Franz Mussner

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Franz Mußner (born January 31, 1916 in Edelham , Feichten an der Alz ; † March 3, 2016 in Passau ) was a German Roman Catholic clergyman and theologian . He was Professor of New Testament at the Trier Theological Faculty and the University of Regensburg . Mußner was considered one of the pioneers of modern biblical studies and Judeo-Christian understanding . He was awarded the Buber-Rosenzweig Medal in 1985 for his treatise on the Jews , which has been translated into six world languages, and for his commitment to the reconciliation of Jews and Christians .

Life

From 1922 to 1927 Mußner attended elementary school in nearby Feichten. At grammar school he spent a year with the Benedictines of Niederaltaich ( St. Gotthard grammar school ) and then at the humanistic grammar school in Passau until he graduated from high school (1936) . After half a year of labor service he studied philosophy and theology in Passau , Eichstätt and Würzburg until the Second World War interrupted his studies. From autumn 1939 Mußner was a soldier on the Eastern Front. From autumn 1944 theology students were dismissed from military service as unworthy of defense. On April 2, 1945 (Easter Monday), Franz Mußner was ordained a priest in Passau . In his home diocese he worked as a chaplain in the parishes of Neuötting and Tittling . In the summer semester of 1947 he was given leave of absence from his home bishop Simon Konrad Landersdorfer to continue studying . Mußner studied exegesis of the New Testament in Munich , first with Friedrich Wilhelm Maier and then with his successor Josef Schmid . Franz Mußner completed his licentiate in biblical studies in Rome at the Pontifical Biblical Institute , where the later Cardinal Augustin Bea was one of his teachers. In the 1950 summer semester, he received his doctorate in theology from the Theological Faculty of the University of Munich . The title of the dissertation was: ZΩH. The view of “life” in the fourth Gospel with reference to the letters of John (1952).

With his habilitation in the summer semester of 1952, Mußner became a private lecturer at the theological faculty of the University of Munich. The topic of the habilitation thesis was “Christ, the universe and the church. Studies on the Theology of the Letter to the Ephesians ” (1955). In it he primarily deals critically with Rudolf Bultmann's demythologizing program . In the winter semester of 1952/53, Mußner was offered the chair for the New Testament at the Trier Theological Faculty. He played a key role in the discussion about the relationship between the “historical Jesus” and the “Christ of Faith”. Mußner was a theology professor in Trier for many years and shaped several years of theology students in the period before and during the Second Vatican Council . He was also intensely concerned with the question of hermeneutics , of the understanding appropriation of a text, especially the biblical text. Subsequently, he dealt with modern linguistics and literary studies and structuralism . Mußner's commentary on the Epistle of James (1964) was written in the Trier period .

In the summer semester of 1965 Franz Mußner accepted a call to the Philosophical-Theological University of Regensburg and in the summer semester of 1967 to the Catholic-Theological Faculty of the newly established University of Regensburg. Mußner thus became a member of the founding generation of this university in a time that was not only turbulent in terms of university politics. He worked on his commentary on Galatians, which appeared in 1974 and had its fifth edition in 1988 (1974). In 1981 Mußner retired.

Act

In the course of his studies, Mußner came to the “discovery of Judaism” as the “root”. With regard to the crimes of the Shoah and the insights of the Catholic Church, which opened a new relationship between the Church and Judaism in the Decree “ Nostra Aetate ” (No. 4) of the Second Vatican Council , Mußner began a learning process that was particularly important in his important treatise on the Jews (1979) produced significant results. With two other books on this subject ( The Power of the Root. Judaism - Jesus - Church. 1987; This gender will not perish. Judaism and Church. 1991) Mußner spoke of a "trilogy" that paraphrases his central concern, which he in underpinned numerous articles: Judaism is the root of Christianity, it is the noble olive tree on which the heathens who become Christians were grafted as wild saplings (Paul in Romans, chapters 9-11). The covenant of God with the people of the Jews has never been denounced by God. The promises once made to the people of Israel have not been erased or taken from the Jews; at the end of time, God will make salvation true for Israel and Judaism too. For Mußner, this was also linked to the emphasis on the Jewishness of Jesus: He added the formula of faith of the Council of Chalcedon , which states that Jesus was true God and true man, to the effect that Jesus was a true Jewish man (vere homo iudaeus), e.g. . B. in his article “What do the Jews have to do with Christian ecumenism?” (In: Una Sancta . Vol. 50 (1995), pp. 331–339). Mußner repeatedly opted to shield the confession of Christ from anti-Jewish falsifications, not to devalue God's speech to Israel and to show great theological respect for Jewish tradition. According to Mußner, the difference between the two paths, the Jewish and the Christian, must be tolerated and positively appreciated: Israel's no to faith in Jesus Christ is once again encompassed by the ever greater grace of God and God's mysterious counsel.

Mußner was always active not only in the university, but also in the church: he became a member of the scientific council of the Catholic Academy in Bavaria, advisor to the Ecumenical Commission of the German Bishops' Conference , consultor of the Vatican Unity Secretariat, President of the Marian Congregation . From January 1, 1978, Franz Mußner was cathedral capitular in his home diocese of Passau . Until 1987 he was theological advisor to the bishop.

Appreciations

On his 65th birthday in 1981, Franz Mußner received a commemorative publication entitled Continuity and Unity (edited by Paul-Gerhard Müller and Werner Stenger).

