Biblical ABCs is a theological resistance primer. Written illegally under Nazi occupation by Dutch pastor and theologian Kornelis Heiko (K.H.) Miskotte, it provides basic biblical coordinates for Christians seeking to live bold and faithful lives in times of crisis, alienation, and alternative facts.
Biblical ABCs is a theological resistance primer. Its author, Kornelis Heiko Miskotte, was a Dutch pastor, theologian, and antifascist who lived and worked under the Nazi occupation of his country. Miskotte’s family hid Jews inside their home, and Miskotte facilitated underground Christian discussion groups. In 1941, he published an illegal pamphlet as a study guide for these groups. In an atmosphere saturated with propaganda and lies, Miskotte felt that Christians needed a refresher course in the basics of biblical language—an anti-Nazi catechism, as it were. Miskotte presents this instruction in twelve brief, poetic meditations on important terms drawn from the Bible. Like his teacher Karl Barth, Miskotte insists on the primacy of the Word, and like his imprisoned colleague Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he emphasizes the this-worldliness of the Old Testament. Miskotte also shows his deep debt to the Jewish theologian, Franz Rosenzweig. He begins his primer with the A of the biblical ABCs: the Name of God, the Tetragrammaton, which Miskotte sees as the cornerstone of all resistance to authoritarianism and truth decay.
“The publication of this English translation and edition of K.H. Miskotte's Biblical ABCs is hugely welcome. Miskotte's distinctive and arresting theological vision is still too-little known and under-appreciated, but the appearance of this important war-time tract will go a long way to address this. Here, we can learn again of the fundamental importance of the Old Testament to the theological and spiritual grammar and vision of Christian faith. Here, we find ourselves summoned and schooled by Scripture and are reminded of just how unnatural and unsettling that can and should be. Here, we are lead to discover anew the deepest sources of that 'better resistance' which the Christian church owes the world.”
The publication of this English translation and edition of K.H. Miskotte’s Biblical ABCs is hugely welcome. Miskotte’s distinctive and arresting theological vision is still too-little known and under-appreciated, but the appearance of this important war-time tract will go a long way to address this. Here, we can learn again of the fundamental importance of the Old Testament to the theological and spiritual grammar and vision of Christian faith. Here, we find ourselves summoned and schooled by Scripture and are reminded of just how unnatural and unsettling that can and should be. Here, we are lead to discover anew the deepest sources of that ‘better resistance’ which the Christian church owes the world.
-- Philip G. Ziegler, University of AberdeenSound theological catechesis is the beginning of effective political resistance. And the beginning of sound theological catechesis is the Name of God. Those are the perennially relevant insights that animate Miskotte’s Biblical ABCs, here translated into English for the first time. This labor of love by Eleonora Hof and Collin Cornell is a blessing for everyone seeking basic theological orientation for our own troubled times.
-- R. Kendall Soulen, Candler School of Theology, Emory UniversityKornelis Heiko Miskotte (1894–1976) was a pastor of the Dutch Reformed Church and a professor of dogmatics and ethics at the University of Leiden.
Eleonora Hof (PhD, Protestant Theological University), translator, is pastor of Ieper/Ypres, United Protestant Church in Belgium.
Collin Cornell (PhD, Emory University), translator, is visiting assistant professor of Biblical Studies for the School of Theology at the University of the South in Sewanee, TN (USA).
Biblical ABCs is a theological resistance primer. Its author, Kornelis Heiko Miskotte, was a Dutch pastor, theologian, and antifascist who lived and worked under the Nazi occupation of his country. Miskotte's family hid Jews inside their home, and Miskotte facilitated underground Christian discussion groups. In 1941, he published an illegal pamphlet as a study guide for these groups. In an atmosphere saturated with propaganda and lies, Miskotte felt that Christians needed a refresher course in the basics of biblical language--an anti-Nazi catechism, as it were. Miskotte presents this instruction in twelve brief, poetic meditations on important terms drawn from the Bible. Like his teacher Karl Barth, Miskotte insists on the primacy of the Word, and like his imprisoned colleague Dietrich Bonhoeffer, he emphasizes the this-worldliness of the Old Testament. Miskotte also shows his deep debt to the Jewish theologian, Franz Rosenzweig. He begins his primer with the A of the biblical ABCs: the Name of God, the Tetragrammaton, which Miskotte sees as the cornerstone of all resistance to authoritarianism and truth decay.
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