Paul Göhre (1864-1928) habe ich am Rande meiner Arbeit zu Tillichs politische Position im Kaiserreich kennengelernt. Ein ev. Pfarrer, der drei Monate als Fabrikarbeiter arbeitete, ein Buch dazu schrieb und einige Arbeiterbiographien herausgab. (1/x) de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_G%...

Now live! A virtual exhibition (with commentaries) curated by me for The Visual Commentary on Scripture project @thevcs.bsky.social In the exhibition, among other things, I explore verbal vs visual depictions of the infinite via works by Alma Thomas, M.C. Escher, and Agnes Martin. Enjoy!

Am Samstag ist das letzte Rugbyspiel der SG Marburg-Gießen in diesem Jahr. Ich konnte bisher bei zwei Spielen mit Cameo Rollen von der Bank von jeweils 20 und 50 Minuten aushelfen. Dazu kam ein Ü35 Turnier in Berlin mit den Marburger Old Boys - darüber werde ich mich noch im Altersheim freuen.

Amazon is helping fund a $300 million build of a ballroom for the White House. Independent bookstores are donating to food banks and organizations that help with food insecurity. They are not the same.

Tiniest violins out for the MAGA ultras waking to hear democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani was elected as mayor of NYC. Rageful tears stream because he is Muslim. Birther-fabrications thwarted by his pride in his Indian-Ugandan heritage. Mouths frothing because he majored in Africana Studies!

Eine faszinierende neue Podcast-Reihe, die Gegenwartstheolog*innen interviewt, heißt Himmel und Hashtag. Biographisches, fachliches und geistliches wird angesprochen. Hier mit Prof. Dr. Cornelia Richter, jetzt Bischöfin in Österreich. open.spotify.com/episode/6pvE...

Ein Andachtsbuch für den Ausnahmezustand von @hannareichel.bsky.social Es war ein bisschen kompliziert, mir dieses aktuelle und wichtige Buch aus den USA liefern zu lassen, aber jetzt habe ich es endlich lesen können. 1/x

👍New article about Paul Tillich in the JHMTh!!!! Paul Fine, "Cold War Crusaders: Paul Tillich’s Influence on Religious Anti-Communism" Journal for the History of Modern Theology / Zeitschrift für Neuere Theologiegeschichte. doi.org/10.1515/znth...

Sehe ich das richtig, dass es bisher keine theologische Reaktion hierauf gab? Einfach eine soziolinguistische Studie zur ev. Theologie des 20. Jh www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

"No sign of affection, even the smallest, will ever be forgotten, especially if it is shown to those who are suffering, lonely or in need, as was the Lord at that time." Papst Leo XIV, Apostolic Exhortation DILEXI TE to all Christians on Love for the Poor.

Für den Lexikonartikel zu Existenz, die ich größenwahnsinnigerweise zugesagt habe, bekam ich unfassbar hilfreiche kritische Kommentare von meinem großen Entwurf zurück, von Kolleg*innen die selbst viel Eigenes zu tun haben. Die Wissenschaft lebt davon, dass Leute freundlich sind und einem helfen.

Für die deutsche Politik: die Grünen in Großbritannien, die bisher ein Nichendasein hatten, sind im Begriff Labour (=SPD) zu überholen, weil der neue Chef eine dezidiert linke Botschaft gegen Ungleichheit, für Milliardären Asset-Steuer und gegen rassistische Ausgrenzung von Menschen verkündet.

Die Deutsche Paul-Tillich-Gesellschaft ist jetzt auch auf Bluesky vertreten! 🥳 Folge uns, um die neuesten Nachrichten zur Tillich-Forschung zu erhalten! #PaulTillich #Tillich #Theologie #Philosophie #Religion #Kultur

📝 New publication on Tillich by @samshearn.bsky.social: "Before religious socialism: Tillich and social democracy in Wilhelmine Germany" in Journal for the History of Modern Theology/Zeitschrift für Neuere Theologiegeschichte 31/2 (2024), 233-273. Open access: www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi...

