Christian Philosophy - 19th and Early 20th Century

19th and Early 20th Century

• Owen Barfield, philosopher, author, poet, and literary critic who had a profound influence on C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien
• Karl Barth: a Swiss Reformed neo-orthodox theologian, he wrote the massive Church Dogmatics (German, Kirchliche Dogmatik)—unfinished at about six million words by his death in 1968. Barth emphasized the distinction between human thought and divine reality, and that while humans may attempt to understand the divine, our concepts of the divine are never precisely aligned from the divine reality itself, although God reveals his reality in part through human language and culture. Barth strenuously disavowed being a philosopher; he considered himself a dogmatician of the Church and a preacher. The Center for Barth Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary holds the world's most extensive collection of his works.
• Nikolai Berdyaev, Russian philosopher of religion and political theorist
• Rudolf Bultmann, German Lutheran theologian who was one of the most influential biblical scholars of the 20th century and a major figure in liberal Christianity and Christian existentialism; a close friend of philosopher Martin Heidegger, he based his hermeneutics on an existentialist mode of thinking, developing an interpretive perspective known as demythology
• G. K. Chesterton: a British Catholic author, art and literary critic and philosopher, he applied Christian thought in the form of non-fiction, fiction, and poems addressing a variety of theological, moral, political, and economic issues, particularly the importance of seeking truth, distributism, and opposition to eugenics.
• Herman Dooyeweerd, philosopher who wrote the monumental trilogy, A New Critique of Theoretical Thought
• Fyodor Dostoevsky, Russian writer known primarily for his works The Brothers Karamazov and Crime and Punishment
• Pavel Florensky, Russian Orthodox theologian, philosopher, priest, mathematician, and inventor
• William K. Frankena, American philosopher who was a professor at the University of Michigan for over forty years; he specialized in moral philosophy, writing extensively about the relationship between Christianity and ethics
• Nikolai Fyodorovich Fyodorov, Russian Orthodox philosopher and futurist who was a leader in the Russian cosmism movement and major inspiration for transhumanism
• Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, Preeminent German philosopher who was a leading figure in German Idealism and whose thought created the philosophical school known as Hegelianism, his philosophy was influenced greatly by his Lutheran religious beliefs; also wrote a number of works regarding the philosophy of religion
• Søren Kierkegaard, a Danish Lutheran philosopher, the father of existentialist philosophy and particularly the school of Christian existentialism.
• C. S. Lewis, a massively influential literary critic and medievalist, and mythologist, a mythographer in his children's fantasies, and an apologist for the Christian faith to which he adhered in the latter half of his life. He claimed not to be a philosopher, but his apologetics are foundational to the formation of a Christian worldview for many modern readers.
• John Henry Newman, a Catholic philosopher, converted from Anglicanism
• Reinhold Niebuhr, Neo-Orthodox theologian and public intellectual who developed the philosophical perspective known as Christian realism and influenced figures such as Martin Luther King Jr, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Madeline Albright, Jimmy Carter and John McCain
• Michael Polanyi, Hungarian-British polymath and brother of Karl Polanyi
• Friedrich Wilhelm Joseph Schelling, German philosopher who was a major figure in German idealism
• Edith Stein, German Roman Catholic nun, mystic and philosopher who grew up Jewish and converted to atheism before becoming a Christian, writing widely on phenomenology and existentialism
• Vladimir SolovyovRussian philosopher, theologian, and poet
• Albert Schweitzer, German-French philosopher, theologian and physician wrote widely on a number of subjects, most notably ethics and the Quest for the Historical Jesus
• Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer who he is one of the most-celebrated authors in modern literary history, known for his works such as War and Peace and Anna Karenina; his writing was strongly influenced by his religious beliefs; he became an early champion of Christian anarchism, writing on his religious and philosophical beliefs in works such as The Kingdom of God Is Within You and A Confession; his writings influenced figures such as Martin Luther King Jr. and Mahatma Gandhi