Klaus Fiedler (missiologist)

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Klaus Fiedler (born January 25, 1942 in Wanne-Eickel ) is a German Protestant theologian , missiologist, mission historian and author.

Life

Fiedler grew up with his three older siblings and was baptized in 1956 in the Evangelical Free Church community of Wanne-Eickel. After a construction internship and an internship in a regional youth work in Hanover, he studied at the Theological Seminary in Hamburg from 1962 to 1965, at the same time from 1963 to 1965 and 1966/67 at the University of Hamburg and in 1965/66 at the Department of Religious Studies at Makerere University (at that time still part of the University of East Africa) in Kampala, Uganda.

After a community internship in Schwelm and Hagen , he was ordained as a pastor in 1968 . After that he was active in church planting work in southern Tanzania until 1976 , sent by the mission house of the Wiedenest Bible School . At the Nanjoka / Tunduru Bible School, which he co-founded , he taught church history and worked on the concordance of the Old Testament in Swahili .

In 1968/69 he completed a BA degree at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda and from 1973 a degree at the University of Dar es Salaam , Tanzania, where he wrote his dissertation on Christianity and African culture in 1978 : Conservative German missionaries in Tanzania, 1900-1940 for Doctor of Philosophy PhD in History.

Back in Germany, he worked half-time as pastor in Ratingen for 6 years and half-time for 2 years each at Oncken Verlag Kassel, R. Brockhaus Verlag and in school service. From 1981 to 1985 he was a lecturer for traditional religions and church history at the seminar for missionary training in Monbachtal and at the Academy for World Mission (AWM), Korntal. Between 1984 and 1992 he was an honorary pastor of the newly founded Evangelical Free Church Community of Erkrath-Hochdahl .

From 1982 to 1984 he studied at the University of Bochum and at the Church University of Wuppertal , which he completed with the faculty examination for a Master of Theology . From 1985 to 1987, with the help of a grant from the German Research Foundation, he worked on a research project on the "History of the Church's Understanding of Faith Missions in Africa" ​​as a "Contribution to the possibilities and limits of an interdenominational ecclesiology". His dissertation for the second doctorate in 1991 in Heidelberg with Theo Sundermeier to the Doctor of Theology (ThD) was in 1992 under all confidence. History and Church Understanding of Faith Missions published.

From 1991 to 2017 he was visiting professor for missiology at the Evangelical Theological Faculty of Leuven , Belgium, specializing in "historical missiology". From 1992 he was initially a lecturer and from 1996 to 2008 associate professor at the University of Malawi in Zomba. From 2000 to 2012 he was chairman of the "Baptist Theological College" in Malawi, Lilongwe, and has been Professor of "Theology and Religious Studies" at the University of Mzuzu , Malawi since 2008 .

Fiedler was a member of the editorial team of the Mission Yearbook from 1983 to 1987 and from 1989 onwards and worked on the “Documentation on the History and Theology of the Free Churches at the University of Münster” project. He is a member of the working group for evangelical missiology (AfeM) and from 1985 to 1996 was editor-in-chief of their quarterly magazine "evangelliche missiologie (em)". In 1989 he started the project of the bibliography of the German-language evangelical missions and in 1993 initiated the "edition afem" of the publishing house for culture and science . From 1995 to 2008 he managed the publishing house "Kachere Series", since 2009 the "Mzuni Press" and since 2015 also "Luviri Press".

Private

From 1967 to 1991 he was married to Irene Walther. He has three children with her. In 2001 he married the Malawian Rachel NyaGondwe Banda, whose three sons he adopted as children .

Honors

Publications

  • Christianity and African Culture. Conservative German missionaries in Tanzania 1900-1940 , Gütersloher Verlagshaus Gerd Mohn, Gütersloh 1983. Expanded and edited: Mzuzu: Luviri Press, 2016.
  • Completely on trust. History and understanding of the church in faith missions , Brunnen Verlag, Giessen 1992; expanded and edited: The Faith Missions in Africa , Luviri Press, Mzuzu 2018, ISBN 978-99960-66-00-9 .
  • The Story of Faith Missions. From Hudson Taylor to Present Day Africa , Regnum / Lynx, Oxford, 1994, ISBN 1-870345-17-7 ; expanded and edited: Interdenominational Faith Missions in Africa , Mzuni Press, Mzuzu 2018, ISBN 978-99960-60-46-5 .
  • Missionary Cultural Conservatism: Attempts to Reach an Integration Between African Culture and Christianity in German Protestant Missionary Work in Tanzania 1900-1940 , EJ Brill, Cologne 1996.
  • Teaching Church History in Malawi , Kachere Series, Zomba 2005.
  • Baptists and the Ordination of Women , Kachere Series, Zomba 2008, 2nd ed. 2010, ISBN 978-99908-87-51-8 .
  • The Gospel Takes Roots on Kilimanjaro: a History of the Evangelical - Lutheran Church of Old Moshi-Mbokomu 1885-1940 , Kachere Series, Zomba 2008, ISBN 978-99908-76-08-6 .
  • The Making of a Maverick Missionary. Joseph Booth in Australasia , Kachere, Zomba 2008; Luviri Press, Mzuzu 2016, ISBN 978-99960-96-84-6 .
  • Missions as the Theology of the Church. An Argument from Malawi, Mzuni Press, Mzuzu 2015. ISBN 978-99908-0249-8 .
  • Conflicted Power in Malawian Christianity: Essays Missionary and Evangelical from Malawi, Mzuni Press, Mzuzu 2015, ISBN 978-99960-27-03-1 .
  • Fake Healing Claims for HIV / AIDS in Malawi. Traditional, Christian and Scientific , Mzuni Press, Mzuzu 2016, ISBN 978-99960-45-26-4 .
  • (with Rachel NyaGondwe Fiedler and Johannes W. Hofmeyr) African Feminist Hermeneutics. To Evangelical Reflection , Mzuni Press, Mzuzu 2016, ISBN 978-99960-45-20-2 .

