DOCSLIB.ORG

A Critical Survey of Karl Barth's Goethe-Reception

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Critical Survey of Karl Barth's Goethe-Reception _full_alt_author_running_head (neem stramien B2 voor dit chapter en nul 0 in hierna): 0 _full_articletitle_deel (kopregel rechts, vul hierna in): A Critical Survey of Karl Barth’s Goethe-Reception _full_article_language: en indien anders: engelse articletitle: 0 A Critical Survey of Karl Barth’s Goethe-Reception 153 Chapter 7 A Critical Survey of Karl Barth’s Goethe-Reception Thomas Xutong Qu 1 Introduction Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) is one of the most influential “poets and thinkers” in German intellectual and cultural history. Karl Barth (1886– 1968) is a German speaking Swiss theologian, who is deemed as the “church father of the 20th century.”1 In the history of Barth scholarship, my book Barth und Goethe: Die Goethe-Rezeption Karl Barths 1906–19212 is the first attempt to elaborate Barth’s Goethe-reception both historical-genetically and systemati- cal-theologically. Based on this book, this article will give a critical survey of Karl Barth’s Goethe-Reception, especially from 1906 to 1921. In a short sketch for the first look, Barth’s Goethe-reception could be divid- ed into four phases: 1) 1906–1918 is the first phase, in which the first version of Barth’s commentary on The Epistle to the Romans (1918)3 is the climax of his early theological thinking and the monument of his Goethe-reception. To this period belongs not only Barth’s growing interest in Goethe under the influence 1 Jörg Dierken, “Karl Barth (1986–1968),” in: Klassiker der Theologie, Band 2: Von Richard Simon bis Karl Rahner, hrsg. von Friedrich W. Graf (München: C. H. Beck, 2005), 223; Eberhard Jüngel, Barth-Studien (Zürich-Köln: Benziger, 1982), 19. Already in his lifetime, Barth was called by a Catholic priest as “Church Father of Bruderholz,” where Barth lived his later life in Basel, Switzerland, cf. Karl Barth Briefe 1961–1968, hrsg. von Jürgen Fangmeier und Hinrich Stoevesandt (Zürich: Theologischer Verlag, 1975), 479; Karl Barth – Carl Zuckmayer: Späte Freundschaft in Briefen, hrsg. von Hinrich Stoevesandt (Zürich: Theologischer Verlag, 1991), 61, 95. This description could perhaps be traced back to Barth himself, when he considered Schleiermacher as “the Church Father of the 19th century,” Karl Barth, “Nachwort,” in: Schleiermacher-Auswahl, hrsg. von Heinz Bolli (München und Hamburg: Siebenstern, 1968), 290. 2 Thomas Xutong Qu, (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener, 2014). When there is no other indica- tion, page numbers in this summary come from the book. For the further details, please see the book itself. 3 This commentary was actually printed and distributed during the Christmas time of 1918, not in the spring of 1919, cf. Barth’s letter to Eduard Thurneysen on December 7, 1919, Karl Barth – Eduard Thurneysen Briefwechsel, Band 1: 1913–1921, bearbeitet und hrsg. von Eduard Thurneysen (Zürich: Theologischer Verlag, 1973), 306, 308; Eberhard Busch, Karl Barths Lebenslauf nach seinen Briefen und autobiographischen Texten (München: Chr. Kaiser, 1986), 118. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2019 | doi:10.1163/9789004409910_008 154 Qu of Adolf Harnack (1906–1908), but also Barth’s slowly declining interest in Goethe owing to his theological transition before and during the First World War (1909–1918). This phase is the most important stage of his Goethe-recep- tion. 2) In 1919, Barth began to distance himself gradually from Goethe. The beginning of this intellectual departure could be seen in Barth’s famous Tam- bach lecture “The Christian in Society” (1919). In this phase, Barth still paid at- tention to Goethe’s intellectual world, but with more critical judgments.4 3) From 1932 onwards, Barth gained “a new relationship with Goethe.”5 He began to read Goethe once again in the summer of 1932. In this phase, Barth used to take an occasional “excursion” into the region of pagans, among whom Goethe is an esteemed representative.6 4) In the 1950s, the later Barth began to read Goethe once again intensively. In this phase, many significant references to Goethe can be found in the context of comparing Mozart and Goethe. Therefore, we