Helmut Thielicke: Between Pulpit and Lectern

His professorship on the faculty of the University of Tubingen ended in 1954 when he resigned his teaching post and joined the newly forming theological faculty of the University of Hamburg.

Shortly after the student revolution began at the University of Hamburg in November of 1967, Thielicke suffered what he called the greatest disappointment of his academic life. He had been working for university reform and now felt betrayed by the students with whom he had dialogued and worked in Hamburg for over a decade. Soon after the student revolution, he concentrated more on his writings.

Theological and Ethical Writings

He took on the dilemmas and perplexing problems the German people were facing in their families, churches, institutions and government and tried to set forth theological and ethical premises and guidelines for living within the German milieu. Thielicke wrote A Little Exercise for Young Theologians (1965) in an effort to send out a call to theologians and preachers to reclaim the task of seeking theological excellence and community responsibility. One of Thielicke’s lifelong concerns, which is evidenced in this book, is his conviction that theologians and preachers should be able to dialogue with common people.

During the Tubingen and Hamburg years, Thielicke began to assemble and publish his two most important series, Theological Ethics (four volumes in German text and three in English—1951to 1958) and The Evangelical Faith (three volumes—early 1960s to early 1970s). Both of these major treatises represent one of the most extensive systematic theologies in the 20th century.

He demonstrated in his writings, especially in The Hidden Question of God (1979), how God in Christ offers the German people hope in that, in the incarnation, God becomes “Immanuel” and participates in human suffering while remaining the transcendent God.

Preaching and Published Sermons

Helmut Thielicke received national attention for his preaching primarily through his proclamation at St. Michaelis Church in Hamburg. Here he preached to congregations of several thousand people, each time filling the largest church in normally non-churchgoing Hamburg.

His theology and ethics were sustaining notes that gave solidity to the whole of his preaching. He viewed theology and ethics as partners in the task of proclamation. He believed that preaching was never intended to proceed independently of theological endeavor. On the contrary, theology and preaching are one substance.

To modern issues and problems within the context of his sermons, he sought to answer the question, “Is there any word from the Lord?”

Thielicke’s most popular and widely read sermonic work is the book The Waiting Father (1959). This treatise is a book of sermons on the parables of Jesus that features an exposition on Thielicke’s favorite parable and illustration, “The Prodigal Son.” This series unquestionably shows that Thielicke had his hand on the nerve center of the people who came to hear him. He understood their needs and was adept in his use of graphic word pictures that communicated in a contemporary fashion the meaning of the parables for his times.

In his book The Trouble with the Church (1965), Thielicke presented his treatise on preaching. Although he called attention to the fact that the church is in trouble, he located the trouble in the area of preaching. He exposed much of modern preaching as the kind that addresses people in irrelevant and unrelatable ways.

Philosophy of Preaching

Thielicke’s sermons are textual-thematic. He had a penchant for taking a theme from a problem society was facing and then bringing his homiletical and theological resources to bear on the text, in the process arriving at a solution to the problem.

He was clear about the fact that the church and the Christian faith must penetrate the world without being taken over by the world. For Thielicke, the incarnation of Christ was the key element in his sermons regarding the solution to the theological dilemma revolving around the “worldless God and a Godless world.”

Another key element in the preaching of Thielicke was his belief in and dependence upon the Holy Spirit before, during and after the actual preaching event. The doctrine of the Holy Spirit was foundational for his entire theological framework. For Thielicke, the Holy Spirit is the means for the appropriation and application of the proclamation of the gospel. In Thielicke’s thought, the Holy Spirit is the motivation for recognizing the reality and presence of God.

In December of 1984, Thielicke was invited by the deacons of the main church at St. Jacobi to celebrate his 75th birthday there, since it was his first pulpit. He died in Hamburg, Germany, on March 5, 1986, at age 77. Though gone for more than two decades, Thielicke continues to influence our understanding of God, the church and the preaching of the Word.