Ernst Käsemann (1906-1998) studied Protestant theology in Marburg with Rudolf Bultmann, with whom he maintained a lively theological and personal relationship with until his death in 1976. Käsemann had been a pastor since 1933 and was appointed to a New Testament professorship in Mainz in 1946. Since 1951 he taught in Göttingen since 1951, in Tübingen since 1959. With his teacher Bultmann, Käsemann emphasized the importance of the question of the historical Jesus for theology. On an individual level of growing in faith, he established the Pauline idea of the church as the body of Christ. Käsemann was a disputatious theologian who was not only involved in the Church struggle during the Third Reich, but also retained the view of Theology as a political dimension throughout his life.
