Ernst Käsemann (12 July 1906 – 17 February 1998) was a German

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

theologian and professor of New Testament in

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(1946–1951),

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(1951–1959) and

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(1959–1971).

Study and work

Käsemann was born in

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. He obtained his PhD in

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

at the

University of Marburg The Philipps University of Marburg () is a public research university located in Marburg, Germany. It was founded in 1527 by Philip I, Landgrave of Hesse, which makes it one of Germany's oldest universities and the oldest still operating Prote ...

in 1931, having written a dissertation on Pauline

ecclesiology In Christian theology, ecclesiology is the study of the Church, the origins of Christianity, its relationship to Jesus, its role in salvation, its polity, its discipline, its eschatology, and its leadership. In its early history, one of th ...

, with

Rudolf Bultmann Rudolf Karl Bultmann (; ; 20 August 1884 – 30 July 1976) was a German Lutheran theologian and professor of the New Testament at the University of Marburg. He was one of the major figures of early 20th-century biblical studies. A prominent c ...

as his doctoral supervisor. Käsemann was one of Bultmann's more well-known politically left-of-centre pupils. Käsemann joined the

Confessing Church The Confessing Church (, ) was a movement within German Protestantism in Nazi Germany that arose in opposition to government-sponsored efforts to unify all of the Protestant churches into a single pro-Nazi German Evangelical Church. See dro ...

movement in 1933; in the same year, he was appointed pastor in

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, in a district populated mainly by miners. During the autumn of 1937 he spent a few weeks in

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detention for publicly supporting communist miners. During 1939, he completed his

habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

, which qualified him to teach upper level seminars and advise graduate students at German universities; his dissertation was on the New Testament

Epistle to the Hebrews The Epistle to the Hebrews () is one of the books of the New Testament. The text does not mention the name of its author, but was traditionally attributed to Paul the Apostle; most of the Ancient Greek manuscripts, the Old Syriac Peshitto and ...

. Käsemann was later drafted as a soldier. He returned to his theological work in 1946 after several years in the army and as a prisoner of war. Käsemann was involved with what is known as the ' New Quest for the

historical Jesus The term ''historical Jesus'' refers to the life and teachings of Jesus as interpreted through critical historical methods, in contrast to what are traditionally religious interpretations. It also considers the historical and cultural context ...

', a new phase of scholarly interest in working out what could possibly be ascertained historically about Jesus. Käsemann effectively started this phase when he published his famous article "The Problem of the Historical Jesus" during 1954, originally his inaugural lecture as Professor in Göttingen in 1951. Käsemann developed what became known as the double criterion of difference in evaluating the historical reliability of the

synoptic gospels The gospels of Gospel of Matthew, Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Mark, and Gospel of Luke, Luke are referred to as the synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in a similar sequence and in similar or sometimes identical ...

. Put simply, what is historically reliable about Jesus can be deduced from material about Jesus which is neither plausible in a first-century Jewish nor an early Christian context. In addition to this, he proposed additional criteria, such as multiple attestation (does a particular story or saying of Jesus appear in independent traditions?) and coherence with other material already found to be reliable historical traditions about Jesus. Only the recent 'third quest' for the historical Jesus, which began in the later 1980s, began to question the absolute validity of these criteria. Käsemann also began to take Jewish apocalypticism more seriously than most of his contemporary colleagues and thought it to be of vital significance for a reading of Paul. Indeed, he famously described apocalypticism as "the mother of Christian theology". Käsemann's commentary on Paul's

Epistle to the Romans The Epistle to the Romans is the sixth book in the New Testament, and the longest of the thirteen Pauline epistles. Biblical scholars agree that it was composed by Paul the Apostle to explain that Salvation (Christianity), salvation is offered ...

, first published in 1973, became a standard work for that generation. His daughter, Elisabeth Käsemann, who had become a revolutionary while living in

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, was abducted by security forces during the

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, tortured, and subsequently '

disappeared An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person with the support or acquiescence of a state followed by a refusal to acknowledge the person's fate or whereabouts with the intent of placing ...

'. It is thought that her murder took place around 24 May 1977. Ernst Käsemann's subsequent theological writings acquired a more radical, often bitter edge after his daughter's death.Dietrich Strothniann
''Der Fall Ernst Käsemann – Partisan unter Protestanten''
Die Zeit, 25 November 1977 (German) Ernst Käsemann received honorary doctorates from the universities of

Marburg Marburg (; ) is a college town, university town in the States of Germany, German federal state () of Hesse, capital of the Marburg-Biedenkopf Districts of Germany, district (). The town area spreads along the valley of the river Lahn and has ...

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and

Yale Yale University is a private Ivy League research university in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701, Yale is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States, and one of the nine colonial colleges ch ...

. He died on 17 February 1998 in

Books by Ernst Käsemann (in English)

*''Essays on New Testament Themes''. London, SCM, 1964. *''The Testament of Jesus: A Study of the Gospel of John in Light of Chapter 17''. London, SCM, 1968. *''New Testament Questions of Today''. London, SCM, 1969. *''Jesus Means Freedom: A Polemical Survey of the New Testament''. London, SCM, 1969. *''Perspectives on Paul''. London, SCM, 1971. *''Commentary on Romans''. London, SCM, 1980. *''The Wandering People of God''. Minneapolis, Augsburg, 1984. *''On Being a Disciple of the Crucified Nazarene''. Grand Rapids, Eerdmans, 2010.

Literature about Ernst Käsemann

*Way, D V 1991. ''The Lordship of Christ: Ernst Käsemann's Interpretation of Paul's Theology''. Oxford. *Zahl, Paul F M 1996. ''Die Rechtfertigungslehre Ernst Käsemanns''. Calwer Verlag. *Osborn, E F 1999. Käsemann, Ernst. In: Hayes, J H (ed) ''Dictionary of Biblical Interpretation'' Vol. 2, Nashville: Abingdon, pages 14–16. *Harrisville, R A & Sundberg, W. Käsemann, Ernst. In: ''The Bible in Modern Culture: Theology and Historical Critical Method from Spinoza to Käsemann''. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, pages 238–261.

References

External links

Sermon drawing on Käsemann's life and work

Article/obituary in ''Anglican Theological Review''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kasemann, Ernst German Lutheran theologians German biblical scholars New Testament scholars 1906 births 1998 deaths University of Marburg alumni People from Bochum 20th-century German Lutheran clergy Academic staff of the University of Göttingen Academic staff of Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz Academic staff of the University of Tübingen 20th-century German Protestant theologians German male non-fiction writers Lutheran biblical scholars 20th-century Lutheran theologians

Study and work

Books by Ernst Käsemann (in English)

Literature about Ernst Käsemann

See also

References

External links