Heinrich Bedford-Strohm | Peter Bubmann | Hans-Ulrich Dallmann | Torsten Meireis (Hrsg.): Kritische Öffentliche Theologie (Leseprobe)

34 Dirk J. Smit
ance. He took South Africa as case study. In South Africa the Bible is asubversive
book, he said, and acommunion that really hears the gospel disobeys the state of
emergency.Headded amemory from his visit to the SACC the previous year. After
the National Conference he traveled with Kistner to aLutheran missionstation
but on arrival they were awaited by security forces and Kistner was arrested. Kistner
said apublic prayer and also prayed for those arresting him, which reminded
Huber of Jesus’ words in the Sermon on the Mount.
»Und erstaunt erinnerte ich mich daran, daß wir in der Bundesrepublik Jahr und Tag
darüber gestritten hatten, ob die Bergpredigt für die politische Verantwortung der
Christen etwas zu bedeuten hat […]. Sicherheitshalber will ich hinzufügen: Für die
Überwindung der Apartheid hält die biblische Tradition […] ebensowenig Patentrezepte
bereit wie für die Frage, mit welchen Mitteln dem Wahnsinn des Wettrüstens
Einhalt geboten werden kann. Schritte zu politischen Lösungen zu finden, ist in all
diesen Fragen eine Aufgabe der politischen Vernunft – aber einer durch die Liebe bewegten
Vernunft, einer lernfähigen Vernunft, die, wenn sie von der Bibel lernen will,
auch von der dort bezeugten Parteinahme Gottes für die Armen und Gedemütigten zu
lernen bereit ist, einer leidenschaftlichen Vernunft auch, die sich von der Leidenschaft
dieses Gottes für den Frieden anstecken läßt.« (Huber, 1987a: 18)
This quote leads to the second important paper from the 1987 lecture tour. It was
on the worldwide process in the Ecumenical Movementatthe timecalled »Justice,
Peace and the Integrity of Creation« (JPIC). This contributionwould again become
influential, in more ways than one. The theme itself caught the attention of local
scholars until the national Theological Society of South Africa made it their focus
for the whole academic year of 1991 and the topic of the Annual Meeting. Many
students would later study his essaysonour many forms of daily violence and the
need for aplanetary ethos, in Die tägliche Gewalt. Gegen den Ausverkauf der Menschenwürde
(1993), translated as Violence. The Unrelenting Assault on Human Dignity
(1996c). Perhaps even more influential atthe time, however, was the way
in which he drew attention to the importance of church deliberation on ethical
and political issues, on church studies, church documents, ecclesial ways of decision-making.
During another visit, as member of the Council of the Evangelical
Church, he also lectured on the 1997joint study of the Protestant Church and the
Catholic Bishops’ Conference on the economic and social situation called Für eine
Zukunft inSolidarität und Gerechtigkeit.
The 1987 paper spoke much about processes of conciliarity – again in the
tradition of Bonhoeffer – but many South African ethicists also becameinterested
in the earlier work by Tödt and Huber on ethical decision-making, in his work on
ethics and discourse, and in the Evangelical Church of Germany’sways of studying
themes and producing documents for discussion in the church itself. Aflood
of scholarlyessays appeared and severaldoctoral dissertations made use of these