born Aug. 20, 1884, Wiefelstede, Ger.
died July 30, 1976, Marburg, W.Ger.
German Protestant theologian and New Testament scholar.
The son of a History of the Synoptic Tradition (1921). Influenced by his colleague Martin Heidegger , he held that Christian faith should focus less on the historical {{link=Jesus">Jesus and more on the transcendent Christ, and he examined the New Testament in mythical terms. During the Nazi era he supported the anti-Nazi Confessing Church . His postwar books included Kerygma and Myth (1953), History and Eschatology (1957), and Jesus Christ and Mythology (1960).