JOHANN BAPTIST METZ

Johann Baptist Metz (b. August 5, 1928) is a Roman Catholic diocesan priest from Bavaria (Auerbach). He is Ordinary Professor of Fundamental Theology, Emeritus, at Westphalian Wilhelms University in the northern German town of Muenster. He was also Visiting Lecturer in Politics and Religion at the Institute for Philosophy at the University of Vienna. His books include Poverty of Spirit, The Emergent Church, Faith in History and Society: Toward a Practical Fundamental Theology, and Hope Against Hope: Johann Baptist Metz and Elie Wiesel Speak Out on the Holocaust . He is a founding editor of Concilium. Three recent collections of his articles are Faith and the Future: Essays on Theology, Solidarity and Modernity (with Juergen Moltmann), A Passion for God: The Mystical-Political Dimension of Christianity (has a good general bibliography), and Love's Strategy: The Political Theology of Johann Baptist Metz (has useful suggested background readings).  The journal dedicated to publishing articles in political theology is Jahrbuch Politische Theologie (Lit Verlag).

SOME ENGLISH TITLES

Metz, Johann Baptist. "Apologetics." Sacramentum Mundi. New York: Herder Herder, 1968.

---. "Political Theology." Sacramentum Mundi. New York: Herder & Herder, 1968.

---. Poverty of Spirit. Translated by John Drury. New York: Newman Press, 1968

---. Theology of the World. Translated by William Glen-Doepel. New York: Seabury Press, 1973.

---. "Prophetic Authority." Translated by David Kelly & Henry Vander Goot. Introduction by David Kelly. Religion and Political Society . Jürgen Moltmann, et al. (Herbert W. Richardson, J. B. Metz, Willi Oelmuller, M. Darrol Bryant). New York: Harper & Row, 1974.

---. Followers of Christ. Translated by Thomas Linton. New York: Search Press Ltd., 1978.

---. "For a Renewed Church Before a New Council: A Concept in Four Theses." David Tracy, et al., eds. Vatican III: The Work That Needs To Be Done . New York: Seabury Press, 1978. 137-145.

---. and J. Moltmann. Meditations on the Passion. New York: Paulist Press, 1979.

---. Faith in History & Society. Translated by David Smith. New York: Seabury Press, 1980.

---. and Karl Rahner. The Courage to Pray. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1981.

---. The Emergent Church. Translated by Peter Mann. New York: Crossroad Publishing Company, 1981.

---. "Facing the Jews: Christian Theology after Auschwitz." The Holocaust as Interruption. Edited by Elisabeth Schuessler Fiorenza and David Tracy. Concilium 175. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark Ltd., 1984. 26-33

---. "Productive Noncontemporaneity." Observations on the "Spiritual Situation of the Age": Contemporary German Perspectives. Edited by Juergen Habermas. Translated with an introduction by Andrew Buchwalten. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1984. 169-177

---. "Theology Today: New Crises and New Visions." Proceedings of the Catholic Theological Society of America. 40(1985): 1-15

---. "Suffering unto God". Trans. by J. Matthew Ashley. Critical Inquiry . 20 (Summer, 1994): 611-622

---. and J. Moltmann. Edited with an introduction by Francis Schuessler Fiorenza. Faith and the Future: Essays on Theology, Solidarity and Modernity . Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 1995.

---. Trans. and edited by J. Matthew Ashley. A Passion for God: The Mystical-Political Dimension of Christianity. NY: Paulist Press , 1998.

---. "In the Pluralism of Religious and Cultural Worlds: Notes Toward a Theological and Political Program." Trans. J. K. Downey and H. Wiggers in Cross Currents (Summer 1999): 227-236.

---. Edited with an introduction by John K. Downey. Love's Strategy: The Political Theology of Johann Baptist Metz. Harrisburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 1999.


 
SOME BACKGROUND READING IN ENGLISH


Ashley, J. Matthew. Interruptions: Mysticism, Politics and Theology in the Work
of Johann Baptist Metz. Notre Dame, Ind.: University of Notre Dame Press, 1998.

Chopp, Rebecca S. The Praxis of Suffering" An Interpretation of Liberation and
Political Theologies. Maryknoll, N.Y.: Orbis, 1986.

Martinez, Gaspar. Confronting the Mystery of God: Political, Liberation, and Public
Theologies. New York, Continuum: 2001.

Ostovich, Steven T. Reason in History: Theology and Science as Community Activities.
Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1990.


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