Thomas C. Oden

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Thomas Clark Oden (born October 21, 1931 in Altus , Oklahoma , † December 8, 2016 ) was an American Methodist theologian. He is often seen as the father of the paleo-orthodox movement and is considered one of the most influential theologians of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, both in the ecumenical movement and among evangelicals .

Live and act

Thomas Oden received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Oklahoma cum laude in 1953 , and three years later magna cum laude as a Bachelor of Divinity from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas . In 1957 he was already teaching assistant for religious studies at Jonathan Edwards College at Yale University in New Haven (Connecticut) . In 1958 he received a Master of Arts from Yale University and received his doctorate there in 1960. From 1958 to 1960 he taught philosophy, theology and pastoral theology at the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University. He later received a Doctor of Literature from Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky .

Thomas Oden was a deacon in 1954, later ordained pastor and in 1956 an elder of the United Methodist Church . Inside and outside the Methodist Church, he was among the leaders of the Confessional Movement, a cross-denominational evangelical movement within the mainline churches . From 1992 to 2010 he was co-editor of the evangelical newspaper Christianity Today .

Oden taught from 1960 to 1963 as an assistant professor and from 1963 to 1970 as a professor at Phillips University . From 1970 to 2003 he was a professor at the Drew University Theological School in Madison (New Jersey) , where he was the Henry Anson Buttz professor of theology from 1980 to 2003. In 2003 he retired. In 2006 he became director of the Center for Early African Christianity at Eastern University in Wayne, Pennsylvania .

For shorter periods he taught at the Psychiatric and Psychological Institute of the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg from 1965 to 1966 , at the Ecumenical Institute in Bossey near Geneva, in 1969 at the Texas Medical Center, Institute for Religion in Houston, and from 1976 to 1977 at the University's Humanities Research Center of Texas in Austin, at Princeton Theological Seminary, at Lomonosov University , from 1990 to 1991 at the Pontifical Gregorian University and many other universities worldwide.

Teaching

Originally politically and theologically liberal, Oden turned to the treasure of Christian tradition, the patristic writings, in the early 1970s under the influence of his Jewish colleague Will Herberg . He discovered what he called "ecumenical orthodoxy": the interpretation of the New Testament and apostolic teaching that was widely accepted, as he wrote in the preface to his Systematic Theology:

"My fundamental aim is to provide an orderly view of the faith of the Christian community, in respect of which there has generally been an essential correspondence between the traditions of the East and West, including Catholicism, Protestantism and Orthodoxy."

In describing this Christian consensus, Oden committed himself

  1. "To make no new contribution to theology,
  2. to resist the temptation to quote modern writers who are less trained in all of God's counsel than the best classical exegetes,
  3. to strive to express the unanimous opinion of the believing Church, which always listened to the apostolic doctrine with which Christian believers always and everywhere agreed - that is what I understand by the Vincentine method. "

Oden was the initiator of the "Ancient Christian Commentary of Scripture" project, which, analogous to the Katenen , has collected the corresponding commentaries from Christian church fathers for each individual Bible verse. Over 400 translators, theologians and historians have been involved in this project for ten years, and the results have been published in 29 volumes. From this, again on the initiative and under the direction of Oden, two direct follow-up projects emerged, the five-volume series "Ancient Christian Doctrine" planned for 2009 and the 2007 series "Ancient Christian Devotional" in which the weekly readings of the pericope order are provided be published with comments from the Church Fathers.

From intensive preoccupation with the Church Fathers, Oden developed a special interest in early African Christianity, which for Oden encompasses early Christianity in North Africa from Egypt to the Maghreb as well as in Ethiopia and Nubia . Oden argues that the intellectual history of African Christianity, represented for example by Origen , Tertullian , Athanasius and Augustine of Hippo, was far superior to that of Asia and Europe up to the middle of the fourth century, and that the essential teachings of the ecumenical councils are based, largely originated in Africa. Out of this conviction he initiated the project "Early African Christianity", through which today's African Christianity in particular is supposed to rediscover its rich African roots. The project is geared towards internet-based international cooperation, which aims to enable African theologians in particular to participate and to make the results available to African churches and lay people.

Private

In 1952 he married Edrita Pokorny, with whom he had three children.

Works (selection)

German translations

  • Who says you are ok - a theol. Request to d. Transaction analysis , translator: Hans-H. Hirschberg; Gelnhausen, Berlin; Burckhardthaus, Freiburg; Christophorus, Stein 1977, ISBN 978-3-7664-3053-3

Autobiography

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ Kate Shellnutt: Died: Thomas Oden, Methodist Theologian Who Found Classical Christianity. His contribution to theology: nothing new. And that's what made him famous. Christianity Today, December 8, 2016
  2. ↑ http://www.earlyafricanchristianity.com/publications/thomas-c-oden-curriculum-vitae-1.html Jeffrey Wittung: Thomas C Oden Curriculum Vitae , Oklahoma City October 30, 2011 (on his 80th birthday), on the website CEAC
  3. ↑ Turning Hearts to the Fathers ; Touchstone, summer 1995
  4. ^ "My basic purpose is to set forth an ordered view of the faith of the Christian community upon which there has generally been substantial agreement between the traditions of East and West, including Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox."; in: Oden: The Living God ; P. 9
  5. ↑ Oden: Life in the Spirit , p. 7
  6. ^ Oden, How Africa Shaped the Christian Mind: Rediscovering the African Seedbed of Western Christianity , IVP Books, 2007, online
personal data
SURNAME Oden, Thomas C.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Oden, Thomas Clark (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American Paleo-Orthodoxy Methodist theologian
DATE OF BIRTH October 21, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Altus , Oklahoma , USA
DATE OF DEATH December 8, 2016