Eckart Otto

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Eckart Otto (born August 19, 1944 in Hamburg-Blankenese ) is professor emeritus for Old Testament at the Evangelical Theological Faculty of the Ludwig Maximilians University in Munich and honorary professor at the University of Pretoria .

Career

Otto received his doctorate in theology from the Department of Theology at the University of Hamburg in 1973 with a thesis on the Mazzotfest . In 1975 he completed his habilitation as a research assistant and was appointed private lecturer . 1974 to 1986 he took part in excavations in Lebanon and Syria . From 1978 to 1979 Otto was deputy director of the German Evangelical Institute for Classical Studies in the Holy Land in Jerusalem . 1979-1996 he was Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Archeology in Hamburg (1979 to 1985), Osnabrück (1986 to 1991) and Mainz (1991-1996), since 1996 Professor of Old Testament at the University of Munich and since 2001 Honorary Professor at from the University of Pretoria (South Africa), which awarded him an honorary doctorate in theology in 2007 for his services to research. In 1983 he was ordained as a pastor in the honorary office of the Evangelical Lutheran North Church in Hamburg. In 1996 he was elected a corresponding member of the Joachim Jungius Society of Sciences in Hamburg and in 2002 an honorary member of the Old Testament Society of Southern Africa. In 2009 he was elected a member of the Academy of Charitable Sciences in Erfurt . In 2009 he retired as Dean of the Faculty. Since then he has been teaching at the University of Philosophy in Munich and as an honorary professor at the University of Pretoria. In 2014 he held lectio magistralis for the winter semester at the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. In 2018, the Society of Biblical Literature organized special sessions on Eckart Otto's commentary on Deuteronomy at the International Meeting in conjunction with the European Association of Biblical Studies in Helsinki and the SBL Meeting in Denver / Col. in association with the American Academy of Religion.

In 2009 a commemorative publication was published in his honor under the title Justice and Justice (Gen 18:19). Studies on ancient oriental and biblical legal history, the religious history of Israel and religious sociology , on which theologians, ancient orientalists, lawyers and sociologists have contributed. In 2019, Volume 25 of the Zeitschrift für Altorientalische und Biblischen Rechtsgeschichte (ZAR) was published as a commemorative publication for Otto with the contributions from the sessions of the Society of Biblical Literature in Helsinki and Denver on his commentary on Deuteronomy.

His former students include Professors Reinhard Achenbach (University of Münster), Martin Arneth (University of Munich) and, as fellows from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, Professors Michael Weigl (Vienna), Simone Paganini (Aachen), Dominik Markl (Rome) and Bruce Wells (Philadelphia).

Works and publications

Otto is the author of numerous books and essays on the exegesis of the Old Testament, archeology, ancient oriental and biblical legal history as well as on the sociology of religion and on Max Weber . His works have been translated into English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Hungarian and Japanese. In the series Herder's Theological Commentary on the Old Testament, he wrote a multi-volume interpretation of the book Deuteronomy , the four volumes of which will appear from 2012 to 2017.

In addition, Otto is editor and co-editor of book series and magazines in Europe and South Africa, especially on ancient legal history . In 1995 he founded the magazine for ancient oriental and biblical legal history (ZAR). He is the editor of Max Weber, “The Business Ethics of World Religions. Ancient Judaism ”as Volume I / 21.1–2 of the Max Weber Complete Edition .

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personal data
SURNAME Otto, Eckart
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Protestant theologian and university professor
DATE OF BIRTH August 19, 1944
PLACE OF BIRTH Hamburg-Blankenese