Christian Möller (theologian)

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Christian Möller (* 29. April 1940 in Görlitz ) is emeritus professor of practical theology at the Ruprecht-Karls University in Heidelberg .

Life

Christian Möller was born on April 29, 1940 as a pastor's son in Görlitz / Neisse. After he had completed elementary school there from 1946 to 1950, he was sent to a student hostel of the Evangelical Church in West Berlin in order to escape the increasing politicization of the GDR school. He studied from 1950 to 1959 at the Evangelical Gymnasium at the Gray Monastery in Berlin , where he graduated from high school in 1959. From 1959 to 1965 he studied theology at the Church University of Berlin (especially New Testament exegesis and hermeneutics with Ernst Fuchs ), in Zurich (especially Reformation theology with Gerhard Ebeling ) and in Marburg (especially hermeneutics with Ernst Fuchs and practical theology with Alfred Niebergall). In 1965 he passed the first ecclesiastical exam at the Kurhessische Kirche in Marburg and was sent to Rauschenberg near Marburg as vicar . 1966 to 1968 he interrupted the vicariate to write a dissertation with Ernst Fuchs and Alfred Niebergall (1909–1978): “From the sermon to the text. Hermeneutic specifications of the sermon for the interpretation of biblical texts ”, Munich 1970. With this dissertation he received his doctorate in 1968 from the theological faculty of the University of Marburg . He then returned to the vicariate in Wolfhagen near Kassel, passed his second ecclesiastical exam in Hofgeismar in 1968 and was ordained as pastor of the Kurhessian Church in Immenhausen on September 15, 1968 . From 1968 to 1972 he was pastor in Wolfhagen and Bründersen .

In 1972 he was appointed to the chair for practical theology at the Wuppertal Church University as successor to Rudolf Bohren . The main focus of his activities were teaching preaching, pastoral care and church building. In 1988 he was appointed to the chair of practical theology at the University of Heidelberg as the successor to Theodor Strohm. Hymnology was added to the same focus of his teaching as in Wuppertal . He also had to teach pastoral theology at the preachers' seminar of the Badische Kirche in Heidelberg. From 1995 to 1997 Möller was dean of the theological faculty. From 1996 to 2006 Möller was editor of the Göttingen Sermon Meditations , a preaching aid founded in 1946 and widely used in Germany. In 2005 he retired. Since then he has continued to regularly give lectures and seminars at the University of Heidelberg, with lectures and sermons in various committees and publishes scientific literature.

Christian Möller is married and has three sons, including the cabaret artist and author Steffen Möller .

Theological profile

In practical theology, Christian Möller is a hermeneutic border crosser who tries to discover ways of understanding between separate theological areas. In his dissertation, he already showed how the sermon can become a hermeneutical way of interpreting biblical texts. In “pastoral preaching” (1983) ways are discovered how a sermon can become a hermeneutic opportunity for pastoral care. Möller's five books on community development (1997–2009) were created in a back and forth between university and community theology. At Möller, the various ways of building up the congregation lead from the divine service and towards the divine service. Gerhard Ebeling's thesis is groundbreaking for Möller's church theory: “Strictly speaking, the church does not hold services. Rather, it is worship. "(Dogmatik III, 361)

Möller showed that history is full of linguistic treasures, through which paths for the future of theology and the church, of culture and everyday life are opened up, first in the history of church development (Doctrine of church development, Vol. II), then in the joint publication of a three-volume history of the Pastoral care in individual portraits, then the joint publication of the sources of the hymn and hymn book and finally the great moments of the sermon , 16 sermons from 16 centuries, which Möller hermeneutically opened up together with Michael Heymel .

With Ernst Fuchs, Gerhard Ebeling, Eberhard Jüngel and Walter Mostert , Möller is also concerned with “experience with experience” in practical theology; H. Practical theology is not yet experienced by empirical data or theories, or energies or energetic effects per se. Only that faith which leads critically to the understanding experience with experience enables “communication of the gospel” and leads to a “theory of practice”, from which practical steps to action also emerge.

In the last few years Möller has become involved in the community movement, which was formed as a counter-movement to the EKD impulse paper "Church of Freedom" from 2006. At the "Community Day" in Nuremberg in 2008, which led to the establishment of the "Community Awakening Forum" in the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria , Möller gave the central lecture. His monograph "Let the Church in the Village" (2009) has the character of a program publication.

Works (selection according to research focus)

Hermeneutics

  • From the sermon to the text. Hermeneutical guidelines for the sermon for the interpretation of biblical texts, Munich 1970

Sermon doctrine

  • Pastoral preaching, Göttingen / Waltrop 1983 (3rd edition)
  • The homiletic back stairs, Göttingen 2007
  • together with Michael Heymel : “Sternstunden der Sermon”, Stuttgart 2010

Church building

  • Doctrine of Community Development, Vol. 1 and 2, Göttingen 1987 (3rd edition) and 1990
  • Divine service as community building, Göttingen 1988
  • If the Lord doesn't build the house. Letters for church elders on community development, Göttingen 1993 (6th edition)
  • together with H.-G.Ulrichs (ed.): Football and Church - miraculous interactions, Göttingen 1997
  • Church that is in consolation. Plea for a pastoral church, Göttingen 2005
  • Leave the church in the village! Parishes begin to move, Göttingen 2009
  • Football and church - strange interactions, Göttingen 1997
  • Uplifting speeches. Time to listen. Against the Church's doing, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1976

Pastoral care

  • History of pastoral care, 3 volumes, ed., Göttingen 1994–1996
  • Plea for a pastoral church, s. O.

Hymnology

  • I sing to you with my heart and mouth. Song interpretations, song meditations, song sermons. A workbook for the Protestant hymn book (ed.), Stuttgart 1997 (2nd edition)
  • Hymn and hymn book. Sources for their story (ed.), Tübingen 2000

spirituality

  • The healing crack, impulses of Reformation spirituality, Stuttgart 2003
  • Passion for everyday life. Impulses for Reformation Spirituality, Stuttgart 2006

Hermeneutics of Practical Theology

  • “On the borders”. How my understanding of practical theology was formed, in: G.Lämmlin / S.Scholpp (Hgg), Practical Theology of the Present in Self-Representations Tübingen 2001, 91-109
  • Introduction to Practical Theology, utb 2529, Tübingen 2004

Festschriften

  • On the way to a pastoral church. Theological modules, FS for the 60th birthday, published by M.Josuttis / H.Schmidt / Stefan Scholpp, Göttingen 2000
  • Peccatum magnificare. To rediscover the evangelical understanding of sin for the fields of action of practical theology, FS on the occasion of his 70th birthday, published by J. Block and H. Eschmann, Göttingen 2010

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ See GPM 51/1996 and GPM 61/2007.
  2. ^ Gert Kelter: Christian Möller's plea for a church that is in consolation
  3. ↑ See Ch. Möller, Auf den Grenzen. How my understanding of practical theology was formed, in: G. Lämmlin, S. Scholpp, Practical Theology of the Present in Self-Representations, Tübingen 2001, 91-109.
  4. ↑ Cf. Ch. Möller, Introduction to Practical Theology, Tübingen 2004, 1f.
personal data
SURNAME Möller, Christian
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian
DATE OF BIRTH April 29, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Goerlitz