Friedrich Mildenberger
Friedrich Mildenberger (born February 28, 1929 in Münsingen ; † March 24, 2012 in Erlangen ) was an Evangelical Lutheran theologian and professor of systematic theology .
Life
Friedrich Mildenberger was the second of six children of the pastor Bernhard Mildenberger and his wife Hildegard geb. Grape. He spent his first school years in Kohlstetten on the Swabian Alb. After attending the Eberhard-Ludwigs-Gymnasium in Stuttgart , he passed his Abitur at the Evangelical Seminary in Blaubeuren in 1946 and studied theology at the Evangelical Monastery in Tübingen from 1947 . In 1949 he moved to Göttingen to continue studying with Friedrich Gogarten and Gerhard von Rad . After graduating in 1951, he was vicar and parish administrator as well as monastery repentant in Tübingen. From 1957 Mildenberger worked as a pastor in Wolfenhausen and worked on his doctorate and habilitation . In 1964 he became a lecturer at the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen ; from 1968 until his retirement in 1994 he taught as professor for systematic theology with a focus on dogmatics at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (successor to Walter Künneth ).
Since his retirement, Friedrich Mildenberger has devoted himself more and more to a hobby that has been cultivated for a long time: he “takes” pictures. He preferred to work with chalk, but he also made charcoal drawings and watercolors. The painter looked for his motifs in his living environment: quiet coastal landscapes around his Canadian holiday home, loving views of the city of Erlangen, in which the Swabian lived for 43 years, flowers from the garden carefully tended by his wife Anne, portraits of his people. The artist expected the viewer to do “visual exercises”. Shape and color in their harmony, but also in their breaking through, enable the perception of unusual aspects of the familiar.
Friedrich Mildenberger was born in 1955 with Anne Mildenberger. Lesemann married; the couple had five children and had lived in Erlangen since 1968.
About his work
With his book Theologie für die Zeit (Against the Religious Interpretation of Reality in Modern Theology, Stuttgart 1969), Friedrich Mildenberger threw gauntlets at the feet of his most famous colleagues at the beginning of his university teaching. He presented his own theological conception in terms of the program and judged Ebeling , Pannenberg , Moltmann , but also the representatives of the generation of teachers Tillich , Bultmann and Barth and the pioneers Lessing , Schleiermacher and Troeltsch . He asks all of them: "Do we understand the word" God "as a concept - or do we understand it as a name?" He invites you to understand God not metaphysically, but in terms of his history.
With the appearance of his doctrine of God (A dogmatic investigation, Tübingen 1975) it became clear that Mildenberger had seriously begun to draft his own dogmatics. The questions raised in “Theology for Time” should not be left lying around.
Mildenberger also penetrated the field of church history with a publication. His history of German Protestant theology in the 19th and 20th centuries (Stuttgart 1981, ThW 10, ISBN 3170010751 ) is a compendium that not only describes the major theological schools of this time, but also helps to classify them. This is why the book is not organized historically, but systematically and brings up the big issues of that time. The appendix with short biographies and pictures of all the theologians mentioned as well as a fold-out graphic that illustrates school education in the form of working in theological journals is helpful.
The theology of the Lutheran Confessional Scriptures (Stuttgart 1983, ISBN 3170081373 ) introduces the basic ideas of the corpus and reveals their inner context. The permanent topicality of the confessional writings is made clear and does not dwell long on historical representations. Mildenberger understands the commitments as the results of dynamic processes. As seriously as he takes the texts of the Confessional Scriptures on the one hand, his handling of the danger of taking these texts out of their historical and theological context and understanding them as timeless formulas of a dogmatically established doctrine is on the other hand critical. Mildenberger therefore very precisely differentiates confessional writings and their texts from the confession of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. The confessional writings and their theology have the goal of examining the confession of a church with regard to the fundamental Reformation decision and of constantly reformulating the gospel in accordance with the scriptures and in keeping with the times.
