November 2007 - Protestant Reformed Churches in America

State of the Reformed Faith in Germany
The State of the Reformed Faith
in Germany,
and What Our Church
(the Confessing Evangelical
Reformed Church) Stands For
by Dr. Jürgen-Burkhard Klautke
I think it would be good to tell you a bit about my background
first, so that you can better assess what I say.*
I grew up in a Christian home in the north of Germany, but my
parents did not belong to a Reformed church. When I was a teenager,
the literature I read was generally pietistic, and somewhat
dispensationally orientated.
In 1974 I began to study theology at a seminary that had
been founded a few years earlier in Switzerland. (Dominant at
that time in Germany and German-speaking countries was the
theology of Karl Barth and Rudolf Bultmann. The latter became
known primarily for his program of demythologization.)
This seminary was founded in 1970 in order to oppose the theological
currents dominating the German-speaking theological
faculties. It did not hold to any particular denominational confession,
but it was what one would describe as “Bible believing.”
However, there were some Reformed theologians teaching
at this seminary. They came both from English-speaking
countries and from the Netherlands. Through them I got to know
Reformed theology for the first time.
When two professors asked me toward the end of my studies
in Switzerland whether I would like to continue studying, it quickly
* Dr. Klautke spoke at the Protestant Reformed Seminary on March
22, 2006. This is the text of his address to the students, professors, and
area ministers.
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