• Born August 1937;
• married to Beate;
• four children;
• member of the reformed church;
• Swiss citizen

  
  

Studies :

• Studied of evangelical theology in Wuppertal, Göttingen, Heidelberg, Münster i.W., Basel
• in Basel 1965-1968 Karl Barth's assistant until his death
• Graduated 1970 at the University of Basel
• Doctorate in theology (Dr. theol.) of the University of Basel 1977 (Title of the thesis: Karl Barths Lebenslauf, Munich 1975)

  
  

In service of the church:

Former or current member of the following bodies:

• Synod of the EKD, the Evangelical Church in Germany; committee of the synod for church, society and state
  
• chairman of the ad hoc commission on questions of Islam of the EKD
  
• Chairman of the Jury of the Hanna Jursch Prize of the EKD for theological research from the point of view of women
  
• Synod of the evangelical-reformed church in Germany
  
• Moderamen (the governing body) of the reformed alliance in Germany
  
• theological committee of the evangelical reformed church in Germany
  
• exams committee of the evang. ref. church and the evangelical church of Bremen
  
• board of trustees of the Johannes A Lasco library, Große Kirche Emden
  
• committee for the edition of Karl Barths' works; and the committee for Karl Barth's estate
  
• committee for the edition of selected works of John Calvin in German
  
• committee of the EKD for the edition of the reformed confessions of faith
  
• board of trustees of "Study in Israel"
  

  
  

Teaching :

• standing in for Prof. Klaus Scholder at the faculty for evangelical theology of the University of Tübingen in the 1982/83 academic year
• Pollock Lectures at the Atlantic School of Theology in Halifax (Kanada) 1985; afterwards lectures in Princeton, Holland/Michigan and Chicago
• 1986: Professor for systematic theology at the Georg-August-University in Göttingen
• 1989: lectures in Japan
• 1999: Presentation at the conference: "For the Sake of the World: Karl Barth and the Future of Ecclesial Theology", 17-19. Juni in Princeton, USA
• Presentation about "The importance of community in the loneliness of modern times. A challenge to the Reformed theology" at the conference "The Future of Reformed Theology" in Cambridge/England on 4. September 1999
• February-March 2001: Guest semester at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, USA; lectures about Karl Barth´s theology
• October 2002: Lecture tour to Japan; lectures in Tokyo, Sendai, Fukuoka, Osaka, Amagi on Peace, the Christian view of world events, on the relationship of religions, on Karl Barth
• September-November 2004: international Campell Scholar at the Columbia Theological Seminary, Atlanta / Decatur, USA; joint work with other scholars on "The mission of the Church in an age of religious violence"
• 2004: Warfield Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary, USA (published in: The Barmen Theses Then and Now: The 2004 Warfield Lectures at Princeton Theological Seminary)
• John Calvin, Interpretations of recent times, preparation of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches for the Calvin anniversary, November 2004 Geneva
• "Who was and who is Calvin?" Lecture, 7. Nov 2005, Facoltà Valdese in Rome
• "A Swiss voice. The Campaign of the Swiss Government against the Voice of Karl Barth during the Second World War", 8.11. in Princeton and 12.11.2007 in Decatur / Atlanta
• "The Church for our Time and its Ministry", Shirl Butler Lectures in Austin, Texas, 13.-15.11.2007
• "Karl Barth 'A Swiss Voice 1935-1950' ", Talk at an internat. Symposium in Emden, May 2008
• Lectures for the Calvin anniversary 2009 in Amsterdam - St. Petersburg - Rom - München - Hannover - Dresden
• Calvin as an Ecumenical Theologian. 19.10. 2009, Reid Lecture, Westminster College, Cambridge / England
• "The Sending of the Whole Christian Community", Lecture on Barth´s teaching on mission, June 2010 Princeton
• Oct. 2010 Lectures in Sárospatak, Hungary: "Are there real reasons to be happy?" "The Sending of the whole Christian community", and in Debrecen: "Barth and Hungary in the year 1944" and: "Excerpts from my diary in the time of my work with Karl Barth"
• Sept. 2012 Lectures in Sárospatak, teaching of the church in the Heidelberg Catechism, and in Debrecen: the Barth diary 1965-68

  
  

Honours:

• 1995 honorary doctorate of the United Protestant-theological Seminaries in Cluj, Romania
  
• 2004 honorary doctorate of Debrecen Theological University, Hungary
  
• 2012 Honorary professor of the Reformed Theological Academy, Sárospatak, Hungary

Back to the homepage