Helmut Thielicke Is Dead at 77

Helmut Thielicke, distinguished Lutheran preacher, professor, and author of numerous works on the Christian faith, died at a Hamburg, West Germany, hospital on March 5. He was 77.

Thielicke began his professorial career at the University of Heidelberg in 1936. His work there was cut short in 1940 when the Hitler government dismissed him from his teaching post because of his repeated criticism of the Nazis. The Nazi official in charge of university faculties told him, “As long as there are any faculties of theology left—and it won’t be much longer, sir—I shall see to it that only sucking pigs and no wild boars are given professorships. But you belong to the younger generation of theologians who are pugnacious in their cause. These people we cannot use. The old ones we’ll soon wear down.”

Thielicke’s subsequent activities and movement were severely restricted. However, in the closing years of World War II, he was allowed to engage in informal theological education and preaching in the city of Stuttgart. At that time his reputation as a compelling preacher began to grow. He spoke to the urgent issues of the day by drawing upon faith in the risen Christ and the riches of the Christian past. It was not unusual for several thousand listeners to attend a Thielicke sermon or lecture in the final months of the war. His American translator, John Doberstein, writes that after each of Thielicke’s addresses, volunteers would remain behind to transcribe dictated excerpts of the lectures, which were then duplicated privately. “Printing was forbidden,” Doberstein explains, “but these copies of the Christian message, handed from person to person, found their way to thousands of eager readers.”

Loosely affiliated with the resistance movement, Thielicke nonetheless escaped punishment after the unsuccessful attempt on Hitler’s life in July 1944. He was aware of plans to depose Hitler, but apparently was not a party to the assassination attempt. At the conclusion of the war, he was appointed to the chair in theology at the University of Tübingen. He held that post until 1954 when he became the first dean of the theological faculty at the University of Hamburg. In 1960 he was named rector of the university, retiring in 1974.

For several decades, Thielicke’s reputation in America rested largely on the volumes of his sermons that had been translated into English. Titles such as The Wailing Father (1959), The Silence of God (1962), Man in God’s World (1963), I Believe: The Christian’s Creed (1968), and How to Believe Again (1972) have been read widely by ministers and lay people alike. His sermons show a clear commitment to the historic doctrines of the faith and a concern to communicate the truth of those doctrines in terms that have relevance and power for a contemporary audience.

On several occasions Thielicke expressed frustration that Americans were more familiar with his popular sermonic works than with his more serious theological writing. But in the past two decades, Thielicke’s three-volume Theological Ethics (Eerdmans) and his multi-volume systematic theology, The Evangelical Faith (Eerdmans), have been published in English. They established his reputation as a major theologian of the postwar era.

Though Thielicke takes positions that put him at odds with American evangelicals at some points, his work in ethics and systematic theology has shown him to be an innovative interpreter well within the mainstream of historic Christian faith.

NORTH AMERICAN SCENE

TRENDS

More Working Mothers

Nearly half of American women with children less than one year old are working outside the home, according to a new study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In 1985, the bureau said, 48 percent of all women with infant children worked outside the home. Among married women with infant children, 49.4 percent worked, up from 39 percent five years earlier, and more than double the 1970 figure.

The report said some 25 million American children live in families where the mother is regularly absent from the home during part of the workday. More than half of those children live in two-parent families.

The report also said black mothers are more likely to work than white women with young children. Sixty-four percent of black women with children less than a year old worked outside the home last year, compared with 49 percent of white women with infant children.

CHRISTIAN VOICE

Lobbying Group Sued

Christian Voice, a right-wing lobbying organization in Washington, D.C., is the target of a lawsuit claiming the group has not paid bills totaling between $300,000 and $400,000. Wilson Advertising of Glendale, California, filed the suit last month in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Ray Wilson, president of the advertising agency, said his firm produced a television special for Christian Voice. In addition, Wilson said his agency has produced radio and television spots over the past two years for which Christian Voice has not paid. “They owe us for air time, a radio show, and a lot of other related expenses,” he said.

