Ernst Peter Wilhelm Troeltsch (; ; 17 February 1865 – 1 February 1923) was a German liberal Protestant theologian, a writer on the philosophy of religion and the philosophy of history, and a classical liberal politician. He was a member of the history of religions school. His work was a synthesis of a number of strands, drawing on Albrecht Ritschl, Max Weber's conception of sociology, and the Baden school of neo-Kantianism. His "The Social Teachings of the Christian Church" (Die Soziallehren der christlichen Kirchen und Gruppen, 1912) is a seminal work in theology. Life Troeltsch was born on 17 February 1865 into a Lutheran family to a doctor but went to a Catholic school in a predominantly Catholic area. He then attended university, at the University of Erlangen and then at the University of Göttingen. His ordination in 1889 was followed in 1891 by a post teaching theology at Göttingen. In 1892, he moved on to teach at the University of Bonn. In 1894, he moved on again to Heidelberg University. Finally, in 1915, he transferred to teach at what is now the University of Berlin, where he took the title of professor of philosophy and civilization. Troeltsch died on 1 February 1923. Theology Throughout Troeltsch's life, he wrote frequently of his belief that changes in society posed a threat to Christian religion and that "the disenchantment of the world" as described by sociologist Max Weber was underway. At an academic conference that took place in 1896, after a paper on the doctrine of logos, Troeltsch responded by saying, "Gentlemen, everything is tottering!" Troeltsch sought to explain the decline of religion in the modern era by a description of the historical evolution of the role of religion in society. He described European civilization as having three periods: ancient, medieval, and modern. Troeltsch's understanding of the border between the medieval and modern periods is revisionist. Instead of claiming that modernity starts with the rise of Protestantism, Troeltsch argues that early Protestantism should be understood as a continuation of the medieval period. The modern period starts much later on his account: in the seventeenth century. The Renaissance in Italy and the scientific revolution planted the seeds for the arrival of the modern period, and Protestantism delayed, rather than heralded, its onset. Protestantism, Troeltsch argued, was "in the first place, simply a modification of Catholicism, in which the Catholic formulation of the problems