Gustav Adolf Deissmann

Gustav Adolf Deißmann (also: Deissmann, born November 7, 1866 in Langenscheid, † April 5, 1937 in Wunsdorf ) was a German Protestant theologian, papyrologist and ecumenicist.

Life

Deißmann came from a pastor's family. After finishing high school in Wiesbaden, Germany, he studied Protestant theology at the universities of Tübingen and Berlin, and at the Theological Seminary of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Nassau in Herborn. In 1890 he became vicar in Dausenau in Nassau ( Lahn); 1892 Repetent and lecturer in Marburg. After a mean time as a lecturer at the Theological Seminary in Herborn in 1897 he received a reputation as a professor of New Testament at the University of Heidelberg; In 1908, he went in the same capacity as the successor to Bernhard Weiss in Berlin, where he taught until his retirement in 1935. 1930/31 he held the office of Rector of the University of Berlin. Politically Deißmann was coined by Friedrich Naumann and was for a time a member of the National Association social issues. After the First World War, he was a longtime member of the German Democratic Party ( DDP) to the supporters of the Weimar Republic.

Work

Deißmanns main scientific interest was the influence of the Greek mind to Christianity ( Hellenization ). As one of the first, he dealt with papyri found in Egypt and their importance for the understanding of the Greek of the Septuagint and the original text of the New Testament. In 1908 he published his major work Light from the East, which experienced four editions until 1923 and was also translated into English and Swedish. Deißmann, which can be attributed to the liberal theology was temporarily the most famous representatives of the German New Testament scholarship abroad. He was also politically active church and members of the German Protestant Church Day in Dresden in 1919 and Stuttgart in 1921.

In the ecumenical movement is forming Deißmann belonged since the encounter with Nathan Soderblom in 1910, the leading German personalities. At the beginning of the first world war he began writing letters of mimeographed Evangelical week, by which he tied a theological network between Germany and neutral countries and existed until 1921. Besides Soderblom he played a big part in the first World Conference of Churches for Life and Work ( Practical Christianity ) in 1925 in Stockholm, the documentation he published in 1926, and also participated in the first World Conference of Churches for Faith and Order ( Faith and Order ) in 1927 partly in Lausanne. From 1929 he was a member of the World Council for Practical Christianity, one of the predecessors of the World Council of Churches. In this role, he was one of the sponsors of the ecumenical commitment of Dietrich Bonhoeffer. Together with George Bell, he held two German -British theologian meetings.

Discount

Deißmanns extensive estate is kept in the Central and Regional Library Berlin.

Writings (selection )

• The New Testament formula " in Christ Jesus ." 1892
• Bible studies. 1895
• New Bible studies. 1897

• The linguistic study of the Greek Bible. 1898
• The Hellenization of Semitic monotheism. 1903
• Gospel and Early Christianity. 1905
• The Septuagint papyri and other early Christian texts. 1905
• Light from the East. The New Testament and the newly discovered texts of the Graeco - Roman world. Tübingen: Mohr 1908

• Early Christianity and the lower layers. 1908
• The early history of Christianity in the light of linguistic research. 1910
• Paul. A cultural and religious historical sketch. 1911 (2nd edition 1925; schwed. 1910, 2nd edition 1918 eng 1912, 2nd edition 1926; . Jap. 1926)
• The Stockholm movement. The world church conferences to Stockholm in 1925 and Bern in 1926 viewed from inside. 1927
• Una Sancta. Preface to the ecumenical 1937. Gütersloh 1936.

• The Stockholm World Conference of Churches. History, ministry and work of the World Conference on Life and Work, 19th - 30th August 1925. Official German report. 1926
• With George Kennedy Allen Bell: mystery of Christ. Christological studies of British and German theologians. 1931