Karl Albert August Ludwig Eichhorn (1 October 1856,
Garlstorf – 3 August 1926,
Braunschweig) was a German
Protestant theologian. He was the author of Das Abendmahl im Neuen Testament and one of the founders of the
history of religions school, an approach that sought to understand all religions, including
Christianity and
Judaism, 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 reports of the
Last Supper argued that this early Christian sacramental meal reflected the influence of Near Eastern
gnostic 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, 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.
Further reading
Hugo Gressmann, Albert Eichhorn und die religionsgeschichtliche Schule. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1914 (see Publications above for English translation).
Hans Rollmann, "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.