Word: cullmann
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...book Peter (Westminster Press; $4.50), just published in English translation, Professor Oscar Cullmann, of Basel and the Sorbonne, one of Protestantism's most distinguished Church historians, gives his evaluation of the apostle's work and stature. Lutheran Cullmann breaks with some of his fellow Protestants in insisting on Peter's primacy in the original church, and on the genuineness of the disputed text from St. Matthew's gospel supporting it. But he sharply rejects the Catholic claim that Peter began the papal succession. His finding: "In the life of Peter there is no starting point...
Apostle Par Excellence. Peter, as Professor Cullmann depicts him, was the "apostle par excellence." He was the first to see Christ after the Resurrection, and the man whom Christ singled out in giving collective charges to the apostles, i.e., "Feed my sheep" (John...
...Cullmann also gives Peter credit for being the decisive "mediator" between the "Judaizers" and the "Hellenists" of the early church. Where Paul, the "Apostle of the Gentiles," wanted to leave his Greek converts as free as possible of the old Jewish Law, he says, other leaders at Jerusalem insisted that all new Christian converts be circumcised, or at least adopt Jewish rituals. It was Peter, says Theologian Cullmann, who eased these requirements and bridged the threatening gap between Jewish and Gentile Christians...
...Cullmann has an easy time tracing the movements of Peter until he left Herod's prison in Jerusalem to go, as The Acts of the Apostles unhelpfully has it, "to another place." Catholics say that his final destination was indubitably Rome. They add that St. Peter took the leadership of the church with him, and that he was crucified there during the persecutions of Nero. In 1951, in fact, Pope Pius XII announced that the site of Peter's grave had been definitely located during excavations beneath St. Peter...
Important Hints. Cullmann agrees with the Catholics on the evidence of Peter's transfer to Rome, though he concedes that the evidence is indirect. Going further. Cullmann endorses the traditional version of Peter's death. The early evidence for this, also, is no more than "hints," for Christian writers did not begin mentioning Peter's Roman martyrdom until the second and third centuries. But the hints are important ones, e.g., in all the church controversies of the early centuries, no one saw fit to deny Peter's Roman martyrdom. As Cullmann observes: "Were we to demand...