Helmut Thielicke
Encyclopedia
Helmut Thielicke was a German
Protestant theologian and rector
of the University of Hamburg
from 1960 to 1978.
Thielicke grew up in Wuppertal, where he went to a humanistic Gymnasium
and took his Abitur
in 1928. After this he began to study philosophy
and theology
in Erlangen
, but soon had to undergo an operation on his thyroid
. Despite the negative outcome of this operation (pulmonary embolism
, tetanus
), which were still causing complications 4 years later, he finished his studies and in 1932 he got his doctorate in philosophy with "Das Verhältnis zwischen dem Ethischen und dem Ästethischen" (The relationship between the ethical and the aesthetic).
After his health improved, Thielicke listened to Karl Barth
in Bonn
, whom he criticized, mainly because of Barth's exclusion of natural anthropology
. Eventually he did his doctor's degree in theology in 1934 with a work under the supervision of Paul Althaus
in Erlangen. He took his postdoctoral lecture qualification with "Offenbarung, Vernunft und Existenz. Studien zur Religionsphilosophie Lessings" (Revelation, reason and existence; studies in Lessing's religious philosophy) in 1935 under the growing pressure of the Nazi-Regime
, which refused him an appointment to Erlangen in view of his activity within the "Confessing Church
". In 1936 he obtained a professorship in systematic theology
in Heidelberg
, where he met Marie-Luise Herrmann, to whom he was married in 1937. They had four children.
After repeated interrogations by the Gestapo
from the mid-1930s onwards, he was finally dismissed in 1940. Thielicke was conscripted, but nine months later he was able to take over a church in Ravensburg
with the help of regional bishop Theophil Wurm
. In 1942 he assumed theological office in Stuttgart
, from where he delivered numerous sermons and went on lecture tours, continually made difficult by the government by means of bans on travel, publication and preaching. Thielicke published a critique of Bultmann's composition about the demythologisation of the New Testament, which gave rise to a respectful, but inconclusive correspondence between the two. He also contacted the resistance group Freiburger Kreis, but without working actively in their plans for a revolution.
The bombing of Stuttgart in 1944 forced Thielicke and his family to go to Korntal, where he continued his lecture tours and preaching services in the following years; these were anonymously translated into many languages in Switzerland and read on various fronts of the war. Immediately after the end of the war Thielicke traveled with a group of delegates to Frankfurt
, where he was invited by the government to participate in talks regarding the resumption of academic work to fill the political and academic vacuum of the postwar period. As a consequence, he took over a professorship at the newly reopened theological faculty in Tübingen
in 1947, being made administrative head of the university and President of the Chancellor's Conference in 1951. In 1954, continuing his postwar efforts to revive Germany's academic and spiritual heritage, he accepted a call to Hamburg
to found a new theological faculty, where he acted as both dean and professor while also pastoring the main church of Hamburg, St. Michaelis
.
He personally met with Billy Graham
and was received by President Jimmy Carter
during lecture tours in the USA in 1977. Thielicke also traveled to Asia, South Africa, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand in the 1960s and 1970s.
Thielicke died 1986 in Hamburg, aged 77.
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
Protestant theologian and rector
Rector
The word rector has a number of different meanings; it is widely used to refer to an academic, religious or political administrator...
of the University of Hamburg
University of Hamburg
The University of Hamburg is a university in Hamburg, Germany. It was founded on 28 March 1919 by Wilhelm Stern and others. It grew out of the previous Allgemeines Vorlesungswesen and the Kolonialinstitut as well as the Akademisches Gymnasium. There are around 38,000 students as of the start of...
from 1960 to 1978.
Thielicke grew up in Wuppertal, where he went to a humanistic Gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
and took his Abitur
Abitur
Abitur is a designation used in Germany, Finland and Estonia for final exams that pupils take at the end of their secondary education, usually after 12 or 13 years of schooling, see also for Germany Abitur after twelve years.The Zeugnis der Allgemeinen Hochschulreife, often referred to as...
in 1928. After this he began to study philosophy
Philosophy
Philosophy is the study of general and fundamental problems, such as those connected with existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, and language. Philosophy is distinguished from other ways of addressing such problems by its critical, generally systematic approach and its reliance on rational...
and theology
Theology
Theology is the systematic and rational study of religion and its influences and of the nature of religious truths, or the learned profession acquired by completing specialized training in religious studies, usually at a university or school of divinity or seminary.-Definition:Augustine of Hippo...
in Erlangen
Erlangen
Erlangen is a Middle Franconian city in Bavaria, Germany. It is located at the confluence of the river Regnitz and its large tributary, the Untere Schwabach.Erlangen has more than 100,000 inhabitants....
, but soon had to undergo an operation on his thyroid
Thyroid
The thyroid gland or simply, the thyroid , in vertebrate anatomy, is one of the largest endocrine glands. The thyroid gland is found in the neck, below the thyroid cartilage...