could say that Barth has paid continuous attention to Goethe and his works during his entire theological life. However, academic circles, both from theological and from German studies, have not been aware enough of his Goethe-reception. It is perhaps because Barth himself had not left any single complete text about Goethe, there is no detailed monograph on Barth’s relationship with Goethe prior to my book. Only a few scholars such as Thom- as Kucharz,7 Karlmann Beyschlag,8 Karl Robert Mandelkow,9 Hans-Anton 4 For example, concerning the difference between Reformation and Middle Ages, Barth con- sidered Goethe as a man who belongs not to Reformation, but to Middle Ages, Karl Barth, Die Theologie Calvins 1922, hrsg. von Hans Scholl (Zürich: Theologischer Verlag, 1993), 42, 52. 5 Karl Barth, “How My Mind Has Changed 1928–1958,” Der Götze wackelt: Zeitkritische Aufsätze, Reden und Briefe von 1930 bis 1960, hrsg. von Karl Kupisch (Berlin: Käthe Vogt, 1960), 186. 6 Cf. Barth’s letter to Erik Peterson on August 22, 1932, Erik Peterson, Theologie und Theologen: Teilband 9/2: Briefwechsel mit Karl Barth u.a., Reflexionen und Erinnerungen, hrsg. von Barbara Nichtweiß (Würzburg: Echter, 2009), 322. 7 In his dissertation Theologen und ihre Dichter: Literatur, Kultur und Kunst bei Karl Barth, Rudolf Bultmann und Paul Tillich (Mainz: Matthias-Grünewald-Verlag, 1995), Thomas Kucharz mentions the name Goethe only occasionally, mostly parenthetically with other names within a biographical-historical description of Barth’s literature reading. It is prob- ably because that Kucharz considers Barth’s Goethe-citation only as occasional and rhetori- cal, and traces this reception back to his early education. 8 In his article “Goethe im Urteil der neueren evangelischen Theologie” (in: Humanitas- Christianitas. Walther v. Loewenich zum 65. Geburtstag, hrsg. von Karlmann Beyschlag, Gottfried Maron und Eberhard Wölfe, (Witten: Luther-Verlag, 1968), S. 205–221), Karlmann Beyschlag has taken cognition of the theological relevance of Barth’s Goethe-reception, but Beyschlag’s focus is more on the standpoint of Friedrich Gogarten and his representative dialectic-theological refusal of Goethe, since Barth has written no full text about Goethe. 9 Much more further than Karl Mann Beyschlag, Karl Robert Mandelkow speaks about the theological relevance of Barth’s Goethe-reception in the horizon of the confessional critic .
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Dialectical Theology As Theology of Mission: Investigating the Origins of Karl Barth’S Break with Liberalism
    International Journal of Systematic Theology Volume 16 Number 4 October 2014 doi:10.1111/ijst.12075 Dialectical Theology as Theology of Mission: Investigating the Origins of Karl Barth’s Break with Liberalism DAVID W. CONGDON* Abstract: Based on a thorough investigation of Karl Barth’s early writings, this article proposes a new interpretation of dialectical theology as fundamentally concerned with the issue of mission. Documents from 1914 and 1915 show that the turning point in Barth’s thinking about mission – and about Christian theology in general – occurred, at least in part, in response to a largely forgotten manifesto published in September 1914. This manifesto appealed to Protestants around the world to support Germany’s cause in the war on the grounds that they would be supporting the work of the Great Commission. Barth’s reaction to this document sheds light on the missionary nature of dialectical theology, which pursues an understanding of God and God-talk that does not conflate the mission of the church with the diffusion of culture. The term ‘dialectical theology’ is generally associated with notions like Christocentrism, God as wholly other, the infinite qualitative distinction between time and eternity, the negation of the negation, the analogy of faith (analogia fidei) and ‘faith seeking understanding’ (fides quaerens intellectum). These are all important concepts that have their place in articulating the theology that Karl Barth initiated.And yet, as important as questions of soteriology and epistemology undoubtedly are for Barth, documents from before and during his break with liberalism indicate that one of his central concerns was the missionary task of the church.
