Gerd Lüdemann

Gerd Lüdemann ( born July 5, 1946 in Visselhoevede ) is a German Protestant theologian. From 1983 to 1999 he taught New Testament Studies at the Faculty of Protestant Theology at the Georg-August -Universität Göttingen. From 1999 until retirement in 2011 he taught with a special "History and Literature of Early Christianity " and headed to the University, the department " Early Christian Studies" of the "Institute for special research ". He is married and has four daughters.

Position

In March 1998, Gerd Lüdemann published the book The big fraud. And what Jesus really said and did. In it, he undertook an analysis of selected New Testament texts of the canonical Gospels and the Gospel of Thomas, to determine which of them came from the historical Jesus of Nazareth, and which had been attributed to him afterwards.

Due to its own criteria for true and false words of Jesus he came to the " empirical" called the result that only a small population of about five percent of the total Jesus tradition goes back to Jesus himself. He combined this result with the judgment, already early Christianity had begun to Jesus' words and deeds " to distort and over-paint " and "Jesus as trimmed as it suited their needs and interests and how he them most useful in the fight against deviants and dissenters seemed to be. "

Counted for this instrumentalizing falsification Lüdemann New Testament texts about bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ, in atonement theology, such as the Last Supper texts, apocalyptic texts from the final judgment, and all texts that announce his view Jesus as a divine being and a belief in revelation presuppose. This he judged as a projection and concluded in his "letter in Jesus ' final chapter titled:

" On projections, expectations and visions can be no true religion be established, and not when it occurs as vast as the Christian church, which has even been declared a world like Lord and coming judge. But you 're not the world Lord, as the like your followers have explained as a result of your resurrection, and you wanted it not to be. You have preached the future kingdom of God, came, however, the church. You have deceived you, and your message has been corrupted by your followers to their own benefit against the historical truth. Your teaching was a mistake, because the messianic kingdom has failed. "

Lüdemann is thus in the tradition of Hermann Samuel Reimarus this Jesus had to 1778 published by Gotthold Ephraim Lessing writings presented as political Messiah member whose expectation was disappointed in its 1774 and the first Christians attributed the fraudulent invention of the resurrection faith. Lüdemann also follows the religious criticism of Ludwig Feuerbach, which describes the belief in a god, an incarnation of this God and others, primarily Lutheran- Christian dogmas as psychologically understandable, but to be overcome for the progress of humanism desired projection. The fallen 1900 sentence " Jesus announced to the kingdom of God is come, and the church " comes from the French Catholic theologian Alfred Loisy.

Lüdemann joined with other books out as a critic of the Church, in which he wishes to refute, especially the belief in resurrection historically ("the grave of Jesus was full "). In this context, includes his critical review of the book Jesus of Nazareth. From the Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration by Pope Benedict XVI. It was " intellectually credible " and an " embarrassing gaffe ", the " margin before the cart of the Roman Catholic faith," the historical criticism of the Bible.

Historical research classification

In Jesus research has long sought to obtain an image of the historical Jesus by distinguishing real from fake words and Jesus did. Here, historical-critical methods used for this purpose have continuously differentiated and changed the authenticity criteria. These have become even since the 1950s, the subject of intensive research debate.

Compared with the double criterion of difference claimed by Ernst cheese man since 1953 - real Jesus material was what let that neither the contemporary Judaism nor derive early Christianity - has prevailed the social and religious historical plausibility criterion for most researchers since about 1973: Jesuanisch may be all the traditions which can be explained by the contemporary Judaism and historical circumstances.

New Testament scholars such as Wolfgang Stegemann criticize Lüdemanns with the claim put forward by empirical objectivity criteria: by the early Christians - as the first, still naively optimistic preceding historical Jesus researchers - accusing fraud, he may withdraw a modern legal concept ( intentional injury by feigning false and deface or suppressing true facts ) on them. He put ancient texts and tradition processes so that a narrative strategy, which is subject to modern standards of historical representations. His concept of reality - is "really" only what they could get rid of " overpainting " and turn against the faith of the early Christians - was a 19th-century imprisoned behind today's hermeneutical insights far back constant anachronism. However, Lüdemann explicitly emphasizes this " overpainting " based not on " fraudulent ", but on the faith of the early Christians to act in the service of a " higher truth ", which puts the criticism Stegemann.

In view of the alleged pseudepigraphical letters of the New Testament Lüdemann says that pseudepigraphy was connected with fraudulent intent. That pseudepigraphy that fact implies, is also confirmed by the conservative side, about Armin Daniel Baum. Tree in 2001 published an extensive study of the self " pseudepigraphy ".

Litigation

After the Book Release 1998 Confederation of Protestant Churches in Lower Saxony, the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science initially required Lüdemanns dismissal from the civil service, then its removal from the Faculty of Theology. As the philosophical faculty rejected his admission, Lüdemann remained with special status at the Theological Faculty. The president of the University changed his denominational Chair of "New Testament" in the non-denominational chair of "History and Literature of Early Christianity " around. His events have since no longer relevant for testing the Faculty of Theology, and Lüdemann must not decrease with this. Lüdemann were also canceled funding and withdrawn permanently in writing promised C1 - assistant position.

