Günther Bornkamm

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Günther Bornkamm
Born(1905-10-08)8 October 1905
Görlitz, German Empire
Died18 February 1990(1990-02-18) (aged 84)
Heidelberg, West Germany
Academic background
Doctoral advisorRudolf Bultmann[1]
Academic work
DisciplineBiblical studies
Sub-disciplineNew Testament
Institutions
Doctoral studentsDieter Georgi [de][2]

Günther Bornkamm (8 October 1905 – 18 February 1990) was a German

University of Heidelberg
. Under
nazification of the Protestant churches and their unification into the movement of the 'German Christians'. His post-war fame as a scholar rested on his effort to separate fiction from facts in his reconstruction of Jesus' life and in his subsequent treatment of the gospel of Matthew. His brother was the ecclesiastical historian and Luther scholar Heinrich Bornkamm [de
].

Biography

Bornkamm was a student of

Nazis withdrew his venia legendi and he had to stop lecturing. He was a pastor in Münster and Dortmund before he was forced, in 1943, to join the Wehrmacht
.

From 1947 to 1949 Bornkamm was a professor at the

Nazi dictatorship in 1934.[a]

Günther Bornkamm was a proponent of the Second Quest for the Historical Jesus (following the Period of "No Quest" of Albert Schweitzer).[b] He suggested a tighter relationship between Jesus and the theology of the early church (in contrast to the 'First' and 'No Quest' periods ending in 1953). Numbered among his opponents, Rudolf Bultmann argued for a divorce between the two, but their approaches remain similar in many aspects.

In his book Jesus von Nazareth (1956),[c] Bornkamm expressed the profound difficulties of researching the historical Jesus and wished to produce a work that would inform not only professional theologians on the many questions, uncertainties, and findings of historical research, but also the laymen who would wish, so far as possible, to arrive at an historical understanding of the tradition about Jesus and should not be content with edifying or romantic portrayals.[4] He also stated that everyone was so familiar with the Nazarene through Christian tradition, and yet at the same time this very tradition had become strange and unintelligible to many. He affirmed:

If the journey into this often misty country is to succeed, then the first requirement is the readiness for free and frank questioning, and the renunciation of an attitude which simply seeks the confirmation of its own judgements arising from a background of belief or of unbelief.[5]

The work by Ernst Käsemann is also valuable for understanding Bornkamm's work.

Works

Notes

  1. ^ See also Wandervogel; Poewe & Hexham 2003.
  2. ^ Bornkamm wrote that Schweitzer, in his classic work, The Quest of the Historical Jesus, had erected its memorial, but at the same time had delivered its funeral oration.[3]
  3. ^ Published in the English translation as Jesus of Nazareth in 1960, by Hodder & Stoughton Ltd, as prepared by I. & F. McLuskey, with J. M. Robinson.

References

Footnotes

  1. ^ Schild 2016, p. 89.
  2. ^ Koester 2005, p. vii.
  3. ^ Bornkamm 1995, p. 13.
  4. ^ Bornkamm 1960, pp. 9–11.
  5. ^ Bornkamm 1960, p. 10.

Works cited

External links

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