Gerd Theissen - Böcker

A Sociological investigation into the life of the early Church by one of the twentieth-century's leading Biblical Scholars.

This book, 'Dr Theissen remarks, 'means more to me than any other of my writings. The ideas in it go back to my student days, and my dissatisfaction then over the attitude of so many theologians. I kept on asking myself, how they could go on working, day after day, when they could not even give a convincing answer to the insinuation that God is an illusion. I resolved either to find an answer of my own or to give up theology altogether.' This is his answer. In a short and clearly reasoned study he considers the arguments most commonly produced against Christian belief from the outside, and explores how they can be answered. First he looks at the charge that Christianity is an ideology born out of social conflict and distorted personalities. Then he counters the criticism that religious belief has no grounding in everyday experience and reality. Finally, he argues against the view that the historical approach makes everything relative. There are good reasons, he concludes, for being a Christian. But this does not mean that Christianity can be defended in its traditional form. It will have to change if it is not going to lose all credibility in the modern world.

As those who have read his The Shadow of the Galilean and Biblical Faith are aware, Gerd Theissen is not someone whose main concern is the theory and practice of preaching. However, he himself is a fascinating preacher, as was evident in his imaginative collection The Open Door, which Frances Young in Theology described as 'nothing less than gripping'. In this book he engages as it were in self-analysis, an analysis of how he preaches, in order to offer help to others. A first draft was shown to younger ministers, women and men, for their critical comments, and the book derives from lectures which gave rise to lively discussion. Professor Theissen's illuminating comments are grouped round a variety of focal points. The first chapter discusses the biblical world and how that can be approached; then comes the text, and the new possibilities offered by the 'open' text. The third chapter examines how preaching can talk about God and the fourth looks at the existential dimension of preaching. A fifth chapter on preaching as communication is followed by five sample sermons. Preachers will learn a great deal from this book - but so too will their congregations, and anyone interested in the communication of Christianity in the modern world. Few theologians are richer in creative ideas than Gerd Theissen, and they are here in abundance.

This textbook by Germany's most interesting New Testament scholar and his assistant is likely to become a standard work on Jesus.After surveying the quest for the historical Jesus, it assesses the sources, non-Christian and Christian, for Jesus. Then it examines the historical, chronological, geographical and social setting of his activity and some of his major characteristics-as charismatic, prophet, healer, poet, and teacher.All this leads on to studies of the passion and resurrection and the beginnings of Christology. Each section discusses a specific topic in the clearest possible terms, using tables and diagrams where relevant. The main results of scholarly research are given with explanations of how they relate to a wider whole. Subdivisions clarify some of the more complex issues. The main parts of the book end in summaries.Throughout, suggestions are made for further study in the form of projects and problems to be solved. And there are full bibliographies, anglicized for this edition by Robert Morgan.

Signs of Life follows the signs from God in a world from which he seems to have disappeared. It points out how they are often to be found in unexpected places, in the offensive, the immoral and the absurd.A brilliant collection from the pre-eminent New Testament scholar who wrote The Shadow of the Galilean. He believes that modern sermons are indications that God is alive and getting in touch through the barriers put up by our everyday mentality.

Combining New Testament study with the terseness of thriller writing, Gerd Theissen conveys the gospel story in the fresh and imaginative prose of a novel. The story is told by Andreas, an imaginary contemporary of Jesus, through whom we learn a great deal about life and politics in Palestine, as well as what Jesus (the Galilean of the title) might have been like and how he might have behaved.

A discussion of 'primitive' Christianity - Christianity in its original form, this work was first given as Speaker's Lectures in Oxford. Covering the first five centuries of Christianity, it argues that neither a theology of the New Testament nor a history of the early Church can do justice to all the dimensions of the earliest Christianity. It explores in depth the formation of primitive Christianity and studies the effect of the two great crises of primitive Christianity: the split with Judaism and the threat from Gnosticism. It is aimed at academic theologians.

