Franz Hildebrandt

Franz Hildebrandt ( born February 20, 1909 in Berlin, † November 25, 1985 in Edinburgh ) was a German-born Lutheran (later Methodist ) pastor and theologian.

Life

Born as the son of Art Professor Edmund Hildebrandt (1872-1939), and Ottilie, née Schlesinger (1872-1952), sister of Georg Schlesinger, he studied after high school (1926 ) Protestant Theology in Berlin, Marburg and Tübingen (1926 -1930 ). From the Berlin period also friendship with Dietrich Bonhoeffer. With a dissertation on the Lutheran doctrine of the Eucharist (titled: EST, the Lutheran principle) it acquired in 1930 licentiate degree ( the PhD equivalent) at the University of Berlin. This was followed Vicariate in Dobrilugk and at the church for Heilsbronnen in Berlin, and the prescribed time as assistant pastor in Kleinmachnow. He was ordained on 18 June 1933 in Berlin. Since his mother was of Jewish origin, he put down in September the same year the ministry in protest against the introduction of the so-called Aryan paragraph in the church.

After three months of Bonhoeffer in his pastorate in London Hildebrandt returned at the request of Pastor Martin Niemöller to Berlin and worked for the Pastors, who pastors of Jewish descent, affected by the Aryan paragraph, began. Shortly after Niemöller's arrest (1937 ) also Hildebrandt was arrested, but came through the help of friends free again, and emigrated in September 1937 to Great Britain. In exile, he was initially taken up by Julius Rieger, the pastor of the German Lutheran London St. George's Church, which he assisted in the refugee care. In 1939 he went on a scholarship of the World Council of Churches to Cambridge. Here he founded the German -speaking community, was established in May 1941 by the University of Cambridge for D.Phil. doctorate and worked in various church activities, including for the German radio broadcasts of the BBC. In September 1943 he married Nancy Hope Wright, with whom he had three children. During the year 1940 he was interned for some time as ' enemy aliens ' on the Isle of Man.

Hildebrandt was the Anglican Bishop of Chichester, George Bell, near ( Bell called him and Bonhoeffer "my two boys "), but the Church of England could be due to his ordination understanding not connect: The necessary ' new' ordination by an Anglican bishop he held for theologically impossible, as it would make his Berlin implicitly ordination invalid.

However, an approach to the theology of John Wesley and thus to the Methodist Church in Britain took place in the 40s. Hildebrandt understood the Methodist theology in this sense as a continuation of Reformation theology. 1946 Hildebrandt was Methodist pastor and worked only in Romsey Town near Cambridge, then from 1951 in Edinburgh, Scotland.

In 1953, Hildebrandt a reputation as Professor of Biblical Theology at Drew University in New Jersey in the United States, and taught there until 1967. At the first session of the Second Vatican Council Hildebrandt took as a representative of the World Council of Methodist churches as observers. In 1960 he received an honorary doctorate degree from the Theological Seminary in Berlin.

Hildebrandt 1968 returned back to Scotland, but soon declared his withdrawal from the Methodist Church, which sought at the time a union with the Anglican Church; this Union would turn the question of a ' re- ordination ' brought with it. He joined the Church of Scotland ( Presbyterian ) and worked in Edinburgh as a pastor and chaplain in a hospital.

Hildebrandt died in 1985 of a stroke.

Hildebrandt was known among other things, by his writings on the hymns of Charles Wesley. In contrast to Eberhard Bethge, Bonhoeffer's friend from the later 30s and 40s, Hildebrandt kept out of the debate on Bonhoeffer's theology.

Writings

• Est: The Lutheran principle. Göttingen 1931.
• [ anonymous ] Martin Niemöller and his confession. Zollikon 1938.
• Ed as: ' And other Pastors of thy flock ': A German tribute to the Bishop of Chichester. Cambridge 1942.
• Melanchthon - Alien or Ally? Cambridge 1946.
• From Luther to Wesley. London 1951.
• As Editor: Wesley Hymnbook. Kansas City in 1963.
• Oliver A. Becker Legge (ed.): A Collection of Hymns for the Use of the People Called Methodists ( The Works of John Wesley, vol 7), Oxford 1983.
• Christianity accor ding to the Wesleys: the Harris Franklin Rall lectures, 1954, delivered at Garrett Biblical Institute, Evanston, Illinois. Grand Rapids 1996 ( reprint, London First edition 1956). ISBN 0,801,021,103th

Audio source

• Dr. Franz Hildebrandt and Methodist hymns Conducted by AG Dreisbach ( with Denville Methodist Episcopal Church Choir ). English Sound Recording: Music: Hymns: LP recording: 33 1/ 3 rpm; 12 in., Madison, New Jersey in 1959.