KUEBEL, ku'bel, ROBERT: German Protestant;
b. at Kirchheim-unter-Teck (15 m. s.e. of Stuttgart)
Feb. 12, 1838; d. at Tübingen Dec. 4, 1894.
He studied theology at Tübingen, 1856-60, and, on
completing his studies, became instructor of Hebrew
in the Seminary of Blaubeuren. In 1865 he
became repetent at the theological seminary in
Tübingen, in 1867 deacon in Balingen, in 1870 professor
and director in the preachers' seminary at
Herborn, and in 1874 city pastor, religious instructor,
and school inspector at Ellwangen. In 1879
he succeeded J. T. Beck as professor of Christian
dogmatics and ethics at Tübingen. His theological
position was essentially that of Beck. Indeed,
he was the last academic representative of that
peculiarly Swabian Biblical realism which was
founded by Bengel and revised by Beck.
In the center of Kuebel's theology stands the conception
of the kingdom of God. This exists in
heaven, and has been revealed to man through the
appearance of Christ. Christ belongs essentially to
the other world and brings us the state of justification.
Great emphasis is laid upon the authority
of Scripture, though its infallibility is restricted to
that which Christ and the apostles established by
the authority of their teachings. Regeneration is
not accomplished without the faith of the person
to be baptized. The baptism of children produces
a Christian disposition, but not regeneration. The
main task of the Christian is self-training for the
kingdom of God: but since God is also the lord of
the earth, faithful fulfilment of our earthly calling
serves as preparation for eternal destiny. Christian
virtue is similarity to Christ. Kuebel distinguishes
sharply between the secular state and the
kingdom of God. The life of the people can be
Christianized neither through a Christian state nor
through a church of the people (
Volkskirche). The
test of the true Church is its membership of real
believers. The majority of church members are
catechumens who stand in the vestibule of the true
Church. He reproaches the modern Church because
it strives to be a world power, in contrast to
the world-renouncing spirit of Christianity in earlier
times. Modern Christianity preaches the reconciliation
of Christianity and culture, while the modern
view of the world is irreconcilable with the Biblical
view. In the Evangelizing spirit and in the
craze for forming religious associations he sees an
infringement upon family life. He holds that the
worldly spirit of modern Christianity must sooner
or later disperse the Church and produce a more
compact union of true believers. The hope of a
millennium in the sense of a material kingdom of
Christ is to be rejected; it is the duty of the Christian
in this world to remain faithful to the Lord in
patience and to long for the future; for Christianity
can never make heaven out of earth. His principal
works are:
Bibelkunde (2 parts, Stuttgart, 1870);
Das christliche Lehrsystem, nach der heiligen Schrift
dargestellt (1874);
Katechetik (Barmen, 1877);
Ueber den Unterschied der positiven und der liberalen
Richtung in der modernen Theologie (Nördlingen,
1881);
Christliche Bedenken über modern-christliches
Wesen von einem Sorgvollen (1888);
Exegetisch-homiletisches Handbuch zum Evangelium des Matthäus
(2 parts, 1889); and the posthumous
Christliche
Ethik (1896). He also wrote commentaries on
Galatians, Philippians, the Pastoral Epistles, and
James for Grau's
Bibelwerk (2 vols., Bielefeld, 1876-1880),
and commentaries on the Pastoral Epistles,
Hebrews, and Revelation for Strack and Zöckler's
Kurzgefasster Kommentar (9 vols., Nördlingen,
1886-94).
(KARL VON BURK†.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Robert Kübel, nach eigenen Aufzeichnungen
geschildert. Stuttgart, 1895; Burk, in NKZ, vol. vi. 1895.
