Gerd Theissen

Gerd Theissen (spelling in German, Theißen) was born in Rheydt, Germany, today known as Mönchengladbach, Germany, on 24 April 1943. He obtained his doctorate from the University of Bonn in 1968, in a study of the New Testament Epistle to the Hebrews, study under the auspices of the faculty of Protestant theology. He then moved on to studying Evangelical Theology there, as well, obtaining his habilitation in 1972, on early Christian miracle stories, which he approached through form criticism. ==Career==

Positions Thiessen is reported to have been a lecturer at the University of Bonn from 1973 to 1978. As described by a colleague on the occasion of an honorary doctorate, Thiessen worked "as a secondary school teacher, teaching religion and German language" from 1976 to 1978. He then served as a professor of New Testament at the University of Copenhagen, from 1978-1980. Since 1980, he has been a professor of "New Testament studies" at the University of Heidelberg. As of 2005, he remained in that University of Heidelberg professorship. From 2007 to September 2009 Thiessen served as secretary of the Philosophical class of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences. Work Theissen is a German Protestant theologian and New Testament scholar. His academic work, as of 2005, was being described as covering "wide fields in New Testament studies" through publication of 15 sole-author books, co-authoring of 3 more, as well as contributing 110 articles (including reviews), chapters, or essays in lexicons, books, and journals. His works have been translated into more than ten languages, European and Asian. ==Awards and recognition==

In 2002, Thiessen was awarded the Burkitt Medal by the British Academy. It is granted "in recognition of special service to Biblical Studies". The British Academy's citation states that Theissen is:...one of the earliest pioneers in the application of the principles and methods of sociology to the study of the New Testament. [His n]otable works in this field are The First Followers of Jesus... [1977] (which concentrated on conditions in Palestine) and The Social Setting of Primitive [sic., Pauline] Christianity [1979] (a Pauline study dealing mainly with Corinth). Professor Theissen was named a member of the Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften. ==Personal life==

As of 2005, Theissen was married to psychologist and psychotherapist Christa Schaible, and they had two children. ==Bibliography==