Wolfgang Nethöfel

Wolfgang Nethöfel (born May 26, 1946 in Oberhausen , North Rhine-Westphalia ) is a professor of social ethics in the Protestant theology department of the Philipps University of Marburg .

Life

After studying Protestant theology, German and philosophy at the Ruhr University in Bochum and the Christian Albrechts University in Kiel , Nethöfel passed the Faculty Examination in 1973 and the First State Theological Examination in German and Evangelical Religion in 1974. Several years of study in Paris (1974–1977) was followed by an academic career at the Christian-Albrechts-Universität Kiel (1977–1980: academic assistant; 1980–1985: university assistant; 1985: academic council; 1989: academic senior counselor).

There Nethöfel received his doctorate in 1982 on the basis of a systematic-theological work carried out by Eberhard Wölfel ("Structures of existential interpretation: Rudolf Bultmann's Johanneskommentar in Wechsel theological paradigms"). With " Moral Theology after the Council : People, Programs, Positions" followed in 1985 the habilitation in the subject of systematic theology . After teaching positions in Kiel, Frankfurt am Main and Hamburg , Nethöfel was appointed associate professor in 1990.

From 1991 teaching positions at the University of Rostock , where Nethöfel founded the "Institute for Economic and Social Ethics" (later: "Johann Heinrich von Thünen Institute for Economic and Social Ethics"). Since 1993 Nethöfel was Professor of Social Ethics at the Philipps University of Marburg, where he founded the "Institute for Economic and Social Ethics at the Philipps University of Marburg eV" in 1997 as a sister institute.

Theological Hermeneutics - Protestant Social Ethics

The main characteristic of Nethöfel's theology is to take seriously the mutual challenge of current social developments and Christian faith in a reformatory escalation and to deal with it constructively and critically. Taking up structuralist and system-theoretical arguments, fundamental theological hermeneutics (as preferential internal reflection) and social ethics (as extrinsic probation), armed with such methodological instruments and oriented towards emerging fields of action and problem areas, the state of the art in science , technology and economics meet.

With the respective focus on hermeneutics (in understanding) and social ethics (in orientation counseling), Nethöfel wants to seize the change from the main media concept of the Gutenberg galaxy to information and communication technologies not only as cultural waste, but as an opportunity for new communication channels. Even in the more recent field of nanotechnology and converging technologies , Nethöfel's view is shaped by the search for the new and the creative potential of this development. At the same time, he brings theological interpretations of the world and the way of life into play as a critical limit to all attempts to make technology absolute as a definition of meaning. Nethöfel strives to make (theological) ethics fruitful as a critical and constructive element in organizational, economic and technological innovation processes . Nethöfel's concept of theological ethics is therefore consistently characterized by its pronounced application orientation.

Despite all the willingness to take the transformations of social communication through new technologies and media seriously, Nethöfel sees in face-to-face communication how it distinguishes the churches - also beyond the need to face the new challenges , almost a unique selling point of the traditional Christian community in postmodernism . The need to open up new fields of work must not, in return, lead to the old ones being neglected. But this also requires an openness to turn to new and, according to Nethöfel, this means: more adequate forms of communication .

Against the background of trinity theological grounds, Nethöfel's theology presents itself primarily as a theology of creation which, in theory and practice, unfolds the axiom of Christian faith: "The word became flesh." (Jn 1:14)

Works (selection)

• Structures of existential interpretation: Bultmann's commentary on John in alternation of theological paradigms , Göttingen 1983.
• Theological Hermeneutics in Postmodernism , in: New Journal for Systematic Theology 29, 1987, pp. 210–227.
• Creatio, Creatur, Creativitas. In the field of tension between creation theory and creativity research , in: Berliner Theologische Zeitschrift 5, 1988, pp. 68–84.
• Theological hermeneutics. From Myth to the Media, Neukirchen Contributions to Systematic Theology , Vol. 9, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1992.
• Ethics between media and powers. Theological orientation in the transition to the service and information society , Neukirchen-Vluyn 1999.
• Christian orientation in a networked world , Neukirchen-Vluyn, 2001.
• together with Klaus-Dieter Grunwald: Strategic Church Reform , Glashütten 2007.
• together with Gerhard Regenthal: Profiling Christian Identity. Corporate Identity in the Church , Hamburg 2007.
• together with Stefan Bölts: Departure to the region. Church reform between forced merger and distinguished neighborhood , Hamburg 2008.

Web links

• Literature by and about Wolfgang Nethöfel in the catalog of the German National Library
• Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Nethöfel
• Institute for Economic and Social Ethics at the Philipps University Marburg eV