- Helmut Thielicke
Helmut Thielicke (
December 4 1908 inWuppertal –March 5 1986 inHamburg ) was a Germantheologian andrector of theUniversity of Hamburg from 1960 to 1978.Biography
Thielicke grew up in Wuppertal, where he went to a humanistic Gymnasium and took his
Abitur in 1928. After this he began to studyphilosophy andtheology inErlangen , but soon had to undergo an operation on histhyroid . 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 inBonn , whom he criticized, mainly because of Barth's exclusion of naturalanthropology . Eventually he did his doctor's degree in theology in 1934 with a work under the supervision ofPaul 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 insystematic theology inHeidelberg , 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 inRegensburg with the help of regional bishop Wurm. In 1942 he assumed theological office inStuttgart , 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 thedemythologisation of the New Testament, which gave rise to a respectful, but inconclusive correspondence between the two. He also contacted the resistance groupFreiburger 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 travelled with a group of delegates toFrankfurt , where he got involved in talks with the military government about the re-establishment of a faculty and the resumption of academic work in the political and academic vacuum of the postwar period. He took over a professorship at the reopened theological faculty in Tübingen in 1947 and in 1951 was made head of the university and president of the chancellors' conference. In 1954 he was called toHamburg to found a new theological faculty, where he acted as a dean and professor, and was also preacher in the main church of Hamburg, St. Michaelis.He got to know
Billy Graham during lecture tours in theUSA and was received byJimmy Carter in 1977. Thielicke travelled to Asia, South Africa, Latin America, Australia and New Zealand in the 1960s and 1970s.Thielicke died 1986 in Hamburg, aged 77. The Thielickestieg behind the "Hamburger Michel" was named after him.
External links
* [http://www.anderezeiten.de/ Andere Zeiten (in German).]
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, 1981.
*"Between God and Satan" Translated by C.C. Barber. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, 1958.
*"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. Doberstne. 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.
*"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.ources
* "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]
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