as co-editor

  • Get in - arrive. Community classes 13 - 16 students workbook I , Oncken, Wuppertal / Kassel 1980 (Hg of Dorothea Nowak, Gerhard Ullner, Klaus Fiedler, Ernst Bohnet, Siegfried Karg, Bodo Riedel, Hinrich Schmidt, François maid Disch.).
  • Get in - arrive. Congregation lessons 13 - 16. Student workbook II (with Gerhard Ullner, Günter Balders, Ernst Bohnet, Siegfried Karg, Bodo Riedel, Hinrich Schmidt (eds.)), Oncken, Kassel 1981.
  • William Carey: An investigation into the obligation of Christians to use funds for the conversion of the Gentiles (with Thomas Schirrmacher), Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft, Bonn 1998.

Essays

  • The relationship between gospel and culture . In: Gospel in Indian cultures . Ecumenical Committee for Indian Questions: Hamburg, 1980.
  • The local church and the challenge of the poor . In: Jahrbuch Evangelische Mission, Hamburg, 1981, pp. 111–119.
  • In search of the fathers of evangelical mission theology . In: Urzeitgemeinde and Endzeitgemeinde - missionary existence in witness and suffering , Idea-Documentation 3/1988, pp. 17-27 (lecture afem conference 1988).
  • 125 Years of Faith Missions: The Beginnings . In: Evangelical Missiology 1989, pp. 19-25.
  • The religious geographical relevance of the evangelical faith missions in Africa . In: K. Rudolph and G. Rinschede: Contributions to religious / environmental research (Geographia Religionum. Interdisciplinary series of publications on religious geography, Vol. 6), Dietrich Reimer, Berlin 1989, pp. 201–224.
  • Where are the 20,000? A critical analysis of Lawrence E. Keye's concept of 'transcultural third world missionaries' and the data on which it is based . In: Evangelical Missiology 1989, pp. 37–40.
  • 125 years of faith missions : Your story as a challenge : In: Klaus Fiedler (Hrsg.): Missionswerke without donation campaigns. The faith missions now and in the past . Idea documentation 9/91 Wetzlar, 1991.
  • The diversity of the evangelical missionary movement - the attempt at a historical typology . In: Evangelical Missiology , Vol. 7 (1992), pp. 80-82.
  • Theology in the Land of Hunger and Disease . In: Evangelical Missiology , Vol. 3, 2004, pp. 82–94.
  • Africa's evangelical turn . In: Evangelical Missiology , 2005, pp. 83–99.
  • Religious Change in Malawi . In: Benjamin Simon and Henning Wrogemann (eds.): Konviviale Theologie. Festgabe for Theo Sundermeier on his 70th birthday , Otto Lembeck, Frankfurt 2005, pp. 178–192.
  • The Moral Antiretroviral Treatment , in: Evangelical Missiology , 2006.
  • Islamization in Malawi - Perceptions and Reality . In Klaus Müller (ed.): Mission im Islam , Verlag für Theologie und Wissenschaft, Nürnberg 2006.
  • The cross and Easter. Considerations for a tense relationship . In: Die Gemeinde no 7, 2010, pp. 6-7.
  • Mission as the theology of the church and missions as children of revival In: Evangelical Missiology 27 (2011), pp. 64–77.
  • Christian churches in Africa . In: Afrika-Lexikon , Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart 2001, ISBN 3-476-01538-6 .
  • A Revival Disregarded and Disliked 'or What do Seventh-day Adventists, Churches of Christ, Jehovah's Witnesses and the New Apostolic Church have in Common? , In: Religion in Malawi , No. 15/2009, pp. 10-19.
  • The World Missionary Conference 'Edinburgh 1910' as Seen from Malawi , Religion and Culture, No. 1/2013, pp. 23–33.
  • Edinburgh 1910 and the Evangelicals, Evangelical Theological Review, 34/4, 2010. pp. 53-71.
  • Edinburgh 1910, Africa 2010 and the Evangelicals, Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae , XXXVI (3) 2010, pp. 53-71.
  • Theological training in Malawi. History, Achievements, Challenges , Evangelical Missiology (28), 2012, pp. 92-104.
  • " Bruno Gutmann's Conservative Modernity" , Evangelical Missiology, vol. 33, no.1 2017, pp. 38-56.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Klaus Fiedler: Theological training in Malawi . In: em 2/12, p. 39 ( Memento from August 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive ), missiologie-afem.de
  2. ↑ Professor Dr. Dr. Klaus Fiedler on his 60th birthday ( memento from July 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ). In: evangelical missiology (em) 1/2002.
  3. ↑ Fiedler: Vita ( Memento from February 23, 2017 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ↑ Volker Bohle in conversation with Klaus Fiedler ( memento of April 8, 2017 in the Internet Archive ), ebm-international.org, accessed on April 8, 2017.
  5. ↑ Klaus Fiedler: Baptists and the Ordination of Women (PDF) ( Memento from October 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
personal data
SURNAME Fiedler, Klaus
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Fiedler, Klaus O.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian and missiologist
DATE OF BIRTH January 25, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH Wanne-Eickel