. Despite the negative outcome of this operation (pulmonary embolism
Pulmonary embolism
Pulmonary embolism is a blockage of the main artery of the lung or one of its branches by a substance that has travelled from elsewhere in the body through the bloodstream . Usually this is due to embolism of a thrombus from the deep veins in the legs, a process termed venous thromboembolism...
, tetanus
Tetanus
Tetanus is a medical condition characterized by a prolonged contraction of skeletal muscle fibers. The primary symptoms are caused by tetanospasmin, a neurotoxin produced by the Gram-positive, rod-shaped, obligate anaerobic bacterium Clostridium tetani...
), which were still causing complications 4 years later, he finished his studies and in 1932 he got his doctorate in philosophy with "Das Verhältnis zwischen dem Ethischen und dem Ästethischen" (The relationship between the ethical and the aesthetic).
After his health improved, Thielicke listened to Karl Barth
Karl Barth
Karl Barth was a Swiss Reformed theologian whom critics hold to be among the most important Christian thinkers of the 20th century; Pope Pius XII described him as the most important theologian since Thomas Aquinas...
in Bonn
Bonn
Bonn is the 19th largest city in Germany. Located in the Cologne/Bonn Region, about 25 kilometres south of Cologne on the river Rhine in the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, it was the capital of West Germany from 1949 to 1990 and the official seat of government of united Germany from 1990 to 1999....
, whom he criticized, mainly because of Barth's exclusion of natural anthropology
Anthropology
Anthropology is the study of humanity. It has origins in the humanities, the natural sciences, and the social sciences. The term "anthropology" is from the Greek anthrōpos , "man", understood to mean mankind or humanity, and -logia , "discourse" or "study", and was first used in 1501 by German...
. Eventually he did his doctor's degree in theology in 1934 with a work under the supervision of Paul Althaus
Paul Althaus
Paul Althaus was a German Lutheran theologian, son of Adolf Paul Johannes Althaus. He was born in Obershagen in the Province of Hanover, and he died in Erlangen. He held various pastorates from 1914 to 1925, when he was appointed associate professor of practical and systematic theology at the...
in Erlangen. He took his postdoctoral lecture qualification with "Offenbarung, Vernunft und Existenz. Studien zur Religionsphilosophie Lessings" (Revelation, reason and existence; studies in Lessing's religious philosophy) in 1935 under the growing pressure of the Nazi-Regime
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
, which refused him an appointment to Erlangen in view of his activity within the "Confessing Church
Confessing Church
The Confessing Church was a Protestant schismatic church in Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to nazify the German Protestant church.-Demographics:...
". In 1936 he obtained a professorship in systematic theology
Systematic theology
In the context of Christianity, systematic theology is a discipline of Christian theology that attempts to formulate an orderly, rational, and coherent account of the Christian faith and beliefs...
in Heidelberg
Heidelberg
-Early history:Between 600,000 and 200,000 years ago, "Heidelberg Man" died at nearby Mauer. His jaw bone was discovered in 1907; with scientific dating, his remains were determined to be the earliest evidence of human life in Europe. In the 5th century BC, a Celtic fortress of refuge and place of...
, where he met Marie-Luise Herrmann, to whom he was married in 1937. They had four children.
After repeated interrogations by the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
from the mid-1930s onwards, he was finally dismissed in 1940. Thielicke was conscripted, but nine months later he was able to take over a church in Ravensburg
Ravensburg
Ravensburg is a town in Upper Swabia in Southern Germany, capital of the district of Ravensburg, Baden-Württemberg.Ravensburg was first mentioned in 1088. In the Middle Ages, it was an Imperial Free City and an important trading centre...
with the help of regional bishop Theophil Wurm
Theophil Wurm
Theophil Wurm was the son of a pastor and was a leader in the German Protestant Church in the early twentieth century....
. In 1942 he assumed theological office in Stuttgart
Stuttgart
Stuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
, from where he delivered numerous sermons and went on lecture tours, continually made difficult by the government by means of bans on travel, publication and preaching. Thielicke published a critique of Bultmann's composition about the demythologisation of the New Testament, which gave rise to a respectful, but inconclusive correspondence between the two. He also contacted the resistance group Freiburger Kreis, but without working actively in their plans for a revolution.
The bombing of Stuttgart in 1944 forced Thielicke and his family to go to Korntal, where he continued his lecture tours and preaching services in the following years; these were anonymously translated into many languages in Switzerland and read on various fronts of the war. Immediately after the end of the war Thielicke traveled with a group of delegates to Frankfurt
Frankfurt
Frankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
, where he was invited by the government to participate in talks regarding the resumption of academic work to fill the political and academic vacuum of the postwar period. As a consequence, he took over a professorship at the newly reopened theological faculty in Tübingen
Tübingen
Tübingen is a traditional university town in central Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated south of the state capital, Stuttgart, on a ridge between the Neckar and Ammer rivers.-Geography:...
in 1947, being made administrative head of the university and President of the Chancellor's Conference in 1951. In 1954, continuing his postwar efforts to revive Germany's academic and spiritual heritage, he accepted a call to Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
to found a new theological faculty, where he acted as both dean and professor while also pastoring the main church of Hamburg, St. Michaelis
St. Michaelis' Church, Hamburg
St. Michaelis, colloquially called Michel , is one of Hamburg's five main Protestant churches and the most famous church in the city. St. Michaelis is a landmark of the city. It is dedicated to the archangel Michael...
