Who’s Who in German Theology

The young pastor or theologian who tries to keep reasonably abreast of contemporary theological thought soon becomes bewildered by the sheer volume of German scholarship. More immediate translations and such series as Harper’s “New Frontiers in Theology” which discuss noteworthy developments help reduce the language barrier. But so many theologians clamor for attention that the lack of an index to the multitude of German names is an imposing obstacle.

Probably the easiest and most helpful way to group German theologians is in terms of faculties of theology. Because the most significant faculties are part of Germany’s famous universities, German theology is integrally connected with the German academic tradition. Since the partition of Germany after the Second World War, the West has been deprived of much of East Germany’s intellectual life, including the scholarship of the theological faculties still functioning at Leipzig and Halle-Wittenberg. Little is heard from the land of Luther in contemporary German theological debate. But this silence is more than offset by the volley of words thundering from such theologically momentous cities as Göttingen, Marburg, Heidelberg, and Tübingen.

In the north of West Germany is Hamburg, newest of the schools of theology. Organized by Helmut Thielicke (b. 1900) in 1954, it now has nine professors. Thielicke, its professor of systematic theology and rector of the university since 1960, is known in America primarily for his university sermons and his interest in Spurgeon. Of more abiding significance, however, is his three-volume work, Theologische Ethik (Mohr, 1951–58), not yet available in English translation.

South of Hamburg lies Münster, famous during the Reformation as the site of a radical uprising. Founded in 1780, the university has both a Protestant and a Catholic theological faculty. Its best-known professors of theology are Willi Marxsen and Kurt Aland. Marxsen (b. 1919), professor of New Testament exegesis and theology and a leader of the Redaktionsgeschichte school of New Testament criticism, has written an important study of Mark that achieved a second edition in 1959. Kurt Aland (b. 1915) is professor of ecclesiastical history, but he is perhaps better known for a new synopsis of the Gospels with an up-to-date critical apparatus which he is preparing with the aid of his students at Münster and the latest mechanical equipment available. Available in English are his Problem of the New Testament Canon (Canterbury, 1962) and Did the Early Church Baptize Infants? (Westminster, 1963).

Over the years Göttingen has had a number of well-known theologians. Names such as Michaelis, Ewald, Wellhausen, Ritschl, Weiss, W. Bauer, and Gogarten are known in theological circles for brilliant and often highly controversial theories. Today that tradition is still just as brilliant but probably not so radical. In fact Joachim Jeremias (b. 1900), professor of New Testament studies, is broadly conservative. Like Schleiermacher and Bultmann (whom he opposes), he comes from the Pietist tradition of the Herrnhuter (Moravian Brethren). Jeremias is best known in America for his books Jesus’ Promise to the Nations (Allenson, 1958) and The Parables of Jesus (second ed., Scribner, 1963). Untranslated is his two-volume study of Jerusalem in the time of Jesus (second ed., 1958). Jeremias’s new colleague in New Testament is Hans Conzelmann (b. 1915), whose important study, The Theology of St. Luke, has been translated into English (Harper, 1960). Conzelmann is a Bultmannian who has given up the “new quest of the historical Jesus.” Also in the biblical field is Walther Zimmerli (b. 1907), professor of Old Testament and pro-rector of the university, whose major contributions to scholarship are his commentaries on Ecclesiastes (1936) and Ezekiel (1955) and his study of Genesis 1–11 (1957), which are all untranslated.

But more widely known in America today is the faculty of theology at Marburg. Preceding Rudolf Bultmann in the faculty of theology have been such notables as Adolf Jülicher, Wilhelm Herrmann, Karl Budde, Rudolf Otto, and Hans von Soden. Both Bultmann and Martin Heidegger belonged to the “Old Marburger” club. Bultmann is a major molder of such influential concepts in contemporary thought as demythologizing, form criticism, and kerygmatic theology. Bultmann’s successor in New Testament is Werner Georg Kümmel (b. 1905), formerly president of the international body of scholars known as the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas, publishers of New Testament Studies. Among Kümmel’s works available in English are Promise and Fulfilment—The Eschatological Message of Jesus (“Studies in Biblical Theology” 23; Allenson, 1957) and Man in the New Testament (Westminster, 1963). Even better known is the radical post-Bultmannian, Ernst Fuchs (b. 1903), also professor of New Testament. His untranslated work on the quest of the historical Jesus places him in a position very close to that of the nineteenth-century liberals; his The New Hermeneutic will appear as the second volume of “New Frontiers in Theology.”

