Theo Sundermeier

Theo Sundermeier (2018)

Theo Sundermeier (born August 12, 1935 in Bünde ) is a German Protestant theologian . His research and teaching focus on mission theology , tribal religions , intercultural understanding and the theology of religions .

Life

Sundermeier studied Protestant theology in Bethel and Heidelberg and obtained his doctorate in Heidelberg. theol. From 1964 to 1975 he was a lecturer at theological training centers in Namibia and South Africa. From 1975 to 1983 Sundermeier was Professor of Theology of Religious History at the University of Bochum and from 1983 to 2000 Professor of Religious Studies and Mission Studies at the University of Heidelberg . Henning Wrogemann is one of his students .

Sundermeier was chairman of the German Society for Mission Studies (DGMW) from 1990 to 2004; Chairman of the Chamber for Church Development Service of the EKD from 1976 to 1987; u. a. Member of the International Association of Mission Studies (IAMS), member of the Society for Science. Theology, honorary member of the Association Francophone Ecumenique .

Sundermeier is co-editor of the series Christian Art Worldwide (with Martin Ott), he was editor of the series Contributions to Mission Studies and Intercultural Theology (with Dieter Becker ) and co-editor of the series Studies on the Intercultural History of Christianity (with Richard Friedli et al.), Co-editor of the Mission Studies series Research , chairman of the editorial committee of the magazine for mission and co-editor of the magazines Evangelische Theologie and Theologische Literaturzeitung .

plant

Primary and secondary religious experience

The distinction between primary and secondary religious experience is fundamental to Theo Sundermeier's work in religious studies. He thus emphasizes the cope with reality of small-scale societies in which people live in a geographically limited area, speak the same language, are related to one another in a certain way, use the same basic cultural techniques and are connected to one another through a patriarchal form of rule. “Society” and “ ethnic religion ” cannot be separated from one another in these communities, but rather enter into a close symbiosis and shape the world of images and ideas. At Sundermeier, “tribal religions” do not function as “survivals” of magical forms of religion ( Edward Tylor ) or as “preliminary stages” ( Max Weber ) on the way to the “ religions of salvation ”. With his thesis that the secondary religious experience is repeatedly integrated into the primary religious experience and aligned with the primary, he gives the primary religions the appropriate place in the history of religion in his opinion. According to Sundermeier, the individual decision of people in modern societies for a world religion or a religion of salvation that claims universality in missionary terms and sets itself apart from false religions as “vera religio” can never be detached from the framework of primary religion. Through the selection, interpretation, transformation and integration of primary religious experience, the secondary religious experience is enriched with the stock of primary religious experience. For example, Christian beliefs can "inculturate" in this way and also prove viable in new contexts.

Hermeneutics of the foreign

The task of perceiving other cultures and religions in their strangeness and without leveling them on the basis of their own cultural-religious patterns emerges particularly in Sundermeier's later works. The aim of this approach is to overcome the narrowing of "classical" hermeneutics on the understanding of texts and to open up to the fact that cultures express themselves in a variety of rites, symbols and artistic representations. With partial recourse to the findings of Emmanuel Levinas and Erwin Panofsky , Sundermeier developed a model of “steps to understanding the foreign” in his hermeneutics. He differentiates between the levels of phenomena, signs, symbols and relevance. The attitude of the epoché, according to Edmund Husserl, abstaining from judgments and perceiving at a distance, corresponds to the level of phenomena according to Sundermeier. For the level of signs, he mentions the attitude of sympathy and the form of “participatory observation” developed by Bronisław Malinowski . According to Sundermeier, the level of symbols includes the attitude of empathy and empathy in the sense of a “(partial) identification” and at the level of relevance it is about “conviviality” with the unfamiliar. Convivence requires an attitude of respect and at the same time avoids any form of assimilation in spite of the attempted rapprochement. Sundermeier describes the assumption that the stranger is fully understood in the sense of becoming one as illusory. The suggestion to understand missiology as a “hermeneutics of intercultural understanding” has meanwhile been taken up and further developed by his students in a large number of missions and religious studies.

art

Sundermeier repeatedly illustrates the approach and relevance of "intercultural hermeneutics" using the examples of art and healing. In his writings on religion and mission studies, he deals extensively with the signs and symbols of African and Asian cultures and religions. For a number of years he has extended these investigations to the development of Christian art from its origins in the Mediterranean region through development in Europe to the emergence and development of Christian art in Africa, Asia and Latin America. In his more recent publications Sundermeier not only introduces the rich and unknown imagery of the overseas churches, but also translates their images into occidental prerequisites for thinking and understanding in order to make the foreign become familiar. The religious, as well as the cultural and social background, before which the images speak and into which they want to have an impact, is considered and explored. The viewer is shown and deepened the meaning and form of the initially unfamiliar.

cure

Not only the understanding interpretation of foreign works of art, but also the culturally conditioned handling of illness and healing requires the application of a “hermeneutics of the foreign”. Several publications by Sundermeier are devoted to ethnic or alternative medical systems and their anthropological foundations. He points out that for a holistic understanding of people in their cultural conditions, questions of illness and healing and their interpretation play a decisive role. The system of Western medicine is - with all due respect for the great medical advances - only one of several. Worldwide pandemics, exploding health care costs and the lack of basic medical care in many countries point to the limits of western conventional medicine and call for traditional healing systems to be taken seriously as systems of expression and worlds of experience of their respective cultures and to check their applicability.

Fonts (selection)

• But we were looking for fellowship. Church becoming and church separation in South West Africa. Luther-Verlag [and] Verlag der Evangelisch-Lutherischen Mission, Witten [and] Erlangen 1973.
• The Mbanderu. Studies on their culture and history . St. Augustine 1977.
• Interreligious Dialogue and the “Tribal Religions” . In: New Journal for Systematic Theology and Philosophy of Religion 23, 1981, pp. 225–237.
• (Ed. With Karl Müller :) Lexicon of basic mission theological terms . Berlin 1987.
• We can only live together. The image of man in black African religions . Gütersloh 1988.
• (Ed. :) The encounter with the other. Plea for an intercultural hermeneutics . Gütersloh 1991.
• (Ed. :) Perceiving the stranger. Building blocks for a xenology . Gütersloh 1992.
• Understand the stranger. A practical hermeneutics . Goettingen 1996.
• Departure to faith. The message of the stained glass windows by Johannes Schreiter . Frankfurt 2005.
• Mission - gift of freedom. Building blocks for a theology of mission . Frankfurt 2005.
• Dances of Death - Dance of Life (with Jürgen Moltmann ), Frankfurt 2006.
• Religion - what is it? Religious Studies in theological Context. A study book . 2nd expanded edition, Frankfurt 2007.
• Christian art - worldwide. An introduction . Frankfurt 2007.
• Christian art in Japan and Korea . Frankfurt 2010.

Web links

• Literature by and about Theo Sundermeier in the catalog of the German National Library
• University homepage