Franz Hildebrandt

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Franz Hildebrandt (born February 20, 1909 in Berlin , † November 25, 1985 in Edinburgh ) was a German-born Lutheran (later Methodist ) pastor and theologian .

Life

Born as the son of the art professor Edmund Hildebrandt (1872–1939) and Ottilie, b. Schlesinger (1872–1952), the sister of Georg Schlesinger , studied Protestant theology in Berlin, Marburg and Tübingen from 1926 to 1930 after graduating from high school in 1926. The friendship with Dietrich Bonhoeffer also dates back to his time in Berlin . With a dissertation on the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's Supper (titled: EST, the Lutheran Principle) he obtained the licentiate degree (comparable to the doctorate) at the University of Berlin in 1930 . This was followed by the vicariate in Dobrilugk and at the Church of Heilsbronnen in Berlin, and the prescribed time as assistant preacher in Kleinmachnow . He was ordained on June 18, 1933 in Berlin. Since his mother was of Jewish origin, he resigned from the pastoral office in September of the same year in protest against the introduction of the so-called Aryan paragraph in the church.

After three months with Bonhoeffer in his pastor in London , Hildebrandt returned to Berlin at the request of Pastor Martin Niemöller and worked for the Pastors' Emergency Association , which campaigned for pastors of Jewish descent affected by the Aryan paragraph. Shortly after Niemöller's arrest ( 1937 ), Hildebrandt was also arrested, but was released with the help of friends and emigrated to Great Britain in September 1937 . In exile , he was first accepted by Julius Rieger , the pastor of the London German Lutheran Church of St. George, whom he supported in the care of refugees. In 1939 he went to Cambridge on a scholarship from the World Council of Churches . Here he founded the German-speaking congregation and was awarded a D.Phil from Cambridge University in May 1941 . is doing his doctorate and has worked in various church areas, including for the BBC's German radio broadcasts . In September 1943 he married Nancy Hope Wright, with whom he had three children. During 1940 he was interned as an enemy alien on the Isle of Man for some time .

Hildebrandt was close to the Anglican Bishop of Chichester , George Bell (Bell called him and Bonhoeffer "my two boys"), but was unable to join the Anglican Church because of his understanding of ordination: he considered the necessary 'renewed' ordination by an Anglican bishop to be theologically impossible, as it would implicitly invalidate his ordination in Berlin.

However, in the 1940s there was also a rapprochement with the theology of John Wesley and thus with the Methodist Church in Great Britain . Hildebrandt understood Methodist theology in this sense as a continuation of Reformation theology. Hildebrandt was a Methodist pastor in 1946 and worked first in Romsey Town near Cambridge , then from 1951 in Edinburgh , Scotland . He received British citizenship on June 9, 1947.

In 1953 Hildebrandt accepted a call as Professor of Biblical Theology at Drew University in New Jersey in the USA , and taught there until 1967. Hildebrandt attended the first session of the Second Vatican Council as a representative of the World Council of Methodist Churches as an observer. In 1960 he received an honorary doctorate from the Church University of Berlin .

Hildebrandt returned to Scotland in 1968 , but soon declared his departure from the Methodist Church, which at the time was seeking a union with the Anglican state church; this union would again have raised the question of a 're-ordination'. He joined the Church of Scotland (Presbyterian) and worked in Edinburgh as a pastor and chaplain in a hospital.

Hildebrandt died in 1985 as a result of a stroke.

Hildebrandt was known among other things for his writings on the hymns of Charles Wesley . In contrast to Eberhard Bethge , Bonhoeffer's friend from the later 30s and 40s, Hildebrandt stayed out of the debate about Bonhoeffer's theology.

Fonts

As a writer

  • Est: The Lutheran Principle. Goettingen 1931.
  • [anonymous] Martin Niemöller and his confession. Zollikon 1938.
  • Theology for Refugees. A chapter of Paul Gerhardt . Published by the Church of England Committee for “Non-Aryan” Christians. Finsbury Press, London 1940.
  • Melanchthon - Alien or Ally? Cambridge 1946.
  • From Luther to Wesley. London 1951.
  • Christianity according to the Wesleys. The Harris Franklin Rall lectures, 1954, delivered at Garrett Biblical Institute, Evanston, Illinois. London 1956 (Reprinted: Baker Books, Grand Rapids 1996, ISBN 0-8010-2110-3 ).
  • I offered Christ. A Protestant Study of the Mass. London 1967.

As editor

  • "And other Pastors of thy Flock": A German tribute to the Bishop of Chichester . Cambridge 1942.
  • Wesley Hymnbook. Kansas City 1963.
  • with Oliver A. Beckerlegge: A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People called Methodists (The Works of John Wesley, Vol. 7), Oxford 1983.

Audio source

  • Dr. Franz Hildebrandt and Methodist hymns conducted by AG Dreisbach (with Denville Methodist Episcopal Church Choir). English Sound Recording: Music: Hymns: LP recording: 33 1/3 rpm; 12 in., Madison, New Jersey 1959.

literature

See also

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Naturalization Certificate: Franz Hildebrandt , The National Archives , accessed on October 26, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Hildebrandt, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Lutheran, later Methodist pastor and theologian
DATE OF BIRTH February 20, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH November 25, 1985
Place of death Edinburgh