Otto Pfleiderer

1839-1908. German Protestant scholar. Born in Württemberg, he studied at Tübingen (1857-61) under F.C. Baur* and became an adherent of the Tübingen School.* He studied also in Britain, and in 1870 became chief pastor and superintendent at Jena, then professor ordinarius of theology. In 1875 he took the chair of theology at Berlin. Already he had begun a series of influential works that was to include Der Paulinismus (ET 1873), The Development of Theology Since Kant (1890), and The Philosophy of Religion on the Basis of Its History (ET 1886-88). He lectured in London and Oxford “On the Influence of the Apostle Paul,” differing not only with the orthodox position on the consistency of Pauline and other NT theology, but also later with the Tübingen School which posited hostility between the Pauline, Petrine, and Johannine factions in the early church. Pfleiderer considered Pauline theology a very logical outworking of Christian teaching.