Van A. Harvey
Encyclopedia
Dr. Van A. Harvey is George Edwin Burnell Professor of Religious Studies (Emeritus) at Stanford University
. Born in Hankow, China, he served in the U.S. Navy (1943–46), and was awarded a BA in Philosophy
from Occidental College
(1948, Phi Beta Kappa). After attending Princeton Theological Seminary for one year, he received a B.D. from Yale Divinity School
in 1951 and a PhD. from Yale University
in 1957 in post-Enlightenment religious thought. His thesis was entitled "Myth, Faith, and History" and his thesis supervisor was H. Richard Niebuhr
.
Van Harvey taught at Princeton University
(1954–58), Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University (1958–68), the University of Pennsylvania
(1968–78), and Stanford University (1978–1996). He was Chair of the graduate program in religion at SMU and Chair of his departments at both the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford.
The aim of his first book A Handbook of Theological Terms (1964) was to explain to laypersons the meaning of technical terms found in Christian theology, with special attention to issues dividing Protestant and Catholic
theology. His second book The Historian and the Believer (1966) was concerned with the way in which "morality of knowledge" that informs professional historical inquiry poses problems for the believer and theologian who attempt to justify the historical claims of Christianity
“on faith”, especially when historical inquiry is concerned with Jesus of Nazareth. Harvey argues that these problems have not been satisfactorily dealt with by modern Christian theologians. He pays particular attention to the theologies of Karl Barth
, Paul Tillich
, and Rudolf Bultmann
. New Testament scholar Gerd Lüdemann
states in a citation of this book that "I have long been more indebted to this than is evident from the number of explicit references" The third edition of 1996 contains a new introduction outlining his mature position on these issues.
One commentator has characterized Dr Harvey’s career after 1980 as having been transformed from theologian into skeptical student of religion. This change is reflected in both his articles and preeminently in his third book Feuerbach and the Interpretation of Religion (1995), winner of the 1996 American Academy of Religion’s award for excellence in constructive-reflective studies. This book argues that the neglected later writings of Ludwig Feuerbach dropped much of the Hegelian elements informing his better-known early work and created a more powerful theory for the origins and persistence of religion. Harvey compares this theory with several well-known contemporary social-scientific and psychological theories and judges Feuerbach's to be superior.
Dr Harvey has been awarded an honorary degree in the Humanities from Occidental College
, two John Simon Guggenheim
Fellowships (1966 and 1972), a National Endowment of the Humanities Fellowship (1979), a Visiting Fellowship from Clare Hall, Cambridge University (1979), and distinguished teaching awards from both the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University. He has contributed to several encyclopedias and reference works including the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
.
“D. F. Strauss’ Life of Jesus Revisited,” Church History. 30 (1961), 191-211.
“Wie Neu ist die ‘Neue Frage nach dem historischen Jesus’?” (with S. M. Ogden), Zeit. f. Theol. u. Kirche, 59 (1962): 46-87 (“How New is the ‘New Quest . . .’ (With S. M. Ogden), The Historical Jesus and the Kergymatic Christ, eds., C.E. Braaten & R. A. Harrisville, (New York, 1964: 197-242).
A Handbook of Theological Terms (New York: 1964).
“The Historical Jesus, the Kerygma, and the Christian Faith,” Rel. in Life 43 (1964) 430-50.
The Historian and the Believer (New York: 1969; Philadelphia: 1981; Urbana, Ill.: 1996 [with a new introduction]).
“Is There an Ethics of Belief?” Jr. of Rel. 49 (1969), 41-58.
“A Christology for Barabbases,” Perkins School of Theo. Jour., 29 (1976) 1-13.
“The Ethics of Belief Reconsidered,” Jr. of Rel., 59 (1979), 406-20.
“The Dilemma of the Unbelieving Theologian,” Amer. Jr. of Theo. & Phil. 2 (1981), 46-54.
“Nietzsche and the Kantian Paradigm of Religious Faith” in Witness and Existence, eds., P. E. Devenish & L. Goodwin (Chicago: 1989), 140-161.
Feuerbach and the Interpretation of Religion (Cambridge, Eng.: 1995).
“Feuerbach on Luther’s Doctrine of Revelation,” Jr. of Rel., 78 (1997), 3-17.
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
. Born in Hankow, China, he served in the U.S. Navy (1943–46), and was awarded a BA in Philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
from Occidental College
Occidental College
Occidental College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887, Occidental College, or "Oxy" as it is called by students and alumni, is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges on the West Coast...
(1948, Phi Beta Kappa). After attending Princeton Theological Seminary for one year, he received a B.D. from Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School
Yale Divinity School is a professional school at Yale University, in New Haven, Connecticut, U.S. preparing students for ordained or lay ministry, or for the academy...
in 1951 and a PhD. from Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
in 1957 in post-Enlightenment religious thought. His thesis was entitled "Myth, Faith, and History" and his thesis supervisor was H. Richard Niebuhr
H. Richard Niebuhr
Helmut Richard Niebuhr was one of the most important Christian theological-ethicists in 20th century America, most known for his 1951 book Christ and Culture and his posthumously published book The Responsible Self. The younger brother of theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, Richard Niebuhr taught for...
.
Van Harvey taught at Princeton University
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
(1954–58), Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University (1958–68), the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
(1968–78), and Stanford University (1978–1996). He was Chair of the graduate program in religion at SMU and Chair of his departments at both the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford.
