Ernst Troeltsch (February 17 1865 – February 1 1923) was a German Protestant theologian and writer on philosophy of religion and philosophy of history, and an influential figure in German thought before 1914. His work was a synthesis of a number of strands, drawing on Albrecht Ritschl, Max Weber's conception of sociology, and the Neo-Kantians of the Baden school.

His The Social Teachings of the Christian Church (two volume edition in translation by Harper Row, 1960) is a seminal work in this area.

While religious thinking in the days of the Weimar Republic moved away from his direction, Troeltsch is still important in relation with the sociology of religion.

External links

• Ernst Troeltsch at The Boston Collaborative Encyclopedia of Modern Western Theology
• Lori Pearson, "Gendered Dimensions of Troeltsch's Typology of Church-Sect-Mysticism," Zeitschrift für Neuere Theologiegeschichte (Journal for the History of Modern Theology), 13,1 (2006), pp 23-40.