    [Show full text]
  • Literary Mystification: Hermeneutical Questions of the Early Dialectical Theology
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by DSpace at VU DOI 10.1515/NZSTh-2012-0012 NZSTh 2012; 54(3): 312–331 Katya Tolstaya Literary Mystification: Hermeneutical Questions of the Early Dialectical Theology Summary: This contribution addresses some hermeneutical problems related to Karl Barth’s Römerbrief II. First, it surveys the role of the unpublished archive materials from the Karl Barth-Archiv, i.e. the commentaries, text additions and corrections Eduard Thurneysen sent to Barth during his work on Römerbrief II. Second, because Barth and Thurneysen allude to a literary character from Dostoevsky, Ivan Karamazov, the problem of an appropriation of literature in theology is discussed. These hermeneutic problems have a deeper theological ground, exemplified in Thurneysen’s proposal for an extensive insertion in Barth’s commentary on Rom. 8:18, which was entirely adopted by Barth and thus came to function as an integral part of Barth’s commentary on Rom. 8:17–18. An appendix lists the extant documents of Thurneysen’s intensive occupation with Römerbrief II (commentaries on Barth’s manuscript, the galley and paper proofs). These documents are relevant for the genesis and chronology of Römer- brief II and yield important new insights into social, political and intellectual aspects of the Umwelt of early dialectical theology. Zusammenfassung: Dieser Beitrag behandelt einige hermeneutische Probleme in Bezug auf Karl Barths Römerbrief II. Erstens werden äußerst wichtige unpu- blizierte Archivmaterialien aus dem Karl Barth-Archiv vorgestellt, nämlich die Kommentare, Textergänzungen und Korrekturen, welche Eduard Thurneysen während der Neubearbeitung des Römerbriefs an Barth schickte.
    [Show full text]
  • Faith of Christ’ in Nineteenth-Century Pauline Scholarship
    The Journal of Theological Studies, NS, Vol. 66, Pt 1, April 2015 ‘EXEGETICAL AMNESIA’ AND PISSIS VQISSOT: THE ‘FAITH OF CHRIST’ IN NINETEENTH-CENTURY PAULINE SCHOLARSHIP BENJAMIN SCHLIESSER University of Zurich [email protected] Abstract Contemporary scholarship holds, almost unanimously, that Johannes Haußleiter was the first to suggest that Paul’s expression p0sti" Vristou~ should be interpreted as the ‘faith(fulness) of Christ’. His article of 1891 is said to have initiated the ongoing debate, now more current than ever. Such an assessment of the controversy’s origins, however, cannot be main- tained. Beginning already in the 1820s a surprisingly rich and nuanced discussion of the ambivalent Pauline phrase can be seen. Then, a number of scholars from rather different theological camps already con- sidered and favoured the subjective genitive. The present study seeks to recover the semantic, grammatical, syntactical, and theological aspects put forward in this past (and ‘lost’) exegetical literature. Such retrospection, while not weighing the pros and cons for the subjective or the objective interpretation, helps put into perspective the arguments and responses in the present debate. Then and now, scholars’ contextualization of their readings is in keeping with their respective diverse theological and philo- sophical frames of reference. I. INTRODUCTION One of the most recent and most comprehensive contributions to the study of Paul’s theology is Richard Longenecker’s Introducing Romans.1 Under the heading ‘Major Interpretive Approaches Prominent Today’ he deals with ‘The P0sti" Ihsou* ~ Vristou~ Theme’, arguing that this is ‘an issue that must be faced My thanks are due to Jordash KiYak both for his valuable comments and for improving the English style of this essay.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Restoring Wholeness in an Age of Disorder: Europe's Long Spiritual
