Starting with Jonathan Edwards for whom this lectureship is named, the author highlights the central role of experience in the understanding of the Christian faith in Edward’s own century, in Schleiermacher und Karl Barth, and the re-emergence of the emphasis on experiential faith in recent theology where it is a reaction to the erosion of the…[Read more]

Die Hauptthese der Dissertation ist, dass das Verständnis dieser Perikope als “Primatworte” Jesu, die die Autorität des Apostels Petrus und seiner Nachfolger, der Päpste, biblisch begründen, nicht dem Gang der Auslegungsgeschichte im Mittelalter entspricht. Matthäus hat das Petrusmaterial als “Offenbarungsszene” in den Rahmen der Mark…[Read more]

Die “Kirchliche Arbeit Alpirsbach” veranstaltet regelmässig Gregorianische Wochen, auf denen neben anspruchsvollen theologischen Studienzeiten die Praxis des gemeinsamen monastischen Stundengebets gepflegt wird, eingeübt und gesungen in einer in langen Jahren sorfältig enwickelten Form des gregorianischen Gesangs in deutscher Sprache. Den Ab…[Read more]

Abuna Paulos was for twenty years the patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church with its 40 million members. Elected in 1992 after the downfall of the communist Derg regime, he was an energetic, though controversial leader active as an advocate for peace in his country and in the region, ecumenically engaged on a global scale, and deeply…[Read more]

Der volle Titel meiner Ende 1960 eingereichten Basler Doktordissertation lautete: „Formen der Auslegung von Matthäus 16, 13-18 im Lateinischen Mittelalter.“ Als „Teildruck“ behandelt das als Privatdruck veröffentlichte Zentralkapitel unter dem Titel, „Der Kirchenfels,“ lediglich die altkirchliche und mittelalterliche Interpretation des Jesuswort…[Read more]

The original (German) version of this 1986 article was dedicated to Bernhard W. Anderson who, at that time, was planning to write a commentary on Genesis. He struggled with the idea of a commentary and agreed that the genre faced a crisis. Froehlich described the crisis as an overload of expectation: far too much is expected of biblical…[Read more]

The M.A. thesis at Drew University introduces, transcribes, and translates an unpublished Latin text written around 1380 by Pierre d’Ailly who, as a leading theologian of the University of Paris, bishop of Cambrai, and cardinal played a central role at the Council of Constance (1414-18), the council which ended the Great Schism of the West by…[Read more]

The lecture was addressed to members and friends of a newly founded Society for the Study of the Bible in the Middle Ages (SSBMA). It first reviews the development of the surge of interest in the history of biblical interpretation since 1955, then warns of three misconceptions and finally emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between…[Read more]

This presentation highlights some treasures of Princeton Seminary’s Wright Library: Manuscripts of a 12th century Greek Gospel Lectionary and of a lovely 16th century Schwenckfelder sermon collection, an early 1540 print of the Zurich Bible and a reprint of the 1534 Luther Bible owned by Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a copy of the first printed edition o…[Read more]

This lecture traces the surprising history of the literal sense of Scripture in early and medieval times. Until Origen of Alexandria, “literal sense” had a negative connotation for Christians as the interpretation of what they called the “Old Testament” by unbelieving Jews. A positive evaluation began with the School of Antioch in the Fourth…[Read more]

This Essay presents and analyzes an unpublished essay of a controversial monastic author of the late Middle Ages who was a much appreaciated chronicler but also an inventor of literary fictions as it is reflected in the turbulent story of Trithemius scholarship. The treatise is transcribed from MS Trier, Bischöfliches Priesterseminar 84. It is a…[Read more]

Saint Paul lived on in his Epistles and in Christian hagiography. In terms of the latter, apart from being paired with Peter in the tradition of Rome, his veneration was surprisingly subdued compared with that of his supposed convert Thecla. On the other hand, the reception of his letters led to heated controversies in Early Christianity. In the…[Read more]

The essay endorses the efforts of the French Annalist school, especially the recent interest in the history of “mentalities.” In terms of medieval historiography, it urges, however, that much closer attention be given to the religious mentality of medieval people which was decisively shaped by the symbolism of the Bible and the history of its…[Read more]

The fascinating understanding of this the longest of the biblical “Ten Words” went from the prohibition of all figural art in Judaism and the early Christian Fathers, which was continued by a resurgence of iconoclasm in the 8th century AD and in parts of the Protestant Reformation, to a slow process of acceptance under the pressure of the…[Read more]

The interpretation of the commandment “Thou shalt not kill” had a surprising history in the Christian context. Originally being taken in the sense of a universal prohibition to which several groups of Reformation Christians seemed to revert, the imperative was progressively weakening. During the Middle Ages, the increasing prominence of the two…[Read more]

The problem signaled by the title is introduced by the description of the controversy over the organization of the Early Church between Adolf von Harnack and Rudolf Sohm in the early 20th century—organic development vs. regrettable deviation of a free-wheeling spiritual community to a legally constituted societal entity. If the nature of Law can b…[Read more]

Das Referat wurde am 13. Juni 1956 im Systematisch-Theologischen Seminar von Prof. Karl Barth in Basel gehalten. Semesterthema war die Römisch-katholische Ekklesiologie. Die Rolle des Apostels wird in dreifacher Hinsicht entfaltet: Petrus fundamentum, Petrus centrum, Petrus exemplum. Die Kritik richtet sich gegen die Ausrichtung der katholischen…[Read more]

Der Vortrag betont weniger die Gemeinsamkeiten als die großen Unterschiede der beiden Erziehungssysteme. Er beginnt mit persönlichen Erfahrungen und erörtert dann die historischen Wurzeln auf beiden Seiten, die auf ganz verschiedenen soziologischen Voraussetzungen und politischen Zielvorstellungen beruhen.