Volume 31, Issue 1

This paper focuses on the prominent German theologian Adolf von Harnack in his capacity as a public intellectual during the Weimar Republic. The few works of scholarship that address Harnack’s Weimar years at any length are in German, and the barely extant Anglophone literature, severely outdated, largely neglects to evaluate adequately the evolution and scope of Harnack’s pedagogical and theological positions as well as of the institutional power he commanded. Drawing principally from Harnack’s writings, both personal and published, before World War I until his death in 1930, this essay seeks to chart his intellectual development during the final years of his life and to survey how he translated his liberal theological principles into loyalty to the Weimar constitution. Public intellectuals such as Harnack were able to serve the public good in multifaceted, unquantifiable ways without attaching themselves to a particular party or to an explicitly partisan cause. By examining Harnack’s public and theological activity, I intend to provide a more holistic look at intellectual life in the Weimar Republic and to advocate for both a less restrictive definition of “public intellectual” and a broader conception of “political activism.”

Both before and after the Second Vatican Council, Karl Rahner promoted the restoration of the diaconate as a permanent order in the Catholic church. His theology of the diaconate has eluded sustained attention. After providing the historical context for his contribution, this reappraisal, in a close reading of Rahner, elaborates on three essential ecclesiological themes: the church’s exercise of its divine right to establish a discrete diaconate by dividing office, the graced nature of diaconal office, and the specialized function of deacons in the formation of ecclesial community.

Der für japanische und auch einige koreanische Studierende, Doktorandinnen und Doktoranden sowie Universitätsprofessoren und -professorinnen unterschiedlicher kultur- und sozialwissenschaftlicher Disziplinen geschriebene Text wurde am 16. Oktober 2019 in Tokyo in englischer Sprache vorgetragen. Es ging um eine Einführung in zentrale Elemente des Denkens deutscher liberalprotestantischer Theologie seit der „Sattelzeit“ (Reinhart Kosselleck) um 1800 und um die Frage, inwieweit sich theologisch liberale Leitideen [normative ideas] im japanischen theologischen Diskurs rezipieren lassen. Die These: Darüber können nur japanische Theologen selbst entscheiden The text, written for Japanese and some Korean students, doctoral students and university professors from various cultural and social science disciplines, was read in English on October 16, 2019 in Tokyo. It was about an introduction to central elements of the thinking of German liberal Protestant theology since the „Sattelzeit“ (Reinhart Kosselleck) around 1800 and the question of the extent to which theologically liberal guiding ideas [normative ideas] can be received in Japanese theological discourse. The thesis: Only Japanese theologians can decide this for themselves.

Kein anderer deutscher Emigrant, der 1933 ins amerikanische Exil gegangen war und nach der Ausbürgerung aus Deutschland und dem Erwerb der amerikanischen Staatsbürgerschaft zum Emigranten wurde, ist nach dem Ende des zweiten Weltkriegs so oft nach Deutschland zurückgekehrt wie Paul Tillich. Auch wenn er die Remigration auf den Frankfurter Lehrstuhl ablehnte und auch Rufen an die Universität Hamburg und die Freie Universität Berlin nicht folgte, lehrte er als Visiting Professor an mehreren deutschen Universitäten. Auch hielt er vor zahlreichen Hörerinnen und Hörern Hunderte von Vorträge in westdeutschen Städten und im Westteil der einstigen deutschen Hauptstadt Berlin. Tillich wurde zu einer Projektionsfigur, zum Idealbild des guten Deutschen. Dies bezeugen auch die zahlreichen Ehrungen und Orden, mit denen er ausgezeichnet wurde. Die folgende Edition dokumentiert die Quellen, die zur Ehrung Tillichs mit dem „Großen Verdienstkreuz (Halskreuz)“ Federal Order of Merit 1956 und fünf Jahre später, zu seinem 75. Geburtstag, mit dem „Großen Verdienstkreuz mit Stern“ führten. No other German emigrant, who went into exile in America in 1933 and became an emigrant after expatriating from Germany and acquiring American citizenship, returned to Germany as often as Paul Tillich after the end of the Second World War. Even though he refused to remigrate to the Frankfurt chair and did not accept calls to the University of Hamburg and the Free University of Berlin, he taught as a visiting professor at several German universities. He also gave hundreds of lectures to numerous listeners in western German cities and in the western part of the former German capital Berlin. Tillich became a projection figure, the ideal image of the good German. This is also evidenced by the numerous honors and medals with which he was awarded. The following edition documents the sources used to honor Tillich with the „Great Cross of Merit (Neck Cross)“ of the Federal Order of Merit in 1956 and five years later, on his 75th birthday, with the „Großen Verdienstkreuz mit Stern“.