    1 Restoring Wholeness in an Age of Disorder: Europe’s Long Spiritual Crisis and the Genealogy of Slavophile Religious Thought, 1835-1860 Patrick Lally Michelson September 2008 Many German writers, journalists, and scholars who witnessed the collapse of the Wilhelmine Reich in 1918 interpreted this event as the culmination of a protracted, European-wide crisis that had originated more than a century before in the breakdown of traditional political institutions, socioeconomic structures, moral values, and forms of epistemology, anthropology, and religiosity. For these intellectuals, as well as anyone else who sought to restore what they considered to be Germany’s spiritual vitality, one of the immediate tasks of the early Weimar years was to articulate authentic, viable modes of being and consciousness that would generate personal and communal wholeness in a society out of joint.1 Among the dizzying array of responses formulated at that time, several of the most provocative drew upon disparate, even antagonistic strands of Protestantism in the hope that the proper appropriation of Germany’s dominant confession could help the country overcome its long spiritual crisis.2 1 The Weimar Dilemma: Intellectuals in the Weimar Republic, edited by Anthony Phelan (Manchester University Press, 1985); Dagmar Barnouw, Weimar Intellectuals and the Threat of Modernity (Indiana University Press, 1988); and Intellektuelle in der Weimarer Republik, revised edition, edited by Wolfgang Bialas and Georg G. Iggers (Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 1997). For impressionistic accounts, see Egon Friedell, A Cultural History of the Modern Age: The Crisis of the European Soul from the Black Death to the World War, 3 vols., translated by Charles Francis Atkinson (New York: A.
    [Show full text]
  • HTS 63 4 KRITZINGER.Tambach REVISED.AUTHOR
    “The Christian in society”: Reading Barth’s Tambach lecture (1919) in its German context J N J Kritzinger Department of Christian Spirituality, Church History and Missiology University of South Africa Abstract This article analyses Karl Barth’s 1919 Tambach lecture on “The Christian in society” in the context of post World War I Europe. After describing Barth’s early life and his move away from liberal theology, the five sections of the Tambach lecture are analysed. Barth’s early dialectical theology focussed on: Neither secularising Christ nor clericalising society; Entering God’s movement in society; Saying Yes to the world as creation (regnum naturae) ; Saying No to evil in society (regnum gratiae) ; respecting God’s reign as beyond our attempts (regnum gloriae) . 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1 The approach of this paper This article should be read together with the one following it, since the two papers were conceived and born together. Rev B B Senokoane and I made a joint presentation to the conference on “Reading Karl Barth in South Africa today,” which was held in Pretoria on 10-11 August 2006. In the subsequent reworking of the material for publication, it became two articles. This article analyses the 1919 Tambach lecture of Karl Barth in its post World War I German context, to get a sense of the young Barth’s theological method and commitment. The second article uses Barth’s approach, as exhibited in that lecture, to theologise in South Africa, stepping into his shoes and “doing a Tambach” today. The first move is an exercise in historical interpretation and the second in contemporary imagination.
