Johannes Rehm (theologian)

Johannes Rehm (born July 3, 1957 in Ingolstadt / Donau) is a German Protestant theologian. As a pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria , he directs the Church service in the world of work (kDa) and teaches as apl. Professor Practical Theology at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg .

Rehm Johannes

Life

Johannes Rehm comes from a parsonage of the Bavarian regional church and grew up in Weiden in the Upper Palatinate . After graduating from Melanchthon High School in Nuremberg , he studied Protestant theology in Erlangen, Marburg, Tübingen and Neuendettelsau . Subsequently, he was head of studies in the theological home of the Martin Luther Association in Erlangen. After the vicariate in Uttenreuth, he was the first Lutheran to spend a year as a scholarship holder of the World Council of Churches at the Pontifical University of Anselmianum in Rome. After ordination in 1987, he worked as a parish pastor at the Neustädter University Church in Erlangen and as a part-time prison chaplain at the Erlangen JVA. In 1990 he was given the student pastor's office in Bamberg-Erlöserkirche . In 1992 he did his doctorate with Jürgen Moltmann and Hans Küng on the ecumenical sacrament dialogue. In Bamberg, Johannes Rehm initiated the construction of the international student residence Collegium Oecumenicum and founded a regional group for the World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP). After research stays in Birmingham, Cape Town and Jerusalem, he completed his habilitation on global ethics and education in 2000 . Since then he has been teaching practical theology at the Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg . In 2006 he was appointed head of the ecclesiastical service in the working world of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Bavaria (ELKB). He has been a member of the ELKB regional synod since 2014. He is also a member of the Bavarian parish brotherhood and the "Theological Working Group Prackenfels eV". He is voluntarily involved in geriatric care as a home advisory board for the Sebastianspital care center of the Nürnberg-Stift and as a member of the supervisory board of the Christian Working Group (CAG) eV in Nuremberg. He is co-editor of the yearbook Social Protestantism and publishes regularly e.g. B. in the Homiletic monthly booklet as well as in "Word for the week".

His professional focus is on the overlap between practical theology and social and economic ethics.

Theological and socio-ethical focus

A fundamental focus of Johannes Rehm's theological work is the ecumenical dialogue in the tension between the Evangelical-Lutheran profile and the willingness to communicate ecumenically. His Tübingen dissertation was devoted to the question of whether ecumenical communion between the Roman Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran Church is already possible. The analysis of the results of the official ecumenical dialogue comes to the conclusion that theological reasons cannot justify denominational separation at the Lord's table. Rather, a far-reaching theologically founded consensus can be established in the traditionally contentious areas of the lay chalice , real presence and sacrifice . Therefore “ecumenical communion of the Lord's Supper can be practiced with the best theological conscience”. This thesis was accepted by numerous reviewers from the area of ​​Catholic theology. In addition, the work with the Dr. Kurt Hellmich Prize awarded by the Catholic Faculty of the University of Regensburg. Johannes Rehm brought his thesis on the ecumenical communion of the Lord's Supper to a head with a programmatic paper entitled Admission free! The plea for the ecumenical Last Supper appeared immediately before the Berlin Ecumenical Kirchentag 2003 and was intensively discussed there due to current events. In it he made specific suggestions for the liturgical and practical organization of ecumenical mealtimes.

As a student pastor in Bamberg, Johannes Rehm devoted himself scientifically and practically to interreligious dialogue . For him, too, this dialogue is to be conducted in the irreversible tension of identity and understanding, whereby the mutual relationship between belief and ethos is a particular concern of his. In the aftermath of the Munich Kirchentag in 1993, he took up the Global Ethic project of his doctoral supervisor Hans Küng in the following years . In the immovable instructions of the Global Ethic Declaration, he sees “cross-religious correspondences in elementary experiences of a successful life”. He recommends this as a basis for discussion for church and school educational work. These “enable and promote interreligious dialogue in schools and adult education, initially about basic rules of human action, but also a dialogue about the underlying beliefs in the interest of deepening mutual knowledge and as a contribution to real cultural encounters. Both are prerequisites for successful coexistence of different people in peace and justice ”.

