Loren and Lois Stuckenbruck visiting the Institute in March

NEWS FROM TÜBINGEN

By Beth Langstaff

We were very pleased to welcome Loren and Lois Stuckenbruck back to the Institute in the first week of March (our last visitors for quite a while, I suspect).

Loren is Professor for New Testament at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität (LMU) in Munich and a member of the EES Board.

 One of the purposes of the visit was to start work on preparing the papers from the Symposium on the Lord's Prayer (held in 2018) for publication. We met with Prof. Michael Tilly and with Dr. Tanja Forderer, who has recently joined Prof. Tilly's department at the University, and made plans to meet again in July.

 Loren and Lois also came bearing gifts—the two volumes of the recently published T&T Clark Encyclopedia of Second Temple Judaism (https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/tt-clark-encyclopedia-of-second-temple-judaism-volumes-i-and-ii-9780567661449/) which Loren edited along with Daniel Gurtner. This donation is a very valuable addition to the Stuckenbruck library.

While they were here, Lois and Loren also filmed a video of the new Institute facilities and of the library in particular, in which they very generously ask for donations to the Institute library to mark their respective birthdays. Loren is celebrating a “round birthday (einen runden Geburtstag)”, as one says in German, next week—his 60th.

password (Kennwort): Stuckenbruck

Happy birthday and many thanks to both Loren and Lois.

Germany has been hit hard by the coronavirus. Birgit Hallmann and I are both working from home. The summer semester is supposed to start on 20 April; as any classes as possible will be offered online via Zoom.

First guests at the new location of the Institute (Hintere Grabenstr. 20)

By Beth Langstaff

Greetings from Tübingen!

Last week,we were very happy to welcome Thomas and May May Blanton as our first guests in the Institute's new rooms. Tom is a Research Fellow of the Max-Weber Kolleg in Erfurt. He received his doctorate in Biblical Studies from the University of Chicago Divinity School. His most recent book is A Spiritual Economy: Gift Exchange in the Letters of Paul of Tarsus (2017). He is in the process of writing a book titled The Circumcision of Abraham: Modeling Ritual from Genesis to the Letters of Paul, and he read a section from this project for the English-German Colloquium.

May May writes:

We were the first visitors to stay at the guest room in the Institute's new location. We stayed there for two nights. Beth and Birgit were excellent hosts, and we were pleased in all respects. Since I work remotely as metadata analyst for Atla (formerly American Theological Library Association), wi-fi access is necessary; there the access was excellent, and I was able to finish all of my work each day. I felt very much at home working in the Institute's new facility.

Tom writes:

My first visit to Tübingen was prompted by an opportunity to give a lecture at the English-German Colloquium in New Testament on October 29, 2019, jointly hosted by the Institute for the Study of Christian Origins and the Institut für antikes Judentum und hellenistische Religionsgeschichte at the University of Tübingen. Considering all of Tübingen's historic associations with excellence in biblical studies, of course I was very pleased to be able to participate in the colloquium. The paper that I presented showed how the Jewish philosopher-exegete Philo of Alexandria (Egypt) reinterpreted the texts of Genesis 17 in the first century CE. Philo largely avoided the biblical view of circumcision as a "sign of the covenant" between God and humans; instead, he interpreted covenant as a gift given with no stipulations. He did nevertheless advocate the practice of circumcision among male Jews, supplying medical, ethical, and philosophical rationales not present in the biblical text. The discussion that followed the paper was lively and thought provoking. I am grateful to Beth Langstaff, the Institute's Director, for the invitation to visit, and to Birgit Hallman, the office coordinator, for advice in planning the logistics of our visit. Based on my experience, the Institute is doing a great job promoting research on Christian origins at a high level of international scholarship.

Move of the Institute from Neckargasse 7 to Hintere Grabenstr. 20

(27. Sept. 2019)

Theology in an Apron

by Birgit Hallmann

Here in Tübingen we are in the middle of an intense summer semester.
It is always a special blessing for me when former students at the Institute drop by to talk about their work in their home countries. Last Friday, Eva from Hungary came by to bring us her two books, which she had written with our help.
She has studied the Christian spirit of women in their everyday lives (“Theology in an Apron”) and the effect of the Christian faith on the diaconal movement in Hungary. Both books have led to Eva being appointed to the Writers Society in Hungary two years ago.
So I can see that one small stone dropped into the water here in Tübingen can produce wonderfully wide circles.

Symposium "The Lord´s Prayer.." 1. -3. October in Tübingen

Symposium "The Lord´s Prayer: Origins, Significance, and Reception" in Tübingen
Presenters, students and EES and TCM guests

by Dennis Lindsay

The international symposium on “The Lord’s Prayer: Origins, Significance, and Reception” marks another important milestone in the ongoing work of the European Evangelistic Society in Tübingen, Germany. The Institute for the Study of Christian Origins, along with the Institute for Ancient Judaism of the University of Tübingen and the Protestant faculty of the University of Munich, played host to the three day event in Tübingen from Oct. 1-3, 2018. Fourteen scholars from twelve institutions, representing seven different countries (Germany, USA, Canada, Ireland, South Africa, Israel, and Denmark), and various religious traditions (Protestant, Catholic, Orthodox, and Jewish) provided the material for discussion during the Symposium.

