Karl-Heinz Ohlig

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Karl-Heinz Ohlig (born September 15, 1938 in Koblenz ) was professor of Catholic theology and religious education at the Saarland University of Education from 1970 to 1978 . Since 1978 he has been professor for religious studies and the history of Christianity at Saarland University . He has been retired since October 2006.

Positions

As a theologian, Ohlig repeatedly took up controversial issues when, for example, as early as 1973 he asked with a work: "Does the Church need a Pope?"

In his book “The World is God's Creation” (Mainz 1984) he wants to reconcile the belief in creation and the theory of evolution by arranging the act of creation and development in chronological order. He assumes that God "with the constitution of the cosmic energy, which was discharged in the Big Bang, put into it all the laws that led to the development of the universe" (p. 109). God's work is seen in this way in the time before the Big Bang, so that later intervention by the Creator in the course of development is unnecessary .

In his work “One God in Three Persons? From the Father of Jesus to the 'Mystery' of the Trinity ”(1999) he asked“ historically and critically ”about the origin of the Trinity dogma and about the external conditions and philosophical prerequisites that led to its formulation. After a detailed analysis of the dogma-historical development of the first centuries, Ohlig comes to the conclusion that the doctrine of the Trinity of God is one of the cultural and historical forms of the Christian faith and should no longer be normative.

Friedmann Voigt writes about Karl-Heinz Ohlig's approach to the history of religion: “Ohlig can agree with Marx that the culture-dependent nature of religion becomes 'clear in each of its manifestations'. But he rightly points out against Marx that the time of the cultural significance of religion is far from over. The historical way of thinking has a disturbing point for opponents and advocates of religion: the history of religion has always been a narcissistic insult to the claim to absoluteness of religions, but also to the radical criticism of religion: the demonstration of the development, change and decay of religious ideas is an objection to the claim to immortal the ultimate truth. "

Theses on early Islam

In the last few years before his retirement, Ohlig - who admits that he is "neither an orientalist nor a specialist Islam researcher, but a theologian and religious scholar", which is a "not inconsiderable shortcoming" - has dealt with new, very controversial theses on the early history of Islam . In 2005 he and Gerd R. Puin published the anthology “The dark beginnings. New Research on the Origin of the Early History of Islam ”. Here he advocates the thesis that Islam arose as a Christian, anti-Trinitarian Arab movement, that “ muhammadun ” (literally: “a praised one”) was originally just a title for Jesus Christ and is also used in the Koran . The (re) interpretation as the name of an Arab prophet did not take place until around the year 800, i.e. 150 or 200 years after the traditionally assumed lifetime of Muhammad . The Prophet Mohammed therefore never existed as a historical person, rather he was a fictional figure, an invention based on a misunderstanding from a later time when Islam developed into its own religion and a prophetic founding figure was subsequently devised.

In collaboration with the syrologist Christoph Luxenberg , Ohlig also takes the view that the Koran not only comes from a Syro-Aramaic language environment, but is at least largely based on a Syrian Christian script that has only been translated into Arabic, although the translator has several errors and misunderstandings that distort the meaning are to be proven. For example, sura 97 does not actually refer to the preaching of the Koran to a prophet Mohammed, but was originally simply a description of the birth of Jesus.

In addition, Ohlig consistently advocates the thesis that the Islamic calendar , which is already unequivocally documented in the later 7th century , is not based on the hijra , because there was never a prophet Mohammed, and therefore no exodus from Mecca ; rather, it refers to the beginning of the Persian campaign of the Eastern Roman emperor Herakleios against the Sassanids in 622 . Christian Arab auxiliaries on the side of Herakleios would have played an important role in this fight and, as thanks , were able to found their own kingdom as a foederati this year . The Islamic calendar therefore actually refers to the founding of their own empire by Christian Arabs, who soon afterwards achieved complete independence.

Ohlig continued these radical theses with Volker Popp and Christoph Luxenberg in Der early Islam (2007). They are discussed in the professional world; Ohlig particularly criticized Tilman Nagel . Ohlig responded to Nagel's criticism in a review. Other Islamic scholars supported the theses of Ohlig's team, such as Patricia Crone from Princeton University . Due to the poor source situation for the 7th century , Ohlig's theses are difficult to refute; for it is undisputed that the Arab-Islamic reports about Mohammed and the Islamic expansion came about a long time after the events.

With his research approach, Ohlig is a representative of the " Saarbrücken School ", which in turn is part of the Revisionist School of Islamic Studies . In the volume of the "Saarbrücker Schule" published in 2020, Ohlig, now over 80 years old, announced his retirement. Robert Martin Kerr from Brussels will work as coordinator of the research team.

