In memoriam Prof. Jürgen Moltmann

The World 

Updates from Tübingen    

by Birgit Hallmann 

Visitors and Guests:
The summer semester is slowly coming to an end and we continue to keep very busy.
In early June we hosted Mircea Paduraru (doctoral student at the University of Bucharest) in the Institute guest room. Mircea was here to make a presentation of his doctoral work for our English-German Colloquium for New Testament. His topic was: „Ecclesiology and Power. Towards an Anatomy of Church Discipline within the Evangelical Churches in Romania.“ Mircea shared the following about his brief stay in Tübingen:

„The experience of staying in the Gastzimmer of Tübingen’s Institut zur Erforschung des Urchristentums was wonderful. The guest room is nice, simple and clean, and the fact that the Institute is situated some two hundred meters away from the iconic Stiftskirche and a five minute walk from the University 's Theologicum gives the place a special aesthetic and spiritual aura. Also the quiet and peaceful working atmosphere and the kind and discrete presence of Birgit and Dennis add to the spirit of the place. It was a rich experience to live and sleep practically in a nice library, surrounded by books, and to work hard and focused, away from daily distractions.“ (Mircea Parduaru, June 2024)

In Memoriam: Many of our readers will fondly remember Prof. Dr. Jürgen Moltmann, world renown for his “theology of hope” and ground-breaking professor of systematic theology in Tübingen from 1967 to 1994. Prof. Moltmann, who had just celebrated his 98th birthday in April, passed away peacefully and without prolonged suffering at his home on June 3, 2024. Moltmann was mourned in the local newspaper as the “last survivor among the great scholars who, during the 1960’s and 1970’s, had made Tübingen’s theology so exciting and so attractive for Christians throughout the world” (source: Schwäbisches Tagblatt, June 6, 2024). A memorial service was held on June 14th in the Tübingen Stiftskirche.

Dr. Leopold Lucas-Prize 2024 awarded to Prof. David Nirenberg (Princeton University)

The World 

Updates from Tübingen    
by Dennis Lindsay

Institute:

The past month has seen a flurry of activity in our work in Tübingen. The German-English Colloquium in New Testament has become a truly international forum of scholars and participants. In the most recent session we had a presentation via Zoom Dr. Edward Wong on the topic: 'The Samaritan Woman as a Perpetual Foreigner: An East Asian Immigrant Reading of John 4." Dr. Wong is a Chinese scholar who recently completed his Ph.D. at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and the Colloquium participants included individuals from Germany, South Korea, South Africa, USA, Austria, and India (online participant).
This month we were also pleased to welcome Dr. Tony Twist, President of the EES and TCM, along with Vice President Christian Witzmann, for a brief visit to Tübingen. Normally an annual event, this was their first opportunity to visit the Institute since the disruption of the COVID pandemic—and thus the first time that they had seen the new physical location of the Institute. We were able to have a productive meeting also with Frau Prof. Dr. Weyel, the Dean of the Protestant Faculty, ensuring an ongoing strong relationship and partnership with the University of Tübingen. We have already planned the date for their next annual visit and meeting with the Dean in May 2025.

University:

Dr. Leopold Lucas-Prize 2024 awarded to Prof. David Nirenberg (Princeton University)

In other news, this year's Dr. Leopold Lucas Prize was awarded to Princeton University historian Dr. David Nirenberg. The Protestant Faculty of the University thus honored his research on the relationship between Judaism, Christianity and Islam in the Middle Ages and the present day. Dennis attended the award ceremony on Tuesday, May 14, 2024, in the Festsaal of the University, where Dr. Nirenberg gave the keynote speech on the topic: “What theology and history can offer each other when thinking about Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.”

Start of the Summer Semester in Tübingen

NEWS FROM TÜBINGEN

by Dennis Lindsay

At the time when most colleges and Universities in the USA and elsewhere are wrapping up the "academic year" and celebrating commencement, the Universities here in Germany are just getting started with the "summer semester"—the second half of our academic year. The program at the Institute is just now coming into full-swing. We have a complete lineup of weekly presentations in our English-German Colloquium in New Testament that will take us up through the end of July. The presenters represent doctoral students and faculty from the University of Tübingen, as well as the University of Edinburgh and the University of Bucharest. The "Readings in Theological English" course is also under way, with a focus on selections from  British theologian Alister McGrath's book entitled: "Theology: The Basic Readings." In this text McGrath presents excerpts from Christian authors throughout the history of the church (e.g., Augustine, Irenaeus, Martin Luther, John Wesley, Karl Barth, C.S. Lewis, and many others) on a variety of theological topics of central interest to the New Testament

Lectures in Heiligenkreuz

NEWS FROM TÜBINGEN

by Dennis Lindsay

Since the middle of January I have been teaching a course on "Mission in the New Testament" for M.A. and M.Div. students at TCM's Institute. Most of the coursework has been online, but for in the middle of March the class met at Haus Edelweiss in Heiligenkreuz, Austria for a week-long in-person intensive session. Students enrolled in the class were from a number of central and Eastern European countries, including Estonia, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Bulgaria, Moldova, and Austria. The group included individuals engaged in pastoral ministry, mission, youth ministry, music ministry, and seminary instructors. This rich mix of ministries and nationalities provided fertile soil for cutting-edge conversations about the nature and needs of Christian mission in Europe today! The class officially ends in April when students will submit final projects tailored to address mission work in their own current contexts.

Special guest lecture at the English German Colloquium f. NT

In the last session of the English German Colloqiuim on the New Testament for the 2023-2024 winter semester, the Institut zur Erforschung des Urchristentums and the Evangelisch-Theologische Fakultät der Universität Tübingen was happy to host Dr. Matan Orian of Tel Aviv University, currently a visiting scholar at the Institutum Judaicum Delitzschianum of the University of Münster.

Dr. Orian, whose research interests focus on the Jewish view of non-Jews in the Second Temple period, lectured on the Jewish concept of “Gentile impurity” in the Second Temple period, as reflected in the writings of Josephus, the Dead Sea Scrolls and several texts of the New Testament, including the Gospels of John and Luke, Acts of the Apostles, and a number of Pauline letters. In his lecture, titled “Paul and Luke-Acts on Circumcision and Gentile Impurity,” Dr. Orian drew a connection between the Jewish view of non-Jews as impure and the debate, in the early church, over the requirement of circumcision from non-Jewish Christian believers, thus offering a possible explanation for the centrality of this debate in the pertinent NT texts.