On Monday, July 3, 2023, our colleague, retired university professor Dr. theol. Martin Rese, passed away a few weeks after his 88th birthday. Our deepest sympathies go out to his wife, children and wider family.

Martin Rese was born on May 31, 1935 in Rimbeck, in the district of Warburg. He studied Protestant theology in Bethel, Heidelberg, Bonn and Edinburgh and passed the First and Second Theological Examinations in 1959 and 1962. In 1966 he received his doctorate - a doctoral scholar of the Fritz Thyssen Foundation - under the supervision of Philipp Vielhauer in Bonn with the thesis: "Old Testament Motifs in Luke's Christology," submitted the year before. The dissertation was published in 1969 as volume 1 of the new series "Studien zum Neuen Testament" ("Studies on the New Testament") founded by Günter Klein, Willi Marxsen and Wolfgang Schrage at the publishing house Gerd Mohn. The topic was in many respects groundbreaking for the further works of Martin Rese, as for example the later essays: "Zur Problematik von Kurz- und Langtext in Luk. xxii.17ff." (1975) or "The Statements on Jesus' Death and Resurrection in Acts - Oldest Kerygma or Lucan Theologumena?" (1984) show.
After working as a research assistant in Kiel, Martin Rese came to Münster in the same capacity and habilitated here in 1971 with a thesis on the Lucan passion account. The habilitation thesis is entitled: "The 'Hour' of Jesus in Jerusalem (Luke 22:1-53). An Investigation into the Literary and Theological Characteristics of the Lucan Passion Report." At the Faculty of Protestant Theology of the Westphalian Wilhelms University, Martin Rese was appointed lecturer in 1974 and then - after a substitute professorship at the University of Göttingen - taught in Münster as professor of New Testament from 1980. From 1984 to 1985 he was Dean of the Faculty of Protestant Theology. Martin Rese retired in 2000.
Martin Rese could look back on a long and diversified research and teaching career in Münster. As a lecturer he was active in those years when the New Testament proseminars still filled more than 90 participants and had to be shared. Martin Rese's research was mainly focused on the Lukan double work, but he was also interested in the Johannine writings, Pauline theology, the so-called Catholic Epistles or methodological questions of New Testament exegesis. Examples for the range of his exegetical-theological interests are his essays on the "Selbstzeugnis des Johannesevangeliums über seinen Verfasser" (1996), "Käsemanns Johannesdeutung. Ihre Vor- und Nachgeschichte" (2006), on "Harnack und Overbeck über die Entstehung des Kanons des Neuen Testaments. An unfortunately forgotten dispute from the century before last" (2003) or on the problem of "intertextuality" (1997). Martin Rese was an excellent connoisseur of the history of interpretation, especially of the 19th century, and was considered an astute reviewer. He followed the research questions and discussions of the subject until old age, indeed until the very end.
Early and continuously Martin Rese dealt with ancient Judaism from the New Testament ("Review of some theses of Joachim Jeremias on the subject of the Servant of God in Judaism", 1963) and especially with the subject "Church and Israel" and the question of a Christian anti-Judaism. Together with Jan Lambrecht he led the seminar group: "Paul and Israel" of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas (SNTS) from 1983 to 1986. In connection with Martin Rese's work on and in this research problem area, his essays included "The One and Only God of Israel in Paul" (1994), the "Role of Israel in Paul's Apocalyptic Thought" (1980), and "Church and Israel in the Deuteropauline Letters" (1990).

In his teaching and in the promotion of young scholars, to which he devoted himself after his retirement, Martin Rese saw it as his task to guide students to independent, critical thinking. He was extremely popular and successful in this endeavor. Just a few years ago, he was willing to discuss provocative theses on the authenticity of Paul's letters as a guest lecturer in a New Testament advanced seminar. A few days before his death, he participated as a lively discussant in the Münster "Research Colloquium New Testament and Ancient Judaism", which met digitally.

With Martin Rese, the Faculty of Protestant Theology loses a colleague who was internationally networked, experienced in research and teaching, and who, although contentious in his subject matter, was personally humble. The loss hurts. We will always honor his memory.


Prof. Dr. Arnulf von Scheliha Prof. Dr. Eve-Marie Becker
Dean Director of the New Testament Seminary
 

Münster's theology improves strongly in international ranking

In the QS World University Ranking by Subject 2023, the University of Münster is ranked 23rd in the global comparison in the subject "Theology, Divinity and Religious Studies". This means that the theology and religious studies location of Münster has moved up 20 places from 43rd place in 2022. In 2020 and 2021, Münster was listed in the 51 - 100 range.
Across Europe, theology and religious research at the University of Münster is thus ranked 11th in the QS Ranking and 3rd in Germany.
The QS Ranking uses five indicators: the academic reputation of the location (collected in a global survey of scientists), the reputation on the labor market (collected through a global survey of employers); the number of citations (according to Elsevier Scopus); productivity and impact; the international research network.