    [Show full text]
  • Degruyter Opth Opth-2020-0104 475..495 ++
    Open Theology 2020; 6: 475–495 Regular Article Hartmut von Sass* Between the Times – and Sometimes Beyond: An Essay in Dialectical Theology and its Critique of Religion and “Religion” https://doi.org/10.1515/opth-2020-0104 received April 06, 2020; accepted July 13, 2020 Abstract: This paper gives a systematic account of Dialectical Theology (DT) and its surprisingly ramified usage of the concept of religion on the backdrop of recent debates about the “return of religion.” First, the positional context between Schleiermacher and Barth is sketched. Second, the highly divergent positions of Bultmann, Barth, Brunner as well as Gogarten and Tillich are presented – always in regard to their sometimes programmatic, sometimes rather hidden references to “religion” between its facticity and normativity. Third and by way of conclusion, it is suggested to restrict “religion” as a concept to non- theological disciplines, i.e., to treat “religion” as a strictly empirical and sociological term, whereas theology is concerned with faith that belongs to a very different game than religion, as DT helps to clarify. Keywords: Dialectical Theology, Barth, Brunner, Bultmann, Tillich, Gogarten, the concept of religion Has the dawn ever seen your eyes? Have the days made you so unwise? Realize, you are. Had you talked to the winds of time, Then you’d know how the waters rhyme, Taste of wine, How can you know where you’ve been? In time you’ll see the sign And realize your sin. Will you know how the seed is sown? All your time has been overgrown, Never known. Have
    [Show full text]
  • Konstruktiv Beilage Zum Bref Magazin Theologisches Aus Bern N° 42 / 2018
    konstruktiv Beilage zum bref Magazin Theologisches aus Bern N° 42 / 2018 Ja! Mut zur Krise: Karl Barth 1919–2019 Inhalt Editorial «Warum Karl Barths Theologie ihre beste Zeit noch vor 3 Zu zweit im Gebirge sich hat» – dafür hat Ralf Frisch in seinem gerade im tvz Karl Barths Freundschaft mit Eduard Thurneysen Matthias Zeindler erschienenen Buch «Alles gut» überzeugende Gründe angebracht und dabei einmal mehr die unverbrauchte Ak- 5 «Da, nehmt, ergreifet, habet!» – Wie tönen Barths Safenwiler Predigten heute? tualität der Theologie Barths unter Beweis gestellt. Und David Plüss diese trifft nicht nur auf die ebenso kühne wie Gelassen- heit schenkende Grosserzählung der vielbändigen Kirch- 7 Mut zur Theologie – Karl Barths «eiserne Rationen» im Konfirmandenunterricht lichen Dogmatik zu, sondern gilt ebenso für die geradezu Stefanie Lorenzen expressionistischen Römerbrief-Kommentare Barths aus den Jahren 1919 und 1922. 8 «Don’t be a maybe» – oder: Karl Barth, der Raucher Matthias Käser-Braun Eruptiv brach die eigenwillige, gegen die Not des Predigt- amtes und die vollends angesichts des Ersten Weltkriegs 10 «Ich wünsche diese Zeit herbei …» – nicht mehr zu verbergende Krise von Theologie und Kirche Karl Barth und das Frauenstimmrecht Ruth Hess angehende, verwegene neue Sicht auf den Römerbrief des Apostel Paulus in die Wüste des ersten Nachkriegsjahres 12 Karl Barths «Entdeckerfreude» und der Glaube ein. Gemeinsam mit dem Tambacher Vortrag Der Christ in Benjamin Schliesser der Gesellschaft machte sie ihren Autor weit über die Gren- 14 Die christliche Gemeinde soll kein «stummer Hund» sein! zen der Schweiz bekannt, provozierte Wellen heftiger Be- Karl Barth und die Diakonie zwischen Kirche und Staat geisterung und scharfen Widerspruchs und katapultierte Christoph Sigrist den aargauischen Pfarrer auf eine Honorarprofessur für 15 Die Entzweiung zwischen Leonhard Ragaz und Karl Barth – Reformierte Theologie in Göttingen.