There is no better book than this to introduce any reader to the New Testament. Gerd Theissen presents all the main issues straightforwardly, but with a depth of scholarship and brilliance of analysis that is unsurpassed. Gerd Theissen's approach is so interesting and illuminating that anyone considering the New Testament for the first time, and even experienced students, will value this book immeasurably.

Should the dissimilarity between Jesus and early Christianity or between Jesus and Judaism be the central criteria for the historical Jesus? Gerd Theissen and Dagmar Winter argue that the criterion of dissimilarity does not do justice to the single most important result of more than two-hundred years of Jesus research: that the historical Jesus belongs to both Judaism and Christianity. The two authors propose a criterion of historical plausibility so that historical phenomenon under question can be considered authentic so long as it can be plausibly understood in its Jewish context and also facilitates a plausible explanation for its later effects in Christian history. This book is a cooperative project between Dagmar Winter and Gerd Theissen and represents the fruit of many years of their research on the historical Jesus.

Gerd Theißen plädiert anhand einer bibelhermeneutischen Ethik dafür, die "Freiheit" gleichwertig neben die ökumenischen Grundwerte "Frieden, Gerechtigkeit und Bewahrung der Schöpfung" zu stellen, denn sie versteht den Menschen als Freigelassenen der Schöpfung. Wie in der Antike sind "Freigelassene" noch nicht "Freie", sondern auf dem Weg zur Freiheit. Für den Autor zeigt die bibelhermeneutische Grundlegung einer solchen Ethik der angestrebten Freiheit, dass religiöse und rationale Motive schon in der biblischen Ethik verbunden sind und Rationales damals, aber auch heute für eine religiöse Tiefe transparent werden kann. Sie verbindet dabei den existenzialen Imperativ, Leben zu erhalten, den sozialen Imperativ, Gerechtigkeit zu schaffen, den ökologischen Imperativ, die Schöpfung zu bewahren, mit dem liberalen Imperativ, individuell ein selbstbestimmtes Leben zu führen. Dabei bringt sie die biblische Ethik mit diesen Imperativen auf den Nenner einer antiselektionistischen Verpflichtung des Menschen im Rahmen der Evolution. Diese arbeitet mit Konkurrenz und Kooperation und wird durch Menschen konstruktiv und destruktiv gesteigert. Die biblische Religion formuliert dabei exemplarisch die Verpflichtung, bedrohtem Leben beizustehen. Sie wird als Resonanz des Menschen auf die Gesamtwirklichkeit verstanden, die sich intentional auf ihren Ursprung zurückbezieht und Menschen untereinander auf dem Weg zur Freiheit verbindet. Konsonanz in der Gemeinde verstärkt sie auf ihrem Weg. Dieser Weg verzweigt sich immer wieder in komplementäre Formen der Ethik in einer moderaten und radikaleren Variante.

Ethik sucht nach Konsens in Konflikten durch Orientierung an einem "elementarethischen Dreieck" aus Normen, Mitmenschen und der eigenen Identität. Sie misst alle Normen an ihrer Universalisierbarkeit und daran, wie sie sich in Konflikten bewähren. Paulus wollte Konflikte zwischen Juden und Griechen, Sklaven und Freien, Männern und Frauen überwinden. Gerd Theissen zeigt, dass der Weg dahin und das Scheitern auf diesem Weg heute lehrreich für die ökumenische Ethik mit ihren drei Grundwerten Bewahrung der Schöpfung, Frieden und Gerechtigkeit ist, die unbedingt durch die Freiheit vervollständigt werden sollten. Christen sind verpflichtet, ihre Ethik auch nicht-christlichen Menschen verständlich zu machen. Das ist auch ohne Letztbegründung von Normen möglich, indem man unerreichbare Letztbegründungen durch Verpflichtung zum Vorletzten ersetzt, was der Endlichkeit des Menschen entspricht.