Walt Wyman, Professor of Religion
Olin Hall 148
wyman@whitman.edu

Professor Wyman's work in the Academic Study of Religion centers on Christian Theology; he is especially interested in German Protestant theology in the 19th and 20th centuries. Wyman has written on Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768-1834), Adolf von Harnack (1850-1930), and Ernst Troeltsch (1865-1923). He does most of my research in German language materials, and attends conferences in Germany whenever he is able.

Two of his courses in particular reflect my interests in German theology, and would be relevant for German Studies majors who are also interested in religious thought. Religion 228, Modern Western Religious Thought I: Crisis and Renewal treats the period from the Protestant Reformation of the 16th Century through the early part of the 19th Century. Among the German thinkers studied are Martin Luther, Immanuel Kant, Moses Mendelssohn, and Friedrich Schleiermacher. Sometimes Gotthold Ephraim Lessing is included as well. Religion 229, Modern Western Religious Thought II: The 20th Century usually includes Adolf von Harnack, Karl Barth, and the German-American theologian Paul Tillich. Other German authors may be included in this course as well. In addition to these courses, Wyman occasionally teaches Special Topics courses on themes of interest to German Studies majors; for example, recently he taught a seminar on the revisionist theology of the German-Swiss Catholic theologian Hans Küng.