Reinhart Hummel

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Reinhart Hummel (born January 26, 1930 in Halle ; † February 9, 2007 in Stuttgart ) was a German theologian, long-time director of the Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauung questions and author of numerous books on new religious communities .

Life

He studied Protestant theology in Kiel, Tübingen, Basel and Heidelberg and received his doctorate in 1961 in Kiel with Eduard Lohse . Then he took up a pastor's position in Schleswig-Holstein. From 1966 to 1973 he directed the Lutheran Theological College in Orissa . Back in Germany, he received a research assignment at the University of Heidelberg on Indian guru movements in the West, where he completed his habilitation there in 1979 with the thesis Indian Religious Movements in the West .

From 1981 to 1995 he was director of the Evangelical Central Office for Weltanschauungsfragen (EZW). In his work, he contradicted the designation and explanatory model of “youth religion” for new religious communities, as popularized by Friedrich Wilhelm Haack . At first he completely contradicted the controversial use of the term “ sect ”; in his later work he recognized the justification of the term with differentiated usage.

His thesis that some of the groups observed by the EZW had developed “positively” both in society and in the interreligious dialogue, that is, had reduced the originally perceived potential for conflict, found both attention and contradiction. This assessment would be particularly true of the Jehovah's Witnesses , the Unification Church and ISKCON . However, the Unification Church is still very critical of his judgment.

Works

  • The conflict between Church and Judaism in the Gospel of Matthew (= revised dissertation). Kaiser (Contributions to Protestant Theology 33), Munich 1963
  • Indian Mission and New Piety in the West. Religious movements in western cultures (= revised habilitation thesis). Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1980
  • Gurus in East and West. Background, experiences, criteria . Quell, Stuttgart 1984
  • Reincarnation. World views of the belief in reincarnation and Christianity . Quell / Grünewald, Stuttgart / Mainz 1988
  • Religious pluralism or Christian occident? Challenge to Church and Society . Scientific Book Society, Darmstadt 1994
  • Gurus, masters, charlatans. Between fascination and danger . Herder, Freiburg 1996
  • Unification Church. The "Moon sect" in transition . Railway, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1998

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Hummel, Reinhart
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German theologian
DATE OF BIRTH January 26, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Halle (Saale)
DATE OF DEATH February 9, 2007
Place of death Stuttgart