Presentations by Prof. Rodney A. Werline (USA), Prof. Benjamin G. Wold (Ireland), Prof. Judith H. Newman (USA/Canada), Prof. Cana Werman (Israel), and Prof. Ulrich Mell addressed the redaction and interpretation of the Lord’s Prayer in the context of Second Temple Judaism, First Century Judaism and Qumran, and, more directly, in the context of Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel. Other papers focused attention on various petitions of the prayer, including “Our Father in heaven” (Prof. Hermann Lichtenberger, Tübingen), the “lead us not into temptation” petition (Prof. Wilfried Eisele, Tübingen), and the concepts of “earth” and “heaven” in the light of early Jewish cosmology (Gert J. Steyn, South Africa). A third major focus of the Symposium had to do with the ongoing influence of the Lord’s Prayer in the lives of its recipients (Prof. Karl-Heinrich Ostmeyer, Dortmund), in the Gospel of John (Prof. Kasper Bro Larsen, Denmark), in second century Christian writings prior to Origen (Prof. Tobias Nicklas, Regensburg), and in the liturgical use of the Lord’s Prayer in the Orthodox worship service (Prof. Konstantin Nikolakopoulos, Munich).

Friends of the European Evangelistic Society will recognize the names of two further Symposium participants. Dr. Ronald E. Heine, Director of the Institute for the Study of Christian Origins from 1989-2000, presented a paper on Origen’s exposition of the Lord’s Prayer through the lens of a saying from Jesus that is only known to us from Origen’s writings: “Ask for the great things and the little things will be added for you; ask for the heavenly things and the earthly things will be added to you.” Dr. Dennis R. Lindsay, pastor of the Christliche Gemeinde from 1987-1992, spoke on the topic of “Pistis (faith) and Prayer in the New Testament” as a broader context for interpreting the Lord’s prayer in light of Jesus overall instruction on prayer. (Dr. Heine and Dr. Lindsay are currently associated with Northwest Christian University in Eugene, Oregon.) 

The Symposium gave rise to a number of questions and discussions that will certainly continue to inform and enlighten further studies of the Lord’s Prayer and its role in and for the Church today. The papers presented at the Symposium will be edited into a forthcoming volume to be published by Mohr Siebeck Publishers. This Symposium on the Lord’s Prayer was a great success due to the detailed planning and careful execution of the three primary organizers, and special thanks is due to: Dr. Beth Langstaff, Director of the Institute for the Study of Early Christianity; Prof. Dr. Loren T. Stuckenbruck of the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; and Prof. Dr. Michael Tilly, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen.

Ron and Gill Heine visit the Institute

by Ron Heine

Gill and Ron Heine
in Tübingen
Sept. 2018

The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus is known for his statement, “All things are flowing”. He thought of life as a river whose water is constantly in motion making it impossible to step into the same water twice. He argued this position against the contrary view that nothing ever changes. Life would suggest that Heraclitus’ view was closer to the truth than the opposing view. This ancient debate comes to my mind on the occasion of being back in Tübingen after returning to the U.S. eighteen years ago. When we arrived a week ago Gill remarked that it feels like coming home. And there certainly are aspects of that feeling that are true. But much has changed. Shops we knew are gone, replaced by other shops; many people we knew are gone; and the Institute itself has moved to a new location.

            Change is a part of life. But other things remain. While many people we worked with in the eleven years we lived in Tübingen are gone, many are still here and we are enjoying getting in contact with them again. And, more importantly, the Gospel and its relevance to human life has not changed; the need for the Gospel in our world has not changed; the purpose of the Institute for the Study of Christian Origins has not changed nor has its relevance diminished. It is encouraging to see the Institute still alive and well, and its work continuing under the able leadership of Beth and Birgit. Beth is unfortunately now on sick leave from her work. We encourage you to pray for her complete healing and recovery in the weeks ahead.

The focal point of the Institute’s energy in the immediate future is on the International Symposium which will take place October 1-3. Fourteen scholars from seven countries will gather to present papers on and discuss the Lord’s Prayer.

Some thoughts on the Lord’s Prayer may be an appropriate way to end this brief message. Many of us have memorized the Lord’s Prayer and repeat it regularly in worship services. This is good, but in our repetition, we may fail to notice how relevant some of its petitions are to our world today. Petitions such as “May your kingdom come; may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” leap out with startling sharpness. The third century Church Father Origen proposed that the second part of this twofold petition might perhaps be added after each of the initial petitions in the prayer, so that we would pray, “Hallowed be your name on earth as it is in heaven, may your kingdom come on earth as in heaven, may your will be done on earth as in heaven.”  May you bathe the work of the Institute for the Study of Christian Origins with your prayers for, to quote Origen again, “We will only receive if we ask.”