Lutz von Padberg

Lutz E. von Padberg (born 22 February 1950) is a German historian whose specialty is medieval history and in particular the Christianization of the Germanic peoples. He is an expert on Saint Boniface, having written biographies of the saint and studies of his veneration.

Biography

Born in Essen, von Padberg received his doctorate from the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität in Münster in 1980. His habilitation from the University of Paderborn followed in 1993, where he taught until 1999 as Privatdozent. Since 1999 he is a professor of medieval history in Paderborn. From 1986 until 1999 he also taught as a visiting professor at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, and since 1986 he taught historical theology at the Freie Theologische Hochschule Gießen [de]. Von Padberg retired from teaching in 2013.^[1]

Von Padberg's early publications were on theology^[2] and feminism as a theological challenge,^[3] and since then has published extensively on the work of Anglo-Saxon and other missionaries during the Christianization of the Germanic peoples. His Habilitationsschrift, Mission und Christianisierung, was published in 1995 by Franz Steiner Verlag, and is a synthesis of earlier research (especially by Arnold Angenendt [de] and Otto Gerhard Oexle [de]) on the social life of the missionaries and the social consequences of their activities; Von Padberg was praised as profoundly knowledgeable on the matter, and his book as a very useful synthesis with "exciting" interpretations.^[4]

He is an expert on the life and work of Saint Boniface,^[5] and his Der Ragyndrudis-Codex des hl. Bonifatius (with Hans-Walter Stork [de]) is a comprehensive study of the Ragyndrudis Codex, a codex which occupies an important place in the veneration of the saint.^[6] In his 1996 monograph Studien zur Bonifatiusverehrung: Zur Geschichte des Codex Ragyndrudis und der Fuldaer Reliquien des Bonifatius von Padberg examines the so-called "protection hypothesis", the theory that the Ragyndrudis Codex was used by the saint to protect himself during his martyrdom in Dokkum in Friesland. He concludes that it is possible that this codex (with two other important codices which have also been saved for posterity and are held in Fulda) was indeed owned by the saint but that the physical evidence makes it unlikely that the "protection hypothesis", a recurring theme in images and vitae of the saint, is correct.^[7]

Publications

• Die Bibel: Grundlage für Glauben, Denken und Erkennen. Prolegomena zu einer biblischen Erkenntnislehre. Neuhausen/Stuttgart: Hänssler, 1986.^[8]
• Der Ragyndrudis-Codex des hl. Bonifatius. Teilfaksimileausgabe im Originalformat der Handschrift und Kommentar. With Hans-Walter Stork. Paderborn: Bonifatius-Verlag; Fulda: Parzeller, 1994. ISBN 3-87088-811-3.^[6]
• Mission und Christianisierung: Formen und Folgen bei Angelsachsen und Franken im 7. und 8. Jahrhundert. Franz Steiner, Stuttgart 1995, ISBN 3-515-06737-X.^[4]
• Studien zur Bonifatiusverehrung: Zur Geschichte des Codex Ragyndrudis und der Fuldaer Reliquien des Bonifatius. Frankfurt: Josef Knecht, 1996. ISBN 3-7820-0752-2 (Fuldaer Hochschulschriften 25).^[7][9]
• Heilige und Familie: Studien zur Bedeutung familiengebundener Aspekte in den Viten des Verwandten- und Schülerkreises um Willibrord, Bonifatius und Liudger. 2nd edition. Mainz: Gesellschaft für mittelrheinische Kirchengeschichte, 1997. ISBN 3-929135-15-9 (Quellen und Abhandlungen zur mittelrheinischen Kirchengeschichte 83).
• Die Christianisierung Europas im Mittelalter. 2nd edition. Stuttgart: Reclam, 2009. ISBN 3-15-017015-X.
• Bücherverzeichnis zur Kirchengeschichte: Eine kommentierte Bibliographie. With Michael von Fürstenberg. Paderborn: Bonifatius-Verlag, 1999. ISBN 3-89710-061-4.
• Bonifatius: Missionar und Reformer. München: C. H. Beck, 2003. ISBN 3-406-48019-5 (C. H. Beck Wissen in der Beck’schen Reihe 2319).^[5][10]
• Die Inszenierung religiöser Konfrontationen. Theorie und Praxis der Missionspredigt im frühen Mittelalter. Stuttgart: Hiersemann, 2003. ISBN 3-7772-0324-6 (Monographien zur Geschichte des Mittelalters 51).
• Christianisierung im Mittelalter. Darmstadt/Stuttgart: Theiss, 2006. ISBN 3-8062-2006-9.^[11]
• In Gottes Namen? Von Kreuzzügen, Inquisition und gerechten Kriegen. Gießen/Basel: Brunnen, 2010, ISBN 978-3-7655-1753-2.

References

1. Skwortz, Sascha (20 February 2013). "Mittelalter: Ein 'finsteres' Kapitel? Abschiedsvorlesung von Prof. Dr. Lutz v. Padberg an der FTH". Gießener Zeitung (in German). Retrieved 23 September 2014.
2. Linnemann, Eta (2001). Historical Criticism of the Bible: Methodology Or Ideology? Reflections of a Bultmannian Turned Evangelical. Kregel Academic. pp. 49, 70. ISBN 9780825430954.
3. Hauke, Manfred (1995). God Or Goddess? Feminist Theology: What is it? Where Does it Lead?. Ignatius. pp. 14, 44, 133. ISBN 9780898705591.
4. Heidrich, Ingrig (1996). "Rev. of von Padberg, Mission und Christianisierung". Historische Zeitschrift. 263 (2): 458–60. JSTOR 27631078.
5. Aaij, Michel (June 2005). "Continental Business: Boniface Biographies". The Heroic Age (8). Archived from the original on 22 July 2020. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
6. Aaij, Michel (May 2007). "Boniface's Booklife: How the Ragyndrudis Codex Came to be a Vita Bonifatii". The Heroic Age (10). Archived from the original on 20 July 2020. Retrieved 18 October 2020.
7. Kloft, Matthias Th. (2000). "Rev. of von Padberg, Studien zur Bonifatiusverehrung". Historische Zeitschrift. 270 (2): 451–54. JSTOR 27633235.
8. Sombek, Theo; Vering, Axel; Willert, Albrecht (1993). Das Bild von der Welt in Naturwissenschaft und Theologie. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. pp. 15–17. ISBN 9783525776018.
9. Drout, Michael D. C. (2007). J.R.R. Tolkien Encyclopedia: Scholarship and Critical Assessment. Taylor & Francis. p. 405. ISBN 9780415969420.
10. Eldevik, John (2012). Episcopal Power and Ecclesiastical Reform in the German Empire: Tithes, Lordship, and Community, 950–1150. Cambridge UP. p. 117. ISBN 9781139535991.
11. Engels, Christoph (2006). "Rev. of Von Padberg, Christianisierung im Mittelalter". Archäologische Informationen. 29 (1&2). doi:10.11588/ai.2006.1&2.11114.

External links

• Literature by and about Lutz von Padberg in the German National Library catalogue
• Lutz von Padberg's page at Paderborn University
• Bibliography