Product Description

Contains selections from the German Bible and theologians such as Luther, Barth, Thielicke, and Riesner. The dictionary defines over 20,000 terms.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #478876 in Books
• Published on: 1997-08-01
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 648 pages

Ingram
Helmut Ziefle's Modern Theological German equips students with a unique tool for learning theological German. This handy reference combines a revised edition of his German reader with his Dictionary of Modern Theological German.

About the Author
Helmut W. Ziefle (Ph.D., University of Illinois) is professor of German at Wheaton College, where he has taught since 1967. He has written several books, most of which are in German, his native language.

Customer Reviews

Good, but...
My first choice is to get "Manton's" work on the same subject since Manton, from what I was told, covers German grammar, whereas Ziefle does not. The book starts off with translating German Bible texts, ones that the author assumes you are familiar with, and then goes on to more difficult works (Luther, Bonhoeffer, Barth, etc.). The problem that I ran into was that since I have zero German I had a problem identifying certain words that were not included in the dictionary in the back (which lead me to purchase a German-English dictionary). Also Ziefle does not cover any grammar, which means that you have to go out and purchase a grammar text. In the end you are spending more money then what you thought you would. If you can get a hold of "Manton's" text, I am told it covers grammar in it as well as some of the other stuff, do so. Unfortunately Manton's text is out-of-print so you will have to resort to spending lots of money on a used copy.

Useful, but in need of revision
Helmut Ziefle's Modern Theological German consists of two parts,
readings, first from the Bible, then from theologians, and of
a dictionary of specialized terms.

The Biblical passages are of value for anyone studying theology. However, I wish Professor Ziefle had included writings from Tillich (whose German is usually straightforward), Bultmann, and Rahner. Professor Ziefle listed the theologians chronologically, but it would have helped students if he had indicated which passages were easiest to read. The final passage by Riesner is easier than the passage by Stuhlmacher and Class. Although the Bonhoeffer passage is useful for understanding Bonhoeffer's theology, other selections from Bonhoeffer would have been easier for beginning students to read.

Although it cannot be used as a general reference because many basic words are omitted ("sein" is defined only as a possessive adjective, and not as the verb "to be"), Ziefle's selection of vocabulary words is fascinating, and he puts them in their biblical context, which might make them easier to memorize.

"Modern Theological German" cannot be used as a reader unless a student has some background in German. Although Ziefle recommends textbooks, he does not mention the three prominent German for Reading textbooks (all reviewed on Amazon): April Wilson's "German Quickly;" "Reading German" by Coles and Dodd; or Jannach and Korb's "German for Reading Knowledge". Moreover, he recommends the Cassell's dictionary, even though it has not been updated since 1979, and the Harper Collins and Oxford Duden
dictionaries are far superior.

Despite my reservations, I consider "Modern Theological German" to be an important reference for anyone wishing to use theological German. It is also quite reasonably priced.

Useful, but get a grammar too
I need theological German for my future religious education, and I thought I would get a good start by buying this book. Included in the book is a very useful reader that starts off with simple Biblical texts and works up to more difficult German writers like Karl Barth. To the left of each page of German there are English helps. However, I needed more help than that could give me, so I had to search the web for a good German grammar. Also there are questions at the end of each section to help the reader learn the finer points of the translation. This is very helpful.

The second part is a complete dictionary of common German words that appear in Theological writings. There is also a small table of German irregular verbs at the end.

My suggestion is this. This will be helpful to those who know some basic German already, or those who have access to a basic German grammar (Ziefle suggests some good grammars). I still recommend the book though. I have learned quite a bit already. A concentrated book like this will also save you the trouble of learning German in a non-Theological framework, and then finding out you learned all the wrong vocabulary.