The capital city of West Germany, Bonn, has a relatively new university, founded in 1818. Here Bruno Bauer fled after his break with the Hengstenberg school. Currently professor of Old Testament exegesis is Martin Noth (b. 1902), who carries on the form critical tradition in the area of Old Testament studies. In English are his famous History of Israel (second ed., Harper, 1960) and a commentary on Exodus (Westminster, 1962). One of the most promising of the younger professors of New Testament in Germany is Cameroun-born Philipp Vielhauer (b. 1914), whose work on the Son of man sayings in Jesus’ preaching (1957) has been warmly received in Germany. At Bonn too is the Roman Catholic historian Hubert Jedlin (b. 1900), author of a three-volume History of the Council of Trent (Herder, 1957–65?).

Farther south along the Rhine lies Mainz. Its Johannes Gutenberg University was founded in 1477 and has both Protestant and Catholic theological faculties. Closed for well over a century, it reopened its doors in 1946 and now has Herbert Braun (b. 1903) and Wolfhardt Pannenberg (b. 1928) on its Faculty of Evangelical Theology. Braun’s chef-d’oeuvre is his two-volume study of the relation of Jesus and the synoptic tradition to the Qumran community (1957). Pannenberg is Mainz’ professor of systematic theology and at the age of thirty-five has already established himself as an authority on the Christian understanding of history. A projected volume in the “New Frontiers in Theology” series will make his thought readily available in the United States.

Heidelberg’s university is among Europe’s oldest. Founded in 1386, it is also among the largest of Germany’s schools of higher education, with some 13,000 students. Former faculty members include Richard Rothe, Ernst Troeltsch, Max Weber, and Martin Dibelius. Today its theological faculty is probably the strongest in all Europe; at least seven professors have earned international reputations. Among them is Gerhard von Rad (b. 1901), professor of Old Testament exegesis and author of such important works as Old Testament Theology (Vol. I, Harper, 1962) and the recent commentary on Genesis (Westminster, 1961). His approach to the Old Testament has been compared with that of Bultmann to the New Testament. Also in the field of Old Testament is Claus Westermann (b. 1909), whose major work has been done in the field of Old Testament hermeneutics. The professor of systematic theology, Peter Brunner (b. 1900), has established a solid reputation for his Barthian interpretation of Calvin and Luther, but his works have not been published in English. Günther Bornkamm (b. 1905), professor of New Testament exegesis, became known in this country as a conservative post-Bultmannian on the basis of his book Jesus of Nazareth (Harper, 1960). More recent is a book written in collaboration with two of his students, Tradition and Interpretation in Matthew (Westminster, 1963). A newer arrival on the New Testament faculty is Erich Dinkler (b. 1909), co-editor with Bultmann of the journal Theologische Rundschau. Bornkamm’s brother Heinrich (b. 1901), a specialist in Reformation history, is the author of Luther’s World of Thought (Concordia, 1958). Although Heinz Eduard Todt is now professor of social ethics, his chief claim to fame is his untranslated study of the Son of Man sayings in the synoptic tradition (Mohr, 1959).

Tübingen’s university, founded in 1477, is known to most English-speaking theologians for its radical application of Hegelian philosophy to the New Testament (the so-called “Tübingen school”) in the nineteenth century. In years past its halls heard the voices of Ferdinand Christian Baur, David Friedrich Strauss, Adolf Schlatter, Gerhard Kittel, and Karl Heim. Its most important faculty members today are Artur Weiser (b. 1893) in Old Testament, Hermann Diem (b. 1900) in systematic theology, and Ernst Käsemann (b. 1906) in New Testament. Weiser’s magnum opus appeared in the United States as The Old Testament: Its Formation and Development (Association, 1961), regarded by some as the most adequate introduction to the Old Testament and now in its fifth edition in Germany. Although Diem’s Dogmatics is the primary source of his recognition, he is also a Kierkegaard scholar of some consequence. Käsemann is known as the initiator of “the new quest of the historical Jesus” through his 1954 article, “Das Problem des historischen Jesus,” which appeared in Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche. In the faculty of Catholic theology Hans Küng (b. 1928) carries on the ecumenical tradition of Karl Adam.

The Swiss Seminaries

Although Basel and Zürich are technically in Switzerland, the theological faculties have long been closely linked to those of Germany.

