Andreas Hirsch Die Christologie deutschsprachiger katholischer Dogmatiklehrbücher in der Umbruchszeit nach dem II. Vatikanum

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Jesus Christ is the centre of our faith and one can find much literature about Him. Investigations about dogmatic textbooks themselves are rare. These books give a summary of the most important themes and are especially used at the universities, and the students who use them will be the future Priests and teachers. The textbooks therefore, have an indirect influence on the faithful via sermons and religious education. Since the beginning of 20^th century until the Second Vatican council neo-scholastic textbooks were dominant. They separated the teaching about the person of Jesus Christ from the study of salvation history, and they treated the two natures of Christ in the hypostatic union in a metaphysical manner. Michael Schmaus in his Katholische Dogmatik emphasized much more the biblical theology and the teaching of the Fathers. But for a group of scholars this was not enough, so they decided to edit a new textbook (Mysterium Salutis) that is entirely based on biblical theology and the history of salvation. They wanted also to establish a history of dogma and to stress much more the Resurrection and the Manhood of our Lord. Karl Rahner had suggested this method in a few articles. One can find in the 1950s some approaches following these principles but not in catholic dogmatic textbooks.

The time after the Second Vatican council had been very important for the Catholic Church. This dissertation analyse the Christology and Soteriology of the Grundriss der Dogmatik from Ludwig Ott (¹1952-¹⁰1981/¹¹2005), Der Glaube der Kirche (¹1969/¹1970) – the second textbook from Michael Schmaus, the Mysterium Salutis (1965-1976) and the Kleine Katholische Dogmatik from Johann Auer (1970-1988). These were the most important textbooks during this time and they had been translated in many other languages. The investigation follows a historical treatment so an overview of the suggestions of Karl Rahner as well as other trends and developments is possible.