Herbert Braun

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Herbert Wilhelm Braun (born May 4, 1903 in Warlubia (West Prussia), † August 27, 1991 in Mainz ) was a German Protestant theologian .

Life

Herbert Braun was born in Warlubia in 1903 as the son of an elementary school teacher. He attended the Marienwerder grammar school and passed the Abitur examination at Easter 1922.

From 1922 he studied Protestant theology at the Albertus University in Königsberg , the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen and the University of Rostock . In 1929 he was at the Frederick University Hall of Ernst von Dobschütz , as whose assistant he had been working for licentiate doctorate.

From 1930 to 1931 he worked as a pastor in Friedrichshof (East Prussia) (Rozogi), 1931 to 1940 in Lamgarben (Garbno) and 1940 to 1945 in Drengfurth (Srokowo).

In 1937 he was imprisoned for his commitment to the Confessing Church .

After fleeing East Prussia, he became a pastor in Magdeburg in 1946. From 1947 he was first a lecturer, then professor for the New Testament at the Church University of Berlin . Here his teaching was characterized above all by a keen interest in questions of the history of religion.

From 1953 until his retirement in 1968 he was full professor for the New Testament at the Evangelical Theological Faculty of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz .

Teaching

Braun is one of Rudolf Bultmann's students . Luise Schottroff followed him to the Mainz chair.

His focus was on the elaboration of those ethical peculiarities which distinguish the person Jesus of Nazareth in life and teaching from all other previous and contemporary ethical teachings and models. The historical Jesus is distinguished from his Jewish environment, the early Christian community and the Hellenistic currents of his time.

A basic sentence of his theology reads: "It is the earthly Jesus who freed his listeners to see themselves as loved and accepted by God and thus to be able to love others."

In Bultmann's view, Braun carried out the existential interpretation of the Bible most consistently. Braun sees his words as the decisive factor in the work of Jesus. "These teach the paradoxical unity of the radicalized Torah and radical grace , the heightened demand and the unlimited acceptance of man as a sinner , the 'counterpoint' of openness to the neighbor and the total dependence of man on God."

Debate with Helmut Gollwitzer in 1964

A debate between Herbert Braun and Helmut Gollwitzer took place at the University of Mainz on February 13, 1964 . The subject was the question of the being of God . Braun sees God as a specific form of humanity, as a code of interpersonal events. According to Braun, there cannot be a being-in-itself of God that transcends the human world , which is why he accepts the designation “A-theism” for his theology. This position should not be equated with the widespread positions of atheism . Gollwitzer counters Braun's view that God himself is the subject of a relationship with humans. Human relationships only acquire their special interpersonal quality through the relationship to God. For Gollwitzer, the sentence “God is love” cannot be reversed (“Love is God”). A love for God or a prayer are not possible without a subject "God".

Publications

Jesus, the man from Nazareth and his time (1969)

In thirteen chapters, Herbert Braun gives a comprehensive, generally understandable presentation of the ethical and theological significance of the teaching of the man Jesus.

Chapter 1: The conditions

Herbert Braun situates the person Jesus in the political and religious conditions of his time. The life of Palestinian Judaism is shaped by apocalyptic and pharisaism .

  • Apocalyptic has a considerable breadth of variation with regard to the time frame, the Messiah concept and the completion of salvation.
  • Pharisaism transfers the priestly laws of the Torah to all pious laypeople and makes the framework rules casuistic , especially ritual purity .
  • Pharisaic ethics are characterized by humility, support for the poor and strict sexual morals. In emergency situations, the pious Jew stands up for his religion with his very existence. Before God as the personified law, the pious Jew hopes at judgment for mercy, which is linked to his confession of sins and his repentance .

In order to understand the image of Jesus in the Gospels, one must also take into account the Hellenistic- oriental influence that overlaps the Jewish tradition. The Greek idea of ​​the theios aner (divine man), a wise healer , ideas of saviors , gods of nature , heroes and divine rulers ( apotheosis ) influence the expectation of the Jewish Messiah . The result of these influences are, for example, the ideas of miracles at birth, the birth of a virgin , an ascension and an apparition after death .

The Gnostic currents are about a merging of the human consciousness in God, in which the personality of the individual and the self-consciousness in the fusion with the "universally" thought spirit is canceled.

Chapter 2: The Sources

The Synoptic Gospels are not neutral sources of history , but rather confessions with missionary claims within the ancient worldview. Therefore, they must be examined historically and critically . The Gospel of John is furthest away from the historical Jesus , but the synoptics also shape the life story according to certain intentions. Especially the utterances of Jesus are difficult to reconstruct, since prophetic instructions were also seen as words of Jesus. The historical formal study shows, for example, that the scope of the speech complex allows conclusions to be drawn about the editing (revision) for the purpose of teaching the congregation: the more detailed the speech complex, the more intensive the editorial changes and adjustments to the current situation of the congregation.

Individual words can also be analyzed according to their form, expressions that correspond to the Jewish style are considered possible. A hermeneutical circle is unavoidable for the more difficult examination of the content . The criterion for assigning utterances to a historical Jesus is that the limits of Jewish thought are exceeded. This applies, for example, to love for one's enemies.

