Alfred Adam (theologian)

Alfred Adam (born June 3, 1899 in Hirschberg , † October 24, 1975 in Bielefeld ) was a German Protestant theologian and university professor for church history.

Life

After taking part in the First World War as a soldier, Adam initially wanted to study mechanical engineering and completed an internship in a machine factory. But then he decided on Protestant theology and studied in Bethel , Erlangen , Leipzig , Tübingen and Marburg .

After teaching Vicariate in Frankfurt-Rödelheim , he was in the 1927 Evangelical Lutheran Church in Nassau ordained . 1928 was pastor of Inner Mission in Wiesbaden and became 1930 at the University of Heidelberg the degree of Dr. theol.

As pastor of the Michaelis parish in Frankfurt-Berkersheim (1931-1949) he received a teaching position for church history at the University of Frankfurt am Main in 1934 , which he lost again as a member of the Confessing Church . The attempt at a habilitation at the University of Giessen also failed for political reasons. He was only able to complete his habilitation in Marburg in 1949 and became a lecturer in church history at the Bethel Theological School , where he was promoted to the professorship in 1955. In 1967 he retired.

Adam received an honorary doctorate from the University of Marburg in 1961 .

plant

Adam's main research interests were in the early church, especially in oriental Christianity, in the Reformation and in modern times. He completed Martin Gerhardt's authoritative biography on Friedrich von Bodelschwingh the Elder and published editions of Bodelschwingh's writings and letters.

Fonts

• The task of apologetics . Leipzig: Dörffling & Franke, 1931 (Diss. Heidelberg).
• National Church and Volkskirche in German Protestantism . Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1938.
• The Nassau Union of 1817 . In: Yearbook of the Church History Association in Hesse and Nassau. Vol. 1, 1949, pp. 35-408 (Habil. Marburg).
• The psalms of Thomas and the pearl song as evidence of pre-Christian gnosis . Berlin, Töpelmann 1959
• Textbook of the history of dogma . Volume 1 and 2. (= The time of the old church // Middle Ages and Reformation times ). Gütersloh: Mohn, 1965, 1968; 4th edition, 1981.
• Language and dogma. Investigations into basic problems of church history , ed. v. Gerhard Ruhbach . Gütersloh: Mohn, 1969

As editor

• Texts on Manichaeism . Berlin: de Gruyter, 1954. 2. verb. 1969 edition.
• Ancient accounts of the Essenes . Berlin: de Gruyter 1961; 2nd edition 1972 (small texts for lectures and exercises; 182)
• Friedrich von Bodelschwingh. Selected writings , 2 volumes (reprint), Bethel: Verlagshandlung der Anstalt, 1955/64.
• Friedrich von Bodelschwingh: Correspondence. Volume I: 1852 to 1893 / Volume II: 1893 to 1910 . Bethel: Publishing House of the Institution, 1975.

literature

• Bibliography Alfred Adam on his 70th birthday on June 3, 1969 . In: Theologische Literaturzeitung 95 (1970), pp. 715-718.
• Bernd Jaspert: Monasticism and Protestantism: Problems and ways of research since 1877 , Volume 2. St. Ottilien: EOS, 2006, p. 804ff.