Otto Zöckler

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Otto Zöckler (born May 27, 1833 in Grünberg , Grand Duchy of Hesse , † February 19, 1906 in Greifswald , Province of Pomerania ) was a German Protestant theologian .

Otto Zöckler

Life

Otto Zöckler comes from a Lutheran family, his father Konrad Zöckler was dean and rector in Grünberg (Hesse). As a high school student in Marburg, Zöckler came into contact with Rector August Vilmar (1800–1868), who was considered a special representative of a legitimist understanding of the church and of so-called positive theology in Hesse. As a child of what was then called the “newly awakened life of faith”, Vilmar created a group of Christian-Pietist students from which in 1847 the Marburg Wingolf emerged.

After Zöckler had passed his Abitur in Darmstadt, which was mandatory for all high school students in Hessen-Darmstadt at that time, he moved to the State University in Giessen and began a. a. Together with Friedrich Meyer , the later successor of Löhe as rector of the Diakonissenanstalt Neuendettelsau , and Jacob Volhard to found a Wingolfite association from which the Giessen Wingolf emerged on August 15, 1852 , whose important initiator and benefactor was Otto Zöckler. This group was supported and promoted especially since 1843 by Prof. Gustav Baur , until then the only representative of Pietism at the Giessen theological faculty.

Otto Zöckler in 1852 as the founder of the Giessen Wingolf

As a student, Zöckler was already remarkably knowledgeable and interested in natural sciences (zoology, physiology and geology). He was also a student of the Paulskirche delegate and biologist Carl Vogt . Zöckler received his doctorate in philosophy in Gießen in 1854 and in 1856 with the writing De vi ac notione vocabuli "elpis" in novo Testamento to the Dr. theol. and received the license to teach in the same year. In 1857 Zöckler became a private lecturer and in 1863 an associate professor in Giessen. In 1866 he accepted a call to professor of church history at the University of Greifswald , where he founded the important so-called "Greifswald School" together with Hermann Cremer, whom he sponsored .

Zöckler published a work that was extensive even for the time, which testifies to his diligence and extensive knowledge of the entire theological subject areas as well as the natural sciences. On the basis of positive theology, he tried to reconcile the belief in revelation with the emerging modern natural science. In doing so, he became a staunch opponent of Darwinism and tried to refute it with scientific arguments. His writings on natural philosophy are not characterized by clumsy polemics, but show the upright search for truth in the tension between science and Protestant theology in the 19th century, even if the opposition to Darwin is now recognized as a wrong path. This view and his adherence to classical positive theology isolated him in the last years of his life within the new currents of theology. He also argued publicly against the theological views of his Wingolf brothers Adolf von Harnack and Ferdinand Kattenbusch , who had significantly developed the Ritschl school and the theology of August Tholuck .

On the basis of his encyclopedic knowledge, Zöckler published the multi-volume, influential Handbook of Theological Sciences and, together with Hermann Strack, the Concise Commentaries on the Old and New Testaments and on the Apocrypha . For a long time he was considered a theological authority, especially in questions of scientific epistemology. Zöckler, whose works have also appeared in the English-speaking world, is currently being rediscovered as a theologian by evangelical circles in America.

Otto Zöckler died as the "Greifswald celebrity" on February 19, 1906 in Greifswald. His son Theodor Zöckler , who dedicated the memorial sheets to his father , became widely known through the establishment of the Protestant communities in Poland and Galicia .

Works (in a small selection)

  • Theologia naturalis: Draft of a systematic natural theology from the point of view that believes in revelation , Frankfurt / M. 1860.
  • Critical history of asceticism , Frankfurt / M. u. Erlangen 1863; 1897 in Frankfurt / M. re-published as a “second, completely reworked and greatly increased edition” in two volumes under the new title Askese und Mönchtum (slightly limited digitization at Forgottenbooks.com).
  • The Augsburg Confession as a symbolic teaching basis of the German Reformation Church , Frankfurt / M. 1870.
  • The doctrine of the origin of man: historically and dogmatic-apologetically investigated , Gütersloh 1879 ( digitized and full text in the German text archive ).
  • God's witnesses in the kingdom of nature - biographies and confessions of great naturalists from ancient and modern times (2 volumes), published in one volume in Gütersloh 1881 (English 1886, Norwegian 1882).
  • To the Apostolic Controversy. Thoughts and studies on the occasion of the writings of A. Harnack and F. Kattenbusch , Munich 1893.

literature

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Zöckler, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German Protestant theologian
DATE OF BIRTH May 27, 1833
PLACE OF BIRTH Grünberg (Hesse)
DATE OF DEATH February 19, 1906
Place of death Greifswald