    [Show full text]
  • Vorlesung: Evangelische Seelsorge (Extrablatt) Wintersemester 2013/14
    Vorlesung: Evangelische Seelsorge (Extrablatt) Wintersemester 2013/14 Prof. Dr. Michael Herbst 31. Oktober 2013 EXTRABLATT 01 Wer war Eduard Thurneysen? Thurneysen wurde am 10.7.1888 in Walenstadt der Nähe von St. Gallen geboren. Sein Vater war Pfarrer. Thurneysens Zwillingsbruder starb nach drei Monaten; seine Mutter nach 2 ½ Jahren. Prägend war diese Erfahrung. Grözinger nennt ihn den „verwundeten Seelsorger“.1 Zu seiner Stiefmutter behielt er ein gespaltenes Verhältnis. Bedeutend wurde aber gerade die Stiefmutter, weil sie ihn auf Bad Boll und Christoph Blumhardt aufmerksam machte. Der junge Thurneysen, gelangweilt von den Predigten seines Vaters, reiste zu Blumhardt, wurde auf- und ernst genommen und erfuhr seine Berufung zum Theologen. Er lernte dort etwas von der „Kraft des Gesprächs“. Nach Gesprächen mit Blumhardt, so schrieb er später, wusste man innerlich wieder, wo man hingehörte und war heimgekehrt.2 Er wurde theologisch ge- prägt aber auch durch Begegnungen mit Ernst Troeltsch und Hermann Kutter (rel. Sozialis- mus). 1913 wurde Thurneysen Pfarrer in Leutwil-Dürrenesch. Er blieb bis 1920. Leutwil war Erwe- ckungsboden. Aber zugleich ein problematischer Boden: Alkoholismus, Kinderarbeit, Aus- beutung der Männer und Frauen in der Fabrik- und Heimarbeit. Thurneysen predigte und übte Seelsorge, macht viele Hausbesuche, aber er begründete auch eine Tabakarbeiterge- werkschaft und fördert die Arbeit des Blaukreuzvereins. 1 Albrecht Grözinger 1996, 277. 2 Vgl. Ibid., 279. Lehrstuhl für Praktische Theologie Prof. Dr. Michael Herbst Wenige Kilometer entfernt von Leutwil wirkt inzwischen in Safenwil sein Freund Karl Barth. Wenn Sie in Eberhard Buschs Barth-Biographie lesen, können Sie auch eine Menge über Thurneysen und seine Freundschaft zu Karl Barth erfahren.
    [Show full text]
  • III.2 Barth’S Commentary on Rom
    VU Research Portal Literary Mystification: Hermeneutical Questions of the Early Dialectical Theology Tolstoj, E.V. published in Neue Zeitschrift fur Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie 2012 DOI (link to publisher) 10.1515/NZSTh-2012-0012 document version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication in VU Research Portal citation for published version (APA) Tolstoj, E. V. (2012). Literary Mystification: Hermeneutical Questions of the Early Dialectical Theology. Neue Zeitschrift fur Systematische Theologie und Religionsphilosophie, 54(3), 312-331. https://doi.org/10.1515/NZSTh-2012-0012 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal ? Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. E-mail address: [email protected] Download date: 23. Sep. 2021 DOI 10.1515/NZSTh-2012-0012 NZSTh 2012; 54(3): 312–331 Katya Tolstaya Literary Mystification: Hermeneutical Questions of the Early Dialectical Theology Summary: This contribution addresses some hermeneutical problems related to Karl Barth’s Römerbrief II.
    [Show full text]
  • 'Exegetical Amnesia' and Пiσsiσ Vqiσsot: the 'Faith of Christ
    Zurich Open Repository and Archive University of Zurich Main Library Strickhofstrasse 39 CH-8057 Zurich www.zora.uzh.ch Year: 2015 Exegetical Amnesia” and Π฀฀฀฀฀ Χ฀฀฀฀฀฀: The “Faith of Christ” in 19th Century Pauline Scholarship Schliesser, Benjamin Abstract: Contemporary scholarship holds, almost unanimously, that Johannes Haußleiter was the first to suggest that Paul’s expression ฀฀฀฀฀฀ Χ฀฀฀฀฀฀ should be interpreted as the ‘faith(fulness) of Christ’. His article of 1891 is said to have initiated the ongoing debate, now more current than ever. Such an assessment of the controversy’s origins, however, cannot be maintained. Beginning already in the 1820s a surprisingly rich and nuanced discussion of the ambivalent Pauline phrase can be seen. Then, a number of scholars from rather different theological camps already considered and favoured the subjective genitive. The present study seeks to recover the semantic, grammatical, syntactical, and theological aspects put forward in this past (and ‘lost’) exegetical literature. Such retrospection, while not weighing the pros and cons for the subjective or the objective interpretation, helps put into perspective the arguments and responses in the present debate. Then and now, scholars’ contextualization of their readings is in keeping with their respective diverse theological and philosophical frames of reference. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/jts/flv008 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-116440 Journal Article Published Version Originally published at: Schliesser, Benjamin (2015). Exegetical Amnesia” and Π฀฀฀฀฀ Χ฀฀฀฀฀฀: The “Faith of Christ” in 19th Century Pauline Scholarship. Journal of Theological Studies, 66(1):61-89.
