Eugen Drewermann
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Eugen Drewermann (born 20 June 1940) is a German church critic, theologian, peace activist and former
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
priest. His work has been translated into more than a dozen languages. Drewermann was born in Bergkamen near
Dortmund Dortmund (; ; ) is the third-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia, after Cologne and Düsseldorf, and the List of cities in Germany by population, ninth-largest city in Germany. With a population of 614,495 inhabitants, it is the largest city ...
. He is best known in Germany for his work toward a non-violent form of Christianity, which, he believes, requires an integration of
Depth psychology Depth psychology (from the German term ''Tiefenpsychologie'') refers to the practice and research of the science of the unconscious, covering both psychoanalysis and psychology. It is also defined as the psychological theory that explores the rel ...
into
Exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Ancient Greek, Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation (philosophy), interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Bible, Biblical works. In modern us ...
and Theology. Trained in philosophy, theology, psychoanalysis, and comparative religious studies, he criticized the Roman Catholic Church's literal and biologistic interpretations of miracles, the virgin birth, Ascension, and
Resurrection Resurrection or anastasis is the concept of coming back to life after death. Reincarnation is a similar process hypothesized by other religions involving the same person or deity returning to another body. The disappearance of a body is anothe ...
. He called on Rome to understand biblical stories symbolically in such a way that they can become present and healing to readers today. Drewermann's controversial opinions on Catholic dogma, especially the
Virgin birth of Jesus In Christianity and Islam, it is asserted that Jesus of Nazareth was conceived by his mother Mary, mother of Jesus, Mary solely through divine intervention and without sexual intercourse, thus resulting in his Virgin birth (mythology), virgin bir ...
lead to a letter expressing "deep worry," in 1986 by Cardinal Ratzinger,''A Violent God-Image: An Introduction to the Work of Eugen Drewermann'', p. 17.Beier, M. (2006). later
Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...
, to Drewermann's
archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...
, Johannes Joachim Degenhardt. The struggle propelled Drewermann into the public limelight and culminated in 1991 after he published a radical critique of what he considers to be the Vatican's psychologically cruel and mentally enslaving clergy ideal (''Kleriker: Psychogramm eines Ideals'' lergy: Psychogram of an ideal. Archbishop Degenhardt of Paderborn and the Catholic Bishops Conference of Germany engaged in a long drawn-out and heated debate with Drewermann which was closely followed by media and public. As a consequence, on 7 October 1991, the
Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...
disallowed him to teach at the Catholic Seminary of Paderborn and, shortly afterwards, revoked his license to preach in 1992. Drewermann has uttered strong and controversial political opinions. He was against the
Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...
, the
Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...
, German participation in the NATO war against Afghanistan, and Israeli Air Raids during the 2006 Lebanon War. In the name of the German Peace Movement, he asked to abolish not only Walter Mixa's office as Military Bishop of Germany but the German military, the
Bundeswehr The (, ''Federal Defence'') are the armed forces of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The is divided into a military part (armed forces or ''Streitkräfte'') and a civil part, the military part consists of the four armed forces: Germ ...
, as such. Drewermann has signed public calls to support the Linkspartei and delivers speeches on conferences and protest demonstrations of the left. Drewermann left the
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
Church on his 65th birthday on 20 June 2005, a decision he announced on
Sandra Maischberger Sandra Maischberger (; born 25 August 1966) is a German journalist, talk show host, and author. Early life and education Born in Munich, Maischberger spent five years of her childhood in Frascati, near Rome, Italy, and also grew up in Garch ...
's talk show on German television.


Early life

Son of a
Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...
father and a
Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
mother, Drewermann, after finishing grammar school (''
Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...
'') in Germany, studied philosophy in
Münster Münster (; ) is an independent city#Germany, independent city (''Kreisfreie Stadt'') in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It is in the northern part of the state and is considered to be the cultural centre of the Westphalia region. It is also a ...
, theology in
Paderborn Paderborn (; Westphalian language, Westphalian: ''Patterbuorn'', also ''Paterboärn'') is a city in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, capital of the Paderborn (district), Paderborn district. The name of the city derives from the river Pade ...
and
psychoanalysis PsychoanalysisFrom Greek language, Greek: and is a set of theories and techniques of research to discover unconscious mind, unconscious processes and their influence on conscious mind, conscious thought, emotion and behaviour. Based on The Inte ...
in
Göttingen Göttingen (, ; ; ) is a college town, university city in Lower Saxony, central Germany, the Capital (political), capital of Göttingen (district), the eponymous district. The River Leine runs through it. According to the 2022 German census, t ...
.


