BETH, KARL (1872–1959), German historian of religions and Christian thinker. Karl Beth studied at the University of Berlin in the 1890s (under Adolf von Harnack, Otto Pfleiderer, and Wilhelm Dilthey), where he obtained his Ph.D. in 1898 with a dissertation entitled "Die Grundanschuungen Schleiermachers in seinem ersten Entwurf der philosophischen Sittenlehre"; he became an instructor of systematic theology at Berlin in 1901. Five years later he moved to Vienna and served at the university there, first as a lecturer and from 1908 onward as a full professor. The political developments that in 1938 brought an end to his academic career in Europe led him to emigrate to the United States in the following year. He served on the faculty of Meadville-Lombard Theological School in Chicago from 1941 to 1944, teaching the history of religions, a field that was a primary concern for him at several points in his life.

As early as...