Karl Barth was the towering giant who placed Basel on the theological map for most Americans. Now retired, he has been succeeded by thirty-five-year-old Heinrich Ott (b. 1929). Ott’s untranslated book, Thinking and Being (1959), is widely regarded as doing for the “later Heidegger” what Bultmann did for the “earlier Heidegger.” His essay, “What is Systematic Theology?,” forms the core of The Later Heidegger and Theology, first volume of the series “New Frontiers in Theology,” edited by James M. Robinson and John B. Cobb (Harper, 1963). He studied under both Barth and Bultmann and holds a position usually closer to the former than to the latter. At Basel as Ott’s colleague in systematic theology is the extreme left-wing theologian, Fritz Buri (b. 1907). Neither of Buri’s two volumes in systematic theology, Dogmatik als Selbstverständnis des christlichen Glaubens (Haupt, 1956, 1962), has as yet been translated. Walther Eichrodt has been Basel’s professor of Old Testament since 1922. The first volume of his monumental Theology of the Old Testament is now available in English (Westminster, 1961). In the area of early church history and New Testament is Oscar Cullmann (b. 1902), who also teaches at the Sorbonne in Paris. He is renowned in the English-speaking world through such works as Christology of the New Testament (Westminster, 1959) and Christ and Time (second ed., Westminster, 1964).

Just as Basel is known to us as Karl Barth’s home, so Zürich is known as the home of Emil Brunner. At least two other Zürich theologians today are well known in theological circles in America. Brunner’s successor is Gerhard Ebeling (b. 1912), editor of Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche, and author of The Nature of Faith (Fortress, 1962) and Word and Faith (Fortress, 1963). Far more conservative is the New Testament scholar Eduard Schweizer (b. 1913), best known for his article on the Spirit of God in Kittel’s Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament and for two volumes in the series “Studies in Biblical Theology,” Lordship and Discipleship (Allenson, 1960) and Church Order in the New Testament (Allenson, 1961). (Karl Barth’s brother Heinrich is a professor in Zürich’s philosophy department.)

In the Bavarian region, Erlangen stands alone. In recent years it has maintained a more moderate stance than most German universities. In the last century the great conservative scholar Theodor Zahn taught New Testament there. The New Testament department is still relatively right-wing. Both Paul Althaus (b. 1888) and Ethelbert Stauffer (b. 1902) have upheld a strong anti-Bultmannian outlook, but from divergent points of view. Available in English are Althaus’s Fact and Faith in the Kerygma of Today (Fortress, 1959) and Stauffer’s New Testament Theology (SCM, 1955).

In The East Zone

The East Zone of Germany has its theological heritage, too. Leipzig once heard the voices of Franz Delitzsch, Rudolf Kittel, Albrecht Alt, Konstantin von Tischendorf, Paul Tillich, and Ernst Fuchs. Halle was founded by the German Pietist Philipp Spener. Later its faculty included such greats as August Francke, Christian Wolff, Johannes Semler, Wilhelm Gesenius, Willibald Beyschlag, Martin Kähler, Friedrich Loofs, Hermann Gunkel, Julius Schniewind, Otto Eissfeldt, and Kurt Aland. It merged with Wittenberg in 1817 and became Martin Luther University. Today, however, both schools are somewhat isolated politically.

Berlin stands out as a lone star in the East German sky. The Free University of Berlin, founded in 1948, now has some 12,000 students. Its theological studies are found in the philosophy department, where Helmut Gollwitzer (b. 1908) is professor of Protestant theology. His name has become known to theologians in America largely as a result of his introduction to and selection from Karl Barth’s Church Dogmatics that appeared recently as a Harper Torchbook (Harper, 1962). In years gone by Berlin could boast more outstanding persons than any other theological faculty in Germany, including Friedrich Schleiermacher, W. M. L. de Wette, Neander, I. A. Dorner, E. W. Hengstenberg, Otto Pfleiderer, Bernhard Weiss, Adolf von Harnack, Reinhold Seeberg, Karl Holl, Adolf Deissmann, and Hans Lietzmann.

This guide has fixed attention on those theologians who are known to Americans through English translations of their works, although several others have been included because their untranslated works are of special significance. To avoid excessive cataloguing we have omitted Fohrer, Loewenich, Dörries, Otto Weber, Kraus, Michel, Goppelt, Campenhausen, Kuhn, Schlink, and Lortz, names that those versed in German theology may feel should have been included. Several of the men mentioned in this survey represent positions with which many will violently disagree; but the aim of all reading, of course, is to learn what is valuable and to dismiss the chaff. Germany is still a leader in theological thought today. Evangelicals dare not neglect its scholarship, because it begs for interaction with them and not only with those in America who represent other theological traditions.

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