A tribute to Ernst Kasemann and a theological testament

Anglican Theological Review, Summer 1998 by Zahl, Paul F M

Whoever took part in the German Church struggle (i.e., of 19331939-author) was a very individual partisan. I was one, too. I stood in the pulpit and right in front of me, in the gallery and below in the chancel, sat the Gestapo and the Nazis. You won't believe how much of an individual I felt then!: To preach heaven and to have hell right before your eyes in the person of its legates. This was no idealistic understanding of myself. It was the resistance and the freedom of a disciple. A thousand listeners were asked, at the highest pitch of individuality, to what end they were listening. "Godless" were we not. We represented our Lord and we risked His cross. We were called revolutionaries and were de alt with accordingly. But the kingdom of God is revoltionary! The COld Adam dances with himself, by himself-godless.

2. Now, a short point: Justification by faith appears in the Book of Romans in hvo ways. It concerns individuality, but it concerns also the problem of Israel, as Chapters 9-11 demonstrate. This neither you nor your examiners have reckoned with. The problem of the "hardening of the heart" belongs to our theme. Romans 11:32 says: "God has shut up all in unbelief, that he might have mercy upon all." This is the "justification of the godless" as truly universal! I don't have to go further in respect: to that verse. I have pounded through it in my Romans commentary. Now you are in the apostolic succession.

Receive my best wishes. My wife and I are thinking of you, your family; and your work. We wish to keep you as friends, even though old age makes that harder and harder. Let me hear from you, and naturally, too, about America, her politics and her theology.

Yours,

Ernst Kasemann

Working with Kasemann, learning so much from him, and thinking with Herr Moltmann through one after another of the great issues related to justification by faith will forever stamp my life, thinking, and ministry. Ernst Kasemann was a living epistle (II Corinthians 3:2). His revolutionary partisanship had become a way of life. His role in the left wing cif the Confessing Church under National Socialism was the defining moment for his understanding of what true individuality means. His tension with Bultmann, over 50 years, was also critical and hinged on Kasemann's allergy to the tradition of theological Idealism, stemming from Hegel, which had so conditioned Protestant theology by the time Kasemann began his studies. "Partisan," provocateur, apocalyptieist, Gnesio-Lutheraner, radical critic, warrior for Christ: these words say it. I am thankful for the privilege of having known Ernst Kasemann.

I "Ein freier Christenmensch," death notice in the Schwabisches Tagblatt, 19 February 1.998.

Paul F.M. Zahl. "A New Source for Understanding German Theology: Kasemann Bultmann, and the New Perspective on Paul," Sewanee Theology Review, 39:4 Michae mas 1996; pp. 413-422.

Paul Francis Matthew Zahl, Die Rechufertigungslehre Ernst Kasemanns, Calwer Theologische Monographien, Reibe B (Systematsiche Theologie and Kirchengeschichte), Band 13 (Stuttgart: Calwer Verlag, 1996).