Johannes ZeissetDie Liebe ist das Gute. Eine Untersuchung der Grundlagen und der Grundlegung christlicher Ethik bei Wilhelm Lütgert

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Is it possible to formulate a Christian ethic solely on the basis of love and the commandment of love? A contribution to ethical discussions where a normative ethic based on reasonable statements meets the demand to consider personal and pneumatic dimensions when taking decisions is the present dissertation with the analysis of the relation between intellect and emotions. The author takes the volume Ethik der Liebe (The Ethic of Love) of the Protestant theologian Wilhelm Lütgert (1867-1938) published in 1938, which has to date received little attention, and exposes the personal and revelation-theological approach as a basis for a Christian ethic. Based on revelation-theological principles it becomes evident following Lütgert’s train of thought that the love of God as the entirely uniting power allows to relate spirit and nature to each other and to integrate soteriological as well as pneumatological aspects from a theocentric view into a Christian ethic. Johannes Zeisset convincingly outlines how Lütgert defines the kingdom of God, the terms sacrifice and combat, the individuality and sociality of human beings as well as the ethic subjectivity of human beings in context with the action of God taking love as the point of reference and shows how Lütgert develops ethic guidelines. At the same time, the parallels between Lütgert’s ethic and the concept of a descriptive hermeneutical ethic by Johannes Fischer are presented in detail opening new perspectives on the ethic of Lütgert. The study demonstrates in-depth knowledge of the comprehensive work of Wilhelm Lütgert and besides the systematical and ethical texts it takes also into account his exegetical works and those on intellectual history. In doing so, this dissertation is in addition to its contribution to the current discussion of the foundations of a Christian ethic an excellent introduction into the theological thinking of Wilhelm Lütgert and addresses professional theologians as well as interested laymen.