Professor Hans J. Hillerbrand
will teach at Christ the King Lutheran Church, 2353 Rice Boulevard, September
24 from 7:00 – 9:00 p.m. Prof. Hillerbrand teaches the history of the Reformation
and modern Christianity at Duke University.
Prof. Hillerbrand will lecture
on Luther’s spiritual classic, On Christian Liberty, also known as The
Freedom of a Christian. At the urging of his colleagues, Luther wrote a
conciliatory summary of his insights into the Christian life based on the
Reformer’s biblical investigations, especially into Galatians. The work
presents a deep dialectical understanding of faith, in which Luther seeks to
reconcile two theses that are seemingly contradictory but salutary when
reconciled from a higher perspective.
A Christian is a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none.
A Christian is a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.
--Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings, Ed. Timothy Lull,
Fortress Press, p. 623.)
The freedom of the Christian
is the human response to the gospel proclamation of God’s grace revealed in
Jesus Christ. Human beings are set free to act in grateful response to God and
action toward our neighbor based on the neighbor’s need and not our need for
recognition and honor (justification) in this life. Take a look at Luther’s
conclusion to see if you would like to learn how he got there.
We conclude,
therefore, that a Christian lives not in himself, but in Christ and in his
neighbor. Otherwise he is not a Christian. He lives in Christ through faith, in
his neighbor through love. By faith he is caught up beyond himself into God. By
love he descends beneath himself into his neighbor. (unaltered translation from
Martin Luther’s Basic Theological Writings, p. 623.)
Hans J. Hillerbrand was born and raised in Germany.
Professor Hillerbrand studied at the University of Erlangen, where he received
his PhD in 1959. He taught first in the United States in Divinity School of
Duke University until 1970. He then taught at City University of New York and
later at Southern Methodist University, where he also served as provost. He returned
to Duke in 1988.
Professor
Hillerbrand has published extensively on the Reformation. His most recent
publications include The Division of
Christendom. A History of Christianity in the Sixteenth Century, and A New History of Christianity (2012). He
is editor-in-chief of four-volume Oxford
Encyclopedia of the Reformation. Hans Hillerbrand served as president of
the Society for Reformation Research, American Society of Church History, and
the American Academy of Religion. He is author or editor of some 15 books and
over 75 articles.
