Education Kaiser was born in
Prenzlau,
Germany, where he attended the
Gymnasium in
Eberswalde and went to the
University of Berlin to study medicine, as well as
philosophy with
Nicolai Hartmann. He served in
World War II on the
Eastern Front and was wounded. Returning, he studied
Protestant theology and
Oriental Studies and
Philosophy at the
University of Tübingen. He received his
Doctor of Divinity degree in 1961 and his
habilitation less than a year later. He holds honorary doctorates from the
University of Jena, the
University of Tartu, and the
University of Salzburg, as well as the
Bundesverdienstkreuz 1st Class.
Career Called to a professorship at the
University of Marburg, the oldest Protestant university in the world with one of the most distinguished
Divinity Schools in Germany, he soon received the main Chair of Old Testament, which, in spite of many calls to other universities, he held until his retirement. Kaiser's work stands in the tradition of
Rudolf Bultmann; he sees theology as "the study of the human reflection of the experience of the Divine in time and space." He has written a complete, three-volume
theology of the Old Testament, as well as the leading one- and three-volume introductions into Old Testament Studies in German; among his many special areas are the
Book of Job,
Ecclesiastes, the
Apocrypha, and
Sirach. Kaiser is also a leading scholar on ancient and modern philosophy, particularly on
Kant,
Hegel, and toward the end of his career,
Nietzsche,
Plato, and
Aristotle. ==Bibliography==