William Wrede

Georg Friedrich Eduard William Wrede ( born May 10, 1859 in stooping; † November 23, 1906 in Breslau ) was an Evangelical- Lutheran theologian.

Biography

William Wrede was born on 10 May 1859 in stooping as the son of the rector Ernst Wrede and his wife Justine (b. Grütter ). Since 1862 his father was a Protestant pastor in Fredelsloh and from 1872 in United - Freden. After the first lesson in the village school prepared him of the Father before the visit of the high school. Easter 1874 he joined the Secunda high school in Celle, which he left in the fall of 1877 with the Abitur. He studied in Leipzig and from Easter 1879 in Göttingen Protestant theology. During his studies in Göttingen he became a member of the Academic Theology connection Thuringia. Besides Adolf Harnack in Leipzig mainly Albrecht Ritschl and Hermann Schulz of influence for him have been. After passing the first theological examination (Easter 1881) Wrede spent a year working as a teacher at a private school in love Castle, 2 ½ years as a member of the Seminary in Loccum and a further two years (fall 1884 to 1886 ) was then inspector of the theological pin in Göttingen. During this time he took the second theological examination and then took over in January 1887 in the vicinity of the parental home to the rectory to Long Lumber. On 9 and 19 September of the year 1887 his parents died. However, his scientific interests were stronger than those for the exercise of their office, so that Wrede decided in the autumn of 1889, to follow research careers. He moved to Göttingen, and habilitated there in March 1891 due to his writing " studies for the first Klemens letters " for the subject of New Testament exegesis. In the spring of 1893 he was appointed associate professor at the University of Breslau. He married Elisabeth Schulz, the daughter of his teacher Hermann Schulz. In the fall of 1895 he became a full professor in Breslau, where he worked for 13 years. Until Pentecost 1906 he lectured, as he contracted pneumonia, from which a heart condition developed after a short recovery, which led to the death after prolonged fluctuations on 23 November 1906.

Theological work

Wrede spread to the emerging in his time methods of critical exegesis of biblical writings and emphasized the study of the New Testament should not be limited solely to the writings of the Biblical canon; an understanding of the New Testament can only succeed if we look at the biblical writings in the context of other contemporary documents. He pleaded for a religious-historical comparison of the New Testament writings and an examination of the contemporary context of the scriptures in order to highlight in this way the specificity and theological statement intention of the New Testament writings.

So Wrede was a co-founder of the History of Religions school. His work culminated in the target view, dissolve the New Testament theology and replace it with a non- theological, but historically was responsible for religious history of early Christianity. For this reason, Wrede's approach was sometimes highly controversial.

From Wrede's specifications, the so-called traditional historical approach, which today is a natural element of historical-critical exegesis of the New Testament developed. This involves the question of how the New Testament to be examined textually forms or content reflects that can be anchored contemporary.

Another focus of theological work Wrede was the introduction of science, the study of the historical development of biblical writings circumstances. In his detailed analytical work Wrede reasoned, inter alia, that the second Epistle to the Thessalonians was not written from 1 Thessalonians literarily dependent on Paul, what is controversial today.

In addition, Wrede criticized the idea of ​​the " messianic secret ", according to which Jesus wanted to know kept secret his Messiahship. In Mark's Gospel, however, will clear that Jesus did not understand as the Messiah. It was not until the Easter experience of the disciples had come to believe that Jesus was the Savior. And only in the way of writing the stories about Jesus, it had come to the editorial incorporation of the Messiahship of Jesus.

Even with this thesis came Wrede in a variety of criticism. Even more critical to be Paul's book was seen, in which he stated that Paul was to be regarded with his theological explanations as the second founder of Christianity alongside Jesus.

Works (selection)

• About task and method of the so-called New Testament theology, Göttingen 1897.
• The messianic secret in the Gospels. At the same time a contribution to the understanding of Mark's Gospel, Cambridge University Press: Göttingen 1901.
• Paul Hall 1904 / Tübingen 1907 (now in: Rengstorf, Karl Heinrich [Hg ] The picture of Paul in the recent German research, Darmstadt 1969, 1-97 ).
• The authenticity of the second Thessalonians examined, Leipzig 1903.
• Lectures and studies, Tübingen 1907