However, Lüdemann wanted to remain employed and instructive entitled despite his rejection of the Christian faith in the theological faculty. He justified this by saying that scientific teaching and research will not be restricted "if a no-longer -Christ with more than twenty Christians taught together and conducting research: Does the content of the Christian faith, as my present in the majority colleagues to my error yes straighten out. But it 's not true, it is for students only beneficial to be able to make a re-orientation in time. "

Lüdemann therefore went to take legal action against the decision of the University of Göttingen. His action was dismissed on 3 November 2005 in the last instance by the Federal Administrative Court. On October 28, 2008, his constitutional complaint, however, was rejected by the Federal Constitutional Court. It downgraded the dislocation Lüdemanns Although as " interference with the freedom of science ", but held this to be justified. The academic freedom find their limits in the likewise protected by the academic freedom rights of faculty to maintain their identity as a theological faculty, as well as the self-determination of the affected religious community. Their participation law was " necessary consequence of the decision by the state to teach at his university theology as a denominational belief science [ ... ] ". It can not and should not be a matter of religious and religiously neutral state to judge the confession conformity of theological teaching.

Lüdemann does not call himself more as a Christian, but remained a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Hanover in order to practice his profession at the Faculty further.

Works (selection)

  • Heretics: The Other Side of Early Christianity. Radius, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-87173-078-5.
  • Easter faith without the resurrection? Discussion with Gerd Lüdemann. Edited by Hans Jürgen Verweyen. Herder, Freiburg, ISBN 3-451-02155-2.
  • What really happened to Jesus. The resurrection historically. With Alf Özen. Radius, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-87173-033-5.
  • The Bible of the heretics. The Gnostic writings from the Nag Hammadi - First German translation overall. With Martina Janssen. Radius, Stuttgart, ISBN 3-87173-128-5. Translation of the Nag Hammadi writings.
  • "The big fraud." And what Jesus really said and did. (4th edition 2002) to cleats, Jump, ISBN 3,924,245,703th
  • In the grip of the church. For the freedom of theological science. To cleats, Jump, ISBN 3-924245-76-2.
  • Paul, the founder of Christianity. To cleats, Jump, ISBN 3-934920-07-1.
  • The Unholy in Holy Scripture - The Dark pages of the Bible. To Cleats publisher Jump, ISBN 9783934920033
  • The resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Origins and history of self- deception. To cleats, Jump, ISBN 3-934920-20-9.
  • The Unholy in Holy Scripture. The dark side of the Bible. 3rd edition. To cleats, Jump, ISBN 3-934920-03-9.
  • Jesus after 2000 years. What he actually said and did. With contributions by Frank Schleritt and Martina Janssen. Second, revised edition. To cleats, Jump, ISBN 3-934920-48-9.
  • The intolerance of the Gospel. Described in selected writings of the New Testament. To cleats, ISBN 3-934920-44-6 Jump.
  • Old Testament and the Christian church. Attempt of the Enlightenment. To cleats, Jump, ISBN 3-934920-96-9.
  • The Gospel of Judas and the Gospel of Mary. Two Gnostic writings from the early days of Christianity. Radius, Stuttgart, ISBN 978-3-87173-366-6.
  • The Jesus picture of the Pope. About Joseph Ratzinger bold handling of the sources. 1st and 2nd edition. To cleats, Jump, ISBN 978-3-86674-010-5.
  • The fictional Jesus. Spurious Sayings of Jesus in the New Testament. To cleats, Jump, ISBN 978-3-86674-022-8.
  • Virgin Birth? The story of Mary and her son Jesus. Completely revised and expanded new edition. To cleats, Jump, ISBN 978-3-86674-028-0.
  • Working translation of the New Testament. With Frank Schleritt. Cambridge University Press, Göttingen, ISBN 978-3-8252-3163-7.
  • The first three years of Christianity. To cleats, Jump, ISBN 978-3-86674-060-0.
  • The grossest forgery of the New Testament. The second Epistle to the Thessalonians. To cleats, Jump, ISBN 978-3-86674-090-7.
  • Who was Jesus? Theological- political interventions. 1st edition. To cleats, Jump, ISBN 978-3-86674-144-7, DNB 1,009,738,917th Book Publisher's description
  • The oldest Christian text. First Epistle to the Thessalonians. 1st edition. To cleats, Jump, ISBN 978-3-86674-157-7, DNB 101187802X.
  • Jesus after 2000 years - what Jesus really said and did. To Cleats publisher Jump, ISBN 9783866741737
  • The real Jesus - His historical deeds and words. A reading book. To Cleats publisher Jump, ISBN 9783866741867
Empirical research Apocalypticism Parousia Psychological projection Criticism of religion Federal Administrative Court of Germany Verfassungsbeschwerde Federal Constitutional Court of Germany Nag Hammadi library Rheinischer Merkur Integrated Authority File
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