Theodor Christlieb

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Theodor Christlieb (born March 7, 1833 in Birkenfeld , Black Forest , † August 15, 1889 in Bonn ) was a Protestant theologian .

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Küppers : Theodor Christlieb

After studying theology at the Tübingen monastery , Theodor Christlieb was first vicar in Ludwigsburg and then parish administrator in Ruit auf den Fildern near Stuttgart . In 1857 he obtained his doctorate in philosophy in Tübingen with a thesis on the early medieval theologian Johannes Scotus Eriugena (Erigena). In the dissertation The System of Johannes Scotus Erigena in its connection with Neoplatonism, Pseudodionysius and Maximus Confessor , he developed the understanding of the medieval theologian, which is still valid today, as a mediator of the Neoplatonic mysticism of the pseudo, contrary to an older view that Erigena viewed as the founder of scholasticism -Dionysius Areopagita to the West and as the founder of a speculative philosophy based on Neoplatonic assumptions.

From 1858 to 1865 Christlieb was pastor of a German congregation in the London borough of Islington , then from 1865 to 1868 pastor in Friedrichshafen on Lake Constance . From 1868 until his death he was professor of practical theology and university preacher at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn for 21 years .

During his time in London she married Emily Weitbrecht, the daughter of the India missionary Johann Jakob Weitbrecht and sister of Herbert Udny Weitbrecht , who also worked as a missionary, who studied with him and with whom he edited a number of publications. The marriage was to have six children, three sons and three daughters.

Christlieb had acquired a doctorate in philosophy in Tübingen, but never submitted a theological qualification, so after his appointment to Bonn he was initially not a full member of the faculty with voting rights. In 1870, however, the University of Berlin awarded him an honorary theological doctorate for his book Modern Doubts about the Christian Faith , and on the basis of this honorary doctorate he was able to become a full member of his faculty, in which he was also dean several times.

Christlieb is a representative of a Christianity based on personal faith and conversion, which he sought to defend and spread in the modern world. It is reported that he pointed out his name to the students to underline that personal faith is more important than scientific education: “My name is Christ-loving, and that should also be my program, because loving Christ is better than all knowledge. " According to JFG Goeters' judgment, Christlieb " only left lasting traces to a very limited extent in the history of his discipline " , practical theology, " although "he, to whom practical teaching was more than scientific fame, was in his time a respectable representative of his subject in every respect ” .

Christlieb can, among other things, be considered a co-founder of missiology , to which he made some early contributions, and to which he created a publication organ together with Gustav Warneck in the Allgemeine Missionszeitschrift . His concern was not only the external mission, but also the internal mission, to which he contributed in the organization of community movement and evangelism. Experiences from his time in London, when he came into contact with the Anglo-Saxon revival and early alliance efforts, certainly helped. Together with the court preacher Adolf Stoecker , he campaigned for the first major German evangelization in Berlin in 1882 with the German-American Friedrich von Schlümbach . The first evangelism by Elias Schrenk , the “father of evangelism in Germany”, was largely initiated by Christlieb. Together with Schrenk, Christlieb was henceforth one of the fathers of the so-called community movement . In 1884 the German Evangelization Association was founded with his help, and in 1886 the Johanneum Evangelist School opened in Bonn.

At the end of the 19th century, Christlieb awoke an interest in Germany in the idea of ​​medical missionary work in non-Christian countries. At the general conference of the Evangelical Alliance in September 1879 in Basel, Christlieb addressed the question of German missionary doctors and German medical mission societies and emphasized the need to convey not only the gospel but also the blessings of modern medicine to the people in the mission areas.

Despite his closeness to free church circles, Christlieb was and remained an active member of the Evangelical Church . He belonged to the Protestant community of Bonn and was a regional synodal of the Rhenish church province within the Evangelical Church of the Old Prussian Union , which he also temporarily represented at the General Synod in Berlin.

Theodor Christlieb died in 1889 of kidney cancer . The retirement he has not reached the end of the summer term 1889 he had illness ask for vacation. His grave is in the old cemetery in Bonn.

His son Alfred Christlieb (1868–1934) became a pastor in the Oberberg village of Heidberg (today the parish of Reichshof ). He was a nationally known preacher and pastor in alliance circles, whose writings had an effect on his death for a long time, partly to this day.

Publications

literature

  • Ernst Christian Achelis :  Christlieb, Theodor . In: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie (ADB). Volume 47, Duncker & Humblot, Leipzig 1903, pp. 483-486.
  • Stephan Bitter , Theodor Christlieb , in: R. Schmidt-Rost (ua) (Ed.), Theology as Mediation. Bonn Protestant theologians of the 19th century in portrait, AThG 6, Rheinbach 2003, 140–147.
  • Wilhelm Busch : Those who follow you from the bottom of their hearts. Shaping the Rhenish-Westphalian Pietism . Aussaat Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1997, ISBN 3761535759 (including about Theodor Christlieb).
  • Friedrich Fabri : In memory of Theodor Christliebs , Bonn 1889.
  • Albert Falkenroth : Professor D. Theodor Christlieb on the 40th anniversary of his death , Bonn 1929.
  • JF Gerhard Goeters : Theodor Christlieb 1833–1889 . In: Bonn scholars. Contributions to the history of science in Bonn . 150 Years of the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität zu Bonn 1818–1968, Bonn 1968, pp. 103–120.
  • Arno Pagel (Ed.): Theodor Christlieb . Wuppertal 1983.
  • Thomas Schirrmacher : Theodor Christlieb and his mission theology . Telos, Wuppertal 1985.
  • Karl Heinz Voigt : Theodor Christlieb (1833-1889). The Methodists, the Community Movement, and the Evangelical Alliance . Edition Ruprecht, Göttingen 2008, ISBN 978-3-7675-3058-4 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Wolfgang U. Eckart : "Reichsgottesarbeit" not Reichsarbeit - Theodor Christlieb and the idea of ​​a German medical mission in the Wilhelmine era, in: Richard Toellner (Ed.): The birth of a gentle medicine. The Francke Foundations in Halle as a meeting place for medicine and Pietism in the early 18th century, Verlag der Francke Foundations in Halle 2004, pp. 151–159.

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personal data
SURNAME Christlieb, Theodor
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Protestant theologian
DATE OF BIRTH March 7, 1833
PLACE OF BIRTH Birkenfeld , Black Forest
DATE OF DEATH August 15, 1889
Place of death Bonn