This monograph is a slightly revised version of the dissertation by Pierre Sfendules, who teaches church history in Kiel. It closes an important research gap, as it expertly traces the debates surrounding the important programmatic document of the Prussian diplomat, committed church politician and, not least, patristic scholar Christian Bunsen (1791–1860). In the different sections, Sfendules first discusses the significance of church history in general in Bunsen’s work, then his patristic studies, which revolve around Hippolytus of Rome and his time, and thirdly Bunsen’s main work, his ‘Hippolytus’, which he places fourthly and finally in the wider Elenchos controversy.

The Prussian envoy to Rome, Bern and London, Christian Bunsen was undoubtedly one of the most influential German diplomats of his time: whether it was the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, the negotiations in the run-up to the Crimean War or the establishment of a joint Protestant diocese in Jerusalem in 1841, he was always heavily involved due to his close proximity to King Frederick William iv. In his foreword, Sfendules rightly asks why this man spent a considerable part of his life painstakingly researching a hitherto largely unknown church Father (p. 2). To answer this question, Sfendules looks at the nineteenth century, which is still very controversial in terms of terminology, and argues in favour of retaining the distinction between liberal and conservative theology, while avoiding false dichotomies (p. 7). Sfendules defines conservatism as those transconfessional positions that sought religious and ideological certainty in authoritative structures after the events of the year 1848 (p. 8). Although this definition in a theological dissertation is anything but self-evident, it rightly emphasises the dwindling importance of the confessional sphere and the growing importance of the nation and the emergence of distinct national scholarly cultures.

In the first chapter of the book, it quickly becomes clear how important church history was for diplomacy as a whole, especially for church policy. Clement of Alexandria, for example, was particularly popular with liberal theologians (p. 21), Boniface was the ‘Apostle of the Germans’ (p. 22) and ‘The Shepherd of Hermas’ was regarded as a pioneer of Christian philosophy of history (p. 23). Sfendules rightly draws attention to the different institutional circumstances: Whereas in Germany church history had its place in the universities, in Victorian England a gentlemanly ideal emerged in which leading theologians were not paid by universities. Bunsen tried to establish himself in this British environment as a scholarly gentleman, which led not least to derision from Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels (p. 28). Even Ferdinand Christian Baur repeatedly referred to Bunsen’s actual profession as a diplomat with polemical intent. In his current situation, however, Bunsen ultimately believed that only the monarchy was capable of circumnavigating the paralysing debates in the Church, at the universities and the broader public in favour of a comprehensive church reform (p. 47). According to Sfendules, Bunsen as a layman thus wanted to unite theology, which for him seemed to be abstract and not very practical, with everyday religious life.

The second chapter traces the history of the discovery of ‘Hippolytus’ in a few pages, the publication of which in the nineteenth century is illustrated with helpful tables to prove its broad impact. The third chapter looks at Bunsen’s own church historiographical activities. With his ‘Hippolytus’, Bunsen attempted to stabilise the shaken religious identities of the nineteenth century by referring back to the normative apostolic era (p. 81). In the current crisis of Church and theology, for Bunsen only German theology could bring help (p. 83) and initiate the necessary transformations. Just like August Tholuck’s famous dialogue ‘Guido and Julius: the true consecration of the doubter’ (‘Die Wahre Weihe des Zweiflers’) Bunsen staged a fictitious speech of Hippolytus. He put a reform programme into the mouth of the church Father, in which the strict doctrine of the inspiration of Scripture, infant baptism or a Lutheran understanding of the eucharist all appear to be heretical. His Hippolytus logically concludes with a call for a second Reformation, a return to Christian values, interdenominational unity and world peace (p. 94).

