Edmund Schlink

Edmund Schlink (* 3 March 1903 in Darmstadt; † 20 May 1984 in Heidelberg) was a leading German Lutheran theologian in the modern ecumenical movement, especially in the World Council of Churches. Because his career began at the time of Hitler's rise to power in Germany, Schlink’s life, theology, and witness to Christ were shaped by what he called, "Grace in God’s judgment". He is also the father of writer Bernhard Schlink.

Schlink completed two doctorates, the first in psychiatry at Marburg in 1927, the second in theology under Karl Barth at Münster in 1934. He also completed the usual training for the parish ministry at Friedberg Seminary in 1934, but then, in the fall, began teaching at the University of Giessen, near Frankfurt. Schlink also was active in the Confessing Church movement at this time and, not unlike Karl Barth, he publicly criticized church leaders who allowed pagan Nazi religious ideas in the church. As a result he was arrested by the police in 1934, interrogated, released, but then denied government approval to teach at a university. For a few years he taught at Bethel Theological School, until it was closed by the Nazis, and then served as a pastor in congregations until the end of the Second World War in 1945.

During those war years, under Nazi oppression, Schlink began to see clearly the work of the risen Christ in the lives of faithful Christians in diverse churches other than his own. This transforming insight remained central in his subsequent work. After the war he was called to the Theological Faculty of the University of Heidelberg, where he lectured in systematics, with special interest in ecumenical issues. He created the Ecumenical Institute there, the first at a German university. At his urging the university called its first Professor of World Religions and Missions. He was an editor for new theological journals, like the Ecumenical Review and Kerygma und Dogma.

The Ecumenical Dogmatics

From this work came, at various stages, a long list of articles and books. The most important is his Ökumenische Dogmatik 1983, second edition 1997. A unique work, it presents Schlink’s scholarly reflections on Christian dogmatics in a clear systematic format, with considerable sensitivity for teachings common to the Eastern Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant churches, and shows a way forward in the manifestation of church unity through "mutual recognition." In the ÖD he repeatedly states, “All churches teach....” This type of dogmatics is new. It grew out of his wartime experience of Christ in other Christians and in diverse churches, and out of decades of dialogue within the World Council of Churches and with representatives of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches.

Schlink also published a novella, Die Vision des Papstes 1975 (The Vision of the Pope 2001), about the personal experience of an imagined modern Roman Catholic pope, who underwent a deepening of his faith and a change in his understanding of the church and his ministry.

Books in English

• The Victor Speaks, English 1958, a collection of wartime Lenten sermons;
• Theology of the Lutheran Confessions, English 1961, reprinted six times;
• The Coming Christ and the Coming Church, English 1967, an anthology of key articles related to his work in the World Council of Churches;
• After the Council, English 1968, reflections on the Second Vatican Council as an official observer;
• The Doctrine of Baptism, English 1972, based on a historical-critical reading of the New Testament texts, it examines the doctrine as held by all churches.
• The Vision of the Pope, English 2001

References

• Jochen Eber, Einheit der Kirche als dogmatisches Problem bei Edmund Schlink, 1993
• Eugene M. Skibbe, A Quiet Reformer: An Introduction to Edmund Schlink's Life and Ecumenical Theology, 1999
• Jochen Eber, Edmund Schlink 1903-1984, Ein Leben für die Einheit der Kirche, in Edmund Schlink, Schriften zu Ökumene und Bekenntnis, Band I, 2004.
• The series of collected writings by Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht: Edmund Schlink, Schriften zu Ökumene und Bekenntnis, Bd 1 (2004), Bd 2 (2005), Bd 3 (2007), Vols 4 and 5 forthcoming.
• Eugene M. Skibbe, Edmund Schlink - Bekenner im Kirchenkampf - Lehrer der Kirche - Vordenker der Ökumene, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2009