Chapter 3: The Biography

The birth of Jesus is in the time of Herod rather than the census. Bethlehem was chosen as the place of birth on the basis of Micah 5: 1-3. The circumstances of the birth are legendary and based on Hellenistic-oriental savior figures. It is likely that Jesus had siblings and was baptized by John the Baptist. Jesus did not correspond to the Jewish idea of ​​the Messiah because he showed little interest in political liberation. Nor did he demand recognition of a Messiah dignity. This is projected back into life by the early church and presented as a secret revelation. Jesus is not an ascetic. He has friends among sinners , his way of life is viewed critically by law-abiding Jews.

His language is Aramaic , pictorial, memorable, originally not intended as secret instruction. His miracles are never punitive miracles , but often medical healings, which according to the zeitgeist were understood as casting out demons . The wonders of nature and the raising of the dead are embellishments. It corresponds to what was customary in his time that Jesus gathered a crowd of disciples around him. Their representation is idealized up to Luke more and more, at the same time the contrast to Jesus is intensified. The disciples do not form a church.

In the passion story , the death on the cross seems certain. The Last Supper appears as a relocation, the Hellenistic sacramentality does not fit into a Palestinian environment. The Gethsemane scene is evidently made up, as is the hearing before the Sanhedrin . The death on the cross becomes increasingly triumphant. The story of the burial contradicts the Jewish custom of dealing with convicts. The motives for the redesign are to create a model of martyrdom , to incriminate the Jews in favor of the Romans and to establish the Lord's Supper before they die. With the Synoptics , death does not yet have the character of atonement.

4. The horizon of the last things

Jesus' Jewish apocalyptic near expectation of a kingship of God and a son of man is related to Jesus himself in the course of traditional history. The late Jewish belief in the resurrection is understandable with Jesus. But Jesus' concern is actually a sharpening of responsibility. This responsibility is independent of the question of a real apocalyptic end to history and a resurrection.

5. The conversion

In accordance with Jewish tradition, Jesus' ethic is one of action. Accordingly, conversion means a turning of the will to obedience, not a religious experience. Conversion is the recognition of total obligation and unconditional dependence on man. The decision takes precedence over any personal ties. Genuine obedience does not act heteronomously , but out of insight and out of the situation . Obedience is thus removed from the formal and legal references. The rigor of uncompromising demands does not lead to discrimination against others, since the obedient experiences himself as the recipient of unlimited gifts. Therefore, any comparative measurement of other people's performance and speaking of one's own autonomous performance is unjustified.

Fonts (selection)

  • Collected Studies on the New Testament and its Environment. Mohr (Siebeck), Tübingen 1962; 2., through u. supplemented edition 1967.
  • Late Jewish heretical and early Christian radicalism: Jesus of Nazareth and the Essenian Qumran sect (2 volumes) (= contributions to historical theology, 24). Mohr, Tübingen 1969.
  • Jesus - the man from Nazareth and his time. Kreuz, Stuttgart 1969; 3rd paperback edition Gütersloher Verlagshaus Mohn, Gütersloh 1978, ISBN 3-579-03870-2 .
  • Sermons. Cross, Stuttgart 1970.
  • How not to think about God. Tübingen 1971.
  • New Testament and Christian Existence. Mohr, Tübingen 1973.
  • An enticement to Christian unusual thoughts. In: Walter Jens (ed.): The good Samaritan. Kreuz, Stuttgart 1973, ISBN 3-7831-0413-0 , pp. 39-51.
  • To the Hebrews (= New Testament Handbook. Vol. 14). Mohr, Tübingen 1984, ISBN 3-16-144869-3 .

literature

  • Willy Schottroff : Herbert Braun. A theological biography. In: Willy Schottroff: The kingdom of God and man. Studies on the relationship between Christian theology and Judaism (= treatises on Christian-Jewish dialogue. Volume 19). Chr. Kaiser, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-459-01881-X , pp. 195–229.
  • New Testament and Christian Existence. Festschrift for Herbert Braun. Edited by Hans-Dieter Betz and Luise Schottroff. Tübingen 1973.
  • Eduard Schweizer : Jesus, God's likeness: what do we really know about the life of Jesus? Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen, 2nd edition 1996
  • Horst Symanowski : Post Bultmann locutum / vol. 1. A discussion between Helmut Gollwitzer and Herbert Braun on February 13, 1964 in the Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz on the Rhine, 1965, 2nd ed.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Hans Dühring : The Marienwerder high school. From cathedral school to high school . East German contributions from the Göttingen working group, Vol. XXX. Hölzner Verlag, Würzburg 1964, p. 197.
  2. ^ History of the chair
  3. ↑ Eduard Schweizer : Jesus, God's likeness: what do we really know about the life of Jesus? Göttingen, 2nd edition 1996, p. 14.
  4. ↑ Rudolf Bultmann: WAS JESUS ​​A CHRISTIAN? In: Der Spiegel . No. 15 , 1966 ( online ).
  5. ↑ Hans-Georg Geyer : Andenken, Tübingen 2003, p. 127.
  6. ↑ 1 John 4:16.
personal data
SURNAME Braun, Herbert
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Braun, Herbert Wilhelm (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian
DATE OF BIRTH May 4, 1903
PLACE OF BIRTH Warlubia
DATE OF DEATH August 27, 1991
Place of death Mainz