Hermann Gunkel
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Hermann Gunkel (1862-1932) was a German Protestant Old Testament scholar. He is noted for his contribution to form criticism and the study of oral tradition in biblical texts. He was an outstanding representative of the "History of Religion School."
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[edit] Biography
Gunkel was born in Springe, Kingdom of Hanover, where his father was a Lutheran pastor. He studied theology in Göttingen and Giessen, and in 1895 became a professor of Old Testament in Berlin. In the same year his book Schöpfung und Chaos in Urzeit und Endzeit (Creation and Chaos) was published. In 1901 the first edition of his Genesis commentary appeared. In 1926 he published another standard work, his commentary on the book of Psalms (Die Psalmen).
For health reasons Gunkel retired and became professor emeritus in 1927. His Einleitung in die Psalmen (Introduction to the Psalms) was his last major project, brought to completion with the help of Joachim Begrich, who was both his former student and his son-in-law.
Hermann Gunkel died on 11 March 1932 in Halle.
[edit] Achievement
Gunkel became an outstanding representative of the "History of Religions School" (die religionsgeschichtliche Schule), which addressed the history of traditions behind the biblical text. In addition to Gunkel, the original group also included Albert Eichhorn, William Wrede, Wilhelm Bousset, Johannes Weiss, Ernst Troeltsch, Wilhelm Heitmüller, and P. Wernle. In the beginning they were primarily concerned with the origins of Christianity, but this interest eventually broadened to include the historical backgrounds of ancient Israelite and other Near Eastern religions.
His "Creation and Chaos in the Beginning and at the End of Time"( 1895) compared the biblical creation/destruction myths from Genesis 1 to Revelation 12. His most important work was probably his commentary on Genesis (1901), in which he applied to that book the new critical methodology of source criticism. Source criticism was based on identifying and examining the genres used in the text to reach the "literary history" behind them, on the assumption that each form belonged to a quite definite 'setting in life' (Sitz im Leben); in this way, Gunkel and his circle believed, the previous history of a written biblical text could be reconstructed in terms of its social and liturgical setting. Nineteenth-century source criticism had examined texts on the grounds of style, vocabulary, and other criteria to identify distinctive theological and religious outlooks and thus separate the text into its original sources; source criticism, because it offered a way of going beyond the text, became immensely influential in Germany and Europe for much of the 20th century, being used and developed by important scholars such as Martin Noth.
[edit] Major works in English
- Creation and Chaos in the Primeval Era and the Eschaton. Translated by K. William Whitney Jr. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006. German ed. 1895.
- The Folktale in the Old Testament. Translated by M. D. Rutter. Sheffield: Almond Press, 1987. German ed. 1921.
- Genesis. Translated by Mark E. Biddle. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1997. German ed. 1910.
- The History of Religion and the Old Testament. London: Williams & Norgate, 1910.
- The Influence of the Holy Spirit. Translated by Roy A. Harrisville and P. A. Quanbeck II. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1979. German ed. 1888.
- An Introduction to the Psalms. With Joachim Begrich. Translated by James D. Nogalski. Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 1998. German ed. 1933.
- Israel and Babylon. Translated by E. S. B. Philadelphia: McVey, 1904. German ed. 1903.
- The Legends of Genesis. Translated by W. H. Carruth. Chicago: Open Court, 1901; reprinted, with Introduction by W. F. Albright. New York: Schocken, 1964. German ed. the introduction to his Genesis commentary, 1901.
- The Psalms: A Form-Critical Introduction. Introduction by James Muilenburg. Translated by T. M. Horner. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1967. German ed. 1927.
- The Stories of Genesis. Translated by John J. Scullion. Edited by W. R. Scott. Vallejo, CA: Bibal, 1994. German ed. 1910.
- Water for a Thirsty Land. Edited by K. C. Hanson. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2001.
- What Remains of the Old Testament and Other Essays. Introduction by James Moffatt. Translated by A. K. Dallas. New York: Macmillan, 1928. German ed. 1916.
