Wach, Joachim, 1898-1955

An authority on the history of religions, Joachim Wach (1898-1958) taught in the Divinity School from 1945 until his death.

Wach was born in Chemnitz, Germany, descended on both sides from the Mendelssohn-Bartoldy family. After serving in the German army during World War I, he studied at the Universities of Berlin and Munich, taking his doctorate in philosophy from Leipzig in 1922. He was awarded a Th.D. from Heidelberg in 1930. Although Wach had taught at Leipzig since 1924, pressure from the Nazis forced the Saxon government to terminate his appointment in 1935, with Wach immigrating to the United States. After teaching at Brown University, Wach came to Chicago in 1945 where he served as chairman of the History of Religions Field of the Federated Theological Faculty.

Wach was brought up in a Neo-Kantian Protestant tradition, though his work matured in other directions. While he was trained in philosophy and Oriental studies, his principal grounding was in Religionswissenschaft. He devoted the bulk of his career to studying the nature, subject, and method of this science of religion. Wach's early publications, particularly the formidable three volume Das Verstehen (1926-1933), were heavily influenced by hermeneutics, whose method and aims he had assimilated from one of his mentors, Wilhelm Dilthey. The heavily historically oriented character of Wach's German training gave him a lifelong interest in the history of religions as a major task of Religionswissenschaft. This interest led him to a broad mastery of the major world religions -- Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, and Judaism -- as well as of primitive religions. His openness to new methods for the science of religions made him receptive to Weber, Troeltsch, and the use of social science concepts in understanding religious thought and action. Wach was enthusiastic about interdisciplinary approaches to the history of religions and looked especially to sociology and anthropology for important contributions. Although much of Wach's reputation in America stemmed largely from his Sociology of Religion (1944), Wach himself believed that sociology was but one of many disciplines which could illuminate the history of religions and the nature of religious experience.

Joachim Ernst Adolphe Felix Wach (German: [vaχ]; January 25, 1898 – August 27, 1955) was a German religious scholar from Chemnitz, who emphasized a distinction between the Religious Studies (Religionswissenschaft) and the philosophy of religion.

Wach was descended on both sides from the famous Mendelssohn family, both the philosopher Moses Mendelssohn and the composer Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. He shared the latter's love of music and was said to have inherited some important papers and relics of his ancestor. After schooling in Dresden, he enlisted in the German army in 1916, where he served as a cavalry officer. After World War I, he studied at the Universities of Munich, Berlin, Freiburg, and Leipzig, where he received his PhD in 1922. He taught at Leipzig University. His Habilitationsschrift, entitled Religionswissenschaft, is widely considered a landmark document in the field of the history of religions.

Though Wach's family had long since converted from Judaism to Christianity, he was nonetheless driven out of his teaching post by the Nazis in the early 1930s. He was able to emigrate to the United States, where he took up a post at Brown University, first as Visiting Professor of Biblical Literature (1935–1939) and then as associate professor (1939–1946). Raised as a Lutheran, he became an Episcopalian shortly after coming to the United States. He was granted United States citizenship in 1946.

Wach taught at the University of Chicago Divinity School from 1945 to 1955, becoming the chair of the History of Religions area Wach died unexpectedly of a heart attack (though he had had a history of heart trouble) on August 27, 1955, in Locarno, Switzerland.