Gerhard Lohfink

Das Buch des Neutestamentlers Gerhard Lohfink fuhrt Nichtchristen in den christlichen Glauben ein und mochte zugleich eine Hilfe fur Christen sein, die neu nach ihrem Glauben fragen. Alles Wichtige wird informativ und fesselnd in Gestalt von 50 Briefen entwickelt. Die 50 Briefe richten sich an ein Ehepaar, das begreifen mochte, was zum wirklichen Christsein gehort und wie die reale Praxis des Glaubens aussieht. Die Briefe antworten auf viele Fragen und Schwierigkeiten, die sich im Lauf des Briefwechsels einstellen. Die Leserinnen und Leser des Buches werden hineingenommen in die spannende Geschichte einer Familie, die Schritt fur Schritt in den Glauben hineinwachst. Gerhard Lohfink schreibt in seinem Nachwort: Mit diesem Buch war es eine seltsame Sache. Die Familie Westerkamp hat es nie gegeben - und es gibt sie doch. Nicht nur deshalb, weil es viele ahnliche Lebenswege gibt. Nein, noch aus einem anderen Grund: Je langer ich dieser fiktiven Familie Briefe schrieb, desto lebendiger stand sie mir vor Augen, vor allem auch die neunjahrige Hannah, die mit ihrem Wunsch nach der Erstkommunion (obwohl sie gar nicht getauft war) alles in Bewegung brachte. Am Ende habe ich fast um die ganze Familie gezittert.

Die Geschichte der Europaischen Aufklarung beginnt nicht erst im 17. Jahrhundert. Sie begann schon in Griechenland (was niemand bezweifelt) und sie begann mit den Erzahlungen von Abraham und dem Exodus Israels aus Agypten - was viele nicht wissen oder verdrangen. Dieses Buch mochte zeigen, in welchem Ausmass bereits das Alte Testament Aufklarung leistet, und wie durch Jesus und die Kirche diese Aufklarungsarbeit fortgefuhrt und vertieft wurde. Auf der Grundlage dieser judisch-christlichen Aufklarungsgeschichte geht es um die Vernunft des Glaubens, die in diesen Tagen immer wieder zur Debatte steht. Dabei mochte die Darstellung nichts vom Geheimnis des Glaubens wegnehmen, sondern seine Vernunftigkeit aufleuchten lassen. Pressezitate

From Jordan to Germany, the influx of refugees is straining goodwill to the breaking point. This issue of Plough Quarterly focuses on the second half of Jesus’ Great Commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself. We found love of neighbor demonstrated by Christians and Muslims in ISIS-controlled Syria, and by volunteers who continue to welcome refugees despite growing public hostility. Here in election-year America, how do we as citizens live out love of neighbor in relation to immigrants? To the unborn threatened by abortion, and to their mothers? To prisoners, especially those held in solitary confinement for unconscionable terms and those on death row? To the victims of crime, and to the law enforcement officers charged with keeping the peace? To our youth, who are the ones most gravely harmed by our culture’s gender confusion? On all these fronts and many others, love of neighbor makes claims on us. But shouldn’t it start within the fellowship of believers, the church? When this happens, we can bear one another’s burdens – for example, those of the soldier returning from war, or the coworker battling an addiction. Perspectives from Navid Kermani, Neil Shigley, Denise Uwimana, Gerhard Lohfink, Michael Yandell, Teresa of Ávila, C.S. Lewis, John Stott, Matthew Loftus, Nathaniel Peters, Eberhard Arnold, Richard J. Foster, and Annemarie Wächter are sure to stimulate reflection and discussion. Then there’s new poetry by Laurie Klein, book reviews, a children’s story by Laura E. Richards, and world-class art by Dean Mitchell, Aristarkh Lentulov, Alex Vogel, Michael D. Fay, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Marc Chagall, Vasilij Ivanovic Surikov, and Sekino Jun’ichiro. Plough Quarterly features stories, ideas, and culture for people eager to put their faith into action. Each issue brings you in-depth articles, interviews, poetry, book reviews, and art to help you put Jesus’ message into practice and find common cause with others.

Who was Jesus? A prophet? There have been many of those. A miracle-worker? A radical revolutionary? A wise teacher? There have been many of these, too. In his latest book, renowned Scripture scholar Gerhard Lohfink asks, What is unique about Jesus of Nazareth, and what did he really want?Lohfink engages the perceptions of the first witnesses of his life and ministry and those who handed on their testimony. His approach is altogether historical and critical, but he agrees with Karl Barth's statement that "historical criticism has to be more critical."Lohfink takes seriously the fact that Jesus was a Jew and lived entirely in and out of Israel's faith experiences but at the same time brought those experiences to their goal and fulfillment. The result is a convincing and profound picture of Jesus.

Are not all religions equally close to and equally far from God? Why, then, the Church? Gerhard Lohfink poses these questions with scholarly reliability and on the basis of his own experience of community in Does God Need the Church?In 1982 Father Lohfink wrote Wie hat Jesus Gemeinde gewollt? (translated into English as Jesus and Community) to show, on the basis of the New Testament, that faith is founded in a community that distinguishes itself in clear contours from the rest of society. In that book he also described a sequence of events that moved directly from commonality to a community that was readily accessible to every group of people and was made legitimate by Jesus himself. Only later did Father Lohfink learn, within a new horizon of experience, that such a description is not the way to community. The story of the gathering of the people of God, from Abraham until today, never took place according to such a model.Today Father Lohfink states that he would not write Wie hat Jesus Gemeinde gewollt? the same way. The situation of belief and believers has undergone a shift: the question of the Church has become much more urgent. Church life is declining and the religions are returning, often in new guises.In light of these shifts and the change in his own view of community, Father Lohfink inquires in Does God Need the Church? of Israel's theology, Jesus' praxis, the experiences of the early Christian communities, and of what is appearing in the Church today. These inquiries lead to an amazing history involving God and the world - a history that God presses forward with the aid of a single people and that always turns out differently from what they think and plan.

The author calls the present-day church to once again be the "contrast society," which attracts non-believers by living what it preaches and by being different without being narrowly sectarian.