Hans-Rudolf Müller-Schwefe

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Hans-Rudolf Müller-Schwefe (born June 26, 1910 in Punschrau , † April 10, 1986 in Hamburg ) was a German Evangelical Lutheran theologian.

Live and act

Hans-Rudolf Müller-Schwefe was the son of a theologian. He spent childhood and youth in Werne , Bochum , Soest and Münster . After graduating from high school in Münster in 1929, he studied Protestant theology at the University of Münster and the University of Tübingen until 1934 . In 1934 he passed the first theological exam at Münster University and received his doctorate in Tübingen on Rilke as a mystic. During his studies he joined the Münster Wingolf and the Tübingen Wingolf Nibelungen .

From 1934 to 1936 Müller-Schwefe completed the vicariate. He then worked until 1939 as Karl Heim's assistant in Tübingen. In his habilitation in 1938, which at the time could not be postponed, he dealt with Prussianism and Protestantism . From 1939 to 1945 he worked as a chaplain in the Army , then to 1947 as pastor in the town of Iba . From 1947 to 1955 he led the Evangelical Academy of the Evangelical Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck (first in Guntershausen, from 1952 in Hofgeismar ). Since he had been a member of the SA since April 1, 1933 and the NSDAP a month later , the activities were accompanied by a long denazification process that was completed in 1948. The theological faculty of the University of Tübingen made him an honorary doctorate in 1955.

From November 1, 1955 until his retirement on September 30, 1976, Müller-Schwefe taught as professor for practical theology at the Protestant Theological Faculty of the University of Hamburg . Here he also worked as a preacher and in 1960/61 and 1964/65 as dean of the faculty. After retirement he took over in the meantime lecturer, wrote and held many lectures. Later he went to South Africa: there he worked as a substitute at the Lutheran theological training center in Pietermaritzburg , in 1983/84 as a clergyman of the German-speaking evangelical community in Windhoek in Namibia . Since he supposedly approved of apartheid in his sermons there, the theologian got into a dispute with students at the University of Hamburg in 1985.

His brother was the Tübingen Anglicist Gerhard Müller-Schwefe (1914-2010).

Works

Müller-Schwefe was particularly concerned with homiletics . Between 1961 and 1973 he wrote a three-volume sermon doctrine. In it he comprehensively included topics on the philosophy of language and fundamental theology. Like Karl Heim, the theologian was of the opinion that people no longer looked for God and that this should be at the beginning of every sermon. Müller-Schwefe attached great importance to combining language and existence. As one of the first in his field, he dealt with rhetoric again in theology and dealt with dialectics and structuralism. In doing so, he left his own specialist area and spoke to scientists and technicians. He was particularly interested in the extensive changes in human life through science and technology. He saw secularization as a major problem for the church. He also wrote on anthropological, theological history, existential philosophy, language analysis and socio-political issues. He also dealt with modern poetry and literature, including Ernst Jünger , Günter Grass and Heinrich Böll .

literature

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personal data
SURNAME Müller-Schwefe, Hans-Rudolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian
DATE OF BIRTH June 26, 1910
PLACE OF BIRTH Punschrau
DATE OF DEATH April 10, 1986
Place of death Hamburg