Otto Zöckler

Otto Zöckler ( born May 27, 1833 in Grünberg, Hesse, † February 19, 1906 in Greifswald, Pomerania ) was a German Protestant theologian.

Life

Otto Zöckler comes from a Lutheran family, his father was dean and rector Konrad Zöckler in Grünberg ( Hesse). As a high school student Marburger Zöckler came into contact with Rector August Vilmar (1800-1868), who was regarded as a special agent of a legitimist understanding of the church and the so-called positive theology in Hesse. As a child, this time called " newly awakened life of faith " ( New pietists ) was by Vilmar a circle pietistic Christian students, grew out of the 1847 Marburg Wingolf.

After Zöckler had finished his high school in Darmstadt, the high school students at that time was mandatory for all of Hesse- Darmstadt, he entered the State University in Giessen and early work together with Friedrich Meyer, the eventual successor Loehe as rector of Diakonissenanstalt Neuendettelsau, and Jacob Volhard to establish a wingolfitischen club, from the August 15, 1852 Giessen Wingolf arose, whose important initiator and founder Otto Zöckler was. This circle was especially since 1843 by Prof. Gustav Baur, until then the only representative of Pietism at the Giessen theological faculty, supported and promoted.

As a student Zöckler was remarkably knowledgeable and interested in the natural sciences ( zoology, physiology, and geology). He was also a pupil of St. Paul's Church deputies and biologist Carl Vogt. Zöckler his doctorate in 1854 in Giessen Doctor of Philosophy and 1856 with the De vi ac notione vocabuli " elpis " in novo Testamento to Dr. theol. and received permission to teach in the same year. 1857 Zöckler lecturer and associate professor in 1863 in Giessen. He followed in 1866 a call to Professor of Church History at the University of Greifswald, where he led the major so-called " Greifswald School" founded together with the he promoted Hermann Cremer.

Zöckler has published an extensive well for that time work, reflecting his industry and his extensive knowledge of the entire theological disciplines as well as the natural sciences. He tried to reconcile on the floor of the positive theology of the revealed faith with the advent of modern science. He became a resolute opponent of Darwinism and tried this to refute with scientific arguments. Here were his philosophical writings are not characterized by a heavy-handed polemic, but show the upright search for truth in the tension between science and Protestant theology in the 19th century, even if the opposition to Darwin is now recognized as an aberration. This view and its adherence to the classical positive theology isolated him in the last years within the new currents of theology. He also argued publicly against the views of his theological Wingolfsbrüder Adolf von Harnack and Ferdinand Kattenbusch who had the Ritschl school and the theology of August Tholuck developed significantly.

Because of his encyclopedic knowledge Zöckler edited the multi-volume, influential handbook of theological sciences and together with Hermann Strack the brief comments Old and New Testaments and the Apocrypha. He has long been regarded as a theological authority, especially in matters of scientific epistemology. From evangelical circles in America is Zöckler, whose works also appeared in the English language, currently being rediscovered as a theologian.

Otto Zöckler died as the " Greifswald celebrity " on February 19, 1906 in Greifswald. His son Theodor Zöckler that his father dedicated the memory leaves was, by the construction of the Protestant churches in Poland and Galicia widely known.

Works ( in a small selection)

• Theologia naturalis: Draft systematic theology from natural revelation believing point of view, Frankfurt / M. 1860
• Critical History of asceticism, Frankfurt / M and Erlangen 1863
• The Augsburg Confession as a symbolic Doctrinal Basis of the German Reformation Church, Frankfurt / M. 1870
• God's witnesses in the realm of nature - Biographies and Confessions great naturalists of ancient and modern times (2 volumes), in a band Gütersloh 1881 ( English 1886 Norwegian 1882)
• For Apostolikumstreit. Thoughts and investigations on the occasion of the writings of A. Harnack and F. Kattenbusch