Professional life

Ordained as a Catholic priest in 1966, he worked as a diocesan priest, student chaplain, and eventually began work in 1974 as assistant priest in the parish of St. George in Paderborn. At the same time, he worked as a
psychotherapist Psychotherapy (also psychological therapy, talk therapy, or talking therapy) is the use of Psychology, psychological methods, particularly when based on regular Conversation, personal interaction, to help a person change behavior, increase hap ...
, and from 1979 also held lectures in comparative religious studies and
dogma Dogma, in its broadest sense, is any belief held definitively and without the possibility of reform. It may be in the form of an official system of principles or doctrines of a religion, such as Judaism, Roman Catholicism, Protestantism, or Islam ...
tics at the Catholic Theological Faculty in Paderborn. He continues to hold lectures in Paderborn and talks at other universitie

Influenced by
Sigmund Freud Sigmund Freud ( ; ; born Sigismund Schlomo Freud; 6 May 1856 – 23 September 1939) was an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis, a clinical method for evaluating and treating psychopathology, pathologies seen as originating fro ...
,
Carl Jung Carl Gustav Jung ( ; ; 26 July 1875 – 6 June 1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist, psychotherapist, and psychologist who founded the school of analytical psychology. A prolific author of Carl Jung publications, over 20 books, illustrator, and corr ...
, and more recent psychoanalysts, Drewermann radically reinterprets biblical texts according to psychoanalytic, poetic, and existential criteria. His method of interpretation has been clearly outlined in the 1984–1985 two-volume work ''Tiefenpsychologie und Exegese''. His interpretations are as immediate as poetry and aim to rediscover particularly the therapeutic message of Jesus and of the Hebrew prophets, both for the individual and for society at large. A central topic of Drewermann is the specific way humans experience
Angst Angst is a feeling of anxiety, apprehension, or insecurity. ''Anguish'' is its Romance languages, Latinate cognate, equivalent, and the words ''anxious'' and ''anxiety'' are of similar origin. Etymology The word ''angst'' was introduced in ...
(fear) due to our self-reflective capacity. He maintains that religion has as its central task to help calm our human anxiety and to stop its devastating effects on all levels of human life, in its personal, social, and global manifestations. Among his more than 80 books are dozens of titles presenting non-moralistic reinterpretations of nearly all biblical texts, including a monumental three-volume scholarly treatise on Genesis 2–11 (''Strukturen des Bösen'', 1977-8) and a two-volume commentary on the Gospel of Mark; a number of titles on urgent social issues such as war (''Der Krieg und das Christentum'', 1981), the environment (''Der tödliche Fortschritt'', 1982), and burning moral issues such as abortion, the will to live, suicide (''Psychoanalyse und Moraltheologie'', 1982-4, 3 vols); and, most recently, half a dozen volumes on the question of God in light of the findings of modern anthropology (1998), biology (1999), cosmology (2002), neurology (2006–2007); a depth psychological analysis of more than twenty of the most well-known
fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...
s by the
Brothers Grimm The Brothers Grimm ( or ), Jacob Grimm, Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm, Wilhelm (1786–1859), were Germans, German academics who together collected and published folklore. The brothers are among the best-known storytellers of Oral tradit ...
and one by
Hans Christian Andersen Hans Christian Andersen ( , ; 2 April 1805 – 4 August 1875) was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogue (literature), travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales. Andersen's fai ...
. Since 1992, Drewermann has been working as a freelance author and speaker. He has frequent appearances in German TV talk shows and is invited to lecture all over Germany, Europe, and the world. While his popularity as a church critic was at its maximum when ''
Der Spiegel (, , stylized in all caps) is a German weekly news magazine published in Hamburg. With a weekly circulation of about 724,000 copies in 2022, it is one of the largest such publications in Europe. It was founded in 1947 by John Seymour Chaloner ...
'' ran a cover story on him in its 1993 Christmas issue, he continues to be a highly sought-after commentator on spiritual, religious and social issues. He owned his own monthly call-in radio show titled ''Redefreiheit'' (Freedom of Speech) in Breme
Redefreiheit – Nordwestradio – Radio Bremen
which was preceded by a prior regular call-in radio show in Berlin. Drewermann has appeared twice with the
Dalai Lama The Dalai Lama (, ; ) is the head of the Gelug school of Tibetan Buddhism. The term is part of the full title "Holiness Knowing Everything Vajradhara Dalai Lama" (圣 识一切 瓦齐尔达喇 达赖 喇嘛) given by Altan Khan, the first Shu ...
in Zurich, and has written a book with him on the dialogue among religions. After the
11 September 2001 attacks The September 11 attacks, also known as 9/11, were four coordinated Islamist terrorist suicide attacks by al-Qaeda against the United States in 2001. Nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners, crashing the first two into ...
he described the attacks as the result of complex dynamics in which both sides in the terror war had contributed to the conflict. In agreement with the Dalai Lama, Drewermann called on the West to turn the attacks into an opportunity for peace not revenge.


