.
He taught at the University of Chicago Divinity School
University of Chicago Divinity School
The University of Chicago Divinity School is a graduate institution at the University of Chicago dedicated to the training of academics and clergy across religious boundaries...
from 1945 to 1955, becoming the chair of the History of Religions area, which had just been moved to the Divinity School from its earlier home in the Division of the Humanities. In his lectures and his writings, he emphasized a comprehensive study of religion, focusing on a) religious experience, b) religious praxis, and c) religious communities.
According to the University of Chicago Archives, he used the methods of the social sciences to better understand religious thought. Developing the field known as the Sociology of Religion, he maintained that the founder of a new religion experienced a revelation illuminating the way the world worked. He then began to acquire disciples who became a closely knit circle directed towards the founder with whom they each had intimate contact. The solidarity of this relationship bound the disciples together, and differentiated them from other forms of social organization. Membership in the group required a break with past life and its everyday pursuits in order to focus on the new knowledge to the extent that ties of family and kinship would be relaxed or severed.
He died unexpectedly of a heart attack (though he had had a history of heart trouble) on August 27, 1955 in Locarno, Switzerland.
Writings
- Der Erlösungsgedanke und seine deutung (1922)
- Das Verstehen: Grundzüge einer Geschichte der hermeneutischen Theorie im 19. Jahrhundert (3 vols, 1926–1933)
- Religionswissenschaft: Prolegomena zu ihrer wissenschaftstheoretischen Grundlegung (1924)
- Meister und Jünger : zwei religionssoziologische Betrachtungen (1924)
- Sociology of Religion (1947)
- Types of Religious Experience: Christian and Non-Christian (1951)
- The Comparative Study of Religions (posthumous, 1958)
- Understanding and Believing: Essays (1968)
- Introduction to the History of Religions (1988: English translation of Religionswissenschaft)