Proofs.

The Kirk memorial was overall a stomach-turning display of theocratic fascism. At the same time a dreadful, distasteful but historically informed pragmatism came to mind: that such ideology is useful for NATO in view of Russian aggression in the East of Europe. Now a doubly churned stomach.

If you’re on academia dot edu, let me suggest that you strongly consider deleting your account.

Am Samstag hat ein guter Freund von mir das Noviziat in der ökumenischen Kommunität in Gnadenthal (bei Limburg) mit feierlichem Gottesdienst angefangen. Der erste neue Bruder seit den 1980er Jahren! Schön, dass es solche Orte gibt! Er wird für die vielen Gäste ein Segen sein.

Im neuen „Re:mind“-Newsletter der Eule fragt @rocktoamna.bsky.social: „Wo sind die großen Friedensdemos, auf denen – ohne antisemitische Vorfälle – das Schweigen der Waffen und die menschenwürdige Versorgung der Bevölkerung gefordert wird? Müssten sich die Kirchen nicht genau dafür einsetzen?“

Last night I had dinner with a guy who works with the Red Crescent in Gaza. He showed me a map of the Israeli-occupied areas and explained they correspond to the areas where food was grown, things were made and water desalinated. Israel is systematically destroying Palestinian life.

What is the red line for European governments, in terms of Israeli policy in Gaza - the red line after which they would stop treating Israel as misbehaving ally, "a democratic country exercising self defence"? If mass starvation and annihilation of entire cities don't cut it, I'm really not sure.

"it is useful that many persons should write many books, differing in style but not in faith, concerning even the same questions, that the matter itself may reach the greatest number--some in one way, some in another." Augustinus, justifying himself for writing another book, De Trinitate I,3.

That includes cultivating our capacity for creativity. Creativity is an acted-on intuition about what's missing in a domain of information. It's the felt sense of where there's an error or oversight in a body of ideas. Good pedagogy, especially in the humanities, trains that intuition. 3/

Diejenigen, die allergisch gegen Merkels "wir schaffen das" reagieren haben wahrscheinlich nie einen Mensch mit Migrationshintergrund für die Paketlieferung/den Döner/die Gehirntumor-OP freundlich bedankt, geschweige denn einem irgendwie geholfen.

Academic books should come in two printed formats: hardback ring-bound and paperback ring-bound.

I am not an expert on the Middle East or the study of genocide. However, it is clear that a wide range of scholars agree that the current Israeli government’s words and actions constitute genocidal intent and action. (1/x)

Today I resigned membership of the UK Labour party. They've done good things and have a hard job balancing the finances but they have stalled on child poverty, enacted authoritarian legislation against political protest and fish for far-right voters instead of clearly opposing them.

My thread on the last 57 days of Paolo Borsellino's life is now complete. A story of great dignity and courage.

Nur wer die tragische Zweideutigkeit unserer geschichtlichen Existenz erfahren und den Sinn des Daseins völlig in Frage gestellt hat, kann begreifen, was das Symbol des Reiches Gottes aussagen will." (Tillich) Tillich ist stets tragisch. Vgl. Mt 13,44-46 - dort ist Freude. Geht vielleicht beides?

"Remember: it is an offence to show support for Palestine Action, which is deemed legally equivalent to al-Qaida and IS. If that law is broken, prison awaits." www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

I had a great time on Tuesday with international students visiting Mainz for the German Theology Summer School. I was tasked with introducing them to Schleiermacher's epochal Speeches "On Religion" from 1799. (1/2)

Finally deleted my academia edu account, after receiving a mail saying an AI had reviewed a paper and made a podcast of another. The platform started 10+ years ago, presenting itself as a happy social academic platform, but eventually the subscription-hungry click-bait marketing emails began.(1/2)

This weekend I was at the Rugby 7s tournament Schietwetter Cup in Kiel. I loved the time with the teammates but I don't think I've ever felt - or been - so old and unfit in my life! However, watching the finalists was inspiring. I hope that next year I will be older but much more mobile.

