Siegfried Zimmer (religious educator)

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Siegfried Zimmer (born January 29, 1947 in Marktoberdorf ) is a German educator , Protestant theologian and religious educator .

Life

Zimmer grew up in the Remstal near Stuttgart . He attended grammar school in Schorndorf and graduated from high school in 1966. 1966–1968 he did his community service in a Stuttgart hospital. 1968–1971 he studied history, politics and evangelical theology at the Schwäbisch Gmünd University of Education . He graduated with the first service examination for teaching at elementary and secondary schools. 1971–1977 he studied Protestant theology at the universities of Heidelberg , Münster and Tübingen and graduated with the first theological service examination. At the same time, he was a teacher for three years with a 50 percent teaching assignment.

1977–1978 followed a vicariate in Hechingen with subsequent ordination as a pastor. 1978–1983 he was a research assistant for religious education at the chair of Karl Ernst Nipkow at the University of Tübingen. 1984–1985 he was parish vicar in Meßstetten and passed the second theological service examination. 1986–1993 he was a lecturer in religious education at the regional church deacon training center Karlshöhe in Ludwigsburg . In 1993 he received his doctorate in theology on the subject of the problem of infant baptism in Martin Luther's theology - Luther's basic Reformation knowledge as a benchmark for the question of infant baptism. From 1993 to 2012 he was professor for Protestant theology and religious education at the Ludwigsburg University of Education . Today he is retired.

Private

Zimmer is married, has two children and lives in Ludwigsburg.

Act

In addition to Zimmer's professional work as a professor at the Ludwigsburg University of Education, several projects arose with him, in each of which he was or is still the main speaker.

Night owl services

In 1996, together with Pastor Georg Schützler, Zimmer founded the night owl services in Ludwigsburg. Up to over 1000 visitors came to this monthly alternative service. The night owl services were based on three elements: (1) a detailed proclamation, (2) meditative body and imagination exercises and (3) a musical arrangement that was not based on traditional church music, but on popular music that was current at the time. Together with Georg Schützler, Zimmer published two books on this format of the service. The night owl services are now being organized by other people in charge.

Word house

In 2010 Zimmer was involved in founding the Worthaus association. In 2011, Worthaus held its first multi-day series of events in Weimar , where he was the main speaker. Since then, further series of lectures have taken place in various German cities with an increasing audience. He was also able to win other colleagues such as Thomas Breuer , Thorsten Dietz , Marco Frenschkowski , Wilfried Härle , Manfred Oeming , Simone Paganini , Stefan Schreiber , Andreas Schüle , Klaus von Stosch , Michael Welker and Peter Zimmerling as speakers for lectures at Worthaus. Zimmer tries to bring together knowledge from the fields of theology, biblical studies , history, oriental studies and education, to draw understandable conclusions and to communicate stimulatingly to his audience. In his lectures he uses the simplest possible language that can also be understood by young and secular people. He maintains a dialogue with listeners and those who think differently and at the same time emphasizes his religious anchoring in the Protestant faith. On the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017 , Zimmer gave a number of lectures on Martin Luther and his groundbreaking discoveries in 2016 and 2017.

criticism

Zimmer attacks Christians with a fundamentalist understanding of Scripture and a conservative lifestyle, accusing them of prejudice, stubbornness and negation of scientific knowledge. Sometimes his criticism comes across as sharp, striking, polemical and condescending. Thomas Schirrmacher, for example, thinks : "Zimmer presents people who think differently as uneducated, ignorant and pious fearful rabbits."

Evangelical theologians perceive Zimmer's statements to be one-sided: Beat Weber believes he recognizes “simplifications and generalizations” in them, and points out that Zimmer, in his plea for university biblical studies, does not perceive the premises contained therein, such as “methodological atheism”. Armin Daniel Baum and Reinhard Junker criticize the fact that Zimmer perceives the multifaceted, global evangelical movement and theology one-sidedly and criticizes it too undifferentiated. In addition, the authority of the Bible as the Word of God is relativized and undermined by him, since in his opinion Jesus himself interpreted the Holy Scriptures critically. The idea of ​​a unity of the incarnate Word of God Jesus and the inspired written Word of God, which is characteristic of the biblical understanding of Scripture, is thus given up. From an evangelical point of view, central Christian statements of faith such as the “historical” bodily resurrection of Jesus , heaven , hell and the devil would be interpreted or questioned differently than requested by the evangelical authors.