.
He personally met with Billy Graham
Billy Graham
William Franklin "Billy" Graham, Jr. is an American evangelical Christian evangelist. As of April 25, 2010, when he met with Barack Obama, Graham has spent personal time with twelve United States Presidents dating back to Harry S. Truman, and is number seven on Gallup's list of admired people for...
and was received by President Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...
during lecture tours in the USA in 1977. Thielicke also traveled to Asia, South Africa, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand in the 1960s and 1970s.
Thielicke died 1986 in Hamburg, aged 77.
Selected English Translations of Works by Thielicke
- Notes from a Wayfarer; the Autobiography of Helmut Thielicke Translated by David R. Law. New York: Paragon House, 1995. ISBN 1-55778-708-5
- A Little Exercise for Young Theologians Translated by Charles L. Taylor. Foreword by Martin E. Marty. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1962.
- Man in God's World Translated and edited by John W. Doberstein. New York: Harper & Row, 1963.
- Nihilism: Its Origin and Nature -- With a Christian Answer Translated by John W. Doberstein. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1961.
- Between God and Satan Translated by C.C. Barber. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1958. [Republished: Farmington Hills, MI: Oil Lamp Books, 2010; ISBN 978-0-9844917-1-1]
- Theological Ethics Translated by William H. Lazareth. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1966-69.
- The Waiting Father: Sermons on the Parables of Jesus Translated by John W. Doberstein. New York: Harper & Row, 1959.
- Encounter with Spurgeon Translated by John W. Doberstein. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1963.
- How the World Began: Man in the First Chapters of the Bible Translated with an introduction by John W. Doberstein. Philadelphia: Muhlenberg, 1961.
- The Ethics of Sex Translated by John W. Doberstein. New York: Harper & Row, 1964.
- Faith, the Great Adventure Translated by David L. Schmidt. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985.
- The Freedom of the Christian Man: A Christian Confrontation with the Secular Gods Translated by John W. Doberstein. New York: Harper & Row, 1963.
- The Hidden Question of God Translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1977.
- Christ and the Meaning of Life: A Book of Sermons and Meditations Translated by John W. Doberstein. New York: Harper & Row, 1962.
- Our Heavenly Father: Sermons on the Lord's Prayer Translated by John W. Doberstein. New York: Harper & Row, 1960.
- The Silence of God Translated with an introduction by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1962. [Republished: Farmington Hills, MI: Oil Lamp Books, 2010; ISBN 978-0-9844917-0-4]
- Life Can Begin Again: Sermons on the Sermon on the Mount Translated by John W. Doberstein. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1963.
- Between Heaven and Earth: Conversations with American Christians Translated and edited by John W. Doberstein. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 1975, 1965.
- I Believe: the Christian's Creed Translated by John W. Doberstein and H. George Anderson. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1968.
- How to Believe Again Translated by H. George Anderson. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1972.
- The Evangelical Faith Translated and edited by Geoffrey W. Bromiley, 3 vols. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1974-1977.
- Modern Faith and Thought Translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1990.
- Living With Death Translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1983.
- Being Human -- Becoming Human: An Essay in Christian Anthropology Translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Garden City: Doubleday, 1984.
- Being Christian When the Chips are Down Translated by H. George Anderson. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1979.
- How Modern Should Theology Be? Translated by H. George Anderson. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1969.
- The Trouble With The Church: A Call For Renewal London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1965.
Sources
- "Helmut Thielicke," Contemporary Authors Online. The Gale Group, 2000 http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=umuser&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=1&ste=6&tab=1&tbst=arp&ai=U13992225&n=10&docNum=H1000098201&ST=Thielicke&bConts=10415
- Lawrence S. Cunningham, "Notes From a Wayfarer (review)," Commonweal, Jan 12, 1996 v123 n1 p27(3) http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1252/is_n1_v123/ai_17835741
- Marvin J. Dirks, Laymen Look at Preaching: Lay Expectation Factors in Relation to the Preaching of Helmut Thielicke, Christopher Pub. House (North Quincy, MA), 1972. http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=umuser&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=1&ste=18&stab=2048&tab=2&tbst=arp&ai=U13992225&n=10&docNum=A17835741&ST=Thielicke&bConts=10415
- Steve Schroeder, "Notes From a Wayfarer (review)," Booklist, June 1, 1995 v91 n19-20 p1698(1) http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=umuser&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=2&ste=18&stab=2048&tab=2&tbst=arp&ai=U13992225&n=10&docNum=A17218298&ST=Thielicke&bConts=10415