Dibelius, Martin

(1883–1947)

   Theologian and Ecumenist.

   Dibelius was born in Dresden. From 1915 he taught at Heidelberg University where he succeeded Johannes weiss to the Chair of New Testament exegesis and criticism. He was an important proponent of the form-critical method of studying the text and in his Die Formgeschichte des Evangeliums, published in 1919, he argued that the Gospel writers were compilers of Church traditions and not independent authors. He was more conservative in his views than many of his contemporaries, such as Rudolf bultmann, and he believed that the preaching of the early Church was the medium through which the words of Jesus had been preserved. He was also a committed ecumenist and served as a leader of the Faith and Order Commission, endeavouring to provide a theological basis for the reunion of the Churches.

   Martin Dibelius, From Tradition to Gospel (1934);

   H. Palmer, The Logic of Gospel Criticism (1968).