„Da bietet der Pragmatismus eine gute Einsicht, dass nämlich Menschen immer Expert*innen ihres eigenen Lebens sind …und man nicht aus einer akademischen Bildungswarte auf sie herabsehen kann. … Es führt kein Weg daran vorbei, mit Menschen ins Gespräch zu kommen.“

I love modern university libraries: Resources of humanity, stored and available for humanity, people of all ethnic and religious backgrounds following their educational goals, learning and revising together, drinking a coffee, sharing their lives.

If you take Muskian pro-natalism, cuts to benefits in the US and USAID overseas, white South African "asylum", RFK Jr's gutting of vaccination programmes, mass deportation of Latin American immigrants, and look for a central conviction I think we will find ethnonationalist eugenics.

Die neue online Edition der Briefe von Paul Tillich ist da. Ich finde sie großartig umgesetzt mit vielen Suchfunktionen. tillichcorrespondence.github.io/tillich-brie...

Instead of worrying, grieving and despairing about the many overwhelming problems with a sense of one's own limitation, it makes sense to take steps to address one or two grievous problems using the limited gifts and possibilities that our biography and experience have given us.

I'm teaching Moltmann's The Crucified God later today. Always a helpful teaching tool because he demonstrates the connections between dogmatic loci and highlights doctrine's ethical implications. "Which God motivates Christian faith: the Crucified one or the gods of religion, race and class?"

Das deutsche Netzwerk Wissenchaftsfreiheit war immer ein leicht durchschaubarer Versuch, reaktionär-rechte Anliegen wie pauschale Islamverunglimpfung, Rassismus-Relativierung und Transfeindlichkeit vor Kritik zu schützen. Jetzt wo Trump die Forschung zensiert, schweigt sie natürlich!

This thing about having “an open and honest conversation about immigration” - the problem is that too many white English people treat non-white people as fundamentally inhuman. It’s simply as that. When people like that say “immigration” they mean “infection”.

Yesterday I presented a short paper on consolation and consolation-critique in Freud and Blumenberg at my own faculty in Mainz. Although in the photo it looks like I'm trying to point people towards Freud's neo-stoic stare, it was actually a critique of Freud's exclusion of religious consolation.

At our church weekend away I was asked to say something about my favourite bible story. I went for 1 Sam 22,1-2. Reading with the Christian perspective that the Messiah, the Son of David, has come, means that David gathering those in distress, debt, and bitterness points to the meaning of church.

Trump pulling out his best Kindergarten insults because he's envious of his classmates who can read 😂

Also, this:

I‘m at the Society for the Study of Theology conference on the theme of Flesh and Blood Theologies. Looking forward to inspiring and enriching conversations about the theology and politics of embodied existence.

»Auch die raffinierteste theologische Rhetorik ändert nichts an der religionssoziologischen Realität: Immer mehr Menschen sagen, dass sie nicht an #Gott glauben und ihnen religiöse Fragen egal sind. Und das liegt nicht daran, dass die Seelsorger schlechte Arbeit machen«, meint @detlef.bsky.social:

Den Krieg Übersetzen - Gedichte aus der Ukraine. Sechzehn DichterInnen schreiben Lyrik in einem Land im Krieg. www.buch7.de/produkt/den-...

I've been thinking recently about the way we collectively frame our lives and how that affects our expectations and attitudes. As I get older the more I think of life as a kind of battlefield. Notwithstanding the beauty and joy of life, life is a challenge, with dangers, and with wounded to tend.

I was planning an international conference for this Autumn but have just cancelled it for various reasons including my failure to secure enough funding in a timely manner. In hindsight, it was probably a mistake to have tried to organise it on my own. Next time I think I know what to do better.