Christian Voice would not respond to telephone inquiries from CHRISTIANITY TODAY. In February, Christian Voice sent out a fund-raising letter urging donors to help it fight “very expensive harassment lawsuits.” The letter claims Christian Voice is under attack from “homosexual organizations, Norman Lear, the ACLU [American Civil Liberties Union], and numerous liberal Democrats.”

MICHIGAN

Satanism and Violence

Law enforcement authorities say the murder of a Detroit-area teenager might have been motivated by occultic involvement and certain types of rock music.

Lloyd Gamble, 17, of Carleton, Michigan, died in February after being shot in the head. His 15-year-old brother, whose name was not released by authorities, has been arrested in the shooting. A family member said that when investigators asked the youth about the murder, he replied, “Blame it on Black Sabbath [the name of a rock band].” Police obtained recordings of Black Sabbath and other rock bands. They also found occultic articles in the youth’s room, including a black mask and hooded robe, a vial of goose blood, inverted crosses, and a Satanic book. A family member said the victim’s name and the date of the murder were written inside the book. Police said at least a dozen high school students in three area schools practice Satan worship.

Meanwhile, a youth worker in California told a seminar on Satanism and neopaganism that he has seen police reports of youths being drugged and sodomized in devil-worshiping rituals. Roger Burt, president of the Los Angeles-based Christian Counseling Association, said he has accompanied a police officer to observe occultic rituals in the mountains surrounding Los Angeles. “There is a phenomenal growth in animal sacrifice,” he said. “Cats, dogs, and other animals are being beheaded.”

MAP INTERNATIONAL

Expanded Relief Capabilities

MAP International, a Christian global health organization, last month dedicated its new headquarters in Brunswick, Georgia. The $1.6 million office and distribution-center complex will enable MAP to double the amount of medical supplies it processes for distribution to mission hospitals in some 80 Third World nations. The organization distributes medical supplies and medicines donated by more than 200 health-care companies in the United States.

Speaking at the dedication ceremony, U.S. Surgeon General C. Everett Koop said some Third World governments spend as little as $1 per person per year on health care. “Every six seconds a child in the Third World dies of dehydration due to diarrhea,” he said. “Every six seconds a child dies of infectious disease, and every six seconds a child recovers from disease but is impaired by a lasting handicap brought on by disease.…

“Millions are spent to improve the economic situation of the Third World,” he said. “But one of the most direct routes to helping [economic conditions] would be to improve health in these areas.”

CHURCH-STATE

Churches Sue Government

A federal district judge has denied a petition by 17 religious groups seeking to participate as amici curiae (friends of the court) in a civil lawsuit against the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The civil suit was filed early this year by the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), the American Lutheran Church, and four of their Arizona congregations.

The suit alleges the INS violated church members’ constitutional rights by infiltrating worship services, Bible studies, prayer meetings, and mission planning meetings. The churches were infiltrated while the federal government was gathering information about Arizona sanctuary workers assisting illegal aliens from Central America.

The Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs (BJCPA), one of the groups represented in the unsuccessful amici curiae petition, last month issued a position statement on government infiltration of churches. “The BJCPA condemns the use of paid informants, undercover agents, and surreptitious tactics by any government agency investigating religious organizations as improper and illegal when less intrusive means of investigation or fact gathering are available,” the statment reads. “… We abhor government agents’ fraudulent use of the name of Jesus Christ to gain access to the household of faith.”

WORLD SCENE

ARGENTINA

Evangelistic Crusades

Some 477 churches in Argentina are backing a series of crusades being held this month by Argentine-born evangelist Luis Palau.

The Portland, Oregon-based evangelist plans to conduct crusades in six cities. The effort will culminate with meetings in the capital city of Buenos Aires.