The aim of his first book A Handbook of Theological Terms (1964) was to explain to laypersons the meaning of technical terms found in Christian theology, with special attention to issues dividing Protestant and Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
theology. His second book The Historian and the Believer (1966) was concerned with the way in which "morality of knowledge" that informs professional historical inquiry poses problems for the believer and theologian who attempt to justify the historical claims of Christianity
Christianity
Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...
“on faith”, especially when historical inquiry is concerned with Jesus of Nazareth. Harvey argues that these problems have not been satisfactorily dealt with by modern Christian theologians. He pays particular attention to the theologies of Karl Barth
Karl Barth
Karl Barth was a Swiss Reformed theologian whom critics hold to be among the most important Christian thinkers of the 20th century; Pope Pius XII described him as the most important theologian since Thomas Aquinas...
, Paul Tillich
Paul Tillich
Paul Johannes Tillich was a German-American theologian and Christian existentialist philosopher. Tillich was one of the most influential Protestant theologians of the 20th century...
, and Rudolf Bultmann
Rudolf Bultmann
Rudolf Karl Bultmann was a German theologian of Lutheran background, who was for three decades professor of New Testament studies at the University of Marburg...
. New Testament scholar Gerd Lüdemann
Gerd Lüdemann
Gerd Lüdemann , is a German New Testament scholar. He taught this subject from 1983 to 1999 at the Faculty of Theology of the University of Göttingen. Since 1999 he has taught there with a special status as Chair of History and Literature of Early Christianity...
states in a citation of this book that "I have long been more indebted to this than is evident from the number of explicit references" The third edition of 1996 contains a new introduction outlining his mature position on these issues.
One commentator has characterized Dr Harvey’s career after 1980 as having been transformed from theologian into skeptical student of religion. This change is reflected in both his articles and preeminently in his third book Feuerbach and the Interpretation of Religion (1995), winner of the 1996 American Academy of Religion’s award for excellence in constructive-reflective studies. This book argues that the neglected later writings of Ludwig Feuerbach dropped much of the Hegelian elements informing his better-known early work and created a more powerful theory for the origins and persistence of religion. Harvey compares this theory with several well-known contemporary social-scientific and psychological theories and judges Feuerbach's to be superior.
Dr Harvey has been awarded an honorary degree in the Humanities from Occidental College
Occidental College
Occidental College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college located in the Eagle Rock neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. Founded in 1887, Occidental College, or "Oxy" as it is called by students and alumni, is one of the oldest liberal arts colleges on the West Coast...
, two John Simon Guggenheim
John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation
The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation was founded in 1925 by Mr. and Mrs. Simon Guggenheim in memory of their son, who died April 26, 1922...
Fellowships (1966 and 1972), a National Endowment of the Humanities Fellowship (1979), a Visiting Fellowship from Clare Hall, Cambridge University (1979), and distinguished teaching awards from both the University of Pennsylvania and Stanford University. He has contributed to several encyclopedias and reference works including the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy is a freely-accessible online encyclopedia of philosophy maintained by Stanford University. Each entry is written and maintained by an expert in the field, including professors from over 65 academic institutions worldwide...
.
Select Bibliography
“On Believing What is Difficult to Understand,” Jr. of Rel. 39 (1959), 219-31.“D. F. Strauss’ Life of Jesus Revisited,” Church History. 30 (1961), 191-211.
“Wie Neu ist die ‘Neue Frage nach dem historischen Jesus’?” (with S. M. Ogden), Zeit. f. Theol. u. Kirche, 59 (1962): 46-87 (“How New is the ‘New Quest . . .’ (With S. M. Ogden), The Historical Jesus and the Kergymatic Christ, eds., C.E. Braaten & R. A. Harrisville, (New York, 1964: 197-242).
A Handbook of Theological Terms (New York: 1964).
“The Historical Jesus, the Kerygma, and the Christian Faith,” Rel. in Life 43 (1964) 430-50.
The Historian and the Believer (New York: 1969; Philadelphia: 1981; Urbana, Ill.: 1996 [with a new introduction]).
“Is There an Ethics of Belief?” Jr. of Rel. 49 (1969), 41-58.
“A Christology for Barabbases,” Perkins School of Theo. Jour., 29 (1976) 1-13.
“The Ethics of Belief Reconsidered,” Jr. of Rel., 59 (1979), 406-20.
“The Dilemma of the Unbelieving Theologian,” Amer. Jr. of Theo. & Phil. 2 (1981), 46-54.
“Nietzsche and the Kantian Paradigm of Religious Faith” in Witness and Existence, eds., P. E. Devenish & L. Goodwin (Chicago: 1989), 140-161.
Feuerbach and the Interpretation of Religion (Cambridge, Eng.: 1995).
“Feuerbach on Luther’s Doctrine of Revelation,” Jr. of Rel., 78 (1997), 3-17.
External links
- Van Harvey's article on Ludwig Feuerbach for Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy
- Van Harvey's book review of Wittgensteinian Fideism? by By Kai Nielsen and D. Z. Phillips (requires payment to view past first page)
- Article "Secularism: Will it Survive?" Published by Council for Secular Humanism
- 2007 Speech given at conference “Scripture and Skepticism” at UC Davis
- John Simon Guggenheim bio of Van Harvey
- Guide to Collection of Van Harvey papers at Stanford University Libraries