Gerhard Ebeling

Gerhard Ebeling (July 6, 1912 – September 30, 2001) was a German Lutheran theologian and with Ernst Fuchs a leading proponent of new hermeneutic theology in the 20th century. Upon his death, Eberhard Jüngel called him a 'doctor of the church'.

Life Ebeling was born on 6 July 1912 in Steglitz, Berlin, where he attended the gymnasium and began his university study. Ebeling was later a student of Rudolf Bultmann and Wilhelm Maurer in Marburg and of Emil Brunner at the University of Zürich, Switzerland. The years of his study in Berlin, Marburg, and Zürich fell in the period of Nazism in Germany, and his contact with Dietrich Bonhoeffer as well as his work in the Confessing Church had an enduring influence on his thought. He completed his Doctor of Theology degree in 1938 at the University of Zürich under the supervision of Fritz Blanke; his dissertation was entitled Evangelical Interpretation of the Gospels: An Investigation of Luther's Hermeneutic.

From 1950 Ebeling was the chief editor of the publication , Both Ebeling and Fuchs stressed the character and power of language, the role of the Bible in the pulpit.

The theologian Hans-Dieter Betz praised Ebeling for his "theological profundity, ethical sensitivity, human wisdom, and the refined style of his German prose," the combination of which "constitutes a permanent intellectual treasure."

He died on 30 September 2001.

Works

Evangelische Evangelienauslegung. Eine Untersuchung zu Luthers Hermeneutik. 1942 (= Ebelings Dissertation) Das Wesen des christlichen Glaubens. 1959 Wort und Glaube, 4 vols. 1960–1995 Wort Gottes und Tradition. Studien zu einer Hermeneutik der Konfessionen. 1964 Luther. Einführung in sein Denken. 1964; (Tb.) Lutherstudien, 3 Bände (in 5 Teilbänden). 1971–1989. Einführung in theologische Sprachlehre. 1971; Dogmatik des christlichen Glaubens, 3 Bände. 1979, 4. edition 2012; Predigten eines „Illegalen“ aus den Jahren 1939–1945. 1995; Luthers Seelsorge. Theologie in der Vielfalt der Lebenssituationen an seinen Briefen dargestellt. 1997;