Johannes Rehm is particularly committed in his Bavarian regional church to a lively deal with the theological legacy of the Confessing Church . Using the example of the biography of Pastor Karl Steinbauer , whose sermons he edited, he shows the political relevance of the Gospel: “A primarily formal reference to scripture and confession is not sufficient, but scripture claims validity in all current conflicts of life and time . "

Since taking over the management of kda Bayern, the dialogue with employee and employer representatives from business has been another focus of Johannes Rehm's theological work. He advocates a mission-oriented kda with an Evangelical-Lutheran profile. Church service in the world of work is church because it bears witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ - martyria , celebrating worship services - leiturgia , opening community - koinonia and practicing service to one's neighbor - diakonia . For him, tasks of the kda and its employees are equally important: maintaining a dialogue with all those involved in the world of work, taking sides for employees and promoting a society of fair participation on behalf of their church. The realization of a human right to work for everyone in an economy for the sake of people is fundamental in terms of social ethics. This includes a beneficial alternation between work and rest, including work-free Sundays as an indispensable cultural asset.

The “workers question”, which is fundamental for his sphere of activity, must continue to be asked as a critical question about the involvement of workers in church life under changed social framework conditions. Johannes Rehm sees the human-friendly design of the digitization of economic life as the current future task of the entire area of ​​“Church - Economy - Working World”. A central spiritual concern for him is a lived evangelical piety of work as a profession.

Fonts (selection)

