Reading German for Theological Studies

When Mark Twain came to describe “The Awful German Language” in A Tramp Abroad (1880), he concluded: “A gifted person ought to learn English in thirty hours, French in thirty days, and German in thirty years.” Twain’s reflections on his time in Germany and the death of three of his teachers during the course of his language classes should be compulsory reading for anyone embarking on a quest to master the German language. While theology is by no means the only university subject for which German is an important medium, it sits perhaps alongside only philosophy (for law does not migrate so easily and the hard sciences have long capitulated to English) in maintaining a strong academic publication culture in German. Thus a good number of anglophone universities continue to offer courses in “German for Theology,” and Carolyn Roberts Thompson’s wonderful and beautiful tome Reading German for Theological Studies: A Grammar and Reader will serve as an excellent textbook for such courses.

Roberts Thompson guides the student of theology through the complexities and perplexities of the German language with forty-five “Readings” of theological works annotated with vocabulary, grammatical lessons, and assignments (which always include vocabulary tests and the task of translating the text). The introduction provides a whistle-stop tour of the essentials of German grammar, which is presented in the standard system adopted by anglophone didactics with the orders “masculine – neuter – feminine” and “nominative – accusative – dative – genitive” (2–3), sequences not used by Germans themselves. Even at this early stage there is concession to the difficulty of the task at hand, as Roberts Thompson explains the spelling reform of 1996 and admits that “new learners of German will probably not be able to detect this difference initially” (5). Bestowing the secrets of pronunciation on a readership is a next-to-impossible task, and while Roberts Thompson provides links to websites (5–6), ultimately the book is entitled Reading German and is not a guidebook for the would-be tourist on her way to the German town of Oberammergau (although it would certainly be helpful to her once she got there!).

The theological focus of the workbook becomes immediately apparent in the first six readings from Amos, which Roberts Thompson presents in both the 1942 and 2017 editions of the Zurich Bible. This means that the student encounters the terms Freveltaten (“heinous deeds”), Getümmel (“turmoil”), vertilgen (“eradicate”), Mahd (“reaping”), and Dirne (“prostitute,” though as Roberts Thompson adds in a footnote, also the term used for Little Red Riding Hood). Roberts Thompson addresses the texts with a Genauigkeit for which there is no word in English, but which approaches exactitude; she even comments on a typo in the 2017 Zurich Bible (32).

The biblical vocabulary continues in readings from the gospels, including Aussatz (“leprosy”) and Gehöft (a now outdated word for “farm”). If you enjoy a compound noun, you should like Banalitätsatheismus, which she takes from Jürgen Moltmann, who lines up alongside Albert Schweizer, Jörg Jeremias, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, and Karl Barth, among others, leaving only Gerhard Lohfink to demonstrate that not all German theologians are Protestant. The readings also include two dictionary entries (“Bethlehem” and “Beelzebul”) from the Exegetisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Testament, entries from the encyclopedia Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart (RGG⁴) including “Luther,” “Calvin,” and “Zwingli,” and the preamble to the Barmen Declaration. Readings 37–45 contain no further grammar and vocabulary assistance, and reading 45 provides a nice treat by printing the German text of “Praise to the Lord, the Almighty” in Fraktur (Gothic script), so the student sees sentences like “Haſt du nicht dieſes verſpüret?” The final two-fifths of the book are dedicated to “Learning Resources,” including a reference grammar, the answers to the assignments, and a glossary.

The book will work best with the help of a tutor or as part of a course. The reader is confronted in the very first lesson with verbs with separable prefixes and the first of two subjunctives (19). I have lived in Germany and Austria for many years but couldn’t think how to answer the question, “How does the dass clause function?” (92), yet I was able to resort to the answer key to see that the desired response was “as the predicative nominative” (226). Roberts Thompson provides details, explaining for example that book and journal titles are not italicized in German (82), and that the German Gedankenstrich is an en-dash and not an em-dash (90). Her own experience in teaching German is unmistakable, as she warns against writing English words in-between the lines (ix) and guides students through the quasi-homophones bieten, beten, and bitten (97). Mark Twain confessed: “I don’t know what wollen haben werden sollen sein hätte means, but I notice they always put it at the end of a German sentence.” And Roberts Thompson adds her own example from Karl Barth: “You have already seen German’s tendency to stack up verbs at the end of a clause. This may be the longest verb phrase in the book: reden hören zu müssen gemeint haben.” (133) Such an eye for detail and a desire to explain and to delight endears Roberts Thompson to the reader. She reminds us constantly, “Pay attention to . . . ,” and I can’t help but feel she would have been better served to instead use the German: Achtung!

The book is a sound choice for anyone teaching German to theological students, though it might prove too great a challenge for the individual to plough through these texts in private study. I hope this book is used widely and allows emerging anglophone scholars to sit in a Biergarten at some point and discuss the finer points of the synoptic problem with any German-speaker who may or may not be willing to engage.

Andrew Doole is assistant professor for New Testament at the Institute of Biblical Studies and Historical Theology, University of Innsbruck, Austria.

J. Andrew Doole

Date Of Review:

December 28, 2022