The Faculty of Protestant Theology of the Westphalian Wilhelms University of Münster mourns the death of Prof. Dr. Karl-Friedrich Pohlmann, retired university professor of Old Testament, who passed away on February 14, 2023 at the age of 82 after a serious illness. He was born on January 12, 1941 in the North Hessian district town of Korbach. After graduating from high school in 1961, he studied Protestant theology at the University of Marburg from 1961 to 1965, as well as Semitic studies with Otto Rössler, and continued his academic work after his First Theological Examination as a research assistant to the renowned Old Testament scholar Otto Kaiser. In 1969 he received his doctorate with a dissertation on "Studien zum dritten Esra. A Contribution to the Question of the Original Conclusion of the Chronistic Historical Work" (published Göttingen, 1970). The work illuminated the complex processes of tradition in Jewish writing between Hebrew tradition and the new Greek Hellenistic Jewish literature emerging in the 3rd/2nd century BCE.  Funded by a habilitation grant from the German Research Association, he began his research on the redactional history of the Book of Jeremiah in 1971, and his habilitation took place in the winter semester of 1976/77. In "Studien zum Jeremiabuch" (Göttingen, 1978), he developed his analysis of a redaction of the book oriented toward the fortunes of the early generation of Israelites deported by the Babylonians.
From 1976 to 1981, Pohlmann served as pastor of the Evangelical Church of Kurhessen-Waldeck in the parish of Großseelheim near Kirchhain. In 1981 he was appointed professor of Old Testament at the Faculty of Protestant Theology in Münster, where he taught until his retirement in 2006. After a series of further studies on the Book of Jeremiah ("Die Ferne Gottes - Studien zum Jeremiabuch", 1989), he turned to the text-historically no less complicated Book of Ezekiel and proved that it was the result of several successive scriptural editing processes, among which here, too, a number of texts reflect a special interest in the fortunes of the first Gola (597 B.C., before the destruction of Jerusalem in 587). To be distinguished from this were, in turn, later texts addressed to the group of Israel's diaspora scattered throughout the Persian Empire, which became tangible in the 5th century BCE. Pohlmann unfolded these observations in his "Ezekiel Studies" (1992) and a comprehensive commentary on the Book of Ezekiel (ATD 22, 1996, 2001), triggering a new productive phase in Old Testament exegesis of the prophetic books, which he documented in a detailed research report ("Ezekiel. The State of the Theological Discussion," 2008). Inspired by recent developments in the discourse on religion and politics and the establishment of a Center for Islamic Theology at the University of Münster, Pohlmann turned to the exegesis of the Qur'an after his retirement and demonstrated in two seminal works that the method of historical-critical exegesis, as developed in biblical studies, is also productively and profitably applicable to the analysis of the sacred writings of Islam. Both his book on "The Origin of the Qur'an. New Insights from the Perspective of Historical-Critical Biblical Studies" (2012) and his study on "Militancy and Anti-Militancy in the Qur'an. Historical-Critical Studies on Quranic Exegesis and the Origins of Militant Islam" (2018) thus provide an important stimulus for interdisciplinary exchange between Islamic theology and biblical studies.
As an academic teacher, Pohlmann impressed students with his philological powers of observation and his historical accuracy in the exegetical and theological development of biblical texts. He took special care of his students and their progress in their own academic work. As a colleague he distinguished himself by his unpretentious, amiable manner, always interested above all in the cause of theology. He remained faithfully connected to the faculty, the Protestant university church community and its trombone choir even after his retirement. Those who could count themselves among his friends could count themselves lucky: with great helpfulness and with balanced advice he always showed them his solidarity. Whoever met him was
impressed by his erudition and his travel experiences; his love of nature was contagious.
contagious. The faculty mourns the loss of a scholar who made notable, lasting contributions to Old Testament exegesis and theology. And we mourn with his family a warm-hearted person whose voice we will miss.
Münster (Westphalia) in February 2023

Prof. Dr. Arnulf von Scheliha Prof. Dr. Reinhard Achenbach
Dean of the Department Director of the Old Testament Seminary


Prof. Dr. Thilo Alexander Rudnig
for the academic students

For news from past years please visit German website.