• The Lord's Supper: Roman Catholic and Evangelical Lutheran Churches in Dialogue. With an introduction by Hans Küng. Kaiser, Gütersloh 1993, ISBN 3-579-00230-9 ; 2nd edition, TVT-Medienverlag, Tübingen 2001, ISBN 3-929128-28-4 . At the same time: Tübingen, University, Dissertation, 1992 under the title: Johannes Rehm: The Discussion of the Last Supper.
• Johannes Rehm (ed.): Living responsibly in the world community. To the discussion about the 'Global Ethic Project' . With contributions by Wolfgang Huber, Hans Küng, Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker a. a. Gütersloh 1994, ISBN 3-579-05133-4 .
• Global ethic education - projects of interreligious learning in multicultural contexts (= work on religious education, volume 20). Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2002, ISBN 3-525-61490-X . At the same time: Erlangen, Nuremberg, University, habilitation thesis , 2000.
• “I think that's why I speak!” Texts and sermons in the resistance / Karl Steinbauer. Edited and introduced by Johannes Rehm. TVT-Medienverlag, Tübingen 1999, ISBN 3-929128-21-7 ; 2nd edition 2001.
• Global ethic practical. Perspectives for Interreligious Dialogue. Matthias Grünewald Verlag, Mainz 2004, ISBN 3-7867-2482-2 .
• Free entry? Plea for the ecumenical Lord's Supper. Patmos, Düsseldorf 2002, ISBN 3-491-70358-1 .
• Michael Krug, Ruth Lödel, Johannes Rehm (Eds.): Take your word for it - script as the norm for church speech and design. Friedrich Mildenberger on his 75th birthday. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2004, ISBN 3-17-018349-4 .
• Johannes Rehm, Johannes Wagner-Friedrich (Ed.): There are no Evangelicals here - A search for traces in and around Bamberg (= Edition Hübscher ). Genniges, Memmelsdorf 2006, ISBN 3-924983-25-9 .
• Johannes Rehm, Joachim Twisselmann (Ed.): Church, where are you? The social responsibility of the churches in dialogue (= The socio-political discussion. Volume 1). Mabase-Verlag, Nuremberg 2007, ISBN 978-3-939171-10-2 ; 2nd edition 2007.
• Johannes Rehm, Roland Pelikan, Philip Büttner (eds.): Church action in the world of work. Foundation - Crossing boundaries - Design fields (= Festschrift for Helmut Grau ). Mabase-Verlag, Nuremberg 2009, ISBN 978-3-939171-16-4 .
• Johannes Rehm, Hans G. Ulrich (Ed.): Human right to work? Social ethical perspectives. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2009, ISBN 978-3-17-020823-0 .
• Johannes Rehm, Sigrid Reihs (Hrsg.): Church and entrepreneurial action. New perspectives in dialogue work. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2010, ISBN 978-3-17-021307-4 .
• Johannes Rehm, Joachim Twisselmann (Ed.): Economy for the sake of people. Keywords for a renewed social market economy. Mabase-Verlag, Nuremberg 2010, ISBN 978-3-939171-15-7 .
• Commuting. Preamble by Annekathrin Preidel. Pictures by Wolfgang Noack. Mabase-Verlag, Nürnberg / Erlanger Verl. For Mission and Ecumenism, Erlangen 2014, ISBN 978-3-939171-43-0 .
• Traugott Jähnichen , Torsten Meireis, Johannes Rehm, Hans-Richard Reuter, Sigrid Reihs, Gerhard Wegner (eds.): Third way? Working relationships in church and diakonia (= Yearbook Social Protestantism. Volume 8). Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 2015 ISBN 978-3-579-08057-4 .
• Johannes Rehm: Service community as a way of life . in: Traugott Jähnichen, Torsten Meireis, Johannes Rehm, Sigrid Reihs, Hans-Richard Reuter, Gerhard Wegner (eds.), Third Way? Industrial relations in church and diakonia , Yearbook Social Protestantism Vol. 8, Gütersloh 2015, pp. 72 - 86, ISBN 978-3-579-08057-4 .
• Johannes Rehm (ed.): Church and workers question. A sociological and theological investigation into the proximity and distance between workers and the Evangelical Church . Stuttgart 2017, ISBN 978-3-17-026311-6 .
• Hanns Kerner, Johannes Rehm, Hans-Martin Weiss (eds.): The spiritual office in transition. Developments and Perspectives . Leipzig 2017, ISBN 978-3-374-05078-9 .
• Roland Pelikan, Johannes Rehm (ed.): Work in everyday life 4.0. - How to ethically learn digitization . Berlin 2018, ISBN 978-3-643-13709-8 .
• Johannes Rehm: Evangelical business ethics in dialogue - a practical-theological perspective. in: Arne Manzeschke (Ed.): Evangelical business ethics - where to? Perspectives and positions . Berlin 2018, pp. 179 - 194, ISBN 978-3-643-12935-2 .
• Johannes Rehm: Education in the world of work . in: Mathias Hartmann, Peter Helbich (Hrsg.): Education and transformation as an opportunity for the future of the human . Dynamic Living, Vol. 9, Stuttgart 2018, pp. 176 - 188, ISBN 978-3-17-034467-9 .
• Johannes Rehm: "... because man is born to work, like a bird to fly ..." (Martin Luther) - The change in the world of work as a church challenge . in: Verena Begemann, Christiane Burbach, Dieter Weber (eds.): Ethics as the art of living, commemorative publication for Friedrich Heckmann . Stuttgart 2018, pp. 13 - 28, ISBN 978-3-17-034058-9 .
• Johannes Rehm: Art. Ethics in the world of work. In: Ethik-Evangelisch (online lexicon).

Web links

• Church service in the Bavarian world of work
• Evangelical Association Church - Economy - Working World
• Theology department at FAU Erlangen-Nürnberg
• Regional Synod of the ELKB

Individual evidence

1. ↑ J. Rehm: The Last Supper. Gütersloh 1993, page 334.
2. ↑ ^{a b} J. Rehm: Global Ethic Practical. Perspectives for Interreligious Dialogue. Mainz 2004, page 93.
3. ↑ J. Rehm: Together "listening" to the script. Karl Steinbauer as parish priest. In: M. Krug, R. Lödel, J. Rehm (Eds.): Take your word for it. Scripture as the norm for church speech and design. Stuttgart 2004, page 37 f.
4. ↑ J. Rehm: Advocate for ethical principles in the world of work. To the Evangelical Lutheran profile of the kda. In: J. Rehm, R. Pelikan, P. Büttner (eds.): Church action in the world of work. Foundation - Crossing boundaries - Design fields. Nuremberg 2009, page 48 ff.
5. ↑ Speech at the May Day rally of the DGB on May 1, 2015 in Neuburg / Donau ( PDF; 65 kB ( Memento of the original from March 9, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ).