Kornelis Heiko Miskotte

KH Miskotte (1925)

Kornelis Heiko Miskotte (born September 23, 1894 in Utrecht , † August 31, 1976 in Voorst ) was a Dutch Reformed theologian and professor of theology at the Rijksuniversiteit Leiden . He made Karl Barth known in the Netherlands, was heavily involved in Judaism and turned against National Socialism in World War II . His main work is When the gods are silent. From the meaning of the Old Testament . He is considered a co-founder of the Amsterdam theological school .

Life

The young years

Miskotte was born into a conservative Christian family. After attending the Christian grammar school, he studied theology from 1914 to 1920 in his hometown Utrecht , where he was particularly interested in Professor JH Gunning jr. addressed. After his studies, Kortgene was his first parish in Noord-Beveland from 1921 to 1925. In 1923 he married Cornelia Johanna Cladder, a woman of deep faith with whom he had five children. In 1925 Heiko Miskotte became pastor in Meppel . In addition to his pastoral office, he published a lot on literature during this period ( Henriette Roland Holst , Thomas Mann and others). Impressive radio sermons made him known nationwide. He entered into a long correspondence with the Reformed Swiss theologian Karl Barth and made it known in the Netherlands. Barth called him the "seer and poet" among his friends. From 1930, from Haarlem , where he worked, he published many Bible studies and sermons, including his doctoral thesis On the Nature of the Jewish Religion (1932). He found his starting point in a study of Hermann Friedrich Kohlbrugge , from which the saying comes: “When I understood the Torah , I understood the whole Bible”.

Its relations with Judaism

In his dissertation he treated Judaism phenomenologically and introduced the thinking of Hermann Cohen , Max Brod , Franz Rosenzweig , Ernst Bloch and Martin Buber . These Jewish thinkers were thus made known in the Netherlands, especially among Jews. Before Miskotte, Judaism was seen more as a form of humanism in which man - in the line of Rosenzweig - did not need God and his son.

time of the nationalsocialism

In 1938 he got his fourth parish in Amsterdam. There his second great phenomenological study Edda and Thora (1939) appeared, a comparison between the Germanic and the Jewish religion on the subjects of creation, fall etc. He described Nazism as "new paganism ", with all the dangers for it. Miskotte defined paganism as an innate, natural religion, as a folk religion in which humans can live out. His book Bijbelsch ABC (1941, German title: Biblical ABC ) came out of his work with Bible reading circles and discussion groups in Amsterdam-South . Only the person who knows the basic biblical words ( doctrine , name , day , word , path , sanctification etc.) as guard rails is armed against National Socialism and modern nihilism . He also maintained underground contacts to protect his fellow Jewish citizens.

After the Second World War

In 1945 Miskotte was appointed professor of theology at the Reich University of Leiden . He represented an orthodox-Protestant theology as he had got to know from Karl Barth. For this he founded the magazine In de Waagschaal and was considered to be a co-founder of the Amsterdam theological school. In 1946 the family died tragically and his wife and daughter died of food poisoning. It was only years later that he wrote his main work Als de goden zwijgen - Over de zin van het Oude Testament (1956, German title: When the gods are silent - From the meaning of the Old Testament ). It again dealt extensively with the relationship between the God of Israel and paganism. It is a culture-critical study of nihilism, which is in opposition to the speaking God. He retired in 1959 for health reasons. In 1961 a commemorative publication Woord en wereld was published for him. Miskotte lived in Voorst until his death in 1976 .

After his death, Miskotte left behind a large archive consisting of diaries, letters, sermons and an extensive library.

Honors

In 1961 he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Glasgow .

Bibliography and works

His three main works mentioned have been published by various publishers. They were published by Kok te Kampen until the 1980s . In 2008 his work was published by Preken . The work of KH Miskotte is so extensive that an edition of the collected works could only offer an excerpt. The following works by Miskotte have been translated into German:

• The great schism. Judaism as a question to the church. R. Brockhaus , Wuppertal 1970.
• Biblical ABC: Against the non-biblical reading of the Bible. Neukirchener , Neukirchen-Vluyn 1976.
• When the gods are silent. From the meaning of the Old Testament . Stoevesandt , Munich 1963 (reprinted by Spenner , Kamen 1995, ISBN 3-927718-66-1 )
• The way of prayer. Kaiser, Munich 1964.
• Sermons from four decades. Selected, translated and edited by Hinrich Stoevesandt. Kaiser , Munich 1969.
• The secret of history - the totalitarian state in the light of the Revelation of John . Spenner, Kamen 2011, ISBN 978-3-89991-120-6 .
• Answers from the weather storm - Job , the man of revolt. Spenner, Kamen 2012, ISBN 978-3-89991-138-1 .
• Edda and Torah. A comparison of Germanic and Israelite religions. LIT Verlag, Berlin 2015, ISBN 978-3-643-12993-2 .

Miskotte / Breukelman Chair

In 2012 the Miskotte / Breukelman Chair for theological hermeneutics of the Bible was created at the Protestant Theological University in memory of Miskotte and Breukelman. He is currently being looked after by Rinse Reeling Brouwer.

literature

• Uwe FW Bauer: All these words. Lang, Frankfurt a. M. 1991, ISBN 3-631-44373-0 .
• Ursula Heinemann: Border area and literature in the work of Kornelis Heiko Miskotte. Hamburg 2004, ISBN 3-8300-1583-6 .
• Hinrich Stoevesandt (editor): Karl Barth - Kornelis Heiko Miskotte: Correspondence 1924–1968. Zurich 1991, ISBN 3-290-10141-X .
• Christiane Berkvens-Stevelinck: Inventory van het archief van Kornelis Heiko Miskotte . Leiden, Universiteitsbibliotheek, 1998. ISBN 9074204082
• Herman de Liagre Böhl: Miskotte. Theoloog in de branding, 1894-1976 . Amsterdam, Prometheus, 2016. ISBN 9789035144804

Web links

• Miskotte-Breukelman Chair
• Information page of the Evangelical Reformed in Germany
• Theological journal "in de waagschaal"

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hinrich Stoevesandt (ed.): Karl Barth - Kornelis Heiko Miskotte: Correspondence 1924–1968. Zurich 1991.
2. ↑ karlbarth.nl ( Memento of the original from December 28, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ↑ reformiert-info.de
4. ↑ Uwe FW Bauer: All these words. Lang, Frankfurt a. M. 1991, ISBN 3-631-44373-0 .
5. ↑ reformiert-info.de
6. ↑ [1] Jochen Teuffel : Name memory instead of thinking of God
7. ↑ denieuwebijbelschool.nl