In his lecture series at Worthaus, Zimmer also takes up controversial topics, including the relationship between homosexuality and Christianity . This lecture attracted a lot of attention because Zimmer claims in it that the rejection of homosexuality cannot refer to the Bible and is therefore not tenable for Christians. He received both approval and objection to this.

Zimmer entered into a dialogue with some of the authors of these critical reactions and again took a public position.

Fonts

  • The problem of infant baptism in Martin Luther's theology. Luther's basic knowledge of the Reformation as a yardstick for the question of infant baptism. 2 part vols. 1992 (Typewriter Diss. Univ. Tübingen 1992, Ref. Oswald Bayer and Karl-Ernst Nipkow)
  • What is history Plea for the liberation of the historical-critical method from a narrow understanding of history. In: Wolfgang J. Bittner , Siegfried Zimmer (eds.): What is biblical loyalty? Fundamentals, but not fundamentalism. St. Gallen (Switzerland) 1995. pp. 51-57.
  • with Georg Schützler: Where do the “night owls” go? Arguments, stories and fantasies for seekers of God and those who might become one. Stuttgart 1998, ISBN 978-3791834634
  • with Georg Schützler: Night Owl Services. Spiritual offers for those distant from the church. Stuttgart 2001. ISBN 978-3-783119-83-1
  • Does Biblical Science Harm the Faith? Resolving a conflict. Göttingen 2007. - 2., revised. Edition 2008. Göttingen 2008. - 3rd, continuously revised. Edition 2010. Göttingen 2010. ISBN 978-3-525573-06-8 - 4th, unchanged. 2012 edition.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Homepage of Siegfried Zimmer
  2. ↑ Siegfried rooms on www.ph-ludwigsburg.de
  3. ↑ Professional career. In: siegfriedzimmer.de. Retrieved August 3, 2016 .
  4. ↑ Night owl service. In: siegfriedzimmer.de. Retrieved August 3, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Siegfried rooms on worthaus.org
  6. ↑ Siegfried Zimmer on the Bible in the ERF magazine Antenne Schweiz March 2013
  7. ↑ Interview with Siegfried Zimmer ( memento from January 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) in the TV program Fenster zum Sonntag
  8. ^ Siegfried Zimmer at www.meinspring.de ( Memento from February 28, 2014 in the Internet Archive )
  9. ↑ Tobias Becker: Frei nach Luther - On the way with Dr. Siegfried Zimmer , bibel.tv, the Christian family broadcaster November 4, 2016
  10. ↑ Thomas Schirrmacher: Siegfried Zimmer and the "Son of Man". A comment on a passage from the word house lecture "The Trial before Pilate (Mk 15: 1-15)" by Prof. Dr. Siegfried Zimmer , in: Belief and Thinking Today, Issue 1 of 2020, pp. 14-17, there 15.
  11. ↑ Beat Weber: Review of Zimmer's book Does Biblical Science Harm the Faith? , in: Yearbook for Evangelical Theology 22 (2008), pp. 260–262 ..
  12. ^ Armin D. Baum: Feedback to Siegfried Zimmer
  13. ↑ Review of Reinhard Junker in word and knowledge
  14. ↑ Markus Till: Does the "word house" theology split? IdeaSpektrum, Wetzlar November 1, 2017, pp. 26–27
  15. ↑ Michael Kotsch : Defamation as the "best" argument. May 4, 2015
  16. ↑ Debate about Christian treatment of gays flared up. (PDF; 182KB) In: www.idea-pressedienst.de. April 22, 2015, p. 4 , accessed February 12, 2016 .
  17. ↑ Johannes Hartl: Family Synod, Siegfried Zimmer and the interpretation of the Bible. April 21, 2015 ( Memento from May 13, 2016 in the Internet Archive )
  18. ^ Theological statements. In: siegfriedzimmer.de. Archived from the original on October 18, 2016 ; Retrieved October 18, 2016 . 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. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / siegfriedzimmer.de
personal data
SURNAME Room, Siegfried
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German pedagogue, Protestant theologian and religious educator
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1947
PLACE OF BIRTH Marktoberdorf , Ostallgäu , Swabia , Germany