Max Lackmann

Max Lackmann ( born February 28, 1910 in Erfurt, † January 11, 2000 in Fulda ) was a German Protestant theologian. He was a resistance fighter against National Socialism and ecumenicist " the first hour ".

Life

Lackmann grew up in Dortmund, where he attended the grammar school. Subsequently, he was an educator in the Bethel institutions. There he met his first wife and married her in 1939. In Bethel he came to a living faith and decided to study theology. In Bonn, he attended lectures by Karl Barth. At that time he realized that a Christian Nazi ideology can not accept. That's why he wrote his essay in 1934, "Lord, to whom shall we go? ", Which caused a great stir in Germany. Then the scholarship and membership in the German students were deprived of him, so that he could not continue studying in Germany. Karl Barth gave him a place in Basel. When he returned to Germany after several years, he was still on the blacklist of the Nazis and was constantly observed. After his ordination in 1940, he joined the Confessing Church. So it was inevitable that he first went to prison and later to Dachau concentration camp because of his fearless preaching. When the war ended he was liberated by the Americans. In Dachau, he had been especially close in the " priest block " with several hundred Catholic priests and suffered together for the faith. It was inconceivable to him that the confessions should remain alien or hostile to each other as before. How was the reunion of Christians for him to be a life's work.

His Protestant regional church had no understanding of this commitment and retired him because " katholisierender tendencies " prematurely. With Paul Hacker and Gustav chicken he in 1960 founded the "League for Evangelical - Catholic Reunion " (now called "League for Evangelical- Catholic unity "). The goal was to collect people who were willing to live in a Protestant Church united with Rome. Only evangelical Christians who in principle agreed to this plan, could be members. In addition, there were sponsors and Catholic friends. Furthermore Lackmann was co-founder and member of representing the same goals of St. James Brotherhood, a spiritual community with binding pledges under the guidance of superiors, with Protestant and Catholic members.

About the objective of the Federal there were differences in the sequence because of the question of the right way to the confessional reunification. While Lackmann for a detachment of the ( Protestant ) national church structures and the establishment of a Protestant-Catholic Union Church pleaded ( call for " extract from the case of Protestantism " ), wanted the rest of the Executive Board a balanced relationship with the Protestant churches and the Roman Catholic Church retained ( model of " equilibrium yes"). After a lost vote on this issue Lackmann joined in 1969 by the federal government and the Brotherhood of. From 1973 he became involved with his second wife, in his " house on the Mount of Olives " in Dalherda / Rhön for Bible camps, where young people from different denominations for the first time had the experience of ecumenical fellowship.

Max Lackmann treated in his writings in detail unresolved issues that stood between denominations. During the Second Vatican Council, he worked as a journalist in Rome and wrote after each session a detailed report under the title "With Protestant eyes " (5 volumes).

For health reasons, he lived a very secluded life in recent years.

Selected major works

• Lord, to whom shall we go? A word of an evangelical theology students at his fellow students. ( = Theological existence today. Issue 11 ) Chr Kaiser Verlag, Munich 1934.
• The truth shall make you free. Five sermons after his return from Dachau, Iserlohn 1945
• God calls out yet! Three sermons after returning from Dachau ( dedicated to the memory of Louis Steep, pastor in Wanne- Eickel, died on January 17, 1945 in the Dachau concentration camp ), Herford 1945
• Guilt and grace. A return from Dachau, Iserlohn 1945
• The message of Fyodor Dostoevsky. A signposting, Iserlohn 1946
• Sola fide. An exegetical study of James 2 to the Reformation doctrine of justification, Gütersloh, 1949 ( contributions to the promotion of Christian Theology 50)
• From the mystery of creation. The history of the exegesis of Romans I, 18-23, II, 14-16 and Acta XIV, 15-17, XVII, 22-29 from the 2nd century until the beginning of Orthodoxy, Stuttgart 1952
• At the Reformation doctrine of justification, Stuttgart 1953
• Veneration of the saints. Attempt to Lutheran doctrine of the Holy, Stuttgart 1958
• Call of evangelical Christianity to the Catholic fulfillment. In: Max Lackmann, Hans Asmussen, Ernst Fincke, Wolfgang Lehmann, Richard Baumann ( ed.): Catholic Reformation. Stuttgart 1958, 82-132
• Catholic unity and the Augsburg Confession, Graz et al 1959
• Sacrament and sacrifice, with Hans Asmussen, Peter Meinhold, Erwin Iserloh. Stuttgart 1960
• Credo ecclesiam Catholicam. Lutheran Confession against Protestantism, Graz et al 1960
• Protestantism and the Ecumenical Council, Klosterneuburg 1960
• A cry for help from the church for the Church, Stuttgart 1960
• Catholic Reformation, Stuttgart 1960
• The Christian and the Word, Graz et al 1962
• With Protestant eyes. Observations of a Lutheran at the Second Vatican Council, inter alia, Graz 1963
• Talking about indulgences. Protestant discussion report, Graz et al 1965
• Where is the Protestant Reformation? Special issue of the journal blocks for the unity of Christians. Soest 1965
• The New Testament and the visible unity of the Church, Soest 1966
• We want reconciliation today. An ecumenical commitment. Edited by the Theological Committee of the Federation of Protestant-Catholic reunion, Recklinghausen 1968
• The Protestant fair. Order of the fixed parts of the Mass. Theological Notes on Protestant fair. In: Building Blocks, worksheets of the Federal f ev -ref. Reunification Heft7 / 8, 1962; Evangelical Mass according to the Lutheran. I Agende with explanations of Theol. Committee of the Federal f ev -ref. Reunification, Ztschr "building blocks", special issue 1973.