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Principles of Theological Education in Germany*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 February 2009

Karl-Heinrich Lütcke
Karl-Heinrich Lütcke
Affiliation:
Bachstrasse 1-2, 1000 Berlin 1
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Extract

In 1520 Luther wrote To the Christian Nobility urging 27 proposals for the reformation of the Church. One of these called for the reform of the universities. Taking up the humanist principle of returning to ancient sources, its aim was to encourage the intensive study of Scripture. Four years later Luther developed this proposal when he wrote To the Councillors of all German Towns, That they should Establish and Maintain Christian Schools. Luther started from the rediscovery of the Gospel; his concern was that this precious experience might be lost again, and that the ‘thunderstorm of God's Word’ might move away. Appropriate forms of education therefore needed to be developed both for young people and for the clergy, in order that the rediscovered Gospel might be preserved: ‘Whoever can grip and hold must grip tight and hold fast.’

Type
Research Article
Information
Scottish Journal of Theology , Volume 36 , Issue 4 , November 1983 , pp. 433 - 446
Copyright
Copyright © Scottish Journal of Theology Ltd 1983

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References

1 cf. the overviews in Karl Eger, Die Vorbildung zum Pfarramt der Volkskirche. Giessen, 1907; Drews, Paul, Der evangelische Geistliche. Jena, 1905.Google Scholar

2 Theologiestudium, Vikariat, Fortbildung, Gesamlplan der Ausbildung für den Pfarrerberuf. Empfehlungen des Rates der EKD, Reform der theologischen Ausbildung, vol. 12, 1978.Google Scholar

3 On thoughts about reform cf. Braun, Markus, Reformation des Theologiestudiums, 1966Google Scholar; Henmann, Wolfgang, Theologische Ausbildung undihre Reform. Comenius-Institut, 1976.Google Scholar

4 In a review of a reform document of the Greifswald faculty (Christliche Welt 40, 1926, col. 422–8).

5 op. cit. (n. 2), pp. 21ff.

6 Luther, , To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation. American edition, vol. 44, p. 205.Google Scholar

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8 ibid., p. 206.

9 cf. on this Josuttis, M., ‘Sätze, von denen man leben muss’. Luth. Monatshefte, 1976, pp. 490–493Google Scholar. Josuttis lists three stages in the professional socialisation of the theological student: the pre-university language of immediacy (humanitarian or religious engagement); the language of critical reflection in one's studies; the new theological, parish and praxis-related language as one's task in the period after academic study.

10 cf. Rössler, D., ‘Theologiestudenten auf dem Weg zur volkskirchlichen Gemeinde’. ZThK 72, 1975, p. 483.Google Scholar

11 In Neue Sammlung 14, 1974, pp. 2–23; the quotation is from p. 17.

12 cf. on this Matthes, J., ‘Studium als Interaktion’. Zerfass & Greinacher, Einführing in die Praktische Theologie, pp. 210–216.Google Scholar

13 Spiegel, Y., Der Pfarrer im Amt, 1970, p. 203.Google Scholar

14 Bonhoeffer, D., ‘Seelsorge’. Ges. Schriften, vol. 5, p. 404Google Scholar: See also p. 405: ‘Theology is the discipline that teaches you always to have an excuse or a justification…. The theologian knows that he cannot be unseated by any other theologian. In anything concerning his theology he is always in the right.’ See too Rössler, op. cit., p. 484: ‘The process by which immediacies are sacrificed in favour of a theoretical approach arises out of a renunciation which is always painful and not uncommonly dramatic. Yet it could be that in these impositions of theological existence aspects of faith and life are actualised which are grasped representatively on behalf of the community and which alone enable one to be minister of a folk-church congregation.’

15 These problems were taken up particularly in the reform attempts of Pietism (cf. n. 20).

16 Luther, op. cit., p. 207.

17 ibid., pp. 212ff.

18 Bohren (n. 11), p. 23.

19 cf. Stachel, Günter, ‘Das Verhältnis von Theorie und Praxis im Theologiestudium’. Trierer Theol. Zeitschrift 84, 1975, pp. 287–296.Google Scholar

20 cf. apart from Spener's Pia Desideria August Hermann Francke, Idea studiosi Theologiae, 1712.

21 Quoted in full by W. Herrmann (n. 3), p. 17.

22 On the question of practical training cf. Drehsen, Volker, ‘Sozialethik in der Konfrontation mit der Praxis’, Zeitschrift für evangelische Ethik 20, 1976, pp. 135–143.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

23 Büchsel, Carl, Erinnerungen aus dem Leben eines Landgeistlichen. Berlin, 1861, 4th edn., 1865, p. 55.Google Scholar

24 op. cit. (n. 2), p. 90.

25 op. cit. (n. 10), p. 480.

26 Luther, op. cit., p. 206.

27 cf. Drews, op. cit. (n. 1).