Oswald Bayer

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Oswald Bayer (born September 30, 1939 in Nagold ) is a Lutheran theologian and most recently taught as a professor of systematic theology at the Protestant theological faculty of the Eberhard Karls University in Tübingen .

Life

Oswald Bayer studied Protestant theology and philosophy in Tübingen , Bonn and Rome , received his doctorate in 1968 and completed his habilitation in 1970 on the concept of the promissio (promise) in the theology of the young Luther. Doctorate and habilitation were under the title Promissio. History of the Reformation turning point in Luther's theology has been published and is today a milestone in Luther research in the 20th century across all positions.

Oswald Bayer taught from 1974 to 1979 as a full professor for systematic theology at the Ruhr University in Bochum . In 1979 he was appointed head of the Institute for Christian Social Studies at the University of Tübingen. In 1995 he switched to the chair for systematic theology. Oswald Bayer has been an emeritus since 2005.

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Oswald Bayer's theology is based on Luther's theology of words and promise and aims to profile it in a critical examination of modernity. To this end, Bayer ties in with the Enlightenment and Kantian criticism of Johann Georg Hamann , but also incorporates the philosophical developments of the 20th century (e.g. Paul Ricœur , Ludwig Wittgenstein ). He published numerous interpretations of Luther and Hamann.

At the center of theology is God's promise to man, to which man answers in faith. For Oswald Bayer, faith is therefore always a linguistic event, an exchange between God and man. The exemplary center of this speech is the Christian worship service, the starting point and destination of all theology. Christian theology is thus regarded as the interpretation of this language event between the justifying God and the justified sinner. For Bayer - based on Martin Luther - this is the subject of theology (das subiectum theologiae ). This subject of theology is constitutively linguistic. It is a) the contradiction of the convicting law directed against me, b) the encouragement of the gospel, c) the onslaught of God's overwhelming, incomprehensible secrecy. In addition, there is a rather quiet presence of God in a grace of preservation. Theology that interprets this word event is itself always also a listener of the word of God. Oswald Bayer develops this systematic basic approach in the areas of hermeneutics, philosophy of science, social theory and ethics, as well as in his sermons. As the author of the Göttingen Sermons , Bayer made the latter accessible to a broader public on the Internet even after his retirement.

He pointedly turns his word theological approach against an objectification of theology for 200 years. He sees this in an ethicization (in the wake of Kant), in a theorization (in the wake of Hegel) and in an existentialization (in the wake of Schleiermacher and Bultmann). In addition, Bayer also dealt extensively with other contemporary theological and philosophical currents (e.g. Marxism and Paul Tillich's theology).

Selected bibliography

  • Promissio. History of the Reformation turning point in Luther's theology (2nd edition 1989)
  • Creation as a salutation. On a hermeneutics of creation (2nd edition 1990)
  • Authority and criticism. On hermeneutics and philosophy of science (1991)
  • Bodily word. Reformation and Modern Times in Conflict (1992)
  • Freedom as an answer. On theological ethics (1995)
  • Contemporary in contradiction. Johann Georg Hamann as a radical enlightener (1988)
  • Theology. Handbook of Systematic Theology 1 (1994)
  • God as an author. On a poietological theology (1999)
  • Reason is language. Hamann's Metacritic of Kant (2002)
  • Martin Luther's theology. A visualization (4th ed. 2016)
  • Bayer, Oswald u. Gleede, Benjamin (Ed.): Creator est creatura. Luther's Christology as the Teaching of Idiom Communication, Berlin 2007

Awards

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Oswald Bayer: Theology . In: Carl Heinz Ratschow (Hrsg.): Handbuch Systematischer Theologie . tape 1 . Gütersloher Verlagshaus, Gütersloh 1994, ISBN 3-579-04911-9 , p. 413-417 .
  2. ^ Oswald Bayer: Theology . S. 453-487 .
  3. ^ Oswald Bayer: Theology . S. 185-280 .
personal data
SURNAME Bayer, Oswald
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian
DATE OF BIRTH September 30, 1939
PLACE OF BIRTH Nagold