Wilhelm Dantine

Bust in the arcade courtyard of the University of Vienna (sculptor Josef Zenzmaier )

Wilhelm Felix Ferdinand Dantine (born November 6, 1911 in Leoben ; † May 21, 1981 in Vienna ) was an Austrian Lutheran theologian.

Life

The son of the lawyer of the same name and later member of the state parliament, Wilhelm Felix Josef Dantine, studied Protestant theology in Vienna, Bonn (among others with Karl Barth ) and Erlangen , was vicar in Vienna and in 1937 took up his first pastor's position in Wallern an der Trattnach , a traditional tolerance community in Upper Austria . In Vienna he was involved in the youth movement-reformed student association Deutsche Hochschulgilde Aggstein . Influenced by military service and imprisonment, he returned to Vienna in 1948 as a student pastor and study inspector at the Protestant theological home. Here he was able to write a dissertation with which he became a Dr. theol. received his doctorate. 1955 followed the habilitation for systematic theology , also on a topic from the theology of the sacrament . He turned the Evangelical Academy Vienna, founded in 1952, into a far-reaching discussion forum. In 1963 he became the deputy of the clerical upper church council, but in the same year received a call as a university professor at the Vienna Evangelical Theological Faculty, where he taught until his death.

His son Johannes Dantine was also a Lutheran theologian and (associate) professor for systematic theology at the University of Vienna, his grandson Olivier Dantine has been superintendent of the diocese of Salzburg-Tyrol since 2012.

Focus of work

With his advocacy of opening up the Protestant Church to society, Dantine stood in opposition to the course of his church during the time of the conservative Bishop Oskar Sakrausky . Nevertheless, he represented them in many national and international bodies (including the development of the Leuenberg Agreement 1973 and in the Commission for Faith and Church Order ). Very interested in the relationship between theology and law, he worked as an advisor to the Austrian Justice Minister Christian Broda on the reform of the criminal law during the 1970s . The theology of the diaspora was of particular theological concern to him . He also was involved in the Protestant-Catholic (1965 founding of the "Ecumenical Working Group" with Kurt Lüthi , Ferdinand Klostermann and Otto Mauer ) and the Judeo-Christian Dialogue (1961 he was involved in the establishment of the Working Group Jews and Christians of the German Protestant Church Congress , since 1962 deputy chairman of the "Coordination Committee for Christian-Jewish Cooperation" in Austria).

Honors

Student residence Wilhelm-Dantine-Haus in Vienna in the 18th district.

Dantine was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1968 by the University of Tübingen and in 1981 by the Reformed Theological Academy in Budapest . The Evangelical Theologian Home in Vienna, which he runs, bears his name today (Wilhelm-Dantine-Haus). The Evangelical Church A. u. HB in Austria donated the Dr. Wilhelm Dantine Memorial Fund to support students in his honor. In 2001 a bust was erected in the arcade courtyard of the University of Vienna.

Trivia

Peter Stephan Jungk , who grew up in Vienna, named the first-person narrator Wilhelm Dantine in his novel The King of America (2001; about Walt Disney ).

Fonts (selection)

• The righteousness of the wicked. A dogmatic inquiry . C. Kaiser, Munich 1959.
• About the Protestant people. Criticism and expectation . Furche, Hamburg 1959.
• Faith and Science, their Critical Function . In: Karl Rahner : Intellectual honesty and Christian faith . Herder, Freiburg 1966.
• (as ed. with Kurt Lüthi ): Theology between yesterday and tomorrow. Interpretations and inquiries about the work of Karl Barth . C. Kaiser, Munich 1968.
• The holy and the unholy spirit. About the renewal of judgment . Radius, Stuttgart 1973.
• Jesus of Nazareth in the current discussion . Gütersloh publishing house 1974.
• Black Theology: A Challenge to White Theology? Herder, Freiburg 1976.
• Hope - Action - Suffering. Christian life perspectives . Herder, Freiburg 1976.
• The dogma in Tridentine Catholicism . In: Handbook of the history of dogmas and theology . Edited by Carl Andresen , Vol. 2. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 1980, pp. 411–498.
• Reconciliation. A basic motif of Christian belief and action . Gütersloher publishing house. 1982.
• Right out of justification. Selected legal theological and canonical articles . Edited by Albert Stein . Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 1982.
• Death, a challenge to life. Considerations of a Christian . Gütersloher publishing house, 1983.
• (with Eric Hultsch): Teaching and dogma development in Roman Catholicism . In: Handbook of the history of dogma and the history of theology . Edited by Carl Andresen. Vol. 3. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1984, pp. 289-423.
• Protestant adventure . Edited by Michael Bünker . Tyrolia Verlaganstalt, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2001.

literature

• Eric Hultsch, Kurt Lüthi : Confessing Confession. Form and formulation of Christian faith. Wilhelm Dantine (1911–1981) in memory . Gütersloher Verlagshaus Mohn, 1982. ISBN 3-579-00169-8 .
• Falk Wagner : Confidence in Faith and Global Responsibility. On the profile of the systematic-theological position of Wilhelm Dantine . In: Karl Schwarz , Falk Wagner (ed.): Changing times and stability. Contributions to the history of the Protestant theological faculty in Vienna 1821–1996 (= series of publications of the University Archives , University of Vienna ; 10). WUV, Vienna 1997. pp. 391-426.
• Karl Schwarz:  Dantine, Wilhelm. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 20, Bautz, Nordhausen 2002, ISBN 3-88309-091-3 , Sp. 361-367.
• Karl Schwarz: Wilhelm Dantine - the profile of a Protestant legal theologian: Biographical and research-historical aspects . In: Wiener Jahrbuch für Theologie 4, 2002, pp. 299–319.
• Eric Hultsch: Wilhelm Dantine - An Austrian Protestant . In: Ulrich Körtner (Ed.): Church - Democracy - Public. Place and mandate of the churches in a democratic society . Tyrolia Verlag, Innsbruck / Vienna 2002, ISBN 3-7022-2428-9 , pp. 21-46.
• Amt und Gemeinde , Volume 62, Issue 2, 2011: Special issue Wilhelm Dantine, with articles by Christian Danz , Michael Bünker , Ulrich HJ Körtner , Kurt Niederwimmer and Karl Schwarz.

Web links

• Literature by and about Wilhelm Dantine in the catalog of the German National Library