Annette Merz

Annette Merz is a German theologian and since 2006 professor of culture and literature of early Christianity in the area of ​​theology at the University of Utrecht.

Study

Merz studied at the University of Heidelberg, where he became his doctorate in 2001 summa cum laude. The Promotion The intertextual and historical place of the Pastoral Epistles with Gerd Theissen and Peter Lampe also received the Ruprecht -Karls -Prize of the Foundation of the University of Heidelberg in 2002. Together with Teun Tieleman she leads a research program " sua fata habent libelli " for text production in the Roman Empire. Your first theological examination she had stored in the Westphalian church in 1992.

Contributions to the historical Jesus

She became known for publications on the historical Jesus, especially with the book The Historical Jesus, which she co-authored with Gerd Theissen. It has been translated into several languages. It is a popular study book and is often used to exam preparation of theology students.

The book attempts that since about 1980 as Third Quest ( " third question " ) reproduce designated endeavors to explain Jesus' appearance from a strictly historical perspective within the overall context of his time. This apocryphal and extra-biblical texts, and significantly stronger than before extra-biblical evidence from archeology, social history, cultural anthropology, oriental studies and Jewish studies were included, especially in the American environment in addition to the traditional German historical-critical analysis of the literature of the Bible. Merz and Theißen clear self-critical one that the historical-critical research, theological research in German-speaking generally, archeology and geography of the ministry and life of Jesus often neglected and have left wrongly especially conservative researchers, and especially American exegetes. The research focus has shifted, in part because with the advent of the Third quests in the United States.

Peter Stuhlmacher and Daniel Graf criticize psychologizing questions after the self- consciousness of Jesus and further speculation in the final part of the work.

Hermann Detering, a representative of the Dutch Radical Criticism, wondering in his review about the handling Merz ' and Theissens with the Easter event, among other things, the statement that it speak some evidence that " the tradition of the empty grave a historical core " have.

Despite protestations verschiedentlicher not to incorporate, as in classical historical Jesus research Jesus 's own ideal in the work, according to Detering came Theissen and Merz to a picture of Jesus, in which this is exactly the case again. In the traditional images of Jesus was that personality structure, which was viewed by its authors as the highest ethical ideal, has been assigned to this very. This meet also apply to the Jesus at Merz and Theissen, the " grassroots, domination critical- emancipatory, antipatriarchalischer, economics and family critically nonviolent Jesus " the system critical, alternative federal republican spirit par excellence reproducing. In addition, the hypothesis Merz ' and Theissens from purely intra- Jewish origin of Christianity was a totally untenable claim (literally, " March "), which could be read into it only with considerable imagination in the lyrics.

Positions

A negative interaction between philhellenism and anti-Semitism are two sides of the same coin Merz, among others, with the theologian Carl Schneider. She takes implicitly theses by Suzanne L. Marchand on the interaction between German philhellenism and the German Sonderweg (or this hypothesis ) on with. Marchand had thereby brought the basic, domestic and foreign policy important role of archaeological research projects and philhellenism the German states, such as the German bourgeoisie in the context of the development of National Socialism out.

Merz translated to the Philippians for the controversial and the part of the Evangelical Church in Germany did not recognize the Bible in language appropriate. For this edition of the Bible conceived in origin, she wrote an advertiser meeting. They addressed the role of the Sea of ​​Galilee at the postulated " Jesus movement " and described Jesus' business ethics under the heading of " Mammon as fiercest competitor of God."

Memberships

She is a member of EABS ( European Association of Biblical Studies ), SBL (Society of Biblical Literature ), ESWTR (European Society of Women in Theological Research), NOSTER ( The Netherlands School for Advanced Studies in Theology and Religion ) and the SNTC ( studiosorum Novi Testamenti conventus ).

• The fictional self-interpretation of Paul. Intertextual studies of intention and reception of the Pastoral Epistles. Cambridge University Press, Göttingen 2004, ISBN 978-3-525-53953-8 ( = novelty testamentum et orbis antiquus / studies on the environment of the New Testament, NTOA / stunt. Band 52, while dissertation at the University of Heidelberg, 2001).
• Gerd Theissen, Annette Merz: The Historical Jesus. A textbook. 4th Edition, Cambridge University Press, Göttingen 2011, ISBN 978-3-525-52198-4.