In the fourth part, Sfendules places Bunsen’s work in the context of the so-called Elenchos controversy. It is a strength of this monograph to recognise concrete constellations and networks, although sometimes a more precise and detailed philological analysis would have been necessary. It is unfortunate that Bunsen’s concrete theological stance in its independence is not further developed in the text. In any case, Bunsen’s anticlericalism (p. 107) or his sympathy for moderate rationalist thinking (p. 108) and freedom of conscience (p. 118) are described well and supported by many references to unpublished sources. Ultimately, for Bunsen, the strong emphasis on the bishop in church constitutions was to blame for the loss of religious worldviews in the society of his time (p. 131). According to Bunsen, Luther’s radical understanding of the Lord’s Supper had already gambled away the unity of the Reformation (p. 142) and made tolerance of plurality impossible. For him this seemed to be only exacerbated by the close connection between Church and State, the ‘landesherrliches Kirchenregiment’. This constituted a small but lasting conflict with the Prussian king, who nevertheless remained well-disposed towards him. Bunsen’s remarks on the Lord’s Supper and his liturgical works in particular belong recognisably in the immediate context of the liturgical debates of his time, for example the ‘Agendenstreit’, while the remarks on the ‘Vita Calixti’ belonged to the classic repertoire of anti-papal polemics (p. 159) in the contemporary discussions about the infallibility of the Roman bishop.

For Sfendules, however, another debate seems particularly noteworthy. The relationship between science and faith had been raised anew by the Tübingen School (p. 186), from which Bunsen distanced himself in many instances. However, for Bunsen the Logos existed before the incarnation of Jesus, working through the human mind. This proclaimed that efficacy of the Logos in human reason led to academic theology becoming one of the foundations of Christian religion. Bunsen can be very clear in this respect: ‘To cry down Germany & German criticism is to blind the truth & cause of the Gospel & quench the Spirit’ (p. 189). From this perspective, God himself becomes the first rationalist and Hippolytus of Rome the great defender of rationalism, which can by no means be dismissed as a contemporary trend. Sfendules rightly points out that this esteem for scientific theology does not contradict the sharp demarcation from the Tübingen School (p. 193). Bunsen wanted to emancipate rationalism from Tübingen, so to speak, and thus rehabilitate it in the public eye in England. Sfendules rightly recognises parallels here with the history of rationalism by Professor August Tholuck in Halle. He too now tended to turn against Hengstenberg and saw rationalism as a necessary, purifying phase of church history. In Bunsen and Tholuck, the British public saw an acceptable form of German theology (p. 210). The chapter concludes with a few remarks on the particular situation in Scotland.

In his final summary, Sfendules once again brings together many insights. In doing so, he moves entirely along the lines of the prevailing classifications of the nineteenth century, which he clarifies only in a few instances. Overall, his work is characterised by concise paraphrases of Bunsen’s writings, a knowledgeable sketch of the constellations of the time based on unpublished sources, the materiality of the publications and the associated practices. He rightly refers to the enormous increase in the importance of church history in the nineteenth century (p. 230), the high esteem in which apostolic traditions were held, even in Protestant societies (p. 233), the debates about the Lord’s Supper and the liturgy (p. 234), as well as the disputes about the Roman episcopate (p. 235). It is particularly commendable that Sfendules has traced how the ‘Tübingen School’ ultimately threatened to delegitimise the integration of historical-critical methods into theology as a whole through the (maliciously distorting) conservative framing of Baur and Strauss. In this respect, Bunsen contributed to a Europe-wide consolidation of a liberal theology, precisely by emancipating it from the dangerous reputation of Tübingen (p. 237). Bunsen thus skilfully presented his contemporary church-political approaches as a return to early Christian practice – and not as a change brought about by the Enlightenment. For Bunsen early Christianity became a transnational and transconfessional reference point in the struggle for a ‘second reformation’ in Europe (p. 240).

This book is recommended to any historian or theologian interested in the intellectual history of the nineteenth century. It could be critically noted that the major narratives are not subjected to any fundamental revision, and that the question of the basis of Bunsen’s argumentation in the patristic texts themselves is methodically excluded, and a detailed philological analysis of Bunsen’s theology is lacking. However, it nevertheless closes a significant research gap by drawing on unpublished sources and intensively discussing relevant literature. It is a meritorious achievement to have discovered this important layman as a theological scholar and diplomat – and thus to have significantly broadened our understanding of the constellations of that time, as well as the increasingly professionalised academic cultures.