Oscar Cullmann Explained

Oscar Cullmann
Birth Date:25 February 1902
Birth Place:Strasbourg
Death Place:Chamonix
Known For:Christian theologian
Alma Mater:Strasbourg seminary
Discipline:Christian eschatology and Christology
Workplaces:Basel Reformed Seminary, Sorbonne - Paris
Influenced:John Howard Yoder[1]

Oscar Cullmann (25 February 1902, Strasbourg – 16 January 1999, Chamonix) was a French Lutheran theologian. He is best known for his work in the ecumenical movement and was partly responsible for the establishment of dialogue between the Lutheran and Roman Catholic traditions. Because of his intense ecumenical work, Cullmann's Basel colleague Karl Barth joked with him that his tombstone would bear the inscription "advisor to three popes."

Biography

Cullmann was born in Strasbourg (then in Germany) and studied classical philology and theology at the seminary there. In 1926, he accepted an assistant professorship, a position previously held by Albert Schweitzer.

In 1930, he was awarded a full professorship of New Testament. From 1936, he also taught the history of the early church. In 1938, he began teaching both subjects at Basel Reformed Seminary. In 1948 Cullmann accepted a position teaching theology in Paris at the Sorbonne while he continued at Basel. He retired from both in 1972.

He was elected a foreign member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1960.[2]

He was invited to be an observer at the Second Vatican Council.[3]

Upon his death at 96, the World Council of Churches issued a special tribute to Cullmann to honour his ecumenical work.

Theology

Cullmann's studies on Christian eschatology and Christology drove him to propose a third position over against the popular positions of C. H. Dodd and Albert Schweitzer, known as "redemptive history" or "inaugurated eschatology". His Christology is described as 'event' rather than the doctrine of natures.[4] He wrote that Jesus Christ was the midpoint of sacred history, which informs general history and runs linearly from creation to consummation. He stressed the objective reality of sacred history against the existentialist interpretation of Rudolf Bultmann, a fellow German theologian. Cullmann suggested the analogy of D-Day and VE-Day to illustrate the relationship between Jesus' death and resurrection on the one hand, and his parousia on the other.[5]

Selected works

Among Cullmann's important works are:

References

  1. Book: Zimmerman, Earl . 2015 . Oscar Cullmann and Radical Discipleship . Weaver . J. Denny . John Howard Yoder: Radical Theologian . Cambridge, England . Lutterworth Press . 148–149 . 10.2307/j.ctt1cgdz25 . 978-0-7188-9394-1 . j.ctt1cgdz25.
  2. Web site: O. Cullmann (1902 - 1999) . Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences . 5 October 2016.
  3. Cross, F. L., ed. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005, pp. 441-442, article Cullmann, Oscar
  4. Woodfin, Yandall. “Ontological Thresholds and Christological Method.” Religious Studies, vol. 8, no. 2, 1972, pp. 137–46. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20004950. Accessed 12 Feb. 2024.
  5. C. Marvin Pate, The End of the Age Has Come: The Theology of Paul, p. 33.
  6. Web site: The Immortality of the Soul or the Resurrection of the Body - available online .

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