Publications

Editing

  • Karl-Heinz Ohlig, Gerd-Rüdiger Puin (eds.): The dark beginnings - new research on the origin and early history of Islam. (= Inârah. 1). Hans Schiler Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-89930-128-5 .
  • Karl-Heinz Ohlig (Ed.): The early Islam - A historical-critical reconstruction based on contemporary sources. (= Inârah. 2). Hans Schiler Verlag, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-89930-090-1 .
  • Markus Groß , Karl-Heinz Ohlig (ed.): Schlaglichter - The first two Islamic centuries. (= Inârah. 3). Hans Schiler Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-89930-224-0 .
  • Markus Groß , Karl-Heinz Ohlig (ed.): From the Koran to Islam - Writings on the early history of Islam and the Koran. (= Inârah. 4). Hans Schiler Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-89930-269-1 .
  • Markus Groß , Karl-Heinz Ohlig (ed.): The emergence of a world religion I - From the Koranic movement to early Islam. (= Inârah. 5). Hans Schiler Verlag, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-89930-318-6 .
  • Markus Groß , Karl-Heinz Ohlig (ed.): The emergence of a world religion II - From the Koranic movement to early Islam. (= Inârah. 6). Hans Schiler Verlag, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-89930-345-2 .
  • Markus Groß , Karl-Heinz Ohlig (Ed.): The emergence of a world religion III - the holy city of Mecca - a literary fiction. (= Inârah. 7). Hans Schiler Verlag, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-89930-418-3 .
  • Markus Groß , Karl-Heinz Ohlig (ed.): The emergence of a world religion IV - Mohammed - history or myth? (= Inârah. 8). Hans Schiler Verlag, Berlin 2017, ISBN 978-3-89930-100-7 .
  • Markus Groß , Karl-Heinz Ohlig (Hrsg.): The emergence of a world religion V - The Koran as a tool of rule (= Inârah. 9). Verlag Schiler & Mücke, Berlin, Tübingen 2020, ISBN 978-3-89930-215-8 .

Books

  • with Heinz Schuster : Does the Catholic dogma block the unity of the churches? , Düsseldorf, Patmos-Verlag, 1971.
  • The theological foundation of the New Testament canon in the old church (= commentaries and contributions to the Old and New Testament ). Patmos, Düsseldorf 1972, 336 pp.
  • Does the Church Need a Pope? Extent and limits of the papal primacy (= Topos pocket books. Vol. 10). Patmos, Düsseldorf 1973, 160 pp.
    • Americ. Translated: Why We Need the Pope. The Necessity and Limits of Papal Primacy. With a "Postscript for the American Edition: The Lutheran-Catholic Dialogue in the USA" (pp. 138–143). Translated by Robert C. Ware. Abbey Press, St. Meinrad (Indiana) 1975, 152 pp.
  • Jesus, design to be human. Reflections on a Fundamental Christology. Catholic Bible work, Stuttgart 1974, 100 pp.
  • Fundamental christology. In the field of tension between Christianity and culture. Kösel, Munich 1986, 722 pp.
  • Christology I. From the beginnings to late antiquity (= texts on theology, dogmatics. Ed. By Wolfgang Beinert. Vol. 4.1). Styria, Graz / Vienna /, Cologne 1989, 227 pp.
  • Christology II. From the Middle Ages to the present (= texts on theology, dogmatics. Ed. By Wolfgang Beinert. Vol. 4.2). Styria, Graz / Vienna / Cologne 1989, 239 pp.
  • One god in three persons? From the Father of Jesus to the “mystery” of the Trinity. Grünewald, Mainz and Edition Exodus, Lucerne 1999, 136 pp.
  • World religion Islam. An introduction. With a contribution by Ulrike Stölting. Grünewald, Mainz and Edition Exodus, Luzern 2000, 381 pp.
  • Religion in human history. The development of religious consciousness. Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2002, 272 pp.
  • Do we have three gods? From the Father of Jesus to the “mystery” of the Trinity. Lahn, Kevelaer 2014, ISBN 978-3-8367-0866-1 .

items

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Review of Ohlig's book: Religion in the history of mankind. The development of religious consciousness . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 2002, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung of June 12, 2002
  2. ↑ Ohlig (2000): Weltreligion Islam, lc, p. 11.
  3. ↑ Mohammed, who was once Jesus . The press, December 19, 2006
  4. ↑ However, Herakleios did not defeat the Persians until 627 at Nineveh, in 628 they asked for peace; In 622, however, the imperial campaign began: cf. Walter E. Kaegi, Heraclius , Cambridge 2003, especially p. 122ff.
  5. ↑ See e.g. B. Tilman Nagel : Mohammed: Leben und Legende , Munich 2008, ISBN 3-486-58534-7 , p. 838f.
  6. ↑ http://inarah.de/rezensions/rezension-tilman-nagel-eine-sackgasse-ohlig/ review
personal data
SURNAME Ohlig, Karl-Heinz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Roman Catholic theologian
DATE OF BIRTH September 15, 1938
PLACE OF BIRTH Koblenz