Edmund Schlink

Edmund Schlink (* 3 March 1903 in Darmstadt; † 20 May 1984 in Heidelberg) was a leading German Lutheran theologian in the modern ecumenical movement, especially in the World Council of Churches. Because his career began at the time of Hitler's rise to power in Germany, Schlink’s life, theology, and witness to Christ were shaped by what he called, "Grace in God’s judgment". He is also the father of writer Bernhard Schlink.

Schlink completed two doctorates, the first in psychiatry at Marburg in 1927, the second in theology under Karl Barth at Münster in 1934. He also completed the usual training for the parish ministry at Friedberg Seminary in 1934, but then, in the fall, began teaching at the University of Giessen, near Frankfurt. Schlink also was active in the Confessing Church movement at this time and, not unlike Karl Barth, he publicly criticized church leaders who allowed pagan Nazi religious ideas in the church. As a result he was arrested by the police in 1934, interrogated, released, but then denied government approval to teach at a university. For a few years he taught at Bethel Theological School, until it was closed by the Nazis, and then served as a pastor in congregations until the end of the Second World War in 1945.

During those war years, under Nazi oppression, Schlink began to see clearly the work of the risen Christ in the lives of faithful Christians in diverse churches other than his own. This transforming insight remained central in his subsequent work. After the war he was called to the Theological Faculty of the University of Heidelberg, where he lectured in systematics, with special interest in ecumenical issues. He created the Ecumenical Institute there, the first at a German university. At his urging the university called its first Professor of World Religions and Missions. He was an editor for new theological journals, like the Ecumenical Review and Kerygma und Dogma.