“Suddenly Argentina is experiencing a tremendous spiritual upsurge, an explosion, like the Argentines have taken the lid off and are flocking to hear the gospel,” Palau said. “It is exciting that for the first time in many years, Christians in Argentina are united for one purpose—to spread the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

In several of the cities, Palau will host a live call-in television program. His radio progams have been aired in Argentina and in 21 other Latin American countries for the past 20 years.

ETHIOPIA

Relief Workers Killed

Two Ethiopians working for World Vision were killed by guerrillas last month at a feeding center north of Addis Ababa. Four other World Vision staff workers were injured and a health assistant was taken hostage after the guerrillas burst into a staff devotional meeting.

World Vision officials said the incident would not force the organization to remove its workers from dangerous areas. “The only way we can guarantee that aid provided by our donors is used properly is to send staff to where the hurting people live. And that is sometimes dangerous,” said Bill Kliewer, World Vision executive vice-president. Kliewer said World Vision workers also are at risk in the Sudan.

CUBA

Catholics and Socialism

A national assembly of Catholics in Cuba has approved a document stating there is no inherent contradiction between Christianity and a socialist political system.

“The Christian faith, which is not an ideology, can live in any political system and in any historic process,” the document states. “The church in Cuba knows its specific mission is not of the political, economic or social order, but eminently religious, even though that which is religious-Christian always has a social and political dimension.” The report is expected to be approved by the Conference of Cuban Bishops. Carlos Manuel de Cespedes, secretary of the bishops’ conference, said the document calls the Catholic church in Cuba to evangelization and to incarnating itself in Cuban society, among other things.

The document reads in part: “We desire to be an evangelizing church involving a creative and daring missionary spirit, overcoming every fear, routine and discouragement and assuming with serenity and courage the risks that might arise from being faithful to the mission of announcing in good and bad times the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Last fall, Cuban President Fidel Castro met with Cuba’s Catholic bishops. Earlier this year, a draft of the Communist party five-year program called on Cubans to respect the beliefs of churchgoers. The party document urges Cubans to honor “the moral integrity of believers” and avoid practices that could “wound religious sentiments.”

LATIN AMERICA

Focusing on Missions

Churches in Central and South America are cooperating in a series of consultations designed to increase the number of missionaries sent out from Latin America. The consultations are leading up to COMIBAM ’87, a major missions congress set for next year in São Paulo, Brazil.

To date, consultations have been held in 11 Latin American countries, most recently in Guatemala. More than 500 people participated in the Guatemala meetings, out of which came a recommendation that every church in the country form a missions committee. Currently, only a handful of Guatemala’s 6,000 churches hold regular missionary conferences. A missions consultation last year in Costa Rica resulted in the formation of a national, interdenominational missionary sending agency.

Churches in developing nations are sending out increasing numbers of missionaries. Larry Keyes, president of OC Ministries, said the number of missionaries sent out from Asia, Africa, Latin America, and Oceania increased from 3,404 to 15,000 between 1972 and 1980. Latin American missionaries made up 7 percent of the total in 1980.

COMIBAM ’87, the Latin American missions congress planned for next year, will attempt to increase that percentage. Organizers of the congress hope to attract 3,000 pastors, missionaries, educators, students, and lay people from at least 23 countries.

BURUNDI

Government Critics Arrested

A Catholic priest and five lay people have been jailed in the African nation of Burundi for writing and distributing a document critical of a government ban on weekday religious services.

The priest, Barakana Gabriel, was sentenced to five years in prison. The other defendants received jail sentences ranging from seven days to two years and seven days.

Last year Burundi’s Interior Ministry banned participation in any daytime religious service or church function except on Saturdays and Sundays. The government said the nation’s Christians—60 percent of the population—were spending excessive amounts of time on church activites to the detriment of Burundi’s economy.

Numerous lay people and clergy, including Archbishop Joachim Gitega, have been jailed for defying the prohibition. Amnesty International, a London-based human rights organization, said several Christians arrested for violating the ban have died in jail.

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