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This episode has been edited for clarity and space.
Benjamin Marx
My name is Ben Marx. I’m the Chairman and lecturer in New Testament Studies, as well as Chairman and lecturer in Intercultural Studies at the Theological Seminary Adelshofen.
Jürgen Schulz
My name is Jürgen Schulz. I’m the President of Adelshofen Theological Seminary. I’m also Chairman of the Old Testament department.
David Capes
Gentlemen, welcome to “The Stone Chapel Podcast.” Ben Marx is back with us after a few years since his last visit. And Jürgen, this is your first trip here to Houston and to this great place. Welcome to the library.
Benjamin Marx and Jürgen Schulz
Thanks for having us.
David Capes
There are people out there who are listening that don’t know you. Some do and some don’t. But for those who don’t know, who is Ben Marx?
Benjamin Marx
Well, I have a wife, and four children, four boys. The youngest is 13. The oldest one is 18. He’s studying in a different city in Germany. My connection to the US is that I studied at Moody Bible Institute, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. I met Jürgen later in Belgium, where we both studied at the Evangelical Theological Faculty in Leuven. I went with my wife and then three kids to Peru to be a missionary in theological education.
David Capes
So not only do you speak German, and English, clearly, but also Spanish! Where did you do your PhD?
Benjamin Marx
After Belgium and while being in Peru, I did my PhD at Trinity College, Bristol, University of Aberdeen, under the supervision of Steve Walton.
David Capes
Walton is a great friend of the library and a wonderful person and scholar. Jürgen, your turn. Tell us a little bit about you.
Jürgen Schulz
Well, I’m a graduate of Dallas Theological Seminary. Now being back in Texas, feels like coming home, in some sense. We have four children, my wife and I. Our second one was born here on Texas. I went back in 2011 after graduating from DTS and became a pastor. I wrote my master’s thesis in the US with Eugene Merrill, and he always encouraged me to pursue PhD studies. So eventually I did. While planting a church, I started to study Akkadian at the University of Munster. I had four children home, started a church plant and working on my PhD. That tells you a bit about me and my personality.
David Capes
You were working all the time, probably then. Let’s talk a little bit about Akkadian. Most people don’t know what Akkadian is. They may have heard of it, but they don’t understand to whom it belongs and what it might look like.
Jürgen Schulz
Akkadian is an ancient language from Mesopotamia, basically. It’s a cuneiform sign, that you can read. And if Daniel had walked through Babylon, that’s a language that he would have dealt with. And so that’s very fun, to compare the Old Testament to another language and another cultural. And I did my PhD about shame in the Old Testament, to summarize it briefly. I compared the biblical text with ancient Akkadian texts, and learned a lot about the similarities, but also differences. I did my PhD work with Markus Zehnder, also at the ETF in Leuven. For the Akkadian part, I had Hans Neumann from the University of Munster, so I had two supervisors.
David Capes
We need to get you guys on our other podcast, Exegetically Speaking, to talk about your different testaments and such. You’re President, and did you call the position chairman?
Jürgen Schulz
I’m also leading the Old Testament department. So I am called the Chairman of that.
David Capes
I see. Adelshofen. Tell us where this is.
Jürgen Schulz
Adelshofen is a lovely place somewhere between Heidelberg and the region that’s called Kraichgau. We call it the Tuscany of Germany, because we have thousands of hills and vineyards all around us. It’s a beautiful, lovely place to be.
Benjamin Marx
It’s a village, I would say.
Jürgen Schulz
In about one hour from Adelshofen, you can reach major cities like Stuttgart, Heidelberg, Heilbronn, Mannheim.
David Capes
And you can travel those fast roads!
Jürgen Schulz
Yes, if you’re on the autobahn, you can drive fast. It’s just a unique spot.
In 1958, God just did beautiful things there. And there was, a small awakening. A spiritual awakening. This was the Lutheran Church. That’s where it started. There was a pastor, Dr. Otto Riecker, was pastoring a church in Heidelberg, the Holy Ghost Church in Heidelberg. And then he was sent to Adelshofen, to the small village. And there he was constantly praying and seeking the Lord that he might bring the Bible to the German community, shortly after the Second World War.
And eventually it happened in the small village. From the 800 people living there, 10 to 20% or so committed their life to Christ. And that’s how, a revival movement, in some sense, happened. It spread to France, to the northern parts of Germany. It was small in the sense of small groups, but still, they had a huge impact. And even up to Indonesia and so on. So, it was very impactful in the in the middle of the 20th century. In Germany, it was in the forefront of the evangelical movement.
David Capes
Now, sometimes here in the United States, we think of awakenings as things that have happened a long time ago. 100, 200, or 300 years ago. I’ve made the case that what we had here in the United States, called the Jesus Movement, back in the 1960s and 70s, was really a kind of an awakening. I don’t know how universal it was. It went basically everywhere in North America. There were many people who came to Christ and were deeply committed. A lot of great things started during that time. Ben, how did you get involved in this?
Benjamin Marx
Well, it’s a longer story, but to keep it quite short, Jürgen and I know each other from Belgium, from our studies there. And about three years ago, while we’re still in Peru as missionaries, we were in contact once or twice a year. And he called me and said, Ben, if you ever come back to Germany, let me know. And I think I said to him, we will never come back to Germany. And then hung up! This was my idea of the future. And then God slowly began opening the door for us going back to Germany. And I did not know about Adelshofen at all, even though it’s just an hour away from my hometown. I had never heard it.
David Capes
It was a small school, so you hadn’t heard of it and now you are the Chairman of the New Testament section.
Benjamin Marx
I chair the New Testament section and the Intercultural Theology section right now,
David Capes
As I’m looking at some of the literature you gave me, there’s a foundation that’s associated with this, this property that you guys are a part of. And there’s also a religious community, an order, as it were, of people who have surrounded this school with prayer and support. This is a really interesting thing in a Protestant environment. Tell us about that.
Jürgen Schulz
When the seminary started in 1958 it basically began in the living room of the pastor. Those people were living there and studying right from the beginning, who experienced the awakening. Some of them are still around. Our oldest sister, Magdalena is 95 years old now. And when they talk about the beginnings, what we hear and what they talk about is that they wanted to commit all of their lives for the glory of God and for the good of the people. They decided that they wanted to stick together. And she shared the story of how the brothers and sisters, in the beginning, gathered to pray for many years, from 1958 till 1962.
They prayed asking if God is really calling them for a life of celibacy, poverty and chastity. And so, they decided to become what people might call would monks and nuns. Many people only know this type of life from the Roman Catholic or orthodox churches. They would refuse to use these titles for themselves. But they lived together. And in 1962 they, as a religious order, took over the responsibility to lead the seminary and to lead a missionary movement. And later on, they were officially recognized as a religious order. And for the last 60 plus years, they were running the place.
