Between Heaven and Earth

Conversations with American Christians

by Helmut Thielicke, edited and translated by John W. Doberstein

Book cover: Between Heaven and Earth

Extent: 206 pages

Publisher: The Lutterworth Press

Subjects: Religious Studies

Series: Thielicke Library

Language: English

Paperback (No longer our product)

(November 2016)

ISBN: 9780718894542

5.39 x 8.46 inches

Price: $32.00

In stock

PDF (No longer our product)

(November 2016)

ISBN: 9780718844967

Price: $23.99

A series of conversations between Dr Thielicke and American Christians, covering a wide variety of biblical, theological and ethical themes, from biblical criticism and the Virgin Birth, to racial integration and the Nazi regime.


Between Heaven and Earth grew out one of Thielicke’s visits to the United States in 1963, during which he travelled across the country preaching and lecturing. The conversations recorded here are the fruit of his more informal discussions with smallgroups of clergy, students and lay people. You have disturbed our peace and upset our doubts, said one pastor. You have freed the fettered and bound the wandering spirits, said another. The questions that American Christians asked of Thielicke are direct and wide-ranging, concerned not only with the fundamental problems of faith but with its bearing on issues of social and political morality. Thielicke’s answers, though equally direct, are neither simplistic nor dogmatic. His approach is refreshingly open and his conclusions emerge from a reasoned consideration of the evidence and alternative possibilities. Above all, Thielicke’s answers reveal the warmth and deep concern for humanity’s spiritual welfare that is at the root of his teaching and writing. Originally translated and edited by the American Lutheran theologian John W. Doberstein, this reprinted edition of Between Heaven and Earth was published to commemorate the thirtieth anniversary of Helmut Thielickes death.

Helmut Thielicke was one of the most outstanding preachers and theologians of the German Lutheran Church. Dismissed by the Nazi regime from his post of Professor of Theology at Heidelberg in 1940, he came to prominence in Stuttgart where, during the worst of the bombing raids and in spite of continuing Nazi opposition, he continued to preach to a congregation of several thousand each week. After the war, he joined the faculty of the University of Tubingen as a Professor of Systematic Theology, later becoming Rector at the University of Hamburg, the first Protestant theologian to hold this position. During this time, he also became a world traveller, lecturing and preaching in the United States, South Africa, Australia and Latin America. He died in Hamburg in 1986.

  • By (author) Helmut Thielicke
  • Edited and translated by John W Doberstein