Rudolf Schnackenburg was a German Catholic priest and New Testament scholar.
Education
Schnackenburg spent his childhood in Liegnitz and finished secondary school there (at the "Gymnasium Johanneum") in 1932. He then studied philosophy and theology at the universities of Breslau and Munich. His Habilitation was also completed under Friedrich Wilhelm Maier, now at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, and Schnackenburg was then made Privatdozent there in 1948.
Career
Joseph Ratzinger referred to him as "probably the most significant German-speaking Catholic exegete of the second half of the twentieth century." In 1937 he earned his doctoral degree from the University of Breslau for a dissertation written under Friedrich Wilhelm Maier on "faith" in the Gospel of John. In the same year, he was ordained a priest by Adolf Cardinal Bertram and began pastoral work in Silesia until he was expelled from there in 1946, after World World War World War II From 1952 he was Lecturer in New Testament Exegesis at the Philosophisch-Theologischen Hochschule Dillingen. In 1955, Schnackenburg was made full professor in Bamberg.
From 1957 until 1982, he was Professor of New Testament at the University of Würzburg.
After his retirement, he provided pastoral care in a retirement home and also worked with the Community of Sant"Egidio. Joachim Gnilka, educated, Neues Testament und Kirche: für Rudolf Schnackenburg (Freiburg 1974) Helmut Merklein, educated, Neues Testament und Ethik: für Rudolf Schnackenburg (Freiburg 1989).