UNE > News and Events > Browse by article > Lecture on Bonhoeffer at Uniting Church

Next Giant vegetables invade UNE December 8, 2005  

Previous Book draws on UNE expertise in research management December 2, 2005 

Lecture on Bonhoeffer at Uniting Church

December 05, 2005

Professor John MosesDr John Moses, Adjunct Professor in The University of New England’s School of Classics, History and Religion, will return to the subject of the German resistance theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer in a public lecture in Armidale on Friday 9 December.

Professor Moses, an Anglican priest and a specialist in modern German history, presented a popular series of lectures on Bonhoeffer in Armidale three years ago. Friday’s lecture, titled “The evolution of Bonhoeffer’s ‘Israel’ or Holocaust theology”, will be at the Uniting Church at 7.30 pm.

At UNE last month, Professor Moses spoke about the global dimension of Bonhoeffer’s thought in a lecture titled “The rise of pacifism in modern German thinking”. This lecture, he said, touched on the final chapter of a book on Bonhoeffer that he is writing.

He is also working on a book about the origins of the Anzac tradition – another subject on which he is an authority – and plans to finish both books after his wife, Professor Ingrid Moses, retires as Vice-Chancellor of UNE in January and they move to Canberra. In Canberra, where he is Honorary Assistant Curate at St Paul’s, Manuka, he expects to be associated with St Mark’s National Theological Centre in a research capacity.

In giving the background to next Friday’s lecture, Professor Moses said: “Bonhoeffer began to develop what became known as his ‘Israel theology’ in about 1940 when he became aware of the transportation of Jews from Germany and France. His new ‘Theologia Crucis’ insisted that God had NOT withdrawn His ancient Covenant with the Jews. He therefore called for solidarity with the Jews. Synagogue and Ecclesia must work together as God’s Covenant was with both, and the Church had to confess its guilt for fostering, allowing and condoning so much discrimination and so many criminal acts against God’s chosen people both throughout history and during the Third Reich.”

The lecture will trace the evolution of Bonheoffer’s ‘Israel theology’ and account for its gradual acceptance by German Protestant Synods in the period 1945-1980.

Media contact: Jim Scanlan or Leon Braun (UNE Public Relations) on (02) 6773 3049 or 6773 3771 respectively.

Posted by Leon Braun at December 5, 2005 09:22 AM