    [Show full text]
  • 29 17:89 17:90
    Job Name: -- /336390t 1/0 29 0. Assignment as Assistant Pastor in the City [Stadtvikar][1] 17:89 June 12, 1931 In accordance with § 1 of the Church Law of March 4, 1930, Concerning the Assignment of Candidates for the Ministry to Work as Assistant Pastors in the Church—K.G. u. V. Bl.[2] 1930, p. 113f.—your year of work as an assistant pastor begins on August 1, 1931. We assign you, effective beginning on that date until further notice, to work as assistant pastor in the city [Stadtvikar] in Berlin[3] for the time being, doing whatever work is possible without ordination. Please see General Superintendent Dr. Karow[4] in Berlin-Charlottenburg well before that date; he will decide about your further work as an assistant pastor in the church and give you the necessary instructions for your work.[5] Also, please introduce yourself to the superintendent and the pastor to whose church district and congregation, respectively, you will be assigned and request the necessary instructions for your work. A separate order will be issued concerning your ordination. From the aforementioned date onward, your compensation will be 183.68 17:90 reichsmarks per month, in accordance with Number 13 of the Instructions for Implementation of the Church Law of May 10, 1930, concerning the Assignment of Candidates for the Ministry to Work as Assistant Pastors in the Church—as cited above, p. 115ff.—in conjunction with the Decree of December 1, 1930, of the Reich president concerning the safeguarding of the economy and finances. The congregation will also provide you with a place to live free of charge.
    [Show full text]
  • Reddingj Doctorate 594623 Fi
    Addressed by the Word The Practical, Pastoral, and Eschatological Anthropology of Eduard Thurneysen By Jordan Redding A doctoral thesis through the University of Otago Submitted 31 January 2020 Student ID: 594623 97,143 Words 1 “Ein Mann des Gesprächs” Image painted by the author, 2019 2 3 Preface About four hours’ drive from where I live in the far south of New Zealand there is a Mt. Calvin. It stands resolute and unmoving in the Southern Alps beside an equally formidable Mt. Barth.1 Karl Barth, who owed much to John Calvin, was arguably the most significant theologian of the twentieth century.2 In between the two giants of Mt. Calvin and Mt. Barth, though, there is one further curiosity: snaking down from the peak of Mt. Barth is a certain Thurneysen Glacier. Named after Karl Barth’s close friend and colleague, Eduard Thurneysen, it was a respectful nod, I think, to the importance of Thurneysen’s own work, particularly in the field of practical theology and pastoral care, and to his significance for Barth’s development. He erected no “mountain” of theology, no Church Dogmatics or Institutes of the Christian Religion (though his theological corpus is nonetheless impressive!). He was first and foremost a pastor. Undeniably influenced by Barth’s theology, Thurneysen’s primary concern was different. Unlike a mountain which is unmoving and formidable, a glacier ebbs and flows. It is sensitive to the changing climate. It runs down into the valleys and the lakes — a helpful image for Thurneysen, the pastor, who always did theology from the Existenzgrund of the church.
    [Show full text]