Der Neutestamentler Ernst Lohmeyer: Studien zu Biographie und Theologie

Andreas Köhn. Der Neutestamentler Ernst Lohmeyer: Studien zu Biographie und Theologie. WUNT 2.180. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2004. 366 pp. Euro 64.

Ernst Lohmeyer (1890-1946) was a German NT scholar who, for a Bible professor, met an unusual demise: he was executed by Soviet authorities occupying the former East Germany. This book is an attempt, made possible by better access to archives in the wake of Communism's fall, to clarify details of his arrest and imprisonment. More than that, it is a commendation of Lohmeyer's contribution to NT scholarship, a contribution that has been neglected and underrated in Köhn's estimation.

The book clearly establishes the important point that Lohmeyer was shot on completely groundless charges. The story is sad beyond words. Lohmeyer was a sensitive man of great ability, high ideals, and tirelessly humanitarian instincts. He opposed the Nazis and all related fascist impulses in German church and society from their onset in the early 1930s (see the poignant statement in his own words on pp. 154-55). As a military officer (a duty which he could not decline without dire consequences for his family) on the Russian front, he distinguished himself by wise and courageous leadership, compassionate treatment of enlisted men, and benevolent oversight of occupied areas. After the war he was a natural choice for rector of the reconstituted University of Greifswald, where he had been a NT professor since 1935 (demoted from a professorship in prestigious Breslau to the relative backwater of Greifswald for his opposition to the Nazis). Appointed in May 1945, he was, suddenly, on the eve of the university's official reopening in February 1946, arrested at midnight and whisked away while his home was being ransacked before the eyes of his astonished wife. He vanished without a trace. His family knew no details for the next five years (p. 140) and heard little more than rumors after that. Only in the wake of archival discoveries since the early 1990s has a slightly fuller picture of his last days emerged.

So on one level the book is a small contribution to the history of Germany under Russian occupation. It documents the senselessly brutal and inept treatment of persons under Stalinism. But its real interest lies in Lohmeyer's contribution to NT scholarship. He published over three dozen items (pp. 332-33), among them monographs on NT ecclesiology, the Philippians-Colossians-Philemon corpus, the Gospel of Mark, NT history and backgrounds, the book of Revelation, the relation between Old and New Testament traditions, the historical Jesus, eschatology, and Pauline theology. There has never been a comprehensive English-language assessment of Lohmeyer; Köhn's study opens the door for this to become a reality. Particularly important are the hundreds of unpublished sources (pp. 315-22) that Köhn has brought to light for the first time. Of interest here, for example, is the manuscript of a sermon on 1 John 1:5 and 2:8 preached in 1931 and discovered in secret East German archives in recent years. Köhn helpfully transcribes this in an appendix (pp. 301-4).

Among recent English-language works to take note of Lohmeyer is vol. 2 of William Baird's History of New Testament Research (pp. 462-70, 536-37). While Baird levels a few criticisms, he finds in Lohmeyer evidence that "a conscious and informed presupposition of a philosophy of history facilitates the analysis and reconstruction of history" (p. 469). As Köhn points out, Lohmeyer brought a fine aesthetic and philosophical awareness to his work as an exegete. He sums up his contribution this way (p. 299): "From the perspective of the history of research and methods, Lohmeyer already by the mid-1920s had anticipated (stimulated by the philosophical criticism of his friend [Richard] Hönigswald) those blind alleys of historical-critical exegesis that became apparent again in the 1970s, and have persisted since then."

Not only does Lohmeyer foresee the shortcomings of the twentieth century's dominant mainline exegetical models; in Köhn's estimation he effectively plots moves to overcome them. He does this not only through careful historical and textual study but also with a more accurate and robust theological sense than many of his colleagues possessed. In an era of anti-Semitism, Lohmeyer wrote to Martin Buber in 1933 that "the Christian faith is only Christian as long as it retains in its heart the Jewish faith" (p. 298). In an era where "historical-critical" frequently meant "non- and anti-theological," Lohmeyer's "deliberations on the abiding openness of history" are suggestive pointers in ongoing historical and theological questions "regarding the original truth of the gospel" (p. 299).

Köhn's study is to be commended as an excellent entrée to Lohmeyer's writings. It is also convincing in its suggestion (p. 298) that Lohmeyer's name deserves to stand in the proximity of the likes of Paul Schneider (died 1939) and Dietrich Bonhoeffer (died 1945). All of these lived in the light of a higher and better world, sealing their confession of the truths they glimpsed with their lives, and thus proving themselves true disciples of the one they served.