Many who have studied theology, the name Friedrich Mildenberger is only known from one book, the Basic Knowledge of Dogmatics (a workbook, Stuttgart 1983, 4th completely revised edition together with Heinrich Assel 1995, ISBN 3170136798 ). This textbook has been used for exam preparation for many years. It does, however, require proximity to a well-stocked theological library. Because numerous gaps are deliberately left in the book, each of which has a question that can only be answered by studying the source itself. The learners are thus encouraged to research central statements and doctrines of dogmatics in the original and to enter the results in the workbook. The basic knowledge of dogmatics is adorned with small drawings by the author, which humorously illustrate dogmatic facts.
The systematic-theological work is not a scientific end in itself, but serves to proclaim the word of God. On the background of many years of preaching practice as a pastor and professor, Friedrich Mildenberger wrote his Little Sermon Doctrine (Stuttgart 1984, ISBN 3170082337 ). This follows the classic tripartite division into principle, material and formal homiletics . In contrast to the usual listener-oriented approaches, the author in this homiletics focuses on the gospel to be preached and deals with the content recurring in the sermon by going along the church year . Using concrete examples, Mildenberger clearly guides you through a proper preaching process.
The volume of essays Contemporary at Untime (Texts on Peace, Understanding the Gospel and Experience of God, Essen 1987, Theology in Conversation 1, ISBN 3892061386 ) collects lectures by Friedrich Mildenberger from the years 1978 to 1986 that he gave to congregations and church committees Has held advanced training meetings ("Prackenfelser Kreis"), academies and theological faculties. The question of peace, which in the years of armament and the double decision (retrofitting decision) of NATO of December 12, 1979, considerably worried and moved Protestant communities and regional churches, is found in the contributions as well as texts on the doctrine of God and ecclesiology . Mildenberger associates them with the "certainty that the scriptures have the decisive thing to say on these topics" (p. 5) and their own claim to express "contemporary" and "situational issues" in their contributions, even if in the confused discussions of these years the willingness to listen was not always given.
Mildenberger's main work, completed when he retired, is the three-volume Biblical Dogmatics (Stuttgart 1991–1993, ISBN 3170110810 / ISBN 3170110829 / ISBN 3170110837 ). This project of a systematic theology, which at the same time absorbs Biblical theology and aims at church practice, stands so at odds with current German university theology with its increasing specialization and simultaneous alienation from the church that the effect of the work in no way corresponds to its meaning .
literature
- Festschriften for the 65th birthday:
Simply talk about God (a theological discourse, edited by Jürgen Roloff and Hans G. Ulrich, Stuttgart 1994, ISBN 3170129635 ). Mildenberger's main work, "Biblical Dogmatics", had been completed a year earlier. For the 65th birthday, colleagues from various theological disciplines took up the questions set out in it. Above all, the distinction between theological reflection and “simple God's speech” was illuminated and reflected upon from different angles.
- Zeitworte (The Order of the Church in Conversation with Scripture, edited by Heinrich Assel et al., Nuremberg 1994, ISBN 3926849118 ). A special Festschrift came from the group of students, the contributions of which were dedicated to the use of the Holy Scriptures in the Church.
- Festschrift for the 75th birthday:
Take your word for it (the script as a center for church speech and design, edited by Michael Krug et al. Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3170183494 ). The contributions apply to a university theology that withdraws more and more into a self-sufficient scientific approach, like a church that desperately resists the alleged “given fact” of its (economic) decline. Both are attempted to oppose the richness, power and beauty of the biblical word. The book from the circle of students and companions reflects the most important characteristics of Mildenberger's theology: the always biblical foundation of theological thought and, accordingly, the encyclopedic orientation of a theology that does not allow itself to be narrowed down in disciplines.
- Lecture notes:
Christology (lecture in the winter semester 1977/78 in Erlangen, printed as a manuscript in 1978) ( online )
Theology of the Holy Spirit (lecture in winter semester 1980/81 in Erlangen, printed as a manuscript in 1981) ( online )
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Jürgen van Oorschot : Obituary Prof. Dr. em. Friedrich Mildenberger , obituary of the Philosophical Faculty and Department of Theology of the Friedrich-Alexander University of March 26, 2012 (PDF; 206 kB)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Mildenberger, Friedrich |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Evangelical Lutheran theologian and professor of systematic theology |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 28, 1929 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Münsingen |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 24, 2012 |
| Place of death | gain |