Axel Denecke

Axel Denecke (born December 22, 1938 in Leipzig ) is a Lutheran theologian, professor of practical theology and was the 29th main pastor at St. Katharinen in Hamburg from 1992 to 2003 ( retirement ) since the Reformation .

Career

Axel Denecke studied Protestant theology in Marburg , Basel , Tübingen and Göttingen . From 1964 to 1965 he completed the vicariate in Helsinki and then attended the Hildesheim seminary .

From 1968 to 1974 Denecke was pastor in Isernhagen and from 1974 to 1982 director of studies at the Predigerseminar Imbshausen near Northeim . This was followed in 1982 for eight years as pastor in Osnabrück and from 1987 for five years as a private lecturer in Marburg, then until 1994 as associate professor. From 1990 to 1992 he was the first "Commissioner for Christianity and Judaism" in the Office for Community Service of the Evangelical Lutheran. Regional church of Hanover , as well as managing director of the Evangelical Lutheran Central Association for Encounters of Christians and Jews eV and its Lower Saxony branch association in the Office for Community Service.

In 1995 Denecke became professor for practical theology in Hamburg, where he had held the post of senior pastor at St. Katharinen since 1992 .

With his retirement as senior pastor in 2003 he left the Hanseatic city and spent his retirement near Hanover. There he founded the "Evangelical Seniors Academy Hanover" in 2004 . He is currently working on homiletic research. In this context, his homiletic "life résumé" was published in 2009: "Powerful and Liberal! Preaching in the Tradition of the Jew Jesus". The theological (dogmatic) "total résumé" of his life was published in 2016 under the title "Our Christian path of faith. Where it begins and where it ends".

Act

Axel Denecke obtained his doctorate in 1967 on similarities and differences between Protestant , Catholic and existential ethics . He completed his habilitation on Karl Barth's (his teacher) preaching work as a source of his theology and is scientifically known primarily as a homiletic in more than 180 homiletic publications. His basic homiletic thesis: "The most vivid part of every sermon is the person of the preacher himself." During his time as "Commissioner for Christianity and Judaism" in the Hanoverian regional church, he significantly promoted the Christian-Jewish dialogue and installed it in Hanover. Since joining the Dietrich-Bonhoeffer-Verein (dbv) from 2002 onwards, he has been instrumental in Bonhoeffer research (non-religious interpretation of the Bible; Bonhoeffer's understanding of the church; Bonhoeffer's 'new' theology as theo-poetry) Beyond the scientific field He is best known for numerous publications on the subject of "Wisdom in Fairy Tales and the Bible" (church convention events, lectures, meditation evenings in churches)

As the main pastor of St. Katharinen, he distinguished himself above all through his targeted non-church members - the so-called "educated among those who despised the church" - attractive lecture and large worship events . During his term of office, the 750th anniversary of the main church of St. Catherine's took place in 2000. On this occasion he and his predecessor Peter Stolt published the 350-page Katharinenbuch on the history, people, places, port, future of the parish and organized three historical services: One from 1250: scholastic-mystical ; one of 1500: Reformation; one from 1750: orthodox enlightenment . In addition, he conducted a 13-week series of lectures together with the University of Hamburg : “The God of the Faculties” . With the large exhibition: Barlach - Mystics of Modernism , at which a total of over 250 Barlach exhibits were exhibited, he said goodbye on June 15, 2005 in a large festive service with over 1000 participants. After his retirement in 2004 he founded the "Evangelische Seniorenakademie Hannover" with over 500 individual events annually. In addition to homiletic research, the new focus of his theoretical work in gerontological research, his practical work in lectures and seminars for the so-called "young old" (generation: "59 plus") and their ever increasing social relevance, especially in the Church (example: "The Bremen Town Musicians" - "The wild old people with their pensioners band") --- He continues to work in homiletic research. From his Judeo-Christian research he tries in particular to make the preaching practice of the Jew Jesus fruitful for the current Protestant sermon .--- Editor of the magazine "Responsibility" of the Dietrich-Bonhoeffer-Verein and at the same time deputy chairman of the dbv - member of "European Academy of Sciences and Arts"

Publications

170 essays on homiletics, church theory (ecclesiology), pastoral care, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Karl Barth a. a. --- approx. 200 sermons, sermon meditations in different periodicals / magazines

BOOKS:

• Truthfulness. An evangelical case report. In search of a concrete ethics between existential philosophy and Catholic moral theology in 1969
• Preaching in Person , 1979; 2001, 2nd ed.
• Meeting point church service. Standing together sermon, worship, and church building , 1983
• God's word as a human word. Karl Barth's preaching practice as a source of his theology , 1989
• Fairy Tales and the Bible in Conversation , 1991: Liberation or Expulsion from Paradise ?, 3rd ed.
• Fairy tales and the Bible in conversation , 1992: In search of the lost man
• As a Christian in the Jewish school , 1996
• Powerful and Liberal! Preaching in the tradition of the Jew Jesus. With a concrete learning program for practice , 2009
• Sleeping Beauty and the Prodigal Son - Wisdom in Fairy Tales and the Bible, Alsterverlag Hamburg 2010
• "Theo-poetry. God is with (not with) us. Bonhoeffer's late turn to a poetic theology" Berlin 2014
• "Our Christian path of faith. Where it begins and where it ends," Verlag Blaues Schloss, Marburg 2016, ISBN 978-3-943556-54-4 .

literature

• Thomas Krüger, Carola Wolf, Udo Hahn (eds.): Who is where in the Protestant Church? People and functions. Frankfurt am Main 1999, ISBN 3-932194-29-2

Web links

• Literature by and about Axel Denecke in the catalog of the German National Library
• http://axeldenecke.de/