Einstein Postdoctoral Grant for Dr Jonathan Teubner (EPG-2025-919): "Adolf von Harnack and the Study of Early Christianity in the United States and Great Britain in the Twentieth Century"

This project reassesses how the German scholar Adolf von Harnack (1851-1930) shaped the study of early Christianity in the United States and Great Britain in the 20th century and what this legacy means for the field today. Harnack was a towering figure in the discipline of theology, but he left behind an ambivalent legacy. While he can be credited with modernizing the field of early Christianity, Harnack's broader theories -- especially about Christianity's 'Hellenisation' and his sharp separation of Christianity and Judaism -- have drawn sustained criticism. Over the four years, this project will trace how Harnack's ideas were received, adapted, or resisted across key American and British institutions. It asks how his frameworks were conveyed through teaching, publishing, and scholarly networks; how they interacted with theological movements and emerging 'religious studies' approaches; and how assumptions about Christianity's relationship to both Greco-Roman culture and diverse Judaisms shaped the discipline's boundaries. By placing American and British receptions in conversation, this project develops a comparative reception history attentive to the relevant personalities, institutional cultures, and intellectual agendas. The research combines close reading of texts with institutional histories. The goal is twofold: first, to produce the first comprehensive account of Harnack's anglophone reception; and second, to propose a forward-looking framework for early Christian studies that keep rigorous historical work in dialogue with theology while integrating Jewish-Christian interactions more fully.