Religion and the Rise of History

"Leonard Smith's book is, in its origins and goals, a deeply pedagogical work. He addresses a central problem in the history of eighteenth-century German and European thought, the emergence of a new, evolutionary view of history called 'historicism.' Enabled by Luther's incarnational theology, historicism received its first formulation, Smith argues, from Leibniz and his successors and achieved its public place in the new University of Berlin (est. 1810). This book is a splendid marriage of classical themes with new and original insights. Everyone interested in the evolution of European historical thought should read it." Thomas A. Brady Jr, University of California, Berkeley "This book breaks new ground in showing how Martin Luther shaped the philosophical pioneers of a new worldview based upon the study of history. A textbook for minds curious about a philosophy of history." Eric W. Gritsch, Gettysburg Lutheran Seminary "A wide-ranging intellectual history of the emergence in Germany of a modern historical consciousness." Dale A. Johnson, Vanderbilt University

Leonard S. Smith is Emeritus Professor of History at California Lutheran University, Thousand Oaks, California.