Another commemorative publication on the occasion of his 90th birthday was presented to Mußner by Michael Theobald and Rudolf Hoppe. It is entitled “To be remembered for all times. Contributions to a Biblical Culture of Remembrance ” (2006). Pope Benedict XVI. paid tribute to Franz Mußner on his 90th birthday. In the festschrift of 2006, the Pope thanked in his greeting for everything that Mußner had done “in a long life as a priest and scholar for faith and the church, for the knowledge of the truth”. Mußner thought in broad philosophical horizons. He had developed ecumenical passion, but above all more and more emphatically placed the problem of the relationship to Judaism at the center of his struggle. The treatise on the Jews - a central work by Mußner - remains a “milestone in this endeavor”. As a priest, Mußner was always concerned not only with gaining learned knowledge, but also with interpreting the living word of God and making it accessible to others. Mußner catechetically opened up difficult topics of biblical faith. Benedikt spoke of the friendship and collegial fellowship with the former New Testament scholar at the University of Regensburg and thanks “especially for the long years of friendship that you have given me”. They would have enriched him both humanly and scientifically. The then President of the Pontifical Council for the Promotion of Christian Unity, Cardinal Walter Kasper , personally congratulated the 90-year-old on his birthday in a letter.

On the occasion of his 100th birthday, a ceremony took place on February 1, 2016 at the University of Regensburg. University President Udo Hebel praised Mußner as a “pioneer of modern biblical studies, bridge builder for Judeo-Christian understanding and companion of Pope Benedict”. Tobias Nicklas looked back on the scientific work of Franz Mußner and showed, especially through his comments on James and the Galatians, how Mußner found his way back to Judaism and worked out how much Jesus was and is part of his people Israel, Judaism . Michael Theobald (Tübingen) gave the lecture . It offered a new reading of Mußner's study "Peter and Paul - Poles of Unity" (1976). According to Mußner, Peter has institutionally won, but Paul has won theologically in church history. Building on this, Theobald presented revealing perspectives for today's ecumenical discussion. Since Mußner was unable to attend the celebration for health reasons, Nicklas, Theobald and a number of other colleagues visited him in Passau the following day.

Awards

Fonts (selection)

  • ZΩH. The view of “life” in the fourth Gospel, taking into account the letters of John (= Munich theological studies. Vol. 1/5). Munich 1952 (dissertation).
  • The miracles of Jesus. An introduction. Kösel, Munich 1967
  • Christ, the universe and the church. Studies on the theology of the letter to the Ephesians (= Trier theological studies. Vol. 5). Trier 1955 (habilitation thesis); 2nd edition 1968.
  • What does Jesus teach about the end of the world? An interpretation of Mk 13. Freiburg im Breisgau 1958; 2nd edition 1964 (translation into English and Japanese).
  • The message of the parables of Jesus (= writings on catechetics. Vol. 1). Munich 1961; 2nd edition 1964 (translation into English, Spanish and Japanese).
  • The Letter of James (= Herder's theological commentary on the New Testament. Vol. XIII / 1). Freiburg im Breisgau 1964; 2nd edition 1967; 3rd edition 1975; 4th edition 1981; 5th edition 1987 (translation into Italian).
  • Peter and Paul - poles of unity. Help for the churches (= Quaestiones disputatae. Vol. 76). Freiburg im Breisgau 1976.
  • The resurrection of Jesus. Freiburg im Breisgau 1969.
  • The letter to the Galatians (= Herder's theological commentary on the New Testament. Vol. IX). Freiburg im Breisgau 1974; 2nd edition 1974; 3rd edition 1977.
  • Treatise on the Jews. Munich 1979 (translations into French, Italian, English and Spanish). Revised new edition with a foreword by Michael Theobald, Göttingen 2009.
  • This gender will not perish. Judaism and Church. Freiburg im Breisgau 1991.
  • Jesus of Nazareth in the environment of Israel and the early church. Collected essays (= Scientific investigations on the New Testament. Vol. 111). Edited by M. Theobald. Tübingen 1999.

literature

  • Paul-Gerhard Müller , Werner Stenger (ed.): Continuity and unity. For Franz Mußner. Freiburg im Breisgau 1981.
  • Michael Theobald : The discovery of the Jew Jesus of Nazareth and Christology. The challenge in Franz Mußner's factory. In: Franz Mußner: Jesus of Nazareth in the environment of Israel and the early church. Collected essays (= Scientific investigations on the New Testament. Vol. 111). Edited by Michael Theobald. Tübingen 1999, pp. 1-10.
  • Michael Theobald, Rudolf Hoppe (ed.): "For all times to remember" (Jos 4,7). Contributions to a biblical culture of remembrance. Commemoration for Franz Mußner on the occasion of his 90th birthday (= Stuttgart Biblical Studies. Vol. 209). Stuttgart 2006.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Diocese of Passau mourns the apostolic protonotary Professor Dr. theol. Franz Mußner - a great personality of the Judeo-Christian dialogue ( Memento from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), website of the Diocese of Passau, March 4, 2016, accessed on March 4, 2016.
  2. ↑ Biblical researcher Mußner dead. Süddeutsche Zeitung , March 4, 2016, accessed on March 4, 2016 .
  3. ^ Ceremony for the 100th birthday of Prof. em. Franz Mußner , website of the University of Regensburg, accessed on March 4, 2016.
personal data
SURNAME Mußner, Franz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Roman Catholic clergyman and theologian, university professor
DATE OF BIRTH January 31, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Edelham , Feichten on the Alz
DATE OF DEATH March 3, 2016
Place of death Passau