Adolf Deissmann

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Adolf Deissmann

Gustav Adolf Deißmann (also Adolf Deissmann , born November 7, 1866 in Langenscheid , † April 5, 1937 in Wünsdorf ) was a German Protestant theologian, papyrologist and ecumenist .

Life

Deißmann came from a pastor's family. After graduating from high school in Wiesbaden , he studied Protestant theology at the Universities of Tübingen and Berlin as well as at the theological seminar of the Evangelical Church in Nassau in Herborn . In 1890 he became vicar in Dausenau near Nassau (Lahn); 1892 repetition and private lecturer in Marburg . After an interim period as a lecturer at the Theological Seminary in Herborn, he was appointed professor of the New Testament at the University of Heidelberg in 1897 ; In 1908 he went to Berlin in the same position as the successor to Bernhard Weiß , where he taught until his retirement in 1935. Politically, Deißmann was shaped by Friedrich Naumann and was temporarily a member of his National Social Association . After the First World War he was a long-time member of the German Democratic Party (DDP) and one of the supporters of the Weimar Republic. In 1930/31 he held the office of Rector of the Berlin University. During this time he got into bitter conflicts with the National Socialist German Student Union .

Deissmann became one of the founders of the Eranos Circle in 1904 .

Act

Deißmann's main scientific interest was the influence of the Greek spirit on Christianity ( Hellenization ). As one of the first he dealt with papyrus finds in Egypt and their meaning for the understanding of the Greek of the Septuagint and the original text of the New Testament. In 1908 his main work, Light from the East , appeared, which had four editions by 1923 and was also translated into English and Swedish. Deißmann, who can be assigned to liberal theology , was for a time the best-known representative of German New Testament science abroad. He was also active in church politics and participated in the German Protestant Church Days in Dresden in 1919 and Stuttgart in 1921.

In the emerging ecumenical movement, Deißmann has been one of the leading German personalities since meeting Nathan Söderblom in 1910. At the beginning of the First World War he began to write hectographed Evangelical weekly letters through which he established a theological network between Germany and the neutral states and which existed until 1921. In addition to Söderblom, he played a major role in the creation and success of the Stockholm World Church Conference in 1925, the first World Church Conference for Practical Christianity ( Life and Work ), the documentation of which he published in 1926. He also participated in the first World Conference on Faith and Order ( Faith and Order in part) in 1927 in Lausanne. From 1929 he was a member of the Ecumenical Council for Practical Christianity, a predecessor of the World Council of Churches . In this function he was one of the supporters of Dietrich Bonhoeffer's ecumenical commitment . Together with George Bell he organized two German-British theological conferences.

estate

Deißmann's extensive estate is kept in the Central and State Library in Berlin .

Fonts (selection)

  • The New Testament formula "in Christ Jesus". 1892.
  • Bible studies. 1895.
  • New Bible Studies. 1897.
Both together English: Bible Studies: Contributions Chiefly from Papyri and Inscriptions to the History of the Language, the Literature, and the Religion of Hellenistic Judaism and Primitive Christianity. 1901, 2nd edition 1909.
  • Linguistic exploration of the Greek Bible. 1898.
  • The Hellenization of Semitic Monotheism. 1903.
  • Gospel and early Christianity. 1905.
  • The Septuagint papyri and other early Christian texts from the Heidelberg papyrus collection. Heidelberg 1905.
  • Light from the east. The New Testament and the newly discovered texts of the Hellenistic-Roman world. Tübingen: Mohr 1908. ( online )
Engl: Light from the Ancient East the New Testament Illustrated by Recently Discovered Texts of the Graeco-Roman World. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1910.
  • Early Christianity and the lower classes. 1908.
  • The prehistory of Christianity in the light of linguistic research. 1910.
  • Paul. A culture u. religious-historical sketch. 1911 (2nd edition 1925; Swedish 1910, 2nd edition 1918; English 1912, 2nd edition 1926; Japanese 1926).
  • The Stockholm Movement. The World Church Conferences in Stockholm in 1925 and Bern in 1926 viewed from the inside. 1927.
  • Una Sancta. As an introduction to the ecumenical year 1937 . Gütersloh 1936.
As editor
  • The Stockholm World Conference of Churches. Prehistory, ministry and work of the World Conference on Practical Christianity, 19. – 30. August 1925. Official German report. 1926.
  • with George Kennedy Allen Bell : Mystery of Christ. Christological studies by British and German theologians. 1931.

literature

Web links

Wikisource: Adolf Deißmann  - Sources and full texts
Commons : Gustav Adolf Deissmann  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Michael Grüttner u. a., The Berlin University between the World Wars 1918–1945, Berlin 2012 (History of the University of Unter den Linden, Vol. 2), p. 146.
  2. ^ Christoph Markschies : Gustav Adolf Deissmann as rector of the Berlin University 1930/31, in: Cilliers Breytenbach / Christoph Markschies (eds.), Adolf Deissmann. A (wrongly) almost forgotten theologian and philologist, Brill, Leiden 2019, pp. 216–291.
personal data
SURNAME Deissmann, Adolf
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Deißmann, Gustav Adolf (full name); Deissmann, Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian, papyrologist and ecumenist
DATE OF BIRTH November 7, 1866
PLACE OF BIRTH Langenscheid
DATE OF DEATH April 5, 1937
Place of death Wünsdorf