By Robert Smith | Associate Professor of Preaching at Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, Ala., and a contributing editor of Preaching
Helmut Thielicke was a preacher-theologian who stood between two worlds: the academy and the church.
Thielicke was born in early December of 1908 in Barmen, Germany. He was born in an area called Wuppertal. This area was a boiling pot for cultural and religious development. It was here that Thielicke’s cultural teeth were cut as he received his early schooling. Thielicke satisfied this university prerequisite and attended the renowned Gymnasium in Wuppertal that had been known for its successful graduates and astute teachers. Thielicke’s heart was moved to become a theologian. His desire was strengthened when he attended a conference in which Karl Barth displayed profound theological argumentation in a debate with Pietists.
Thielicke married Marie Luise Herrmann in October of 1937 during that period when conflict between the Confessing Church and the Nazi Party had escalated. They had four children.
Helmut Thielicke originally chose the academic discipline of theology because he perceived that it was the most learned and complex of all disciplines, and he was challenged by it. He entered the University of Greifswald at the age of 20 in 1928. From Greifswald he went to Erlangen, where he studied with Paul Althaus. From Erlangen he enrolled in the University of Bonn, where Karl Barth taught. He concluded his university studies at the University of Marburg, the domain of Rudolf Bultmann. Thielicke wrote two dissertations for which he received doctorates in philosophy and theology in 1931 and 1934, respectively.
Thielicke had great problems with the Nazi regime. One of the immediate repercussions of his criticism of Nazism was that he was expelled from a teaching post at Heidelberg in 1940, where he had served as a professor since 1936.
The Bishop of the Regional Church of Wurttemberg, Theophilus Wurm, aided Thielicke by ordaining and offering him a pastorate in Ravensburg in 1941.
In 1942, one year later, Bishop Wurm transferred Thielicke to Stuttgart, where he was a lecturer and a pastor. He saw many friends injured and killed in Stuttgart, and he found himself without many basic necessities. Thielicke gave credit to his regular preaching for keeping him in touch with the essential themes of theological ministry. More than anything else, his preaching during these times was influenced by a closeness to his parishioners in which he experienced the joys and sorrows, health and pain of common life.
As a theological professor, Helmut Thielicke had the capacity to communicate to the academia as well as the laity in Germany. He was not a theological pioneer seeking to change the face of theology. However, Thielicke was interested in updating the language of theology so that theology addressed people from all walks of life.
After the war was over, Thielicke resumed his professorial career. On Aug. 1, 1945, he received his preliminary call to become a member of the faculty in Tubingen. He accepted it. He would remain in Tubingen from 1945-1954 as a full professor of Systematic Theology.