Reception

In the 1990s, Hans Küng spoke out on behalf of Drewermann who lost his license to teach Catholic theology and was suspended as a priest because he, like Küng, challenged dogmatic structures. Küng delivered the laudatio when Drewermann was awarded the Herbert-Haag-Prize for Freedom in the Church in 1992 at the University of Tübingen. Some Catholic scholars criticised Drewermann for focusing in his work on individual psychology without taking into consideration Christian communities and Christian tradition, arguing that Drewermann's approach had the effect of reducing the historical relevance of the
Gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...
and
Revelation Revelation, or divine revelation, is the disclosing of some form of Religious views on truth, truth or Knowledge#Religion, knowledge through communication with a deity (god) or other supernatural entity or entities in the view of religion and t ...
to a mere collection of texts used to cure individual anxiety. A similar approach to Drewemann's work came from psychological scholars Albert Görres and Helmuth Benesch. Catholic scholar Klaus BergerSpiel's noch einmal (Play it again), Klaus Berger in der FAZ, 21 November 2003 accused Drewermann of using outdated ideas and research methods and of subscribing to ancient misunderstandings of the
Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...
. A pseudo Marcionism and using of biblical and other religious texts out of context is pointed out by Protestant scholar Manfred Oeming. The political views of Drewermann have been sharply criticized by theologians Uwe Birnstein and Klaus-Peter Lehmann as being based on a traditional German antipolitical and romantic view and reducing all social aspects to individual fear and personal understanding and goodwill.Uwe Birnstein / Klaus-Peter Lehmann: Phänomen Drewermann. Politik und Religion einer Kultfigur, Eichborn Frankfurt am Main 1998 Peter Neuhaus, in his comparison of the Political Theology of Johannes Baptist Metz and the theology of Drewermann, counters that Drewermann's theology is imminently social in its critique and does not share in antipolitical or romantic views of politics. Henryk M. Broder referred to Drewermann and other German intellectuals as reason for a book, in which he denounces Drewermann and others as underplaying the role of Islamic terrorism and putting the blame solely on the west, especially Israel and the US. , a Catholic German lawyer and specialist for Constitutional law, sees in Drewermann the prototype of a self-proclaimed church critic using strong opinions to gain profile and public awareness and profiting on the very organizational body he was member for the most time of his life.


Awards

* 1992 Herbert-Haag-Prize (Swiss) for his contribution to a radical reform of the Church. * 1994
Urania Urania ( ; ; modern Greek shortened name ''Ránia''; meaning "heavenly" or "of heaven") was, in Greek mythology, the muse of astronomy and astrology. Urania is the goddess of astronomy and stars, her attributes being the globe and compass. T ...
-Medal for his contribution to popular education. * 2000 Integration Prize of the Apfelbaum Foundation for Co-evolution (Cologne). * 2007 Erich Fromm Prize, together with Konstantin Wecker, for his work against war and antisemitism. * 2011 , together with Raphaela and Rolf Maibach * 2013 Culture Prize of the Internationale Paulusgesellschaft * 2013 Medal of Honor of the City of Bergkamen * 2017 Löwenherz – Honorary Award of the NGO Human Projects * 2018 Peace Prize of the City of Bautzen (Bautzner Friedenspreis) * 2019 Prize of the International Hermann Hesse Society


Selected works

;In English * 1991: * 1993: * 1994: * 1994: ;In German * 1977–1978: (Habilitation) * 1981: * 1981: * 1982–1984: * 1984: * 1984–1985: * 1987/88: * 1989: * 1989: * 1991: * 1992: (novel) * 1992: * 1992: * 1992: * 1992–1995: * 1993: * 1994: * 1996: * 1998: * 1998: * 1999: * 2001: * 2002: * 2003: * 2003: * 2003: * 2003: * 2004: * 2004: * 2004: * 2005: * 2006: * 2006: * 2007: * 2023:


Notes


Further reading

* * Beier, Matthias (2010). ''Gott ohne Angst: Einführung in das Denken Drewermanns''. Patmos. . * Wise, R. Todd (2000). The Great Vision of Black Elk as Literary Ritual. ''Black Elk Reader''. Syracuse University Press. (Essay applies Drewermann's hermeneutic approach to Black Elk's vision.)


External links


General


Eugen Drewermann Home Page
— comprehensive German/English site with links to news, quotations, books, video & audio.
Calendar of events with Drewermann.

Das Gesamtwerk des Eugen Drewermann
— comprehensive German website.

— another English site with translated quotations and overviews of his books.
Video of 1st US Lecture by Eugen Drewermann
titled "Biblical Myth and Inner Experience: Why Theology needs Depth Psychology", held at Union Theological Seminary on 16 November 1999.


Drewermann talks, videos & audio


Eugen Drewermann Video Lectures
— the most complete site of video of talks, news, and public appearances of Drewermann. {{DEFAULTSORT:Drewermann, Eugen 1940 births Living people People from Unna (district) People from the Province of Westphalia Dissident Roman Catholic theologians Former Roman Catholics German Christian pacifists German psychologists 20th-century German Catholic theologians German male non-fiction writers Aufstehen