Oscar Cullman

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Oscar Cullman was born in 1902 and spent his first thirty six years in Strasbourg. His early education showed little interest religion; he viewed religion from a academic viewpoint. Cullman was influenced greatly during his early education by German liberal theology, thus rejecting all forms of orthodox Christianity. At this time the city was under the control and influence of the Germans. Following the end of the First World War, Cullmann enrolled at the university at Strasbourg. The city had reverted back to France.
Cullmann’s first exposure to Schweitzer, Barth, and Bultmann came while attending the university. This exposure caused him to relinquish his beliefs about German liberalism. This change in direction came after reading Schweitzer’s Quest for the Historical Jesus. Schweitzer’s work helped convince Cullmann that his former views were a product of the prevailing German culture and not a proper view of Scripture. This rejection of liberal theology placed Cullmann in the company of Barth and Bultmann. Having now rejected the views of Schleiermacher, he followed Bultmann into form criticism in an attempt to discover the oral tradition that forms the basis of the New Testament.
Oscar Cullmann emphasized the role of God’s history of salvation (Heilschichte) in both the formation and understanding of the biblical canon. In 1930 he was nominated as a professor of New Testament at Strasbourg. While those around him at the university were interested in the history of Christianity, Cullmann was separating himself from the Barth and his view of a suprahistorical Christ. He moved to the view that became termed as purely scientific. This meant that the subject matter of the New Testament should only be interpreted in light of the text of the New Testament, rather than in light of previously understood subject matter. Cullmann asserted that the NT was placing “the Christ event” within the context of God’s entire plan of redemptive history. This view molded Cullmann’s view on the kingdom. Biblical eschatology became the focus of several papers written while at Strasbourg. It was in these papers that Cullmann asserted that the NT writers viewed the kingdom of God as neither totally future (as proposed by Schweitzer) nor fully present (as proposed by C.H. Dodd). Instead, Cullmann contended that the kingdom was both realized and still future, which he termed already and not yet.
Even through a job change to Basel Switzerland and the Second World War Cullman continued to publish his proposals on already and not yet eschatology. One year after the World War ended, he published his first book, Christ and Time, which asserted that God’s revelation in Jesus Christ can only be understood in light of God’s entire history of Salvation (Heilgeschichte). This began with the call of Abraham and centers on the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It continues through the Spirit in the church and concludes with the return of Christ.
Cullmann believed that “all Christology is Heilgeschichte and all Heilgeschichte is Christology. This approach to Scripture was a departure from the traditional formulas found in the councils of Nicea and Chalcedon. While those councils confirmed the human and divine natures of Christ, Cullmann emphasized what Christ did, not who he was. Christ fulfilled a function, that is to rule over the history of salvation both now and in the age to come. Those who object to Cullmann’s assertions about Christ, according to Cullmann, subject the texts of the New Testament to questions raised by later dogmas.
Cullman rejected liberal theology but at the same time embraced parts of it such as seeing Christianity as a historical phenomenon subject to historical investigation. He can also be applauded for interpreting the subject matter of the New Testament in light of the text rather than the other way around. This hermeneutical approach led Cullmann to reject a canon inside or outside the canon. These views on NT interpretation makes Cullmann one of the great influences on the Biblical theology movement in both North America and Europe.

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